Just for a year and owners making noise trying to lobby for a new option in the future?

The kings played out of there early in their existence and there is literally nowhere else they could go. Good to see they'll be going to moore park next to the SCG after that where the currently dormant NBL office is. At least you can get food n drinks before and afterwards.

Wouldn't it be nice if they could "do a Perth" and move into Allphones and draw 17,000+ crowds every home game.

I guess the State Sports Centre (which actually seats 5,006....god knows where they are getting 4k from) is a much cheaper alternative.

Silly question, why can't the Kings play out of The Dome at Homebush? It has hosted basketball in the past with the Group matches at the 2000 Olympics and can comfortably seat 10,000.

You'd imagine they could play some marquee games there if the effort was put in. I think the dual stadium option is a good one.

Nobody wants to go to Olympic Park, the location sucks

I'm confused, I thought the Sydney Super Dome WAS "Allphones Arena"

And yes, why can't they schedule yheir "big" games in the bigger venue?

I don' know the layout of Sydney at all, but if fans dislike the Homebush location, I can understand that.

Challenge stadium was the pits for access, and public transport non-existent.

Hope it's only for one season. Any longer could well be fatal IMO.

Lousy venue in a terrible location but as the article says, there are no real alternatives.

The Dome can only seat 7,000 and does not have fixed seating so stands plus the floor would need to be moved in/out for every game. The 3D tour on this site shows the venue:
http://www.sydneyshowground.com.au/venues/dome.html

Allphones Arena (Superdome) is a much better venue but too expensive.

Of course both are also in the wilderness that is Olympic Park.

The stadium holds 5,000 and is a lot cheaper than Allphones Arena. If the Kings could sell 10k to every game than they could play there, but they can't.

The Kings played out of the much bigger stadium in the past before their demise and even with a decent amount turning up, it still looked half empty... Really poor atmosphere...

A shame that the Dome isn't fixed seating, as that number would be perfect, even out in the wilderness...

Is the discrepancy with numbers actual seating versus seating + standing around the top? I actually like it for atmosphere, but the quality of the seating themselves is quite crap, the location is terrible, even further away from what very little food/entertainment is actually out there, and will be an especially huge pain in the butt to get there for weeknight games...

But there's no alternative, unfortunately... Just have to work even harder to get people to games and make it worthwhile... There's probably lots of ideas that are workable if they put their thinking caps on...

What is going to change in a season? No other stadiums are being built, are they? It's already been stated that the Kings will not be using the auditorium that is being built in the current stadiums place as it is not suitable, what other alternatives are there? Fixing the seating in the Dome, or throwing away money playing to a less than half full Allphones?

I love all this doom and gloom without any comments at to viable alternatives...

Well they are all past half way to 8,000 haha.

Next you'll be questioning the veracity of the published figures.

and where is problem. kings get less than 5k nowadays once you take out the freebies. no problem

superdome won't work as they are a lazy organisation "if the effort was put in" LOL love the comment as sadly the last effort anyone put in was Goorjian and if purely management side Wrublewski

only way it happens is if Tim Hudson asks daddy for the superdome for christmas

the corporates wont follow out there so it will die a slow death.

Bums on seats are all good and well but the corporates/sponsors are the key to the excess revenue to keeping it heading onwards and upwards

Anon #145 then play in the superdome. no? ok maybe go retro to Alexandria? you like? thought so, be grateful homebush is there.

or stay in the CBD and get creative, maybe the council will let them play outdoors on Pitt Street Mall, streetball yo

Had to laugh at this story. Would like to point out a few things:

1. The King's first home was at the State Sports Centre at Homebush in 1988.
2. The Kings came from an amalgamation of a "Sydney" and "Western Sydney" club - they don't just have Sydney roots.
3. The State Sports Centre is no longer in the middle of nowhere like it was in the '80s - so don't make out like its the end of the earth when previously you had to catch a train to Strathfield and a taxi to the stadium and there was NOTHING else there.
4. There are a considerable number of long time western Sydney supporters of the team who have travelled to Sydney to attend games since they first moved to the Entertainment Centre.
5. Those crowd attendances are totally inflated. I have been to every home game this year, and they are kidding themselves. Not only that a large number of the tickets are freebies anyway so that doesn't bring in any revenue.
6. There are no other viable options so quite the complaining, its the SSC or nothing.
7. The management need to get off their butts, get the brand known to people OTHER than those who already follow them on Facebook, get their faces out in public ie. shopping centres, not just exclusive schools and basketball stadiums. no point in "marketing to the converted" and posting something on FB 10 minutes before hand. Realise that attending a game can be a good 6 hours out of someone's day so make it worth the effort - don't treat everyone like first time attendees - game day is tired and boring for those regulars and don't pump up that changes will be made because there has not been a single change in years. Obviously the end of year "fan surveys" count for nothing.
8. We don't all instantly fall under management's "spell", some of us DO know the game, and can see past the BS propaganda they try to sell.
So - have the Kings made progress in the past few years???? Maybe its time to go back to the beginning start afresh and learn a few things.

Of course they have Sydney roots. The Sydney Supersonics merged with the West Sydney Weststars in 1988. The important bit being SYDNEY SUPERSONICS. To suggest that there never was a Sydney is ludicrous.
Homebush is still in the middle of nowhere.
Most supporters of the NBL in the west hate the KINGS.
All home attendances are generally inflated. Nothing new.
By the way Homebush is still in the middle of no where. Nothing in the precinct at all.

Agree that it's still out in the middle of nowhere, and unlike people coming from outside the CBD, it's harder for others to get there via public transport instead of a single bus or train into the city and one back out.

I actually think the stadium itself has good atmosphere, but the problems that it's old seating (and STILL have the numbers going from outside in, not like 1-20 like a normal stadium and no matter how much you explain to ticketek people, they tell you that "yes, Seat #1 IS on the aisle, when it isn't) and from memory no actual corporate box seating and facilities like at QCUA, so it's less "special" for corporate sponsors, so you're not going to be able to charge as much and there's less to sell...

I DO agree however that it requires some serious work from the management... It SHOULD be easier with one of Bankstowns favourite basketball sons on the team, even Brandt has Western Sydney roots... It still won't be easy overall, but hopefully being able to pull in more Western Sydney fans should be a bit easier with Cadee and Brandt on the team to be able to market to them...

It won't put me off attending games, it will just make it harder and I hope the Kings management understand this and treat their members and fans accordingly, not just take the attitude of "well, we're the only team in town, deal with it!" like the Spirit did initially...

Nothing at Homebush eh? I suppose the thousands of events out there don't happen, same as all those footy games, netball games with the Swifts and all the other sports like Hockey and Soccer and Cricket and AFL and archery and swimming don't happen either. I suppose tomorrow's sell out at ANZ for the Asian cup final didn't happen either.

For god sake the place has a train line, dedicated buses and thousands of car spaces that are a heck of a lot cheaper than anything we had in the city.

It's also got a range of food places, maybe not five stars but there's a range of take-aways, cafe's, coffee shops and grills clustered around the hotels and the railway station. It's not Cockle Bay, but the prices aren't either.

Maybe a few opinionated eastern-suburbs fanboys need to get their collective head out of their asses and realise that Sydney doesn't stop at Glebe.

The Kings need to realise that Sydney's west is the largest part of the city and try competing with the Giants and the NRL for the hearts and minds of the fans, instead they concentrate on their local eastern suburb followers and forget the rest.

If you don't like it there's always another answer, stop playing for a year, that should make all those who don't want to go out to Olympic Park happy.

The Sports Center is the only place available that fits, as several posters have already pointed out. Suck it up for the good of the club.

Talk about whining gits...

The Watcher are to talking about Allphones arena? I'm not from Sydney.

Allphones Arena is one of the major venues at Sydney Olympic Park. It's up to a 14-15,000 seat indoor venue, normally used for major concerts and such.

Basically too big and probably too expensive for the Kings.

The State Sports Center is a smaller indoor arena, also located within Olympic Park. It seats about 4500 and gets a lot of use by the NSW Swifts netball team for their smaller home games. For their biggest games, where they get 10-12,000 people they hire Allphones Arena.

Olympic Park was built to house the 2000 Olympics and is home to ANZ Stadium (86,000 seats), Allphones Arena (previously known as Sydney Superdome) and Sydney Showground (sit of the Royal Easter Show and incorporating the Dome, a round space used for dance parties, conventions and exhibitions, it can be set up with temporary seating for games and would hold about 7,000, but like much of the Showground is in very heavy usage for exhibitions and trade shows like the motor show, mining expo and the good food and wine show).

The rest of Olympic Park is home to the Aquatic center, Hockey center, Archery center, Athletic center, Tennis center, the previously mentioned Sports center and increasing amounts of offices and high rise apartments.

A lot of it is parks and gardens, and it's served by a dedicated train line, bus links, a ferry wharf and has about 12,000 car parking spaces.

Probably the thing most people don't like about it is that's it is located right in the center of Sydney, geographically speaking, which means people in the east near the CBD don't like travelling there because they see it as too far away, the same as people in the west, the north or the south of Sydney (urban sprawl for the winz)

It's a pretty good facility, lots of venues and stuff all in one place, but for a lot of people they don't want to change their routine and the Kings relocating to Olympic park at Homebush is just that, hence the wailing and gnashing of teeth.

in the end it's not like the Kings have a choice and any real fans going to have to suck it up.

Those east suburbs flogs are the ones with the cash....!

NO ones gonna kick on out there. That's the point.

There are a bunch of cafes, hotels and pubs there for people wanting to 'kick on' after a game, but I agree with Nobody, the distance to the outer suburbs from Olympic Park means it's a bit harder to get tanked then get home, especially given the cost of Sydney cabs.

Latest here.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/ace-new-arena-to-put-nsw-tennis-back-on-the-map/story-fni0cx12-1227201459780
Sounds exciting if it gets off the ground.

Cheers The Watcher, I thought the swifts played a few games in Allphones, also I can't believe a city the size/population of Sydney can't get basketball played in Allophones. It's such a great basketball stadium which was actually partially designed for basketball reasons!

Happy to see the entries made by KBaller and The Watcher, finally a few people with a clue. When you are on the street you take what is available. You don't cry and remain homeless because you once were in a mansion.

So netball for select games attract crowds of 10-12K in Sydney? Wow as a basketball fan in Sydney FML!

So what are you really agreeing with Imasuck?
This bit? "but I agree with Nobody, the distance to the outer suburbs from Olympic Park means it's a bit harder to get tanked then get home, especially given the cost of Sydney cabs."

lol... I love the indignation of Westies as much as the pompousness of the Eastern Suburb people...

Yes, it's better than not having a team playing anywhere, that's true. Yes, there are plenty of other events on that are successful, but do you think that they will run special even trains all day like they do for NRL & AFL and Socceroos games? that's slightly better (just) but do you think that they will run them? Getting out to Olympic Park on the normal schedule is a pain in the butt, and could take up to three trains for people from other locations in the city.

For those that aren't familiar with Olympic Park, check out google maps (https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Sydney+Olympic+Park+Sports+Centre/@-33.8501143,151.0684738,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x6b12a4b69860ebfb:0x7ecb9f0b3d02b232) - the SSC is in the arse end of the precinct as far away from everything as possible.

I agree that the Kings management need to put their focus into spreading more into the Western Suburbs, but don't go pretending that moving out there is a step down from the overall experience that is available to fans when the team is based in the city.

^ obviously me above

Wookiee maybe if there were more fans like you and I the club and its crowds would be healthy. Standard Sydney sports "fans" attitude sadly :(

I live in the greater west & would much rather drive or catch a train into the city than Homebush for games. The argument that Homebush is better for those in the west is a nonsense.

The point is moot however since the SSC is currently the only option.

lol... good old Anons, need to brush up on their sarcasm...

Yet another anon.

Smaller venue better atmosphere??
I've been to many games at the SEC and with the small crouds there it has no atmosphere.

Perhaps with a smaller venue, the stadium would feel more crowded and give more of a home court advantage?

Btw. What about the new venue they're building now at darling harbour? Isn't that for the kings as well?

Not at this stage.

History would seem to indicate that there is not enough support for BBL in the Western Suburbs, as very attempt to plant a team there has failed.
And why would the Kings want to waste money building support in the area, when such support will only lead to yet another call for a dedicated Westie team.

Every time you say "BBL", it takes me several seconds to realise you don't mean "Big Bash League".

How hard is it to type "basketball"?

I think the Kings are pinning their hopes on the proposed new Tennis Arena:

"The proposed stadium would become the joint home of Tennis NSW and NBL franchise the Sydney Kings, ­enabling Sydney to better compete with state-of-the-art sporting facilities in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne.

The Baird government is understood to be exploring a number of sites, including the ­remodelled Darling Harbour precinct and Moore Park."

Interesting they don't include Perth Arena in their list of "state-of-the-art sporting facilities"???

What's state of the art in Adelaide?