2015 Crowd Watch

[Canard]

I am new here and I was wondering why the constant obsession of crowds - aren't NRL crowds the biggest in Rugby around the world. I am in the US and enjoy watching it on TV - I am actually impressed at the big crowds there sometimes when some of our NFL games don't sell out and there are few and one team usually for big areas. The smaller crowds are still bigger than most MLS or even NHL crowds and that is the same situation - 1 team for a big area or city. Am I missing something?

NHL is an arena sport so not comparable.

And I think wanting to grow our crowds is a fine ambition, but yeh considering we aren't even the biggest football code in our own country, we do alright.

 

[DC_fan]

I said earlier in this thread that last night would not be a great crowd puller. Unfortunately I was right. Fact is whilst the two clubs may turn on some good on field action the crowds don't turn up.

Round 19 2014, Saturday night at the SFS when these two teams played a whole 13,993 turned up. Both teams were inform and well inside the top 8. Yet people expected a bumper crowd in Round 3 2015 on a Monday night for these two teams? :crazy:

I am not sure that people do. Most fans realise that Monday night will not draw big crowds and that its more about TV coverage

 

[Timmah]

Not surprised by the crowd last night and dont think anyone should be. We have a joke of a ticketing structure league wide which is ery discouraging for casual fans. they need to get people through the gates first with affordable pricing then attempt to turn those fans into members by making the experience enjoyable. We have the opposite currently with ticket prices universally high and a lack of mainstream membership and gameday marketing

Interesting a fan of the Roosters claims this is a league-wide issue (which to some extent it is) when their club is among the highest when it comes to ticket pricing.

 

[Perth Red]

Monday night is about TV $'s and we just have to right it off. I don't see anything the NRL can do to make it more appealing to attend a game on a Monday night. After your first day back at work no one wants to spend the energy getting out to a game. Friday night, Saturday and sunday are where the NRL needs to working its magic to get fans to. This year is another season of inactivity on this front by the NRL. Why they are surprised when nothing changes in attendances is beyond me. Do the same thing, get the same result.

 

[Burns]

Could be a good crowd this week in Newcastle. Is the 'Support Mining' game, and while I cant get confirmation, I believe the Knights have given a few thousand tickets to local miners from the Hunter Valley. The very top wings of the Western Grandstand are greyed out on Ticketmaster, and those tickets never sell, so can't see why else it would be.

Predict 20,000+. Corresponding game last year against Tigers drew 22,000.

 

[gallagher]

Monday night is about TV $'s and we just have to right it off. I don't see anything the NRL can do to make it more appealing to attend a game on a Monday night. After your first day back at work no one wants to spend the energy getting out to a game. Friday night, Saturday and sunday are where the NRL needs to working its magic to get fans to. This year is another season of inactivity on this front by the NRL. Why they are surprised when nothing changes in attendances is beyond me. Do the same thing, get the same result.

I think the NRL have already given up on MNF crowd wise. The three games so far this year would not have got much of a bigger crowd on a sunday IMO.

 

[insert.pause]

Considering souths only drew 23k against the WT on a Sunday afternoon, I think 10k on a Monday night between easts and penrith isn't that bad, in isolation it's not great, but souths should have gotten much better home crowds than they have this year.

 

[CC_Roosters]

Interesting a fan of the Roosters claims this is a league-wide issue (which to some extent it is) when their club is among the highest when it comes to ticket pricing.

Not sure what you are getting at timmah, to me ticketing is an issue for the roosters for sure with last night being ridiculous. But it is definitely a league problem as far as i can see and needs to be addressed for any hope of increasing attendance.

 

[Perth Red]

How much should tickets cost? I would have thought $25 sideline, $15 behind sticks is more the value of them? Considering alternatives such as cinema ticket, ticket to a car show or similar, cost for a meal out etc tickets at that price would be reasonable.

 

[oldmancraigy]

Fans are starting to flock back to park rugby union. For $20 you can get a a pie and a beer and watch some fat heffers playing stacks on.

The people have spoken out against the tyranny of video refs, touch judges, bright uniforms, no hills, and Toovey. They are voting with their feet and hitting the NRL where it hurts most.

 

[pHyR3]

How much should tickets cost? I would have thought $25 sideline, $15 behind sticks is more the value of them? Considering alternatives such as cinema ticket, ticket to a car show or similar, cost for a meal out etc tickets at that price would be reasonable.

$25 sideline is wayyy too cheap for prepurchased tickets. gotta price discriminate properly, which means if someone is rich and/or really wants a good view theyd be willing to pay at least $40 for a sideline ticket.

$20 for GA is perfectly reasonable pricing, and if you get memberships its usually a tonne cheaper than that. I think tickets might be a touch high, around $25 for prepurchased GA if you include the booking fee. But the way people carry on about it you'd think they're charging $30 + bf to sit behind the sticks

at the tigers its around $10 a game for GA or something ridiculous like that.

 

[killbill]

The simple answer is the AFL mate.

Essentially the 2 big codes are geographically separated. RL on the East Coast with its main professional centre in Sydney. AFL in South and West Australia with its professional centre in Melbourne Victoria.

Victorian AFL is almost unarguably the world's best attended pro sport if looked at per head and we live next door.

Ok that makes sense - big crowds! Are the Rugby crowds - union and league crowds effectively split what I mean is do league fans not go to union and union not to league. Was wondering why such a big difference to AFL crowds - the TV would suggest same popularity. its true to say most Americans would not know there are two Rugby's.

 

[killbill]

the inferiority complex re crowds is probably more with the AFL. Its certainly not with rugby union.

AFL people attend their code like religious people attend church, so it really is a futile battle.

tbh I think the bigger thing is because certain clubs arbitrarily got merged or kicked out based on how they were going at the time. Thus there is always a fear a club will get kicked out and fans of the more popular club like to keep easts / Penrith / Cronulla and manly fans reminded that they are the shitty small clubs that should be next to go, if someone has to go.

Thanks - sounds like some of the football fans here like Greenbay or college like UT - is there nothing else to do in Melbourne that is GB's situation.

Not a healthy environment if always playing for your last supper - they need to change that.

 

[killbill]

We are a bit fixated on crowds but as said that is mainly due to the battle with afl to be seen as the countries number one footy code. Sheffield shield final has been on with no one attending, they even made it free. S15 don't mention crowds usually. RL has always had an interest, to the lpoint where they announce it at games and you either get a murmur of approval or despair depending on the number lol.

I have seen AFL on TV - pretty hard to understand a bit like the cricket on now I noticed no S15 crowds in the match reports - are they just really low or something?

 

[killbill]

That idiot on 2GB James Wills is the most crowd-obsessed clown I have ever heard.

Loves bagging league crowds, whilst talking up crowds from other sports.

I notice that in english papers they knock league - the union people is that what that is? Why the knocking of league is that to do with the North/South split 100 years ago - surely not?

Is that a radio host?

 

[Perth Red]

Yep, Northv South class divide in England. Rl working mans game, union toffs game. Unfortunately between the toff pollies, old boys school media editors and oxford white collar corporates RL doesn't stand a chance to be seen as equal.
In Oz it is more a geographic split than any class issue between RL and AFL.

 

[Perth Red]

$25 sideline is wayyy too cheap for prepurchased tickets. gotta price discriminate properly, which means if someone is rich and/or really wants a good view theyd be willing to pay at least $40 for a sideline ticket.

$20 for GA is perfectly reasonable pricing, and if you get memberships its usually a tonne cheaper than that. I think tickets might be a touch high, around $25 for prepurchased GA if you include the booking fee. But the way people carry on about it you'd think they're charging $30 + bf to sit behind the sticks

at the tigers its around $10 a game for GA or something ridiculous like that.

I think if you want large walk up on a regular basis $40 is too much. Would you go to the cinema every week if it cost $40 a ticket? Other thing is if you price the tickets too high for a decent seat you end up with empty stands opposite tv camera and full ends. Melbourne is a classic case of this. I'm struggling to think of any entertainment that would cost $45 a ticket other than big comedians or concerts and you wouldn't go to them every week.

Given a we are tryng to attract away fans in Sydney if you've forked out for a membership finding another wad of money every other week to follow your team at away grounds must certainly be a barrier?

 

[The Great Dane]

Ok that makes sense - big crowds! Are the Rugby crowds - union and league crowds effectively split what I mean is do league fans not go to union and union not to league.

It depends on what part of Australia you're in, for example in Canberra and (to a much lesser extent) Brisbane there's a fairly large crossover between RL and RU fans, but in Sydney and Melbourne the two groups are much more split.

Was wondering why such a big difference to AFL crowds - the TV would suggest same popularity. its true to say most Americans would not know there are two Rugby's.

That's basically because of geography and culture.

I don't think that anybody really knows exactly the reasons why Aussie rules supporters have been more hardcore then other football supporters in Australia, but even way back in the 1800's there's evidence of this being the case.

For whatever reason a culture of supporting your team at all costs (to the point that some fans resemble cult followers willing to believe and do almost anything that clubs and by extension the AFL says) developed in Victoria in the very early days of Aussie Rules, and as Aussie rules spread that culture spread with it.

The only reason that everywhere north of the Snowy Mountains isn't the same is because Rugby (and later Rugby League) was already well established in Sydney and Brisbane, and the distance between Melbourne and Sydney was at the time too far for the governing bodies of Aussie Rules to mange a concerted effort to push Aussie Rules in Sydney, and every attempt to setup new governing bodies in Sydney and Brisbane (as they did in Adelaide, Tasmania and Perth) ended with that body going bankrupt before successfully setting up a popular and profitable first grade competition in Sydney.

Swap the words Aussie Rules with Rugby and Sydney with Melbourne in the above paragraph and you've roughly got the reasons why Rugby didn't catch on in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

 

[The Great Dane]

the inferiority complex re crowds is probably more with the AFL. Its certainly not with rugby union.

AFL people attend their code like religious people attend church, so it really is a futile battle.

tbh I think the bigger thing is because certain clubs arbitrarily got merged or kicked out based on how they were going at the time. Thus there is always a fear a club will get kicked out and fans of the more popular club like to keep easts / Penrith / Cronulla and manly fans reminded that they are the shitty small clubs that should be next to go, if someone has to go.

Thanks - sounds like some of the football fans here like Greenbay or college like UT - is there nothing else to do in Melbourne that is GB's situation.

Not a healthy environment if always playing for your last supper - they need to change that.

Though in the case of crowds the inferiority complex comes mostly from the AFL (at least in Australia), in almost all other areas the inferiority complex comes from RU, particularly when it comes to international competition and the growth of the sport internationally many RL people undersell RL because RL "isn't as big as RU'.

But to be fair multiple Unions across the world have successfully lobbied governments to consider RL as RU and thus under the Unions control in that country (at which point the Unions effectively kill RL in that country), a few even manged to get governments to ban the sport of RL outright. Hell in France they even joined the Nazis to stop the growth of RL.

So in some respects their fear (and the inferiority complex that acompanies that fear) of RU and it's power across the world is understandable.

 

[killbill]

Thanks for all your feedback on Rugby League and its history with Rugby Union and also AFL. Truly a unique story I think if people knew this particularly in the US that would love that history. Especially NFL and NHL fans - I looked up that with the Nazis in France wow - how did they keep that quiet! I would think its success despite all this is something to be proud of and not have an inferiority complex, quite the opposite actually.