Wanderers boss Rudan raises CommBank Stadium concerns

Western Sydney Wanderers head coach Mark Rudan wants the Isuzu UTE A-League club to hold talks with CommBank Stadium management over concerns he has with the venue’s playing surface.

Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Brisbane Roar is one of three home matches for the Wanderers in a week-and-a-half, which includes Wednesday’s meeting with Central Coast Mariners and next week’s visit by Newcastle Jets.

The venue also hosts NRL matches for fellow tenants Parramatta Eels and Wests Tigers, and Rudan says while the stadium itself is first-class, he does have issues with the playing surface.

“It’s such a beautiful stadium but the pitch is not ideal for football,” Rudan told AAP.

“And if we want to be a certain type of team that wants to play a certain brand of football, which I certainly want to be, we need to get together with (management) and speak to them about what that looks like moving forward.

“We are, obviously, a major tenant of that stadium and some things are in our hands and some aren’t, unfortunately.

“I certainly have asked the chairman (Paul Lederer) that we sit down … and find out exactly where we stand being a major tenant as we are and what that looks like for us in terms of the pitch going forward.

“It’s a big one as far as I’m concerned.”

Given its multi-sport status, CommBank Stadium regularly hosts up to three or four fixtures a week across various codes.

This schedule has been maintained despite Sydney’s record-breaking rainfall figures this summer, with more than twice the April monthly average of rainfall in Parramatta in just the first 10 days of the month.

Already more than the annual average rainfall has fallen in Sydney since the start of the year, while several COVID-19 postponements to the A-League Men schedule have added further pressures to ground staff as the competition clears the back-log of games.

A spokesman for the stadium’s management said they would be open to discussing the concerns of Rudan or the Wanderers if requested.

Rudan, who is facing a rebuild of the Wanderers after his appointment in the wake of Carl Robinson’s sacking in January, said the pitch’s status will have a big say in his recruitment heading into the next campaign.

“It’s such a beautiful, spectacular stadium and our game is different to the other codes that play there,” he said.

“We need the ball to be on the ground as much as possible. So it means the pitch has to be right for the players and what it feels like them under foot as well.

“We’re very proud of having a stadium like that but it makes no sense if we aren’t allowed to provide a certain brand of spectacle for the fans as well, which is so important.

“There’s no point putting together a certain team if the pitch isn’t going to allow us to play that brand of football.”