Good analysis, thanks for that. Similar situation with the Rabbitohs in the NRL making more money out of ANZ stadium home games, makes sense. Hopefully our crowds build again this year so that we're regularly exceeding capacity at Ballymore and it's all a moot point. Bring on the season
Reds average crowd last year was about 14,500*, not including the final, with crowds against the Brumbies, Crusaders and Auckland I think exceeding that. You wouldn't have been able to fit 14,500 into the old Ballymore - Northern Stand was condemned and McLean Stand could only seat about 3000 - and you certainly couldn't put the 20,000 who showed up for the Brumbies home game in there let alone the final. (Actually the McLean Stand could only hold 3000 back in the late 90s - the work the old QRU did on it then - press boxes/corporate boxes - stuffed up the fire exits and legally it could only hold about 1700...).
So with those crowds you'd end up having to take matches back to Suncorp anyway on a regular basis. Now think about whether the stadium would want to give the Reds the same deal for two or three one-off matches that they do for 7-8 regular matches. So - you'd end up paying more for those one-offs that didn't fit into Ballymore. Sure, you'd still make more money from those one-offs than you would have at Ballymore, but you'd be making less money than you should be had you just done a deal for all the games.
Doesn't mean you can't go the other way of having the odd one-off match at Ballymore, or even non-Super Rugby rep matches (ie, Reds v touring internationals/touring clubs).
The whole "Reds back to Ballymore" nonsense was being put around by a couple of disgruntled old guard types (led by the former chairman) who want to shrink to greatness. The same people who tried the pretty disgraceful - and cowardly - tactic of putting in a heritage application to stop the demolition of the old McLean Stand. The reason Ballymore got in the state it did was because of the neglect of these people...
* Perhaps we should say: "Reds average crowd was 14,500 and they were all able to get a beer...".