Game day at Wembley is a bucket-list experience. This Sydney venue should take note

There was hardly a spare seat in the house at Wembley last Sunday. There rarely is.

A crowd of 86,152 flocked to London’s iconic stadium for the NFL clash between the Los Angeles Rams and Jacksonville Jaguars – among them the Australian rugby league squad, soaking up the atmosphere before they get to strut their stuff on the same hallowed turf this weekend.

A similarly healthy turnout is expected for the Kangaroos’ first Test against England since 2017, judging by early ticket sales.

English media reported on the weekend that almost 55,000 fans have already booked their seats, a number that would appear certain to swell considerably in the countdown to the first full Ashes series in 22 years.

It remains to be seen if Wembley’s capacity of 90,000 will be challenged, but the Kangaroos can nonetheless expect a hostile reception from a passionate, parochial fanbase baying for a home victory.

For the Australian players, it shapes as a once-in-a-career highlight. The Kangaroos have played just 11 times at Wembley in the past 95 years – nine times at the original stadium and twice at its replacement, which opened in 2007.

Even for the England players, it will be a memorable experience. Like their Antipodean opponents, the Lions have also played only twice at the new Wembley, in 2011 and 2013, and the lone member of their squad to have represented his country there is veteran centre Kallum Watkins.

That’s because Wembley is regarded as the national stadium and reserved purely for showpiece occasions and marquee events, such as England soccer internationals, the FA Cup final, Premier League promotion play-offs, rugby league’s Challenge Cup final, NFL fixtures and rock concerts.

Is there is a lesson in that policy for Venues NSW to consider, in regard to how they operate Accor Stadium?

The 26-year-old facility has been much maligned since the glory days of the Sydney Olympics.

It often cops a bum rap, usually midway through any rugby league season, when South Sydney hosting Gold Coast on a wet, miserable night is rarely the hottest ticket in town.

On such occasions, Accor performs an uncanny impersonation of a low joint. It is hardly a glowing advertisement for anything when a crowd of fewer than 10,000 diehards are scattered randomly around a venue that seats 83,500.

Not surprisingly, Souths have had enough. They want to move closer to their Redfern heartland, joining arch-rivals Sydney Roosters at Allianz Stadium, but the government is insisting the Rabbitohs honour a contract at Accor that runs until 2030.

Fortunately, the government spared taxpayers from an exorbitant outlay in 2018 by scrapping plans to either demolish Accor and replace it with a new 75,000-seat stadium, or alternatively renovating it by adding a retractable roof.

A new or improved stadium might not have actually solved anything, because perhaps the best outcome is a less-is-more policy. Just use Accor for big events, like Wembley.

The Homebush amenity often appears a vast, empty barn when it hosts garden-variety mid-season NRL games, so don’t play them there.

Let Souths move to Allianz. Canterbury can play at CommBank, although that occasionally might not be large enough, given they drew home crowds of 65,305 and 59,878 last season.

Those attendances, however, were outliers, but they underline the point this column is trying to make.

When it’s a big-game atmosphere, played in a full house, there’s nothing wrong with Accor. It becomes a theatre of dreams for State of Origins, grand finals, Bledisloe Cup clashes and Socceroos and Matildas internationals.

But it’s regularly underwhelming when second-rate fare is on display, and bums on seats are few and far between.

This isn’t a case of build it and they will come. It’s built. It was state-of-the-art when constructed for the 2000 Olympics and remains in perfectly acceptable condition.

What it needs more than anything is a content upgrade.

Wembley is a bucket-list experience, both for athletes and spectators. Accor Stadium can serve the same purpose, if the powers-that-be adopt a Wembley-style strategy of premium events only.

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