Wests Tigers CEO Shane Richardson has declared the club have put DNA above finances, with a majority of games at Campbelltown Stadium part of a push that can help the joint venture retain their best young talent.
The Tigers on Monday unveiled the next piece of their Campbelltown blueprint, with a new office at Western Sydney University alongside NRL and NSW Rugby League spaces that will have administration and sports science advantages.
For a long time, the club were accused of not making use of the ever-growing southwest Sydney, with as few as three games a year at Campbelltown.
But the venue will host at least seven home games a year from 2029 onwards with an increased capacity of 21,000 and 1500 corporate spaces.
It will be offline for works in 2028, but could host close to half of the Tigers’ games in 2027 while Leichhardt Oval is undergoing upgrades that will allow it to hold four games a year with a capacity of 18,000 and 100 corporates.
It means they will play at least 11 games a year out of their two suburban homes from 2029, with plans to cap memberships with smaller stadium sizes.
“Our strategy is all about having boutique stadiums both here and in Leichhardt,” Tigers CEO Richardson told AAP.
“We’ve kept our DNA together, we’re probably worse-off financially (than playing at CommBank Stadium), but we’ve created a crowd situation where it is a hot ticket.
“We want families out here and Leichhardt is a bit more of an inner-city crowd. We’ve got the best of both worlds.”
Richardson also believes the club’s deliberate move towards having a larger footprint in southwest Sydney can help assist with retaining and cultivating the area’s talent.
Between 2020 and 2023, Wests Tigers had just two players from the Macarthur region play 10 or more games for the lowly-ranked club.
At the same time, Penrith had 15 locals feature for them during a run of four straight grand finals, despite the region having similar junior registration numbers.
Since Richardson’s arrival two years ago, the Tigers have significantly increased school visits, linked a player with each local club and had staff based in the area.
“It’s incredibly important and it does help” Richardson said.
“When we came out it was a touch and feel, and everyone said ‘righto we’ve heard this before’.
“But now we’re embedded in so many ways, which is also something the AFL can’t do.
“You’ve got to do that. You can’t just talk about it.”
One other key aspect for the Tigers is this year’s transition of Eagle Vale High School to a selective sports school with a rugby league program in the area.
Westfields Sports High had become the region’s major rugby league program in the past decade, while based in the Parramatta district.
Lachlan Galvin’s link with school coach Luke Vella was instrumental in his move to Canterbury, while fellow Campbelltown junior Tallyn da Silva has since ended up at Parramatta.
“We want to grow Eagle Vale as quickly and as rapidly as we can and bring a lot of our scholarship holders and people in there,” Richardson said.
“This is our base for the west. We want it to be successful. We’ve got a coach there we are paying for.
Discussion about this post