Record crowd for NRL Raiders, Dolphins game puts Wagga City Council's traffic plan under review

There were 10,445 people in the crowd to watch the Raiders defeat the Dolphins on Saturday, the biggest crowd the game has attracted in Wagga.

Following a similar traffic management plan to previous years, Wagga City Council closed Kooringal Road between Copland and Parson Street, and Copland between Hiscock Drive and Lockyer Street.

The closures resulted in long delays for fans to arrive at the field and meant traffic was almost at a standstill when the game finished, including for netball players also competing in the complex.

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Wagga Netball Association president Tanya Bertoldi said the gridlock traffic did not dissipate until about 6.30pm.

"We had people sitting in cars and waiting to get out after the last round... we could see traffic lined up along Kooringal Road for quite some time," she said.

"It took people longer to get in but I think a lot of clubs were warning people to carpool and allow extra time."

Council's recreation and economic development manager Ben Creighton said they would review the traffic management plan given the large crowd.

He said shuttle buses had been used previously, but were not used.

"Large scale sporting events will always have an impact on traffic and parking in the surrounding areas," he said.

"Staff will review the traffic management plan for future games in line with the increase in attendance that occurred this year."

There was no public transport available to help transport fans into the town centre following the game, but Mr Creighton said they had trialled shuttle buses at a previous game.

"The provision of buses was trialled at the previous NRL game in 2019 with very little uptake and subsequently have not continued," he said.

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