First time at the stadium with the fam on Saturday night.
My 800 million or so dollars was well spent.
You got any more lying around?
I’m saving it up for a proper stadium roof in about 5 years.
The current one does seem to curve unnecessarily upwards from the top of the stands. If you could make it flatter and longer it would be infinitely more functional.
That’s what she said!
Something I remembered to post: for both the game against Adelaide and Wests, they switched off that weird cove mic that amplified to the sideline grandstand speakers that was in place for Round 1 
Not sure if anyone here had a word to them or they just heard feedback somewhere else but the atmosphere was way better without it.
they should pump the absolute fuck out of it in the away end next time Western suburbs or vuck come back.
Yeah, we made sure they didn’t do it again 
Well done, big improvement and glad they took action quickly.
Less relevant for us now, but I imagine we may still have the odd game at Leichhardt (ALW, Australia Cup, pre-season, or if SFS is unavailable).
The council are planning an investment in upgrades.
Leichhardt Oval Master Plan | Your Say Inner West (Logged in) (nsw.gov.au)
I completed the survey, although it didn’t seem very useful in terms of the data that they’d be getting back. Note that you need to create an account to complete the survey.
Also, I recognise that Kogarah would be the more likely venue in some cases, but assume that Leichhardt will be used at some stage.
I too have also completed the survey. Signing up took 30 seconds.
Yeah, I don’t think that survey is really going to achieve all that much in the grand scheme of things, I think it’s getting a very broad based idea of what people want out of a local suburban ground.
I love Leichhardt Oval, fuck the haters. But it is a very antiquated stadium that does require and has required for quite some time some serious maintenance. Maintenance that aside from a restoration of the Keith Barnes stand (which now I come to think of it was like over a decade ago) and a lick of paint here and there, is well overdue.
It’s a quaint and lovely ground to watch live sport at. You’re close to the action, and it’s got a real nice heritage feel to it, which has started to become a bit of a dilapidated feel in the last few years.
Transport connections aside, I feel like even though the hill is a great place to stand as the sun sinks over the back of the main grandstand I think they need to turn the bottom half of the hill into an all-seter grandstand. At the very least have another 5-10 rows of actual seating around the perimeter of the field. The old scoreboard should be kept, I don’t think there’s any plans at all to get rid of that. It’s a nice history timepiece to the ground as well.
The Northern end should be re-built and have a terrace-styled grandstand, something reminiscent of a non-league football grand stand. The open drained sewer that passed for toilets at the northern end, whilst novel, has thankfully been, or at least is in the process of being demolished. Nothing like sloshing ankle deep through everybody’s piss only to piss up against a brick wall.
I wouldn’t be a massive grandstand/terrace. The Morton bay figs which line the perimeter of the ground are part of the charm of the oval.
There’s not a lot you can really do with the southern end of the ground. The Keith Barnes Stand is heritage listed I think.
I prefer Leichhardt over Kogarah, partly because it’s easier for me to get to, but also because I lived in Leichhardt (and Annandale) for several years so have a greater connection with the area.
Agree with pretty much everything you’ve said. It really does need some love, it should feel like a well-maintained Heritage site, rather than the state that it’s in now.
I grew up in and around Balmain, and spent many an afternoon watching the Tigers play, before I got into football. Used to do a lot of swimming across the road at the aquatic center as well. Nowadays I don’t really follow the Tigers much, but am all for them playing more games there. Much better than playing at soulless stadiums like Homebush, and to a lesser degree Parramatta and the SFS. Although the Tigers are so nomadic these days, it feels like they play each home game in a different stadium around Sydney, just adding to the fact that they’re a basket case of a club at the moment.
If the National Second Division/B-League does kick off if the next 12-18 months, and APIA Leichhardt get in, I would like to see them play out of Leichhardt Oval again. Whilst we only played a handful of matches over the course of our nomadic period there, the atmosphere is always good, between us and all the FFA Cup matches hosted there over the last couple of seasons, I daresay there’s been more football played at the ground than Rugby League. I think the Waratahs played a few matches there, but I’m not sure what their crowds were like.
It’s simply part of their community engagement, standard for any project being undertaken with public money.
“Be sure to engage the proles, so we think they care”
So, it’s been 4.5 games at the new digs, how’s everyone else settling in? It’s better, but no way is it 4 years of pain and $800M better.
Roof still questionable, rake could be steeper… I’ll qualify that by saying Cove / bottom bowl seems significantly better. But the one game we spent up in the Clubhouse, half way up the second elevation, felt like we were in another postcode.
The concourse is more open, but fuck, they could’ve achieved that by just taking out the last two rows and concrete backing at the old one. And the fabled “much improved food & bev options” don’t apply when they’re not even open.
Meh.
I think it is significantly better. It feels a lot more intimate, and the view from similar seats to what I previously had is substantially better. I love it. It exceeded my expectations to be honest.
Agree, worth the wait which was unfortunate but can’t expect it to be built in 1 season. This city needed that sort of stadium, old one was a bit embarrassing really.
The new stadium and light rail combo has been incredible, so much better than before.
I’m pretty much of the same mind as Hybrid. It’s effectively the same stadium in form and purpose. I understand the old one had issues that couldn’t be rectified and it needed replacing in some form. It just doesn’t seem like the right form for me - particularly given the cost. 42k just doesnt seem fit for purpose. A smaller stadium with a better roof or a bigger stadium to take over from Homebush as the primary large football (rectangle pitch) venue in the city.
Light rail is definitely aces.
I guess there was the hope of being blown away and the fear of it just being SFS 2.0, feels like it landed right in the middle.
I’m also mildly annoyed, been considering moving to the sideline for 2 years now, but arm was twisted by some returnees (who never set foot in Leichhardt or Kogarah) wanting to group our season tickets together. I relented for one more year in the Cove, only to find out it’s GA anyways (so the grouping didn’t apply) and said returnees were turned off by the safe standing and I still haven’t seen them at a single game… the City game was to be my last dance, I was gonna call the club about upgrading and moving to Platinum so I could win stuff, but I sure as shit don’t want to put another few hunjie in Barlow’s pocket this week. FML. 
I watched the last game from the concourse on half way, view is superb.