PANTHERS is on the move, with big dreams for the future - redeveloping a whole block in downtown Newcastle, surrounding Wallacia Golf Club with residential development, throwing $20 million at a major renovation of the original "world of entertainment" at Penrith.

And then there's the football club. Wooden spooners last year, battlers this year, the Penrith Panthers have the smallest crowds of any Sydney club. To complicate matters, five senior players are out the door when the final whistle blows tonight - Tony Puletua, Luke Priddis, Luke Rooney, Rhys Wesser and Shane Rodney - and the game-day marketing budget is to be slashed for next season.

All is not well at the foot of the mountains, a region dominated by rugby league to the exclusion of all else. Penrith, in contrast to virtually every other Sydney club, is free of competition. The closest A-League match is 60 kilometres away, an occasional AFL match is played 45km away, rugby has no elite presence in the area and the nearest NRL rival, Parramatta, is 35km away.

Yet, despite all these advantages - and more than 8000 juniors on the books, the biggest base of any NRL club - the Panthers' average crowd this year is only 11,337. A final hit-out tonight, against a Manly side playing for the minor premiership, is unlikely to improve on that.

Panthers deputy chairman Don Feltis watched the side's first game in the big league in 1967. He goes back further than that, however, having helped dig the foundations for the original Station Street club which opened in 1956. And he's not happy.

"We've got nine internationals in our football side and there's other teams in Sydney that have only got one or two and they're outstripping us. To say we [the Panthers board] are disappointed in the performance of our team is an understatement. I am very disappointed," he stated.

"We had great expectations when [coach] Matthew Elliott came here two years ago, and here we are. The first year we came last, and this year we look like coming second last. It's completely unacceptable to us."

In fact, the Panthers are a bump or two off the bottom with the Bulldogs, Cowboys and Rabbitohs all guaranteed to finish below them this year. But 12th or 13th place doesn't cut it for a board accustomed to success and still kicking $4 million a year into the football team.

Budget cuts, in the order of $500,000, are coming. This year the Panthers had budgeted on crowds of 14,000 - a strong showing might have pulled them up to 17,000. Instead of being a profitable advertisement for the Panthers brand, the NRL side is draining the budget.

"We see the success of the rugby league teams as critical to helping the trading of the club, and it's not helping much at the moment, to be honest," Feltis said.

With the NSW economy grinding down through the gears, Feltis believes rugby league needs to review its pricing. Apart from the team's poor results, Feltis says cost is a major factor.

"We've got these marketing managers all over the NRL, and when we mention they should make rugby league a bit cheaper for the people, they accuse us of cheapening the product," he argued.

Panthers stalwart Luke Lewis agreed. "I talk to a couple of mates who go and watch, and they say how expensive it is. It's ridiculous. Even just to buy a drink and a pie is $11," he said.

Grandstand seating can cost as much as $32 but general admission tickets for a family can be bought for $40, which is significantly cheaper than taking a family to watch a movie.

Marketing manager Max Cowan doesn't buy the cost argument. Form is the main problem, he suggested, noting the Panthers entered the season as wooden spooners, got "whacked pretty badly" in Brisbane in round one [48-12] and then, at home on a rainy Easter Sunday, were beaten by Canberra.

Cowan argues that game-day attendance, per head of population in the area, actually puts the Panthers streets ahead of Parramatta. A team playing well enough for the public to attend games with some optimism could draw 17,000, he says.

Is that team hiding in the uniform of chocolate soldiers, just waiting to be unwrapped like the premiership sides of 1991 and 2003? The man most in the firing line is Elliott, who came from Canberra before the start of the 2007 season with big wraps - and big plans for the future. He still has the plans, although the wraps look a bit like a family home on Boxing Day.

"I'm keen to stay there for the next 10 years," said the coach, whose contract runs out at the end of next year.

Elliott puts his hand up to accept responsibility for the poor attendances at Penrith this year and is still talking the vision thing.

"I understand where we're at and I understand how we got to where we're at. It's just I'd prefer not to be here," he said. "The underperformance of Penrith is not confined to my tenure. This is the fourth year we've missed the semis, and I want to make it the fourth and final."