11,308

[Springs]

And so comes the year when Avignon gets a bigger test crowd than Sydney.

 

[meltiger]

It would have been more embarassing at the SFS or ANZ

Hence why it was scheduled for Parramatta.


The punters aren't stupid, give them a sh*t contest and they won't turn up. The weather of course adding to that.

11k, 15k in other cities, still small crowds for a test match, regardless of the pontificating of non-Sydney people on the thread.

The four nations should be a tri nations with the likes of PNG and France (Last time around) playing nations they are capable of competing with.

Any word on the Aus v Eng ticket sales ?

I bought two Cat B or 2 which ever it is on Thursday, second level which concerned me mildly given how long tickets have been on sale. Admittedly we are fairly high up though - Upper reaches of Aisle 74 (Which sits between the 30/40 metre lines)

 

[Parra Guru]

You know what? I fkn hate the current Aussie team. It's full of Queenslanders for a start, then it's topped off with grubs like Watmough and Gallen, and nuffies like KURT GIDLEY... need I say more? the only players I like in that side are Lewis, Petero, TLL and Morris.

The problem is, and it may only be me, but I spend so much money on attending league games during the year, including the finals series... I really can't be fkd forking out $65 to watch a team full of players I hate flog a minnows side on a miserable day. I attended the Dragons v Tigers semi and thoroughly enjoyed it. I would happily pay top dollar to attend a decent match up like that.

When you look at the Roos squad, of course it would sell out at Robina or Townsville.

 

[franklin2323]

Yeah, as I expected re: weather. Against a better opponent, say NZ, we would have sucked it up and made the trek. Unfortunately the lack of competition saw the comfort of our lounge room win out. We weren't the only ones it seems.

No the group with me, We had 13 tickets and only 5 turned up. The main prob was the constant rain 15min walk in rain then 3 hours it was terrible. I braved it due to the fact I haven't seen Australia for a while and my brother has never seen them.

The fact is the 4th will struggle in 4 nations for atleast 5 years until that stage there will always be atleast 1 horrible game sadly

 

[docbrown]

It might have been smart thinking to try and incorporate this game into the V8's on the Gold Coast as an extra event on the Saturday night at 8:00pm, so it would've had the live NZ v ENG game on before it on TV

 

[LordLeague]

The previous test in Sydney was the Centenary test which drew 35,000 at the SCG in the middle of an NRL round.

I think there's plenty of interest in international Rugby League in Sydney, just give us a decent game to watch and we'll be there.

Lord League

 

[meltiger]

No the group with me, We had 13 tickets and only 5 turned up. The main prob was the constant rain 15min walk in rain then 3 hours it was terrible. I braved it due to the fact I haven't seen Australia for a while and my brother has never seen them.

The fact is the 4th will struggle in 4 nations for atleast 5 years until that stage there will always be atleast 1 horrible game sadly

:lol:


4th will always struggle, now and in 100 years time.


Make it Tri Nations.

 

[Fast Eddie]

Kiwis vs PNG this weekend at Rotarua which has a population of close to 70,000 should get a similar amount if not more.

 

[Tweek]

You know what? I fkn hate the current Aussie team. It's full of Queenslanders for a start, then it's topped off with grubs like Watmough and Gallen, and nuffies like KURT GIDLEY... need I say more? the only players I like in that side are Lewis, Petero, TLL and Morris.

The problem is, and it may only be me, but I spend so much money on attending league games during the year, including the finals series... I really can't be fkd forking out $65 to watch a team full of players I hate flog a minnows side on a miserable day. I attended the Dragons v Tigers semi and thoroughly enjoyed it. I would happily pay top dollar to attend a decent match up like that.

When you look at the Roos squad, of course it would sell out at Robina or Townsville.

^
This

 

[Springs]

The previous test in Sydney was the Centenary test which drew 35,000 at the SCG in the middle of an NRL round.

I think there's plenty of interest in international Rugby League in Sydney, just give us a decent game to watch and we'll be there.

Lord League

Apart from you know, all those World Cup games, including the 15,000 semi final against Fiji.

4th will always struggle, now and in 100 years time.

Complete crap. I don't know why people keep saying League will always just be a big three, I guess they don't know that we have already had 4th and 5th nations that we able to beat the big three.

 

[Brutus]

Had it been say Wallabies v Samoa in RU in the exact same conditions/time of year the crowd wouldn't have been much different. And less watching it on TV of course.

 

[***MH***]

Sitting in the Cat 2 seats yesterday soaking wet, I can understand the figure. The people who I dragged along didn't want to be there.

After the Samoa v Tonga match, alot of their supporters left which left the Aus v PNG match with absolutley no atmosphere.

 

[NRLMad]

I'm sure a lot of the people who intended on attending were dettered by almost flash flooding on Saturday. Sunday it rained all day, Today's raining as well. I don't think that helped the crowd.. under 10k would have been disappointing .... 11k is average..

 

[meltiger]

Had it been say Wallabies v Samoa in RU in the exact same conditions/time of year the crowd wouldn't have been much different. And less watching it on TV of course.

Yup. Would be no different, if not worse. Can you imagine some of the toffs dragging the 4WD out to *gosh* Parramatta? For a game Australia would win easy? lol

Apart from you know, all those World Cup games, including the 15,000 semi final against Fiji.



Complete crap. I don't know why people keep saying League will always just be a big three, I guess they don't know that we have already had 4th and 5th nations that we able to beat the big three.

Did. Don't anymore, and will never happen again.

France MAY, just MAY be able to get back to being mildly competitive but will never beat Australia.

PNG, as much as we'd all love them too, are never going to be able to get the training into their players neccesary, from the right age to ever be competitive. Let them play these sorts of games against Tonga/Samoa/Fiji etc. Having them get thumped by Australia does no one any good whatsover. It's demoralising for the players involved in the loss, no one cares enough to turn up and a thumping doesn't make for a good TV product.

Make it Tri Nations.

Liverpool or the Australia PNG game at 1am this morning? Easy choice for me. No interest whatsoever. Tonga v PNG though? Would watch that in a heartbeat.

 

[Parra Guru]

Had it been say Wallabies v Samoa in RU in the exact same conditions/time of year the crowd wouldn't have been much different. And less watching it on TV of course.

I disagree. They would have gotten at least 20-30k for the Wallabies. They pick their side properly and Samoa would hold their own OK too.

 

[franklin2323]

:lol:


4th will always struggle, now and in 100 years time.


Make it Tri Nations.

Your entitled to your opinion. I guess time will tell. I think gving the lesser teams more tests. Will make more players stick will them. looking through the big League I see some pretty good potential PI teams. If they had more tests more might of stayed instead of going to NZ or Aust.

NYC, SG Ball, Matts mostly islander players a few years with a good chunk of them staying it's a few decent teams there. Wales beat France and in next years 4 nation they will struggle but if they keep their head can use the experience and build well for the 2013 WC. I dare say PNG will do the same after yesterday's expereince

 

[Brutus]

I disagree. They would have gotten at least 20-30k for the Wallabies. They pick their side properly and Samoa would hold their own OK too.

At this time of year and in that weather?

No way.

 

[Timmah]

No surprise to see the usual suspects giving Sydney a hammering.

As someone who made the wet trek to Parramatta yesterday and sat in the rain through both games, I can attest to the atrocious weather which left anybody in Cat 2 or Cat 3 seating soaked to the bone by the time fulltime sounded. It wasn't pleasant, it had been raining all night and day leading into the match and as Parra Guru said, some of Sydney/NSW's most hated players were featuring for Australia, and the result was always a foregone conclusion. Put all those factors together, add an ongoing apathy post-Grand Final from many footy fans who've already been squeezed dry of funds and exorbitant ticket prices ($30 to sit behind the f**king posts? Please!)... it was never going to draw.

I said in another thread, if this had've been played 3pm Sunday or even Saturday night, and against a competitive side like NZ or England (and of course fine weather), the crowd figure would have been much closer to 20k.

The typical rants against Sydney and international league will continue, but the truth is - keep giving this city lemons and there's no doubt fans will have a sour taste left in their mouths. The response to low attendances or apathy isn't to give the city sh*t games, it should be to market it better and package it up with other events, something better. Even then, yesterday wouldn't have been helped. The weather was just ridiculous.

 

[The 18th Man]

No surprise to see the usual suspects giving Sydney a hammering.

As someone who made the wet trek to Parramatta yesterday and sat in the rain through both games, I can attest to the atrocious weather which left anybody in Cat 2 or Cat 3 seating soaked to the bone by the time fulltime sounded. It wasn't pleasant, it had been raining all night and day leading into the match and as Parra Guru said, some of Sydney/NSW's most hated players were featuring for Australia, and the result was always a foregone conclusion. Put all those factors together, add an ongoing apathy post-Grand Final from many footy fans who've already been squeezed dry of funds and exorbitant ticket prices ($30 to sit behind the f**king posts? Please!)... it was never going to draw.

I said in another thread, if this had've been played 3pm Sunday or even Saturday night, and against a competitive side like NZ or England (and of course fine weather), the crowd figure would have been much closer to 20k.

The typical rants against Sydney and international league will continue, but the truth is - keep giving this city lemons and there's no doubt fans will have a sour taste left in their mouths. The response to low attendances or apathy isn't to give the city sh*t games, it should be to market it better and package it up with other events, something better. Even then, yesterday wouldn't have been helped. The weather was just ridiculous.

Excellent post Timmah.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

You'd think in a city of 4 million people that has 10 NRL clubs and his supposed to be the rugby league capital of the world (Sydney people think so anyway) they could get more than 11,000 to the only Australian game in the state of NSW this year.

And what's more embarrassing is that the crowd was actually smaller than 11k. That figure included all the Tongans and Samoans who came for the curtain raiser and promtly left before the main game. And therein lies a huge part of the problem. You can't expect huge support for Australia in Sydney when the only "Australians" who live there are about as Australian as Akuila Uate or Karmichael Hunt. Should have been played somewhere like the Gold Coast or even Gosford. Canberra might have been an option but I notice they had MX at Canberra Stadium on the weekend.