Not having ever won a Premiership going into their 45th season hasn't helped.

The location of the current home ground is not grounds, pun not intended, for axing a club. They cxan always change venue if worse comes to worse. And anyway, I don't think the location of Shark Park is that big a problem that it cannot be cured. Penrith and Parra fans would travel much further to get to their grounds and Souths fans too. If the team is winning and there is confidence in the club, fans will go to the game.

But I don't think there are too many Sharks fans from outside a very small geographic area of Sydney. Same goes for Manly. Sooner or later there will be rationalisation of teams based in Sydney and I think those two are most at risk. Might not be for a few years yet, but it will come at some point.

The NRL will want a team on the Central Coast, another in Brisbane and one each in Adelaide and Perth. Adding four more teams is too much, so hence my theory about Sydney team rationalisation. Over the next 10-20 years mind you...

My guess is that they got the land given to them cheaply

I know that the venue for the Southern Districts Rugby Union club nearby in Sylvania waters was given to the club on the grounds that it could only be used for sports. There is also an athletics field next door.

My guess is the Sharks also got some cheap swamp land on a similar basis.




As far as I know NRL teams are free to charge what they like for tickets.

I guess the point is that if you wanted to have a "Sydney" football team of any code, playing out of Shark Park would be one of your last options

I know a few Manly fans from outside the area. They follow them because of the success they had from the 1970s through to the 1990s. You get a lot of fans like that these days that have no connection to a local area. Like all those f***ing maroon jumpers I see in Sydney around Origin.

Easts have a smaller geographic area than both Cronulla and Manly. I think geographic spread can be overcome by a successful team.

The reasons Cronulla is vulnerable are:

* They have the great millstone of debt hanging around their neck.
* Management are punting on a redevelopment that won't address structural/financial deficincies between them and other clubs.
* Their football approach is baffling and does not inspire confidence. This is a club that swapped Kimmorley and De Gois for Barrett and Corey Hughes. They signed Darren Albert from Wigan. A winger!
* They say they are spending the whole of the cap but if their current squad is anything to go by, they are either spending less or overpaying what they've got. Canberra had to do that to entice people to the cold ACT but Cronulla shouldn't have to put a premium.
* They can't sell themselves in any sense. A shitload of footballers and influential types live in their neighbourhood but people don't want a bar of them.
* Their nearest competition has their sh*t together which shines a spotlight on how bad they are.

It is one of the hardest grounds in Sydney to get to for 80% of Sydneysiders. I would estimate that 90% of people in Sydney are over 30 minutes drive from the ground

1. It is at the Northeastern extermity of the city
2. It isn't walking distance to anything of note
3. The viewing at the ground itself is mostly poor
4. The entry prices are higher than for better grounds (?)
5. It is about 2 hours walk to the nearset railway station
6. It isn't even the best location for people that live in the Northern Beaches.

So how come Manly succeeds and Sharks perpetually suck?

When did Manly last succeed at anything? They haven't won the comp since 1997, crowds have decreased steadily for the last five years, and they can't get funding to improve their home ground.

Still, if your benchmark is Cronulla, then yes - they're a huge success...

I wouldn't set up a "Sydney" side based out of Brookvale either.

I would disagree with point 6 - I would say that the population to the north and south of Brookvale would be similar compared to Woolooware which has only one suburb to the east

Similarly on point 1 - there would be more people north-east of Brookvale than there are east of Shark Park

On point 2 you can walk to Warringah mall. Is there a pub nearby?

Now we're into the nit-picking phase. Those questions aren't important. The more important discussion is about how badly a run club Cronulla has been for so long, especially compared to a club in a similar enough geospatial predicament.

They actually won it in 2008 by the biggest Grand Final winning margin ever.
They beat the cheating Mexicans.

yes - Cronulla are a sh*t club - I thought we all agreed on that

Last time I checked, AFL teams are free to charge what they want, however the AFL takes a certain amount per person who enters, like $15-20 or something.

If this is true, then why almost every year do we get some self serving congratulatory story about how the AFL has kept ticket prices the same for x amount of seasons, to help their fans out? Just curious, have I bought the spin? Is it cheaper to go to the MCG than Footy Park or Subiaco? or even vice versa?


tbh I never really looked at the prices when I lived in Victoria, I just bought my AFC Vic Membership and divided by the number of games in Melbourne to determine if it was worth buying, never seemed too exorbitant to me. Even now, I know buying a season ticket is way cheaper and easier than buying individual tickets, so when it comes time I just check the price to see how much its changed from the last season and provided its not too much, I re-up my AUFC membership as soon as it is possible to do so. I hardly ever go to sporting events on a one-=off basis, so I rarely notice how much it costs for Joe public off the street. Recently I saw that the 36ers charge about $30 for seats and that struck me as a tad much for Aussie basketball. If I want a fix of ARF, I get along to the SANFL(Norwood FC)...$12 entry, was $10 for the last 3 years, not a problem:) Regardless, if you don't buy food and booze at the ground, most sport in Australia seems reasonably priced to me. Mind you if I had kids and they 'had' to have a footy budget and an iced coffee/coke at each game, I might pay more attention to the cost of tickets verses the cost of my Foxtel bill:) Or I'd just do what my dad did and feed us before the game or on the way home:) Sport is cheap in Oz. Certainly better than the Poms with their outrageous prices for Premier League football:( Quite how they expect to grow the next generation of fans is beyond my understanding:(

Not sure this is really true, Sharks tickets are definitely cheaper than Dragons tickets for starters.

It's difficult to compare though because NRL teams have such different ticket pricing structures, even in a group of clubs that theoretically you'd expect to be fair similar.

Some are rediculously complex.

I really don't see the need for 6, 7 or 8 different ticket levels. Saints has been very good for a few years now.

Category 1 - Sideline seating, undercover (45)
Category 2 - Sideline seating, not undercover OR behind-the-goals seating, undercover (35)
Category 3 - Behind-the-goals seating, not undercover (25)
Category 4 - Hill (22)

I notice the Bunnies only have two price categories this year.