Queensland the undisputed rugby league capital

Andrew Moore | 06/05/08 | 0

I’m sorry to say it, but Sydney is such an apathetic city when it comes to top sport or entertainment that it’s no surprise to me that ticket sales are really, really slow for Friday night’s Centenary Test.

This should be a great occasion – Australia versus New Zealand at the Sydney Cricket Ground, a celebration of 100 years of the sport, both teams wearing original jersey colours (so, in the Australians case, not the now traditional green and gold).

Plus, the Aussie team will feature potentially one of its greatest ever backlines, with Billy Slater, Greg Inglis, Mark Gasnier, Justin Hodges, Israel Falou, Greg Bird and Jonathon Thurston.

Yet still, it seems, the Sydney sporting public won’t get off its backside and go to the game.

Now things of course could dramatically change, but it’s a sad indictment of rugby league and Sydney if a Test match such as this can’t be sold out. A very sad indictment.

Mind you, if the various rugby league officials wanted this game sold out they would have played it at Suncorp Stadium. In that case, 52,000-odd tickets would have already been sold and we would be talking about how exciting it all is.

Instead the game is here in Sydney, a town which can no longer sell out State of Origin games for goodness sake, and struggles to sell out a grand final.

There should be absolutely no doubt that, in 2008, Queensland is the rugby league capital.

In State of Origin week, there’s a great vibe around Brisbane for the three or four days leading up to the game. Here in Sydney, you wouldn’t know the game was on until a few hours before kick-off. In Brisbane there are maroon jerseys all over the city; in Sydney, nada.

When the Tri Nations were in Sydney a couple of years ago only about 20,000 people turned up to the final at the Sydney Football Stadium.

You can get a huge stage show production running for seven or eight months in Melbourne. It comes to Sydney, it might get three weeks.

We are so damn apathetic. Maybe we have too many things going on here, we can’t commit to just one, I don’t know.

I love this place, but we’re kidding ourselves if we think that Sydney even comes close to Queenslanders in terms of loving rugby league. It’s not a contest.

This should be a great occasion. Yet still, it seems, the Sydney sporting public won’t get off its backside and go to the game. Andrew Moore on the Centenary Test