2 popular sydney sides.

they played a number of very close grand finals in the 80s with either side winning against the other.

the eels are a sleeping giant of our RL scene but havent won the comp. since 1986.

the dogs have amongst the highest sydney crowd averages and are the 2nd most succesful side in terms of GFs won since 1980

you get a lot of sydney clubs which have a traditional rivalry and when it gets down to a big game like tomorrow or a GF, it really does go off.

the nrl hasnt really experienced a GF between 2 popular sydney teams. when that happens the game will get a massive shot in the arm.

So there's a lot of casual fans of times gone by turning out for this one?
Be sort of like how warry took 30,000 to Wembley yet couldnt average 10,000 this year!
On a slightly different note, the fans are obviously out there so instead of the respective clubs sitting back on their laurels they should be trying to find out how to get these people to the games regularly

Wow, the aussies and aussie wannabee's still singing the same tired old song (sounds a bit like Karaoke on a bad night - deep in their minds they know how bad they are at singing but they need the attention)

Shouldn't this be on the Aussie R/L board - Oh I forgot - no one reads that so your fervent need for attention would remain unsatisfied.

As for Barry_McNumpty, I can only assume he's a league Freak wanabee. Freaks comments about Chev walker were low but yourif you dont like super league or rugby league outside of the nrl, there are plenty of nrl forums. it is f*cking pathetic sometimes.[/i

the parramatta eels fans have been starved of success since the 80s

we choked.

on your previous post, parra have a new administration which will target increasing season ticket holders from a pathetic 1500 - 3000 up to 10,000.

the dogs are at 8000 now and their crowds are around 15,000 - 17,000.

they are one of the sydney teams that can get to 30,000 crowds with the right marketing.

clubs never used to push for crowds as they had rich Leagues Club behind them to fund their teams

i agree, we should have been pushing the whole membership thing for the last 15 years, but clubs are starting to catch on. each club has hundreds of thousands of fans, its just a matter of getting bums on seats. within a few years i would expect the tigers, bulldogs and souths to be pushing 25k averages. the dragons and parra would be close to that as well but are restricted by their home stadiums.

souths are leading the way and showing others how to do it.

the dogs with their success are building and todd greenberg is such a good CEO.

you guys are always popular and some semi final success will push it on.

still souths playing at homebush and tigers at the SFS is what is wrong with RL.

Teams should have their own identity in a stadium.
I understand why they take it to the bigger ground but about 5 teams groundsharing.i dunno..it loses some identity for me.
Having said that it's a different country but over here if teams did that it just wouldnt wash.

25k averages would be amazing for those teams though.

groundsharing can work well.

it could be a good idea for SL clubs too if they forget the idea that it entails a merger.

we have 2 clubs sharing Homebush stadium, and 2 clubs sharing the SFS.

but a club like the tigers plays home games at 3 grounds, which are around 2 hours apart by drive.

imagine a club trying to represent two different parts of london

It simply wouldnt happen.
Same as that you have say 2000 pass holders for a team that averages about 13,000.
The other thing I couldnt work out is say for example the Sharks go bust and have to relocate to say Perth, that wouldn't happen over here.
Its definately a different type of audience.

why?

gets a club in a new market plus when the club travels to sydney it will get fans from cronulla.

i really hope cronulla do go broke and the roosters as well. they add nothing to our scence.

I meant that sort of thing wouldnt happen in Britain.
Fans are very passionate and yet fickle at the same time.
If the Wolves relocated to say Leicester, i'd take a passing interest but I certainly wouldnt follow them. Id either go and watch one of the other Warrington teams or Go and watch Leigh/Widnes.
From what i've seen of the aussie game in recent times the NRL would benefit tremendously from one of those sides relocating. You remove some of the sydney bias and you could put a ready made establishment into an expansion area, could an incentive not be given?
Lastly Wests has been a success of a merger hasn't it? Over here very very few work out well, Gateshead saved hull and allowed them to kick on and be the team they've become but I bet about 10 people out of their now 14,000 crowds probably followed them across. As for Hudds/Sheff..well, lets not go there

Similar sort of thing happened when Illawarra bailed out St George.

The problem continued when they let them play games back at Wogorah rather than keeping the whole set up down Illawarra where they belong