2008 Crowd Watch - Final Totals in Post #3778

[miccle]

I mean going back decades and decades mate. That's why it's so frustrating - the heart of RL in Australia and it's just been piss poor for such a long time. Big changes needed. You had clubs averaging 15-18k regularly back in the 1960's and 70's FFS. That's the same crowds as now, but Sydney's population has f**king BALLOONED since then. Sure, there wasn't really a time when 45,000 would turn up every week to matches in Sydney, but there was never 3 million+ people there then either.

 

[Timmah]

Without being racist - the influx, ballooning of Sydney's population has hardly been anglo-Australians as those big crowds would have been in majority back in those decades.

I don't know if that makes sense but hopefully you get what I mean :crazy:

 

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

it sorta makes sense, but look in melbourne... the same thing has happened, except the ethnic communities have embraced AFL because it has been marketed to them. Parramatta have made some endeavours towards targeting the asian population of the area... but it was minimal & yet the only marketing i've seen.

 

[Panfas]

GO here to see the average crowds over the last 50 years. Looks like averages are improving to me...

http://stats.rleague.com/rl/crowds/summary.html

 

[beave]

nope.

a few years ago that crowd yesterday wouldve been 6000 or so.

near on 10,000 after 7 straight losses and the cowboys not bringing many is fine.

interesting what they get next given theyve won one.

if they can string a couple together, theyll still average over 20,000 this year

I know you arent blaming us as such, but that line of thinking p!sses me off no end about us not "bringing many".........I would love to turn that back and blame sydney fans or any fans for that matter for not travelling up here and bolstering our crowd numbers, but we have never needed to resort to that excuse, even in our darker days................

 

[dallymessenger]

I mean going back decades and decades mate. That's why it's so frustrating - the heart of RL in Australia and it's just been piss poor for such a long time. Big changes needed. You had clubs averaging 15-18k regularly back in the 1960's and 70's FFS. That's the same crowds as now, but Sydney's population has f**king BALLOONED since then. Sure, there wasn't really a time when 45,000 would turn up every week to matches in Sydney, but there was never 3 million+ people there then either.

if you go back and check the records other than for big games the averages were still quite poor.

 

[dallymessenger]

I know you arent blaming us as such, but that line of thinking p!sses me off no end about us not "bringing many".........I would love to turn that back and blame sydney fans or any fans for that matter for not travelling up here and bolstering our crowd numbers, but we have never needed to resort to that excuse, even in our darker days................

i didnt really single out the cowboys as such, but a sydney team woudlve brought more.

i remember when the cowboys werent that succesful a team during the tim sheens era and crowds would be 13,000 or so.

for a club like souths which has to share the sydney market to get 10,000 when they havent won a game is a fair effort in that context.

 

[beave]

13k where??? here or down there??

 

[dallymessenger]

13k where??? here or down there??

up there. this would be before 2005, im guessing around 2000ish?

 

[beave]

i thought you were talking about down there, I thought you were being generous towards us!!!!!!!!! we hardly ever get 13k to a game down there.

In regard to the Sheens era you speak of, you have to remember

1995-last
96- 3rd last
97- last
99- 2nd last
2000-last
2001-2nd last

our average home crowd attendances didn't fall below the 15k mark until 2001, 6 years of playing like a$$ will do that, souths made the finals last year, regardless of this years results for them, I would have though that the faithful saw enough last year from them to turn up in droves. In our lean years we had some poor crowds (getting lumped with the 2:30pm and 5:30pm saturday games doesn't help our cause,that has been discussed plenty before, not going into it all again) no denying that, but you never heard the "no one from sydney comes up here for games to help our numbers" from us, that's all I am getting at.

 

[Knight87]

Sat 2:30 and 5:30 games? I knew the Cowboys had a few 5:30pm games, but didn't know about the 2:30 ones. The question is: should the Cowboys be made to play Sunday arvo home games like any other side (during the cooler Autumn/Winter months)?

 

[beave]

It has been proven because of the geographics it doesn't fare well for us playing sunday games because of the out of towners (TVL only has a pop of 165k, it's not that big a place), but the main reason is the heat. All you hear in the media is the b!tching at night games up here and the "humidity", well try playing up here during the day and see the difference.

 

[eels_fan_01]

If Cowboys pull crowds of 20 thousand and over they can have whateva timeslot they want.

 

[Knight87]

Ok, I understand Sat Night games are good, cause they allow a lot of the 'out of towners' to make the trip there, and go back the following day. But, what about Friday night games there in Townsville, Beave? What do the folk up there think of them? I understand that Monday Night games must also be crap for the Cowboys as well (well, you've got one against the Knights coming up soon)

Didn't the Cowboys take a couple of home games to Cairns in 2001 (one was played on Sat night 8:30pm vs Penrith, the other was played on a Sunday Night at 6pm vs Northern Eagles, I believe?)? What was the reception to that? Approx how far is Cairns from Townsville?

Also, with the 'out of towners', how far do some of them travel to get to the games in Townsville? What % of crowds at Dairy Farmers would you say consist of ppl who don't come from the Townsville area?

 

[beave]

Ok, I understand Sat Night games are good, cause they allow a lot of the 'out of towners' to make the trip there, and go back the following day. But, what about Friday night games there in Townsville, Beave? What do the folk up there think of them? I understand that Monday Night games must also be crap for the Cowboys as well (well, you've got one against the Knights coming up soon)

Didn't the Cowboys take a couple of home games to Cairns in 2001 (one was played on Sat night 8:30pm vs Penrith, the other was played on a Sunday Night at 6pm vs Northern Eagles, I believe?)? What was the reception to that? Approx how far is Cairns from Townsville?

Also, with the 'out of towners', how far do some of them travel to get to the games in Townsville? What % of crowds at Dairy Farmers would you say consist of ppl who don't come from the Townsville area?

1. Friday night games don't happen all that often, but people from all around the area seem to want to attend them (they are usually the better games anyways) so the out of towners can take the friday off and travel home over the weekend. We've only had 1 monday night game up here, and it got just on the 17k mark, the problem is that we don't have the infrastructure in the town to cater for a mass influx of people over an hour period (when people knock off work at say 5:30-6 and have to be at the game by 7). On that monday night game, there were cars still streaming in at half time. IMO mostly just the locals came to that one, hence the 17k crowd.

2 Yep the club played 2 games in Cairns in 2001. It was a dedset disgraceful way for the club to make a quick $$$$ (the CEO was a dodgy little pr!ck, Cronulla fans will know him as he nearly sent your Leagues club bankrupt in the '90s!!) because they still charged the same price for season tickets at DFS even though it was 2 games less what it should have been, and they made extra $$$$ from the "new" tickets in cairns, but in the end it backfired as 13k turned up to the first game, but only 6k turned up to the second, i think they actually lost money on the 2nd. The ground Cazalys up there is an AFL ground, and is crap for watching League, they ran out of food and alcohol before kick off on the first game, dodgy stuff by all involved. Cairns is a 4 hour drive north of Townsville. It's more of a tourist town than working class like TVL, so the population is more of a temporary one depending on the wet season. And lots of ex-pat Victorians......

3. % of crowd make up.........mmmmmm that is a hard one. Depends on which games you are talking about. For instance the broncos one, out of 26k that will probably attend, a good 8-10k would be from out of town (biggest game of the year) all the motels/caravan parks are booked out over that weekend. But say an average home crowd of 20-22k, i would say in the vicinty of 4-5k, so about 20-25% of fans. Townsville is not that big (165k) so the towns like Ayr, Ingham (both 100km's away) Mackay and Cairns (350kms south and North) are relied upon heavily to help bolster the numbers. Which is why the team is called NQ and not TVL. These people are being represented just as much as anyone else, so it is good that they come along. Mt Isa is a 10 hour drive one way and I know of a few people who make the trek every 2nd week........................that is a massive drive for a footy game.

 

[bobmar28]

it sorta makes sense, but look in melbourne... the same thing has happened, except the ethnic communities have embraced AFL because it has been marketed to them. Parramatta have made some endeavours towards targeting the asian population of the area... but it was minimal & yet the only marketing i've seen.

Ethnic communities have embraced AFL? I don't agree with that. Take a look at the crowd at an afl game like the swans and I don't think you will see many 'ethnic' faces. Then take a look at a Bulldogs game.

 

[Digga Hole]

Ethnic communities have embraced AFL? I don't agree with that. Take a look at the crowd at an afl game like the swans and I don't think you will see many 'ethnic' faces. Then take a look at a Bulldogs game.

The post WW2 migrant groups are some of the most passionate and dedicated AFL fans you will find.

The more dominant migrant groups over the last decade or so haven't embraced the game as much at this stage, it may take a while, we will see in another decade or so.

 

[t-ba]

The post WW2 migrant groups are some of the most passionate and dedicated AFL fans you will find.

The more dominant migrant groups over the last decade or so haven't embraced the game as much at this stage, it may take a while, we will see in another decade or so.

About the only ethnic migrant group to embrace either sport since the 1970's is the Lebanese with RL.

 

[t-ba]

I mean going back decades and decades mate. That's why it's so frustrating - the heart of RL in Australia and it's just been piss poor for such a long time. Big changes needed. You had clubs averaging 15-18k regularly back in the 1960's and 70's FFS. That's the same crowds as now, but Sydney's population has f**king BALLOONED since then. Sure, there wasn't really a time when 45,000 would turn up every week to matches in Sydney, but there was never 3 million+ people there then either.

A 15k HOME average was managed once in those two decade, with the Bulldogs scraping in at 15k in 1975.

Those figures are inflated by match of the round. Match of the round wasn't sustainable as Sydney's Urban Sprawl occured and transport links failed to grow with it. There are structural forces at work that didn't exist in a place like Melbourne, which could keep a centralised club base and had decent transport out to the suburbs, or Brisbane, which has grown at a time that has allowed it to learn from the mistakes of Sydney. As Homebush shows, it's simply not practical anymore. Which is a shame, because if Sydney had been built better, Ground consolidation probably would have occurred by now.

Pokie Money also helped. Why play a game at the SCG when you can get a big portion of the 5000 punters turning up to your home games having a whirl on the machines after a home match? Frankly, Pokies are just about the worst thing that happened to Rugby League.

HOME crowds are the best they've ever been, and have improved drastically over the last 25 years. There's no reasons to suggest this will not continue.

 

[Connie Kreski]

Ethnic communities have embraced AFL? I don't agree with that. Take a look at the crowd at an afl game like the swans and I don't think you will see many 'ethnic' faces. Then take a look at a Bulldogs game.

This is true if my experience at the SCG on the weekend is any guide. Very middle class, very white. Down in Melb there's a strong ethnic base for support of the Australian game; I went to an Essendon-Footscray game last year and there were African, Middle Eastern, and quite a few Chinese or Vietnamese faces. But you could never say that about Sydney. When you go to a Swans game it's really, really clear that it is a middle to upper class code. (Another reason why any Blacktown push will be hilarious and expensive).