2017 Crowd Watch

[Timmah]

Back on crowd watch itself, updated the crowd stats thread over in the Game Day stats.

http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/threads/2017-nrl-draw-results-crowd-stats.460260/

Now includes aggregate & average for every round, progressive season total & average after each round, and a comparison of the progressive total after the same round last year.

In post #4 there is also the current ladder as well as the list of home crowd averages for all 16 clubs matched against last season.

 

[adamkungl]

I think the basic point is there are large tracts of Sydney who haven't been exposed to RL in the past given where the migrated from, and largely have no interest.

Could be wrong but I don't feel the NRL or any other code has made any meaningful journey into those communities either.

Given your clubs relatively high proportion (anecdotally I suppose) of Lebanese fans I'm surprised you give this assertion much weight.

I know heaps of Asians who regularly attend Rugby League games.

European immigrants have been following Rugby League for decades.

Pacific Islanders clearly love the game.


I think it's pretty fair to suggest Sydney crowds should have grown a hell of a lot more over 5 decades than by 2000, and that the current administration could turn this around by actually making some pro-crowd decisions for once.

 

[Timmah]

Given your clubs relatively high proportion (anecdotally I suppose) of Lebanese fans I'm surprised you give this assertion much weight.

I know heaps of Asians who regularly attend Rugby League games.

European immigrants have been following Rugby League for decades.

Pacific Islanders clearly love the game.

Anecdotal evidence is all well and good but we're talking a good 45%-odd percent of Sydney's population not being of Australian birth, Chinese for example account for nearly 5% of the population in Sydney.

Now I'd back your assertion that Asians regularly attend RL games, but I doubt they'd make up 5% of the crowd at most Sydney games.

 

[adamkungl]

Imo if the draw and timeslots were drawn up to favour crowds over TV Sydney would average 18,000 without an extra cent spent on promotion.

 

[Pommy]

Given your clubs relatively high proportion (anecdotally I suppose) of Lebanese fans I'm surprised you give this assertion much weight.

I know heaps of Asians who regularly attend Rugby League games.

European immigrants have been following Rugby League for decades.

Pacific Islanders clearly love the game.


I think it's pretty fair to suggest Sydney crowds should have grown a hell of a lot more over 5 decades than by 2000, and that the current administration could turn this around by actually making some pro-crowd decisions for once.

What sides? I can't say I see that many myself. almost all my friends are of Asian backgrounds and most of them don't care about RL most would rather watch NBA or EPL if anything.
When I say Asians I'm not including the Middle East despite it being part of Asia.

Although I do see an elderly Asian couple near me who are always decked out in red and green.

 

[adamkungl]

What sides? I can't say I see that many myself. almost all my friends are of Asian backgrounds and most of them don't care about RL most would rather watch NBA or EPL if anything.
When I say Asians I'm not including the Middle East despite it being part of Asia.

Although I do see an elderly Asian couple near me who are always decked out in red and green.

Quite a few at Roosters games.

Among my friends group quite a few Parra fans, plus Tigers, Storm, Knights.

Obviously more likely among the under 30s generation who went to school here rather than their parents who moved here, which is to be expected.

 

[Perth Red]

Quick ring Pauline, these pesky non white immigrants are damaging crowd growth in the NRL!

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

Broncos v sharks looking like it will hit 33-35k.

Tonight maybe 9k?

 

[carcharias]

Quick ring Pauline, these pesky non white immigrants are damaging crowd growth in the NRL!

Idiot.

 

[Perth Red]

Need some good rounds, according to timmahs figures we are still sitting at under 15k avg for the year and would make it the worse supported year since 2004!

 

[CowboyFuriousFury]

Need some good rounds, according to timmahs figures we are still sitting at under 15k avg for the year and would make it the worse supported year since 2004!

04 didn't have Thursday/6pm friday hindering its attendance, if thursday/6pm Friday gets replaced with crowd favorable timeslots average should improve. Provided the nrl administration stand up to the TV broadcasters instead of constantly caving in to there demands time and time again. No other code caves in to tv networks like rugby league, its the other way around with the codes dictating terms to the broadcasters.

 

[Brutus]

04 didn't have Thursday/6pm friday hindering its attendance, if thursday/6pm Friday gets replaced with crowd favorable timeslots average should improve. Provided the nrl administration stand up to the TV broadcasters instead of constantly caving in to there demands time and time again. No other code caves in to tv networks like rugby league, its the other way around with the codes dictating terms to the broadcasters.

We need Wally to run the game. He will dictate terms to the broadcasters.

 

[Clifferd]

I've seen more people at a nsw cup game

 

[undertaker]

Both teams maybe out of finals contention, but for two of the largest drawing Sydney teams, the crowd tonight is very embarrassing. Definitely looks sub-10k from the camera angles.

We need Wally to run the game. He will dictate terms to the broadcasters.

lol!

 

[RockWheel]

04 didn't have Thursday/6pm friday hindering its attendance, if thursday/6pm Friday gets replaced with crowd favorable timeslots average should improve. Provided the nrl administration stand up to the TV broadcasters instead of constantly caving in to there demands time and time again. No other code caves in to tv networks like rugby league, its the other way around with the codes dictating terms to the broadcasters.

The NRL couldn't care less about improving crowds. Can't think of a major sports competition in the world that places as little importance on game day attendance as the NRL admin.

 

[undertaker]

Need some good rounds, according to timmahs figures we are still sitting at under 15k avg for the year and would make it the worse supported year since 2004!

Comparing oranges to apples

- No weekly Thursday 8pm/Friday 6pm games in 2004, both timeslots - especially the Friday 6pm one which I've crapped on about long enough on this forum - are crowd killers. Neither the fans nor clubs asked for these timeslots (neither did they ask for Monday night, which got randomly heaped on them during 2007-16 at the expense of a Sunday arvo game), and whilst the ARLC continues to kowtow to Ch9/Fox Sports throughout the duration of the 2018-22 tv rights deal, don't expect crowd averages to get anywhere near the heights it did in 2005

- Ch9's Friday night game was, for the most part, the match of the round (complete radio blackout right up to end of 2006, only way you could find the score in advance was listening to the hourly sports update on radio at 8/9/10pm), and there was a strong build-up in the media (especially The Footy Show) and amongst fans in the days leading up to it.

I agree with others that the Ch9 Friday night game needs to go back to being something special, something to look forward to rather than just another game in the round as it has now become. It needs to be the first game of the round and the draw going back to 3 day rounds (Friday-Sunday), but highly unlikely it will happen anytime soon.

- 3 Sunday arvo games (2:30pm, 2 x 3pm) with the occasional 4th game, compared to now where you have 2 (or technically 1 1/2 during winter when the 2nd half of the 4pm game is played after sunset). No one can dispute the fact that the fans of most clubs want more home Sunday games.

- only 3 out of 8 games in the round on average (Saturday 5:30pm, one Saturday 7:30pm, Sunday 2:30pm) were live (sometimes 4 when the Warriors had a home game on Sunday), hence gate receipts for most games weren't competing directly against live tv coverage (and no live FTA coverage during the regular season) compared to now where you can watch all 8 games in the round live on Fox AND in HD. Also, Fox subscription base was significantly lower back in 2004, hence more incentive for fans to go to their teams' games when they didn't feature in the Ch9 Friday night/Sunday match.

 

[juggalo]

Fxcking embarrassing

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Looks like the burrow has been hit by myxomatosis.

 

[juggalo]

Was only 3 years ago these teams were playing in front of 83k

 

[El Diablo]

....