As 25,000 or so Canberrans plan to head up to Bruce to watch the Raiders play Penrith tomorrow night, we could perhaps use the free time we'll be given, as we sit in the inevitable traffic jam, to contemplate the future of the city's stadiums.
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Whether we're talking GIO Stadium or Manuka Oval, you have to wonder if we're right to think bigger will be better?
GIO Stadium is looking tired, there is no doubt about that, but will all the problems be solved by plonking a shiny new stadium on the lake's edge?
For all its faults, the stadium at Bruce offers many advantages. It's a fabulous facility to watch football from. Only Seiffert Oval, in Queanbeyan, the Raiders' spiritual home, rivalled it. The Raiders won their first premiership at the end of their final year there in 1989; in June of that year 18,272 people packed in to watch the Green Machine hammer the Broncos 27-6, former Raiders chief executive John McIntyre reminiscing that "only 3000 of the crowd could sit down and the rest were standing up".
We can't ignore atmosphere when it comes to building new stadiums. For most of this season the Raiders, and the Brumbies, the team it shares the stadium with, have attracted crowds around the 10-12,000 mark, and it was a winning season for both teams. Let's not forget how fickle Canberra crowds can be. The Brumbies attracted a couple of big crowds, 20,142 against the Waratahs back in March and 16,418 against the Crusaders, but only 9830 turned up to watch them play the Queensland Reds.
The Raiders pulled 25,592 against the Sharks last weekend and 18,825 against the Eels two games before. Tomorrow's match against the Panthers, with busloads of fans making the trip from the foothills of the Blue Mountains, will test the stadium again.
But put any of these games in a stadium that seats even 40,000 and there will be no atmosphere at all.
Fans of the proposed redevelopment at Manuka say the same thing. That we need a bigger, better stadium if we're going to attract more regular AFL games and big cricket matches. Or do we need a voice on the national board of those sports, or at least a Canberra team participating in the national competition? You can't argue that infrastructure will bring Test cricket to Canberra. You only have to look at Hobart for that argument to be quashed. Cricket has always been about politics. This season Manuka will host a men's international, two women's internationals and the PM's XI. That's it.
So rather than spend money on stadiums we don't really need, perhaps we should look at how to maximise the experience of the facilities we have.
And really, who cares how long it takes you to get in, or out, or get a pie. As long as the team is winning.
