NRL club CEOs call for Sydney’s suburban grounds to be axed as finals venues

Suburban grounds have long been the beating heart of rugby league — but with finals crowds under the microscope, multiple club CEOs believe the smaller venues no longer belong in the big September matches.

Multiple NRL club chief executives have called for Sydney’s small suburban grounds to be axed as finals venues.

The 17 club CEOs completed an NRL online questionnaire asking them to detail how the upcoming finals series could be bigger and better.

There is a feeling inside NRL HQ that finals crowds and match-day hype needed to improve to rival such epic annual events as State of Origin and the grand final.

The survey questions also included how the NRL could encourage new fans to attend the big September matches.

One CEO said: “The NRL want bums on seats in the finals and the questionnaire was about trying to get feedback around bringing new customers to the big games.”

Asked to reply to the survey, several CEOs said obtaining larger crowds and securing a better atmosphere would entail dumping week one finals at suburban grounds including Brookvale Oval, Shark Park, Leichhardt Oval, Jubilee Oval or Wollongong’s WIN Stadium.

The results from a questionnaire have indicated NRL CEOs want suburban grounds like Leichhardt Oval (pictured) axed for finals. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Another CEO said: “Stop playing at stadiums like Brookvale and Shark Park. It defeats the purpose of having a conversation about putting more bums on seats and then playing in stadiums that only fit 14,000 people.

“Shark Park isn’t fit to host regular-season NRL matches, let alone a finals game.”

A third CEO added: “Those suburban grounds aren’t up to standard. If you want to create a great atmosphere in the finals then you have to play in the biggest and best stadiums.

Manly’s 4 Pines Park has a capacity of 18,000. Picture: Damian Shaw

Cronulla's Shark Park has a capacity of 15,000. Picture: NRL

“I know a few other CEOs who said the same thing, a number of us did.

“I think the NRL believes the finals are underperforming compared to other big sellout rugby league events.

“The NRL has to work really hard to get big crowds at finals matches.”

Conversely, other CEOs stressed that teams who traditionally don’t pull big crowds could play before small crowds if forced to play at larger stadiums.

The collated results of the poll will be presented to clubs at a CEOs conference in Brisbane on Friday, where the issue will be further debated.

Week one of the finals is played at home grounds for sides which secured high finishing places after the regular season.

But those tiny suburban grounds are now in the firing line with some clubs believing all Sydney finals being shifted to Allianz Stadium, Accor Stadium or CommBank Stadium.

Home finals are only played in week one before remaining games are moved to bigger venues.

Big crowd-pulling Sydney clubs like Parramatta, Wests Tigers, Canterbury, Souths and St George Illawarra haven’t regularly featured in the finals during recent years.

The questionnaire asked a series of questions with the responding CEO remaining anonymous.

Clubs were also asked how the finals could be better promoted. The NRL finals start during the second week of September.