does Townsville really warrant such a stadium? cowboys are their only sporting team of any note yeah?
Yeh, since their A-league team folded. Dairy Famers (1300SMILES) really wont be up to standard in a decade though which is pretty much what the article seems to be getting at. If they don't improve their current facilities they run the risk of losing their NRL franchise license in the future.
NRL should be teaming up with the A-League to get stadium deals over the line with State/Fed governments. They play in different seasons and use the same pitch configurations. Cricket and AFL did the same thing with the Adelaide Oval upgrade. A mega West/SW Sydney stadium for the NRL Clubs and WSW plus another around Redfern area for Sydney FC/Rabbitohs.
No chance the government will fund another stadium in the East of Sydney for Souffs or Sydney FC, SFS is one of the best rugby league/football stadiums in the country. It'd need to be privately funded and there's not much chance of that happening. Souffs just need to become the Homebush Bunnies and be done with it already.
Mt. Smart is a pretty grim, uninspiring stadium IMO. And I see that the Warriors are starting to hold matches at Eden Park next season (as well as the hopefully permanent fixture of a game in Wellington each year). How long before they start using Albany too and Mt. Smart becomes a relic?
What I'd like to see is a similar thing to the AFL - Western Sydney clubs play out of Homebush or some other ground in Western Sydney, Eastern Sydney clubs play out of the SFS. With a couple of games a season at their local grounds to throw the fans a bone.
I'd like to see them burn homebush to the ground and have western sydney teams play out of their own stadiums. Penrith Park and Parramatta are more than adequate venues imo.
Parra stadium is the biggest pain in the arse to get to. Should just burn it down and do up the complex at Blacktown.
Parramatta and WSW are already close to outgrowing Parra Stadium, there's talk a new stadium out in the west will be purpose built for them despite Gus's delusions.
I despise this idea. If you're not representing an area big enough to justify your own stadium then there's no reason for you to exist; might as well just have another nearby club that plays out of the same ground swallow your support base and junior structure so we can have a club somewhere else.
I doubt the NSW government will be backing any new stadiums in the near future. Word is they have spent all their money on buying the 2nd origin home game and will not be able to afford helping out the upgrading or construction of any new stadiums.