The hardest sells

[East Coast Tiger]

Now that all fixtures are settled we can analyse the games more closely terms of venues, teams and times.

Among them are some pretty tough sells.

I reckon Fiji v Italy in Canberra on a Friday night will be one and the France v Lebanon game too, although that's a Sunday. They got 9200 to the France v Scotland game in Canberra in 2008 and that was the only one there.

The Melbourne quarter final will still be arguably the toughest though, even if England play.

The rest of the games involving teams with little support are mostly double headers.

 

[Burns]

Besides those matches, the ones in Cairns and Darwin I worry about immensely. The NRL games only drew what, 7,000 odd? Anything near the 5,000 mark would be embarrassing.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

At least the Darwin game will include Australia. Even so, I've read the ground there only holds 6k so if an NRL game got 7k, maybe that is as much as can be expected.

The stand alone Cairns game won't get to five figures and the double header probably won't either. But whether they're closer to 5k than 10k is hard to say. I don't think 8k in Cairns would be a bad crowd for the size of the place, but that's precisely why playing three games there is so f**king stupid.

 

[The Great Dane]

Now that all fixtures are settled we can analyse the games more closely terms of venues, teams and times.

Among them are some pretty tough sells.

I reckon Fiji v Italy in Canberra on a Friday night will be one and the France v Lebanon game too, although that's a Sunday. They got 9200 to the France v Scotland game in Canberra in 2008 and that was the only one there.

The Melbourne quarter final will still be arguably the toughest though, even if England play.

The rest of the games involving teams with little support are mostly double headers.

The thing about the France vs Scotland game was that there was no advertising for the game what so ever, so unless you were a hardcore RL fan who kept up to date on things you most likely didn't know it was happening until a couple days before the game.

Provided that there's good promotion for the games Canberra should show up in pretty good numbers, in numbers similar to those we got to the Asian cup I'd imagine. Book Italy vs Fiji as Campos' fair well game and you'll get a great showing of Raiders fans there just for Campo (provided he's fit, which is always a gamble).

BTW, we normally get pretty good numbers (by Raiders standards) for Friday night games so I wouldn't be to worried about that.

The ones I'd be most worried about would be the games in Sydney, considering population, being the supposed "heartland", and that they're only getting two games, you'd want crowds of 30+ thousand for England vs Lebanon and a sell out for the Roos game, but I'd bet anything that they'll only get 15 or so thousand for Eng vs lebanese and under 30 for the Roos game.

 

[morningstar]

Darwin seems to be doing well from early ticket sales. 3 bays in the grandstand down to single tickets already.

Still got no idea what the official capacity of the place is apart from 12k speculator on wikipedia.

 

[adamkungl]

The ones I'd be most worried about would be the games in Sydney, considering population, being the supposed "heartland", and that they're only getting two games, you'd want crowds of 30+ thousand for England vs Lebanon and a sell out for the Roos game, but I'd bet anything that they'll only get 15 or so thousand for Eng vs lebanese and under 30 for the Roos game.

Lol, no chance of a sell out.
Sydney got shafted (by its own government, by the WC organisers, whoever you want to blame) and the numbers will reflect that. Then this will be used as future justification to shaft Sydney again, and the circle will continue.

 

[The Great Dane]

Lol, no chance of a sell out.
Sydney got shafted (by its own government, by the WC organisers, whoever you want to blame) and the numbers will reflect that. Then this will be used as future justification to shaft Sydney again, and the circle will continue.

What a typical Sydney centric view.

Nobody got shafted by anybody.

Nowhere was owed matches, Sydney (and the rest of NSW) didn't own those games, they weren't taken from Sydney and given to somewhere else, NSW refused to come to the table and bid.
That's not getting shafted or having something that should have been yours taken, that's refusing to buy a product.

I reckon the way the fixtures have been spread is much better than having half to three quarters of the competition held in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong anyway, and a much better look for the sport to boot

And besides wouldn't large crowds to the games Sydney did get be the best response to show the NSW government that they should have bid for games?

 

[adamkungl]

What a typical Sydney centric view.

Nobody got shafted by anybody.

Nowhere was owed matches, Sydney (and the rest of NSW) didn't own those games, they weren't taken from Sydney and given to somewhere else, NSW refused to come to the table and bid.
That's not getting shafted or having something that should have been yours taken, that's refusing to buy a product.

So the people of Sydney got shafted by the government's arrogance, as I said.

I reckon the way the fixtures have been spread is much better than having half to three quarters of the competition held in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong anyway, and a much better look for the sport to boot

Yeah half the comp in the tropical arse ends of the country in the wet season is a much better look.

And besides wouldn't large crowds to the games Sydney did get be the best response to show the NSW government that they should have bid for games?

99% of people anywhere don't consider 'proving a point' to be a valid reason to fork out for their family to watch sports. Big games draw crowds, Australia/England v Lebanon are non-events.

 

[Perth Red]

You reap what you sew, you voted them in, you didn't put up much fuss (instead tried to blame the organisers) and you haven't supported IRL in massive numbers in the past enough to justify some feeling of entitlement.

Back on topic Perth will be interesting and a good test of the marketers ability. Will be at least 13-15k RL fans who will go but if they can reach the massive non RL pom market in a way that entices them to fill the stadium of 21,500 will be interesting to see. British lions do it so well when they tour, getting every Paddy, Jock, Taff and Pom to go even though they don't follow Union by good marketing as a must attend event for ex pats.

 

[adamkungl]

Hopefully Sydney comes out for the games we do have.

What would be acceptable crowds that would make Sydney "deserving" of future test matches in peoples eyes?

I'd be pretty satisfied with 20k for the England game and 30k for the Kangaroos game, considering that we all know the on-field result will be. Will we get that? I'm not sure. Hopefully the marketing and organising team do everything they can to get people in the gates.

Tickets are available to both games for $34, $20 to one of the games.

 

[Perth Red]

Nothing makes them deserving of future test matches, other than what they are willing to pay to better other cities offers. FINALLY IRL has a product that is seen as valuable and no longer has to give it away. We have been crying out for this for years and now it has finally happened some places seem to think it shouldn't apply to them and they should automatically get games. Bid more than other cities and you will get games.

if you were filling ANZ for IRL then ticket revenue might make a compelling case but getting 20-30k puts you no better than Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane or Canberra and if they are willing to pay for the privilege and Sydney isn't then too bad.

Perth tickets are $20-60 for our double header

 

[Perth Red]

Just been looking at tickets, shame they haven't identified some areas for the fan bases like they do in origin. Better look and atmosphere if all the England fans are together.