Would the Parramatta Eels ever travel to Hornsby to play home games? Ever considered the Penrith Panthers playing out of Cabramatta for an entire season? Or maybe the St. George-Illawarra Dragons utilising the Gold Coast for their hometown advantage? Of course not, so why do we travel to Homebush to watch the Canterbury Bulldogs? Although the club dropped “Canterbury-Bankstown” from its name several years ago, it had never dropped the spirit behind it until now but to purists we will always be known as 'Canterbury'.

Management's decision to play at Telstra Stadium, instead of our traditional home ground at Belmore, is a loss for all Bulldogs supporters. Especially when executives are calling the Homebush venue “OUR” home ground, one we share with the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Wests Tigers, who also call it their home ground too. Come to think of it, the Sydney Swans call it home, so do the Socceroos and the NSW Origin side, and yes, even our beloved Wallabies play their test matches at Telstra Stadium as well. You'd feel a little sorry for the neutral supporters living in Homebush, who would be struggling to keep up with the changes in face paint for all the home games played. Let's hope for their sake the ground isn't double booked.

More to the point, the Bulldogs relocation back to their spiritual kennel is vital. As Back to Belmore President, I am fully committed to overseeing the preservation and restoration of Belmore Sports Ground. An upgrade would help the Bulldogs maintain a venue that would serve the needs of the community for many years to come. It would provide supporters and players with a level of comfort and convenience expected by the NRL, and give the community a modern asset it so desperately needs.

Back to Belmore's call for government funding is fully justified by the fact four other NRL clubs were given grants for stadium upgrades. Venues including Oki Jubilee Stadium [St. George-Illawarra Dragons], Toyota Park [Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks], Brookvale Oval [Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles] and CUA Stadium [Penrith Panthers] received over $25 million in total improvement costs. Needless to say the Canterbury Bulldogs should be given the same consideration as Belmore Sports Ground is just as worthy of an upgrade.

The Bulldogs' drive to leave Belmore and the local area entirely at the end of 2007 offers supporters many opportunities for growth and prosperity but also brings in its wake potential threats and uncertainties. None more so to it's illustrious history and tradition. The Bulldogs are an integral part of rugby league in Australia, and the mighty blue and whites are steeped in history and tradition. However, the decision to move from Belmore and becoming the geographically indistinct “Bulldogs” and worse still the “Mitsubishi Electric Bulldogs” is simply wrong, undermining and in some cases threatening to obliterate the Bulldogs' proud history and tradition.

The football club should not be willing to compromise on the needs of the local community. Belmore Sports Ground is a treasured part of the Canterbury-Bankstown community which has provided many memories for Bulldogs fans. The community spirit grows when you cheer for your local team at their home ground. There are strong financial advantages attached to having the Bulldogs return to Belmore.

In the Bulldogs 2005 Annual Report [Page 8], Bulldogs Chairman Dr George Peponis, whom I respect and admire enormously, highlighted the “significant financial windfall” and “increased commercial opportunities” as the main reasons for playing at Telstra Stadium. What about the “significant black hole” and “increased commercial losses” felt by local businesses who used to profit from home games played at Belmore Sports Ground? What about the “significant financial windfall” and “increased commercial opportunities” that an upgraded Belmore Sports Ground would provide to the local area that has made the Bulldogs who they are over the past 70 years?

Since the team's departure from Belmore in 1998, local shop owners have seen their most rapid decline in business, losing profits usually gained from match day fixtures. The easy walk from Belmore railway station to the stadium would have fans from out of town meddling in local shops just before kick-off. If the Bulldogs were to return, local shops, restaurants, cafés and eateries in the heart of Belmore on the strip (Burwood Road) would regain once lost business, which in turn would also help local youth employment, particularly during weekends. In the long-term, it would provide a vital economic benefit and source of income for the football club and local community. Belmore would have a much more enhanced image, which means more advertising, more money, more media attention and most importantly, more business.

Furthermore, the “increased commercial opportunities” mantra pointed out by Dr Peponis can be realised at Belmore Sports Ground. For example, assuming the average price for tickets were $25, a crowd of 17,000 at BSG could earn the Bulldogs over $400,000 in gate-takings revenue with the football club entitled to 100 per cent of that. Include TV deals, sponsorship and advertising and that lump sum figure jumps even further.

The bottom line is, the football club should get right behind the Back to Belmore campaign. The absurd idea that upgrading Belmore Sports Ground even for a select number of Bulldogs home games “would not be financially viable”, is evidently no longer an airtight argument - it is spucatum tauri.