re Perth: whilst the crowd was down on last year there were a couple of factors, it's been freezing here and Perth people are notorius for not going out at night when its cold, the hot weather softens us up! Night before the game was the 2nd coldest since records began and last night was around the 2 degree mark. Interestingly I would say there was a larger walk up crowd last night than the previous year so maybe alot who had bought tickets with families decided to give it a miss. Secondly there was a really bad crash on the Mitchell freeway just after 6pm. This Freeway is the main Northern way into the city. We were sat in it for 1 and half hours and we were at the front. If we had set off at 7pm (normal time to get to MES) there is no way we would have got to the game. Thirdly the cost of this game is silly. Adult ticket prices are $35 - 45. When you are trying to attract casual sports fans you need some pretty good marketing and major event status to get people to pay $45 for a reserved seat to a sport they don't know much about.
re the ground, it has had a couple of mill spent on it since last year and its capacity is higher (hence why it looked emptier). It is around 22,500 now.
Still a great night though for us RL fans and we need and want more games please NRL!
