NRL & AFL - crowds & media cov...

[imported_EskimoRichy]

The NRL is at the moment attracting some big crowds, certainly for Aussie Rugby Legaue, and Rugby League is all over the media but the AFL still rags the NRL in terms of attendance's, why?

I mean Rugby League is the most popular sport in NSW and QLD, and those states are the most populated (from what I was told and read), so why can AFL clubs attract over 60,000 anyday while even the Broncos struggle t get 25,000 and the Lions' of AFL get more than the Broncos.

I am dying to see RL beat all other sports but if RL is really that popular then why does Rugby Union get bigger crowds for the Wallabies' (even the Socceroos' and Cricket national team)than the Kangaroos'? why does the AFL rag the NRL for crowds?

RL gets the biggest TV viewing figures than any other sport on an average and probably more paper and media coverage overall but, the crowds don;t turn up, and if they do, they don;t turn up often enough, so how can it be classed as like the most popular sport in NSW and QLD by a mile?

I just don't get Australian fans? I really don't, I mean the Souths' got 36,000 against St George-Illa for the Charity Sheild, drew it, then got 35,000 for opening NRL game but got thrashed, then took heaps to Canberra and won, 17,000 fans attended the game, then, with high expectations after ragging Raiders, well, beating the Raiders, they face up against the Northern Eagles, expected to win on home soil, and do so, in style I must say - 44-20 but only 15,000 turns up, what's going on there?

Oh, and can anybody please post waht they think about all this in reply to my post and, what the average gates is for each NRL and AFL, ohand even E Super League and the over league crowds average?

cheers,
rj.

 

[Tutt Army]

AFL Crowds round 1

Richmond VCollingwood - 65,350 MCG
St Kilda V Carlton- 33,359 Colonial
Essendon V Geelong- 42,740 MCG
Kangaroos V Port Adelaide- 28,578 Football Park
Sydney V Brisbane- 24,052 SCG
Adelaide V Western Bulldogs- 18,475 Colonial
West Coast V Fremantle- 39,461 Subiaco Oval
Hawthorn V Melbourne- to be played today

Total so far- 252,015
Average so far-36,002

NRL Round 1

South Sydney V Sydney- 35,316 SFS
Bulldogs V Wests Tigers- 9918 Homebush
Northern Eagles V Newcastle- 8082 North Power
North Queensland V Brisbane- 24, 212 Dairy Farmers
Melbourne V Canberra- 12,044 Olympic Park
Parramatta V Penrith- 13,348 Parramatta
St George Illawarra V Sharks 12,470 SFS

Total: 115 390
Average: 16 484

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

Tutt,thanks for that. I was trying to research it earlier, are the AFL rd1 crowds down on last year? Just glancing at them, some of the numbers seem a little low...

24,000 at the SCG yesterday was disgraceful, given Pluggers come back playing against the AFL premiers....

Moffo.

 

[imported_Hazy]

Here's my thoughts on AFL V NRL crowds....

Rugby League is better (easier) to watch on TV, 90% of the action is around the ball, we'll leave ten percent for fisticuffs etc off the ball, positioning of backline's etc.

AFL has a lot of action off the ball eg Lockett V Silvagni for the entire game, not just when the ball is near them, so this would be better viewed at the game.

Sydney and Brisbane are a little more tropical and have better beaches closer to the city(s) than Melbourne does, so an average day in a Melbourne winter is always 'rug-up' weather, while the beach is still an option in the other two cities.

And with Super12 - there is only the one team to support- and then they only have 5 or 6 home games. If you miss a St George (for example) home game, you can always catch them next week 'away' probably at the same stadium.

 

[AlbertRosenfeld]

Why is AFL out scoring the NRL in crowd attendances?

One hypothesis: Melbourne residents are much bigger sports attenders than Sydney people.
Some evidence can be seen in cricket, a sport common to both cities, where Tests with touring teams always get substantially bigger crowds in Melbourne than in Sydney.

But I don't know if this explains the poor crowds in Brisbane for the NRL in recent years. We have to realise tthat there has been a huge collapse of Brisbane Broncos attendances since the early 1990s, whenBroncos were drawing huge crowds in excess of 50,000 for major clashes.

This is a very interesting question that deserves serious research. I wish the NRL would do themselves a favor and hire some top sociologists in Australia to research the question. The answers could be the basis for NRL boosting its attendances in the future.

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

Albert, if i may, suggest a couple of things.

People get tired of success. The Broncos have been a semi-finals team since 1988. As MM pointed out, this would get boring. Each team needs to go through the lean times to appreciate the good times. It was evidenced in 1999 when the Broncos hit a major bad patch, and the crowds dropped off (including one crowd of under 10,000 against the Panthers). However, they stormed back late into the top 8 that year and pulled amazing crowds of 45,000 against Parramatta and a similar number against the Bulldogs.

Theory two - ANZ Stadium. Its a shocking venue, no atmosphere and no fun. The Broncos move back to Lang Park in 2003, and everyone is hoping that this will at least add 5000 at the gate to the crowds of the Broncos. While not being an expert on Brisbane and its geography, im also thinking that ANZ is a fair distance from the actual city and transport is a bit of a hassle.

If Theory 2 doesnt play out next year, well then, perhaps its time to institute a draft to bring in some form of 'level playing' field to ensure that ALL teams go through good and bad patches, and therefore keep up the interest of the fan.

Moffo.

 

[meltiger]

No Moff,

As I told you in t he lead up to the start of Round 1.

No one gave a shit about the so-called 'Off field dramas', no matter how much you'd love topp delude yourself into believing it will.......

(BTW - The Lappin incident - The other bloke ended up being charged with assaulting Lappin after the video footage was reviewed, not the other way around)

Crowds for
Round 1 2001 - 285,558
Round 1 2002 - 296,389

& after the First game of Round 2, Richmond V Essendon, with 75,000 min expected... Rugby League will already be three games behind.

 

[legend]

I think if the NRL can consistently start cracking the 100k mark they have something to work with. This weekend sees some potential big crowds.

Souths v Bulldogs 30k
Newcastle v Canberra 25k
Brisbane v Sharks 25k
Parra v Storm 16k
Cowboys v Warriors 18k (new coach, new beginning).
Panthers v Tigers 15 k.
Eagles v Roosters ??????????????

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

Mel - thats surprising, the crowds didn't look that strong, but i guess the 3 MCG games and the Colonial game bumped the crowds up. The 24,000 at the SCG had to be a dissapointment. Either way, good luck to them, they have done well...

Its quite unique the fascination that Southerners have for AFL. They wouldn't let anything get in the way of supporting their team. While i admire this from a fans perspective, its a reflection of the differences between Sydney and the Southern Capitals. Sydney seems to havea more 'diversified' sports base whereas the Southern Capitals have been raised on a diet of AFLand nothing else. Once again, its just a hypothetical, but it would be interesting to see what would happen if the Sydney market was transferred into Melbourne (ie: Quite fair and even coverage between the 3 footy codes). I know, this will never happen, but still, it would be interesting to see what impact it would have. Do the Mexicans know that AFL is not the only sport in the world?? hehehehehehe....

Moffo.

 

[legend]

The NRL needs to promote mid season blockbusters like Parra v Dogs and move them to Stadium Oz just as the AFL are doing with the Swans big matches. At the end of the day it doesnt matter how you get bums on seats, so long as they come to the game.

My idea would be Parra v Dogs and Saints v Souths at Stadium Oz. Guaranteed 80k. Once they can start thinking along those lines, then some real progress can be made.

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

Legend, if there are 15k @ Panthers/Tigers on Sunday I will kiss a frog

Souths/Dogs could realistically draw a sellout 40k (But the members will never show up in those numbers)

Cheers,
Moffo.

 

[meltiger]

"Sydney seems to havea more 'diversified' sports base whereas the Southern Capitals have been raised on a diet of AFLand nothing else. "

No,

Sydney has always had Rugby League, a game tradiotnally for the working class & Rugby Union, a game tradtionallfor the toffs.

Melbourne has had Australian Rules Football, a game supported by all.

That is the difference.

 

[meltiger]

As for Sth Melbourne, i couldn't care less what they draw. lol

The smaller their crowds the better for Rugby League

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

No.

Sydney gets heaps of AFL games pumped in on the TV and this has been the case for a while. They also get reasonable media coverage (something RL in Melbourne doesn't get) and even get some radio coverage. AFL has hadit a lot easier in Sydney then RL has it in Melbourne. To suggest anything else would be dillusional...

Are you saying that Sydney doesn't have a more diversified sporting base??? Say it aint so Sam lol

As for the Swans, bugger em hehe

Moffo.

 

[meltiger]

Melbourne got 48 pages of sport in the Herald Sun sport sectionyesterday. Plus what was scattered throughout the main pages of the paper.

What did the Tele provide Sydney sports fans with ?

 

[meltiger]

& Sydneyhas had an AFL team since 1982, Melbourne a Rugby League team since 1998.

There is a comparitive difference there in regards to how accepted both teams are that you consistently ignore.

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

Thats irrelevant and you know it...How much of it was AFL?? What 70%+??

Tell me how many pages/articles league and union got in the herald sun??. The telegraph?? Im not sure, maybe 20 pages, but the point is that its diversified, not focusing directly on one sport. I think you are missing my point here...

Cheers,
Moffo.

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

True, that is a good point. But League was played in Melbourne long before the Storm arrived.

Moffo.

 

[meltiger]

Storm got effectively a full page, with short write ups at the bottom, not much I know but better than in the past.

Union was shown the respect it deserves and recieved a tiny section underneath Racing I think it was lol

We could argue this media thing all day Moff,

Have you ever sat down and thought though, that given Newspapers survive on Advertising dollars, that the reason the AFL gets blanket coverage in Melbourne and nothing else does is because the market is there solely for the AFL ?

Now you can sit there and whinge about diversification all you in making excuses for why Sydney siders would rather sit at home watching their the game on television while their arse grow,

On a general scale, Melbourneites get out and support their sport much more than Sydneysiders do. It's just that the AFL is vastly dominant due to the sheer number of people who are visible supporters of the game.

The only value the press sees that they can get out of Rugby League in Sydney is through scandals. & you can thank your own club for being a huge part of why the game is now anmswerable to the kind of crap that the Tele comes up with on the game.

After all that, yesterdays sport section in the Herald Suncovered more sport than I have seen the Tele cover in the last four Mondays combined. the only thing they generally don't cover is water sports which is more just a reflection on climate than anything else.

 

[meltiger]

"True, that is a good point. But League was played in Melbourne long before the Storm arrived."

Quote from Richmond's debutantin last Thursdays game...David Rodan late last week (For the record Moff, he is Fijian born and moved here around 5 I think)

"I have to admit it is really strange, all my family are Rugby people and know nothing about Aussie Rules but they are all asking about the rules and so forth, when we originally moved out here, Dad wanted me to play Rugby, however when we looked around for a club, the council basically didn't have anything organised so I decided to play footy for the local club"

League has had as much (or as little) grassroots appeal in Victoria as Union has over the years.

No one played it bar ex-pats, and evidenced by the rodan family, even ex-pats at times struggled to find teams to play for.