Finals at SCG

[RogueSwan]

Olypmic Park is only "western Sydney" if you live in the eastern suburbs.
It's regarded as the "inner west".
It's only about 15ks from the city.

When I used to live in Sydney (Maroubra) anything west of the highways, Pacific and Princes, I considered Western Sydney.
If I had occasion to travel out west, it was a weird and uncomfortable feeling. Strathfield may as well have been the Blue Mtns to me

[Nico]

Richmond and Hawthorn are just a couple of adjacent neighbourhoods in Melbourne and they have around 150,000 members between them. I think there's plenty of room for both if the game is good and well promoted in NSW. The new AFL media deal should help a lot as there is a substantial new commitment to AFL coverage in the traditional rugby areas.

I'm not a Murdoch fan, but I know money talks and he's got plenty and is ready to put quite a chunk of it into NSW and QLD AFL footy. Eddie McGuire may want to crush footy in the northern states. He thinks he's a big man in the footy world, but he's not the skin of peanut compared the power of Rupert. And Rupert wants a big audience in the norther states. The AFL is a business, and it can make it ugly at times, but in this case I think it helps if you are a supporter of one of the northern clubs.

If both the Swans and Giants can manage to play finals footy on a regular basis the game should grow big time in NSW. And the rivalry can build like the ones in Adelaide and Perth.

Richmond and Hawthorn are not good comparisons. Richmond is the traditional old inner suburb where their support base has come from hard core generational support. Of later times they have been able to extract what appears blood from a stone, and get of a lot more of those on board. How else do explain it given their decades of mediocrity. Hawthorn although close to Richmond was on the brink a couple of decades ago, but continued success and excellent marketing garnered huge support around AFL Park where they had their home ground. Hence a large supporter base in the rapidly growing outer South Eastern suburbs. So the suburban names really mean nothing in terms of membership.

[ernie koala]

Ask yourself these questions:

Can the Swans survive long term being an eastern suburbs team like the Roosters ?

Do you think West Coast said to Fremantle in 1994, here you have 60% of Perth all to yourselves ?

Seems odd to me.

Giants may not have many supporters now, but project 5 or 10 years ahead if they have successful run, and the swans fall to the bottom, the roles could be reversed. Swans fans arent as welded on as many would believe, and the dark days of the early 1990's seem to have been lost to some's memories.

In 5 to 10 years time......

The most likely scenario will be the 'Greater Western Giants', based in Canberra, playing only a few games a season in Sydney.

Buddy will be on the verge of kicking his 1000th goal. And the Swans will be in contention for yet another tilt at the flag.....

Happy days ahead and not a 'Greater Western Sydney Giant' in sight.

[Mug Punter]

In 5 to 10 years time......

The most likely scenario will be the 'Greater Western Giants', based in Canberra, playing only a few games a season in Sydney.

Buddy will be on the verge of kicking his 1000th goal. And the Swans will be in contention for yet another tilt at the flag.....

Happy days ahead and not a 'Greater Western Sydney Giant' in sight.

It will be really interesting to see how it all pans out with GWS

I was of your view re Canberra for a long time but now I'm not sure - there's something to like about the ground they have there and I actually really enjoyed the match day experience on Saturday. I have been out there for two games and may get a four match membership next year. I suspect there may be a few others like me but any crowd growth there is likely to be incremental growth.

I see they are at an average of about 10,800 this year, albeit greatly helped by last Saturday. They really need to get this up to 15,000 asap - they have grown 1,800 per game this year so it isn't out of the realms of possibility given the success they have on the horizon.

I just wish they'd engage a bit more with the westerm Sydney community

[barry]

It will be really interesting to see how it all pans out with GWS

I was of your view re Canberra for a long time but now I'm not sure - there's something to like about the ground they have there and I actually really enjoyed the match day experience on Saturday. I have been out there for two games and may get a four match membership next year. I suspect there may be a few others like me but any crowd growth there is likely to be incremental growth.

I see they are at an average of about 10,800 this year, albeit greatly helped by last Saturday. They really need to get this up to 15,000 asap - they have grown 1,800 per game this year so it isn't out of the realms of possibility given the success they have on the horizon.

I just wish they'd engage a bit more with the westerm Sydney community

Im of the same mind. Might get a 2 or 4 games pass too if AFL at ANZ stops early.

Wouldn't suprise me if thet is no AFL at ANZ that a few thousand other ANZ members do the same.

[Mug Punter]

Im of the same mind. Might get a 2 or 4 games pass too if AFL at ANZ stops early.

Wouldn't suprise me if thet is no AFL at ANZ that a few thousand other ANZ members do the same.

I think it is actually good for the game for us to clear out of Homebush. There's a lot to like about the match-day set up at Spotless (shame you don't have reciprocal rights with your ANZ membership....) and they need to make a goer of that venue. Us cherry-picking games out that way muddies the waters in my opinion.

They really do need to decide what they want to do re the whole stadium situation though. As much as I dislike ANZ for AFL I think it is a monumental waste of money to spend $800 million (and the rest) on a brand new rectangular stadium at Moore Park that will spend 99% of it's matches (think average crowds for Waratahs, Sydney FC, Roosters) at less than 25% full when we have a venue that can cater for the very few major event crowds crowds at ANZ. $800M is a lot of hospitals or schools.

The Trust, like pigs with their snouts in the trough will want their largesse too and I am hearing that about $1.3B in stadium funding is in the air. Is this responsible?

If I was Premier it would be

* Money for a quality 35,000 all seater at Parramatta (say $300M)
* $150M each for ANZ and Allianz for a refreash
* $10M for Brookvale
* Nothing for the SCG Trust until Alan Jones resigns as a Trustee

Still a serious investment in our stadia but more responsible

[AnnieH]

When I used to live in Sydney (Maroubra) anything west of the highways, Pacific and Princes, I considered Western Sydney.
If I had occasion to travel out west, it was a weird and uncomfortable feeling. Strathfield may as well have been the Blue Mtns to me

Outer west is King Street, Newtown.
It's the back of whoop whoop after that.