Saw on Fox Sports News. Plans to remain stands at Parramatta Stadium and even cover up Rugby League statues.
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Saw on Fox Sports News. Plans to remain stands at Parramatta Stadium and even cover up Rugby League statues.
How to win friends and influence people!
Cover-up as Price off limits for Wanderers
http://images.smh.com.au/2012/07/11/...ue-620x349.jpg
WHEN the Western Sydney Wanderers play their inaugural A-League match at Parramatta Stadium in October, don't expect to see rugby league legend Ray Price in the stands - and you might not see his famous statue out the front, either.
That's because the Wanderers are considering covering up Price's statue on match days as part of a plan to lessen the feeling that Parramatta Stadium is a rugby league venue and make football fans more ''at home''.
Exactly how the statue of Price - known during his playing days as Mr Perpetual Motion - will be obscured from public view remains unclear, and Football Federation Australia, which owns the club, has not officially decided whether or not to go ahead with the controversial plan.
There's also an outside possibility the Wanderers' might pull the same stunt as performed at Suncorp Stadium on grand final day last year. On that occasion the statue of Queensland's most revered rugby league figure, Wally Lewis, was cloaked in a Brisbane Roar jersey.
Advertisement "In relation to Parramatta Stadium, it's a multi-purpose venue owned by the government, so I'm sure league fans would understand why we would want to make it feel like a real football stadium if the Wanderers play there," a club spokesman told the Herald. "There's a precedent here. The Brisbane Roar put a Roar jersey on the Wally Lewis statute at Suncorp Stadium for the 'Orange Sunday' grand final [in 2011], so maybe the Ray Price stature with a Wanderers jersey for home games is the right idea."
The Wanderers have officially committed to playing only their opening match, against the Central Coast Mariners, on October 6, but it is no secret the club will play most of its matches at the venue once it finalises negotiations with Parramatta Stadium Trust.
While only two A-League matches have been hosted at the venue, it is a stadium dripping with football history, having hosted seven NSL grand finals, between 1986 and 2004.
The FFA insists the proposal to cover up Price's cast is not about insulting rugby league but about maximising football's visual presence. It has already announced plans to rename the stands and terraces during the summer months.
An official told the Herald last month the FFA felt covering up any traces of rugby league was entirely appropriate. ''With all due respect to the Eels, we plan on making this a football venue when they're not there, and somewhere football people feel at home,'' the official said then. ''We're going to be a major tenant, an equal tenant, and they'll have to understand our desire that when we're playing there, we'll be putting our touch on the venue, even if that means covering up some blue and gold.
''I'm sure they won't have a problem with it and I'm sure the stadium trust will like the idea of the Wanderers doing all they can to attract people to Parramatta Stadium.''
A Wanderers fan club representative, Sean Herrett, said the plans had the backing of supporters.
"The fans really love the idea of making sure the Wanderers' home games are played in an authentic football atmosphere and surrounds," Herrett said "We want to have a say about naming the grandstands and the terraces after legends of Australian football, like Johnny Warren.
"Why shouldn't the Peter Sterling Hill be named after Mark Bosnich if the Wanderers play at Parramatta Stadium? Why wouldn't why we also cover up the Ray Price statue? That's up to the fans and the club to decide, but I don't think anything has been ruled out at this stage.''
Yet the revamped main entry to Allianz Stadium will have a greater rugby league and union theme than ever by the time the A-League season begins. Statues of Trevor Allan, Dally Messenger, Reg Gasnier and Ken Catchpole enjoy prime position in the stadium forecourt, next to the new Rugby League Central headquarters.
None have ever been tampered with by the lone football tenant, Sydney FC.
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/
I wish these bastards all the success of the Fury, GCU and the New Zealand Knightz.
Typical ignorance/arrogance one has come to expect from the Managerial side of all Soccer fraternities.
Oh well, good luck to them. Because they're going to need every ounce they can muster up in one of Australia's Rugby League heartlands..
Yep... obviously they have not learnt from the GCU experiment. They poisoned the well by insulting the Rugby League and Titans fans. We boycotted.
How delecate and fragile does the FFA think their fans are?
I bet Don Bradman's statue won't be covered up when the AFL play at Adelaide Oval...
+1Quote:
Originally Posted by DIEHARD
:mad:
Eels army won't stand for cover-up - Price
THE Western Sydney Wanderers' plan to cover up the statue of rugby league champion Ray Price at Parramatta Stadium has drawn anger from Eels identities, including chairman Roy Spagnolo and Price himself.
''I'm not worried about it affecting my reputation because the fans - the same ones who got that statue for me - will be the same ones who won't let them cover it up,'' Price said. ''The fans will go crazy if they do it. Absolutely crazy.''
Spagnolo declared it an ''insult to all of rugby league''.
As revealed in the Herald yesterday, Football Federation Australia, which owns the new A-League club, is considering an idea to obscure Price's statue as part of its plan to provide a more authentic football atmosphere at the venue.
The Wanderers play their first match at Parramatta Stadium on October 6 against Central Coast Mariners, and are in the final stages of negotiating a deal to play the bulk of their home matches at the venue.
But the idea of airbrushing Price from the venue put Spagnolo offside.
''It's really an insult to a legend, who was not only a legend of Parramatta but the whole league,'' he said. ''I understand that in Queensland that Brisbane Roar put a jersey over Wally Lewis [at last year's A-League grand final], and that's one thing, but to cover it over would be an absolute insult.
''I don't like it, it's an insult to all of rugby league, and I'm sure that that the majority of Parramatta rugby league fans would feel the same way.''
These days, Price lives his life a long way from the glamour of today's rugby league icons, driving buses on the Gold Coast to earn a living despite having enthralled a generation of Eels fans during the 1970s and 1980s.
It's those same supporters he believes will ensure nothing untoward happens to his bronzed likeness.
''They'll be the ones who will be angry, and they won't let it happen. I know they'll be the ones who will protect me,'' he said.
The idea of defacing or covering the statue angered Price, who declared it ''disrespectful to anyone who has a statue in their honour''.
The FFA kept a firm footing in the debate yesterday, saying the discussion was one worth having.
''This is not about Ray Price and it's not about rugby league, this is about showing respect to football and its fans,'' FFA spokesman Kyle Patterson said. ''The Wanderers have community engagement at the core of the club, and the fans have spoken. The reaction of fans today has been overwhelmingly positive about making the Wanderers' home ground an authentic football stadium.
''In doing so, some existing colours and symbols may have to be discreetly covered up, but football people won't be disrespectful in that process.''
However, Price could see a sliver of humour in the matter, wondering if FFA had set a precedent for itself to cover statues at other venues.
''In one sense it's pretty funny - what are they are going to do next? Will they cover up the statues around the SFS and SCG? And what about all those statues at the MCG, like the one of Shane Warne? There's heaps of them there,'' Price said. ''Will they cover them up as well when they play there? It's a bit ridiculous.
Spagnolo questioned whether the Parramatta Stadium Trust would agree with the plan.
''I can see that being a real problem because I can't see the trust ever agreeing to the idea,'' he said.
''I also don't know how the trust would allow [the FFA's other plan] to change the name of the Mick Cronin Stand as well as change the Ray Price statue. That's Parramatta Stadium folklore.''
Meanwhile, Harry Kewell was last night named as Australia's greatest ever footballer at a ceremony in Darling Harbour last night.
Kewell, 33, beat an esteemed field including Mark Viduka, Johnny Warren, Tim Cahill, Mark Schwarzer, Ned Zelic and Ray Baartz.
Also revealed was Australia's greatest ever starting XI, which featured those players as well as Lucas Neill, Joe Marston, Craig Moore and Alan Davidson.
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/
I officially hate the FFA or as I call them Soccer Australia.