No matter how hard the NRL try, Sydney will never be Melbourne, and the NRL will never be the AFL when it comes to being a spectator sport.
In an ideal world, the NRL would be able to play all of its Sydney-based games at Accor Stadium, Allianz Stadium and Bankwest Stadium with barely a spare seat to be seen each and every weekend.
But that just isn't how it works in NRL land.
The Sydney market - and it doesn't really matter which sport - is a notoriously fickle market to win over full of people who don't want to battle traffic, poor parking and public transport options to watch sport.
Success sells in Sydney, but so too does a good atmosphere and spiritual home grounds with good atmosphere.
NRL also just isn't suited to watching live at the venue like AFL is. While we see AFL played in front of crowds regularly over the 50,000 mark in Melbourne, that bubbles down to the fact Aussie Rules is a far better experience in person than it is on TV.
Unless you're sitting elevated on the halfway line, the opposite is realistically true of the NRL for the most part. Some stadiums - namely Suncorp Stadium, CommBank Stadium and the new Allianz Stadium - give an exception to the rule, but one of them most certainly isn't Homebush.
A souless pit built for athletics, every seat feels a long, long way away from the action and the atmosphere at any game with less than 50,000 in attendance simply wouldn't make you want to return to the venue.
That's not to say NRL crowds haven't been up this year - the trend since the end of the COVID pandemic has certainly seen rising crowds. 2023 saw an overall crowd average of 19,640 per game, compared to 2022s 16,250, or the last pre-COVID tyear in 2019 of 15,030.
2023 was the highest overall crowd average of the NRL era, and while some of that can be attributed to new rectangular venues in Sydney, Parramatta and Townsville as well as the Broncos' regularly selling out their venue, sell out crowds at suburban grounds have become more normal than they haven't.
It's a trend which has continued into 2024, as crowds sit on par with last year, and sold out suburban grounds continuing to increase in number.
It's clear fans are voting with their feet though - they want atmosphere. Whether that is created through suburban grounds like Brookvale or Leichhardt, or boutique stadiums like CommBank at Parramatta, fans simply don't want Homebush.
Outside of the traditional Good Friday clash between the Bulldogs and Rabbitohs which always gets a strong crowd, Homebush, in its five games this year, has now had two crowds under the 10,000 mark.
That, for the best rugby league competition in the world, simply isn't good enough, particularly when the trend at other venues is for crowds to be on the increase.
It's not just fans who want atmosphere either - it's the players.
Despite a reported crowd of 8155 on Thursday evening to witness three-time defending premiers' the Penrith Panthers thump the struggling - but still enormously supported - South Sydney Rabbitohs, Penrith captain Isaah Yeo said post-game that it felt like there were "half" that many fans in attendance.
โIt's definitely different. We probably didn't realise how much there'd be a lack of (atmosphere) until we actually got out there for warm up,โ skipper Isaah Yeo said.
โThey said there were 8000 (fans) out there, but there were probably half that.
โYou've got to try to make sure your communication and connection is really good, so we tried to focus on that.
โWith no atmosphere, we probably started a little flat and then we had a bloke sin binned and we let in two quick tries.
โI was pretty proud how we came back on top of that.โ
The crowd and atmosphere, which was also labelled "weird" was the latest black eye for the Homebush venue which realistically should only be used when the chance of it being more than half full exists.
It's an argument which was almost solved prior to the COVID pandemic when funding had been set aside for the venue to become rectangular, but that never proceeded, and now the Olympic Stadium will continue to be the same soulless bowl for rugby league that it has been for the best part of the last two decades.
That means it's on the NRL - and the clubs who frequent it - to find a solution which works for both fans and players.
The Rabbitohs could quite easily transition to Allianz Stadium. As much as the Sydney Roosters would probably like to claim the ground as their own, nothing should be further from the truth.
The Bulldogs, on the other hand, could quite easily play out of CommBank Stadium. The venues are separated by just 11.5 kilometres of driving - or 16 minutes. It's not exactly a stretch.
Of course, the spiritual home of Belmore can continue being used for a couple of games per year, but it's not feasible with the ground in its current state that it would become Canterbury's permanent home.
What that would then do is allow the Olympic Stadium to be used for big events. Good Friday, for example during the regular season, State of Origins, finals and any other games deemed big enough to get a crowd of 40,000 or more.
That is the only time the Homebush stadium should be used. Major events. It should be Australia's version of Wembley, but at the moment, it's used for games like Thursday which make you question everything that is good about attending the NRL.
While TV dollars are what keeps the NRL going, their footprint in match attendance is so, so important. It's something that has been realised in recent times, but needs to continue to be so to make the product better for fans at the ground, fans on TV and players.
The next step in that journey is making the hard call on Homebush.
