Cowboys, Dragons, Tigers, Sharks: Rockhampton to host two NRL games

A Round 23 game and a Round 24 game will be played at Browne Park, with both to be capped at 5,000 tickets.

Rockhampton Regional Council mayor Tony Williams.

Rockhampton will host two NRL games this month, making up for disappointment caused by the sudden cancellation of a match in late July.

The Round 23 game between Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and Wests Tigers will be held on Saturday, August 21, and the Round 24 game between St George Illawarra Dragons and North Queensland Cowboys on Saturday, August 28 at Browne Park.

Both games will be capped at 5,000 tickets.

Rockhampton Regional Council mayor Tony Williams called it “groundhog day”.

“What could be better than one NRL game? Two NRL games – that’s what’s being proposed,” he said.

“We’d have another option from the NRL to provide two NRL games, making history here at Browne Park over two weekends.

“We’re still putting in the same sponsorship as we did previously, but we’re getting twice the coverage and twice the bonus to the economy out of that game that we did before.”

The council is putting $50,000 in total towards the games and offering in-kind support with ticketing.

He hoped the path was laid for Rockhampton becoming a regular fixture on the NRL calendar.

“It’s great news that the NRL see our local community, how fast those ticket sales – 10,000 hits onto those tickets straight away really is an indication of the level of support,” Mr Williams said.

“It really does bode well for the future.”

Rob Crow from the management of Browne Park.

Rob Crow from the Management of Browne Park said he expected to make up the money lost from the previous game’s cancellation.

“There was some hurt there in terms of finance, but having gained two games, we’ll certainly recover that, and hopefully make some money out of it as well, which we’ll distribute amongst the local leagues,” he said.

“It certainly was some pain, and we would have had to suffer that if we couldn’t find another game this year, but in for a penny, in for a pound.”

He said he expected both of the coming games to sell out.

“At the time [of the cancellation], just disappointment was the thing, but quickly over that because it wasn’t anyone’s fault,” Mr Crow said.

“We’d done everything we could do, the NRL did everything they could do, the government really couldn’t do anything else.

“It was just one of those things – no point in dwelling on it, just take a few deep breaths, relax for a couple of days, get the energy back, and let’s get on the front foot and attack again.

“We’re very lucky: I believe over the next few weeks there’s only four games going outside the south east and we’ve got two of them here in Rockhampton, so we’re very pleased about that.”

Regular users of Browne Park have been moved to Rugby Park so the former can be prepared for the games.

Advance Rockhampton executive manager Greg Bowden said 30 per cent of the tickets sold for the Round 20 match were from people outside of Rockhampton.

“As the tourism and marketing boss of the region, there will be excited fans, but no one more excited than me,” he said.

“Not only is it history, but as I say, that exposure for the region is just so important to me, and I know it is to the mayor and the councillors, that we just get Rocky out there on the radar, and making sure that these games go smoothly.

“As Rob Crow said, they’ll be competitive games: we don’t want this 30-nil thing that happened in Mackay. In Rocky they’re going to be competitive games. We’ll have green grass and competitive games.”

The ticket provider will remain the same, but a new program will be used that queues people when there are more than 100 website visitors.

“Not everyone will get a ticket; these games will be popular,” Mr Bowden said.

“I’m confident – nervous, confident – that the ticketing system will cope. This is the system that is used by the Australian Rugby Union.

“We’ve road tested it on a smaller sample and it’s worked fine for that. But as I said last time, 10,000 hits in two minutes – that is a busy website anywhere in the world.”

He said he expected tickets to go on sale next Wednesday morning, but details would be confirmed on Monday.

Tickets for each game will be released separately and available for purchase online only.