What’s the Buzz: Sydney Roosters to play fewer games at Allianz Stadium

WHAT’S THE BUZZ 1: The Sydney Roosters are planning a new “home game” strategy that would involve playing fewer matches at Moore Park.

NSW Sports Minister Stuart Ayres’ grand plan to redirect a large chunk of government money into Allianz Stadium is about to go belly-up with revelations the venue’s only permanent rugby league tenant, Sydney Roosters,­ ­intend to play fewer games at Moore Park.

Sources have revealed the Roosters are planning a new “home game” strategy that would involve three games on the Central Coast at Gosford, two in Sydney’s west at the new Parramatta Stadium, and one in Adelaide where they recently attracted more than 20,000 fans.

The Roosters already have a large footprint on the Central Coast through feeder club Wyong and have been enthused by a sellout crowd in Gosford last weekend for the game against Cronulla.

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Recent research undertaken by the club also shows there has been an enormous membership shift to Sydney’s western suburbs where using the new 30,000-seat Parramatta Stadium for Panthers and Eels games would have huge appeal to fans, even if it means giving up the home-ground advantage.

Allianz Stadium could host fewer Sydney Roosters matches.

This is the first sign of one of Sydney’s nine NRL clubs becoming a satellite franchise and taking games to where the money is and the fans are located.

The television product would be greatly improved by not having the regular backdrop of more than 30,000 empty seats and zero atmosphere at Allianz. Blockbuster matches, like the Anzac Day game against the Dragons, would remain at the Moore Park venue.

Ayres and the powerful SCG Trust have been working behind the scenes to overturn the NSW Government’s decision to redevelop ANZ Stadium as a world-class rectangular stadium.

Instead, they want much of the allocated $1.6 billion stadium funding to go towards a new 45,000-seat Allianz Stadium, despite the fact only Sydney FC in the A-League and the Waratahs Super Rugby franchise would be the only regular tenants.

Waratahs crowd figures have become so bad they no longer announce attendance figures.

Gosford’s Central Coast Stadium could host more Roosters matches in the future.

Previous attempts by the NRL to convince other clubs to play at the venue have been flatly rejected.

The Trust is now running a public scare campaign about crowd safety issues at the old venue, even citing the possibility of a Hillsborough-type tragedy unless it is upgraded.

It’s a desperate tactic to convince the government to overturn former premier Mike Baird’s decision to give the majority of the funding to ANZ to build the best major event venue in the southern hemisphere.

It would become an 85,000-seat rectangular stadium and bring fans closer to the action for concerts, Origin games, grand finals and soccer blockbusters.