Manly Sea Eagles say they’ll shift two games a year to a revamped Allianz Stadium - for $1 million

[ManlyArmy]

MANLY would be prepared to appease the NRL by shifting two home games a season to a revamped Allianz Stadium - but only for a cool $1 million.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal Sea Eagles management has discussed shifting two matches into the eastern suburbs but the club would want to compensated around $500,000 a game.

The Sea Eagles position is in vast contrast to Cronulla, who as sole owners of their Southern Cross Stadium, have much less interest in relinquishing home games after they made almost $200,000 at their round two home game against St George Illawarra.

While fiercely committed to Brookvale Oval and its comprehensive upgrade, privately-owned Manly can see the financial benefit in moving games across the harbour. Manly chief executive Joe Kelly and chairman Scott Penn met with NRL chairman John Grant on Wednesday to discuss the issue.

Manly’s constitution states the club must play 10 of their 12 home games each season at Brookvale, the club’s spiritual home. The Sea Eagles will take two games interstate this season - to Brisbane and Perth - to raise revenue.

Those two matches could now be switched to Allianz Stadium, if the club could obtain a robust financial return and ensure there are benefits for members.

The State Government wants a 65-game commitment from Sydney clubs to play at three upgraded venues — Allianz Stadium, ANZ Stadium and Parramatta Stadium — before committing $1.6 billion. The NRL will need to convince Manly, St George Illawarra, Cronulla and Wests Tigers to shift at least 23 of their home games combined to the upgraded venues. NRL management hope Manly and Cronulla could combine to take seven games to Allianz Stadium.

Manly’s financial return from games played at Brookie - due to excessive ground fees imposed by Warringah Council - is minimal.

“We haven’t committed to anything yet but it’s incumbent on us to look at what is in the best interests for our members and supporters. We are still committed Brookie and we want to upgrade the facilities and we want to play the majority of our games at Brookvale Oval,” Kelly said. “Ultimately, our focus is retaining Brookie as our spiritual home but we need to upgrade the facility.

“We take two games interstate. We will contemplate other stadia approaching us to play those games in the future. Certainly two. That provides us with a commercial return. The concentration of our member base is around Brookvale. The challenges we face are unlike the challenges of most other Sydney clubs from a transportation point of view. Brookvale in its current state is a real challenge.”

Manly would need to alter its constitution to take any more than two games away from Brookie.

But following their meeting with the NRL on Wednesday, Sharks chairman Damien Keogh suggested the club wouldn’t be rushed into a decision.

“We’re not as far down the path as Manly, so it’s going to be challenging for us to make any type of committment at this stage,’’ Keogh said.

“Our prefferred situation is to continue to develop our own venue for our fans.

“We’ll discuss it as a board and determine how we move forward, but for us there’s a lot of aspects for this to be just a straight forward decision.

“We haven’t moved a game from the Sutherland Shire since 2013 because economically, it’s just not worth it.’’

 

[The Wheel]

4 games for $3mill

 

[Fluffy]

Good. We need a vastly higher turn to compensate for no sponsorship, corporate packages a loss of home ground advantage (so far this year 75% of winners have been at home), more wins =bigger crowds = more $$.

If they do not want to commit to the compo then commit money to upgrade so we can offset against that

 

[andyvb]

We should be able to pick who our opponent is for the games. Clearly we would pick a non Sydney team so we keep some type of home game advantage

 

[tookey]

$1m for two games for two years plus $30m to upgrde brookie

 

[jbb/james]

This is a league issue. While it directly affects sydney clubs more , this is about growth of the game. Other clubs not in sydney will also benefit to a leasser extent but there will be a flow on affect

Semi finals played in sydney involving out of town teams will have better grounds, facilities and crowds for ther fans as well

As a result all clubs cows, broncs, warriors should all be told to move one game per year each for there fans . The strength of the competition relies on all teams being finacially strong.weakining this for some clubs is not a smart overall approach

Tv will be much better off under this system for set ip costs and this should provide more cash in the bank come the next deal

There grants should depend on it

If you make games unattainable for one set of fans why shouldnt you spread that around

This would decrease the games other clubs need to move against ther will

 

[The Who]

I'm happy with this response from the club.
I'm wondering if the NRL has the right to demand clubs play at certain venues.
Cronulla, which owns its ground, in particular should not be bullied into moving.

 

[KaZa]

Take all our home games to Allianz for 2 years if we are guaranteed whatever we need to fix Brookie. Then we go back to brookie. Id take it. Come on NRL. You have 1.6 billion reasons to get it done.

 

[HappilyManly]

I'm happy with this response from the club.
I'm wondering if the NRL has the right to demand clubs play at certain venues.
Cronulla, which owns its ground, in particular should not be bullied into moving.

Part of the NRL licence is that the ground must have 20k seated capacity . The Sharks don't have that either.
So the NRL can force a Club to play outside their grounds.

The push is really by the Broadcasters and now with the Bunker. They are on record as stating that the cost of having permanent cameras set up, plus cabling etc, versus setting up new venues 3-4 times a week - ROI is less for them

Think of the fans, think of the children stuck in seats for 2-4 hours - they rather think of the bottom line and kill off the next generation of 'customers'

 

[Shoe1]

Shades of Dr Evil "1 million dollars"

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

4 games for $3mill

You are a funny bugger Wheelie, we don't always agree but I enjoy your input.

 

[Budgie]

Sounds fine but we should also demand a 10 point start to compensate for the loss of home ground advantage.

 

[The Who]

Part of the NRL licence is that the ground must have 20k seated capacity . The Sharks don't have that either.
So the NRL can force a Club to play outside their grounds.

20,000 seated capacity? That leaves only three in Sydney: ANZ, Aliance and the SCG. Unless, they judge seating on the Brookie Hill.

 

[HappilyManly]

20,000 seated capacity? That leaves only three in Sydney: ANZ, Aliance and the SCG. Unless, they judge seating on the Brookie Hill.

http://m.smh.com.au/rugby-league/le...pays-off-for-sydney-clubs-20140426-zr05p.html

That's right, and soon the revamped Parra Stadium will have 20k seats.
There is also some stipulation about undercover ratio if you google it.

Ultimately its about the set up costs for the Broadcasters.

1300smiles also fails the NRL seats rule, but the TSV Council together with the NRL, is building a new super Stadium south of the CBD

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport...m/news-story/567fc883ead415638086005673ba3094

 

[Rex]

http://m.smh.com.au/rugby-league/le...pays-off-for-sydney-clubs-20140426-zr05p.html

Townsville has a population similar to the Northern Beaches. And a stadium already servicing their needs, like Manly has.

The coalition wants to give them $150m, and Labor $100m, towards their stadium.

We had the PM as our local member, and continue having the NSW Premier as our local member. The NSW Premier, Manly's local member, is flush with funds from the sale of the poles and wires. We have reputedly the most run-down ground in the competition. And what do we get offered? And why?

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Townsville has a population similar to the Northern Beaches. And a stadium already servicing their needs, like Manly has.

The coalition wants to give them $150m, and Labor $100m, towards their stadium.

We had the PM as our local member, and continue having the NSW Premier as our local member. The NSW Premier, Manly's local member, is flush with funds from the sale of the poles and wires. We have reputedly the most run-down ground in the competition. And what do we get offered? And why?

I think if it was owned by a trust it would have already begun major updates , the fact that it's not , with the council not wanting to spend a cracker is probably why!!

 

[Rex]

I think if it was owned by a trust it would have already begun major updates , the fact that it's not , with the council not wanting to spend a cracker is probably why!!

Yes it seems the coalition and Labor aren't really interested in spending a cracker either.

If having the PM and Premier as local members isn't enough to get the impetus to get pollies interested in moving Brookie Oval into a trust, I guess nothing else will be. That is, barring pigs flying and the seats becoming marginal, both equally likely.

 

[HoldenV8]

Yes it seems the coalition and Labor aren't really interested in spending a cracker either.

If having the PM and Premier as local members isn't enough to get the impetus to get pollies interested in moving Brookie Oval into a trust, I guess nothing else will be. That is, barring pigs flying and the seats becoming marginal, both equally likely.

Which is still annoying considering how St Merge had money virtually gifted to them from the government to upgrade both Kogarah and Wollongong when that St George loving PM John Howard was in charge. And given that they don't play at either ground as much as we do Brookie......

 

[Brookie Brawler]

Take all our home games to Allianz for 2 years if we are guaranteed whatever we need to fix Brookie. Then we go back to brookie. Id take it. Come on NRL. You have 1.6 billion reasons to get it done.

That's 24 games right there. Kind of a front-ended deal that would cover us for the next 12yrs at 2 games a year or 8 years at 3 games a year.

Pay Manly 30 million to upgrade Brookie and the NRL gets their Super Stadium deal. Win-win. Come on Toddy!

 

[HoldenV8]

What we really need (though as we don't own Brookvale its not really up to the club), is to get the Mariners to commit to playing 2-3 games at Brookie per A-League season. Having another tenant would make the case for upgrading the ground that much stronger.

Unfortunately, because the Northern Beaches have been a safe Liberal area for so long they tend to forget about things there (no votes to be won you see).