Sharks Stadium will host a final on Saturday night. It might be the last time

Saturday night shapes as the last time Cronulla fans will get to cheer their beloved Sharks in their own backyard during an NRL finals campaign.

Thousands of fans will be locked out of the elimination final against the Sydney Roosters because Sharks Stadium can only accommodate 15,000 fans.

The match could have attracted double that number had Cronulla been forced to play at one of the city’s newer venues such as CommBank Stadium. Given the NRL, not the clubs, collects all gate takings and hospitality during the finals, the league will lose around $750,000 based on the $50 average cost of a finals ticket.

Current rules allow Cronulla to play at their home ground in week one of the finals, but NRL CEO Andrew Abdo is keen to review the policy.

“We haven’t changed or reviewed the home finals policy for a while, and I think we’re due for that,” Abdo said at Monday’s NRL finals launch. “That will be a conversation we have with the commission at the end of the season.

“There are two things we are trading off. One is being able to play at your regular home stadium, and the other is a good experience for our fans. They’re both important.

“It’s fair to say we would want a minimum standard, particularly for finals, for our fans. It’s not just about the size of the venue, it’s about the experience at the venue.

“[Turnover] is a factor, but it’s not purely about, ‘How much money can you make out of the game?’

“In this particular case, you have two Sydney teams [on Saturday], and you want as many fans as possible enjoying it live. The players enjoy that, and so do the fans. We need to focus on our fans and the fan experience.

“There comes a time you need to consider a minimum standard, potentially for finals, that might be above the regular season – the time is right to have a good, close look at it.”

Sharks Stadium has been described as the worst professional sporting ground in the nation. The venue is troubled by water pooling at the bottom of stairwells, leaks in the roof over the main grandstand, and endless metres of extension leads to supply vendors with power.

The club says it would take an injection of $180 million to deliver a state-of-the-art, 23,000 capacity stadium in the Shire.

“The ground has met all the requirements to host NRL games, and it will be no different for the first week of the finals,” Cronulla CEO Dino Mezzatesta told this masthead last month.

Abdo said there was no chance Saturday’s other elimination final between the Warriors and Panthers could have been moved forward by an hour, which would have helped the Warriors dodge a scheduling overlap with the All Blacks.

Warriors officials wanted to kick off at 3pm AEST (5pm, New Zealand time), which would have allowed local fans to watch the NRL action before the All Blacks kick off at 7pm NZST.

“The knock-on effect of scheduling a game slightly earlier because of an All Blacks game in NZ is the fact there is a Wallabies game here [in Sydney], there are AFL games, there is a lot of sport happening,” Abdo said. “The primary determining factor is what is good for our fans.”

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