2017 Crowd Watch

[davi]

Article suggests NRL is struggling to sell out the Grand final game, without a non-Sydney team making it is tough. However on the positive side there is going to be big roll up from Papua New Guinea fans who are making a trek to see the PNG Hunters play in their final against NSW cup winners Penrith.


"The NRL is offloading thousands of free tickets to its non-Sydney grand final in a bid to fill the 83,000-capacity ANZ Stadium for Sunday's season-ending showdown.

With out-of-towners Melbourne and North Queensland contesting the decider, ticket sales have been much softer than usual, with the league turning to Sydney juniors as the answer to fleshing out the grand final crowd.

An NRL spokesperson strongly denied up to 20,000 tickets were being handed out, as some industry insiders suggested on Wednesday, claiming the figure was only a few thousand. In any event, the match is not expected to sell out.

The league is using its PlayNRL Rewards system to facilitate the junior ticket handout. An email went out to select junior clubs earlier this week, encouraging players and volunteers to redeem their free grand final ticket from 9am Wednesday morning. A different password was sent out in each email, with the password needed to redeem the free tickets.

"You can use your PlayNRL Rewards password to redeem 1 ticket for the Storm v Cowboys Grand Final at ANZ Stadium on Sunday," the email said.

PlayNRL Rewards offers juniors aged 15 and under, volunteers, coaches and officials free entry into one NRL match each round throughout the season.

It's a slightly different system to yesteryear when junior players would be handed a pass with a barcode that allowed entry to every match across the round.

Fairfax Media understands the NRL has also distributed parcels of grand final tickets to select junior rugby league clubs across Sydney. The same was done for last weekend's preliminary final between the Sydney Roosters and North Queensland, which attracted 28,108 fans to Allianz Stadium.

One club president said he received an allocation of 20 tickets to the grand final, and 20 to last week's preliminary final.

It's not uncommon for the NRL to distribute free tickets to juniors and volunteers for premiership matches, State Of Origin encounters and even past grand finals.

South of the border, tickets to Saturday's AFL grand final between Richmond and Adelaide are virtually impossible to come by, the majority of which are split between club, MCC and AFL members.

About 100,000 fans are expected to pile into the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday, following the 94,258 who watched Richmond beat GWS at the venue last weekend.

But the AFL has the luxury of a traditional Melbourne club in its grand final while the NRL has had just one Sydney team in its showpiece game since 2014.

Return flights to Sydney from Townsville have sky-rocketed to almost $1000 this weekend, forcing many Cowboys fans to stay in North Queensland and watch the game at home.

But the presence of the PNG Hunters, who won the Intrust Super Cup in Queensland last weekend to set up a showdown with NSW Cup winners Penrith, is set to attract thousands of fans from Papua New Guinea.

Extra flights from Port Moresby have been scheduled to accommodate demand.

The NRL remains hopeful Sunday's decider at ANZ Stadium will sell out.

"Ticket sales for the NRL Telstra premiership grand final are strong, with rugby league members and fans from across the country snapping up tickets to Sunday's decider," an NRL spokesperson said."

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sp...-stadium-for-grand-final-20170927-gypyip.html

 

[Bgoodorgoodatit]

The only thing that article failed to mention is 'this is a paid advertisement'

James Buckley

James Buckley writes on AFL for The Sydney Morning Herald.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

I'm not sure what is more cringeworthy, the inability to get a crowd (a paying one) or the NRL spin on the subject.

 

[Canard]

If GWS made the AFL GF they would have had to drop tickets from helicopters above Melbourne just to get 65k

 

[Disinterested third party]

Article suggests NRL is struggling to sell out the Grand final game, without a non-Sydney team making it is tough. However on the positive side there is going to be big roll up from Papua New Guinea fans who are making a trek to see the PNG Hunters play in their final against NSW cup winners Penrith.


"The NRL is offloading thousands of free tickets to its non-Sydney grand final in a bid to fill the 83,000-capacity ANZ Stadium for Sunday's season-ending showdown.

With out-of-towners Melbourne and North Queensland contesting the decider, ticket sales have been much softer than usual, with the league turning to Sydney juniors as the answer to fleshing out the grand final crowd.

An NRL spokesperson strongly denied up to 20,000 tickets were being handed out, as some industry insiders suggested on Wednesday, claiming the figure was only a few thousand. In any event, the match is not expected to sell out.

The league is using its PlayNRL Rewards system to facilitate the junior ticket handout. An email went out to select junior clubs earlier this week, encouraging players and volunteers to redeem their free grand final ticket from 9am Wednesday morning. A different password was sent out in each email, with the password needed to redeem the free tickets.

"You can use your PlayNRL Rewards password to redeem 1 ticket for the Storm v Cowboys Grand Final at ANZ Stadium on Sunday," the email said.

PlayNRL Rewards offers juniors aged 15 and under, volunteers, coaches and officials free entry into one NRL match each round throughout the season.

It's a slightly different system to yesteryear when junior players would be handed a pass with a barcode that allowed entry to every match across the round.

Fairfax Media understands the NRL has also distributed parcels of grand final tickets to select junior rugby league clubs across Sydney. The same was done for last weekend's preliminary final between the Sydney Roosters and North Queensland, which attracted 28,108 fans to Allianz Stadium.

One club president said he received an allocation of 20 tickets to the grand final, and 20 to last week's preliminary final.

It's not uncommon for the NRL to distribute free tickets to juniors and volunteers for premiership matches, State Of Origin encounters and even past grand finals.

South of the border, tickets to Saturday's AFL grand final between Richmond and Adelaide are virtually impossible to come by, the majority of which are split between club, MCC and AFL members.

About 100,000 fans are expected to pile into the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday, following the 94,258 who watched Richmond beat GWS at the venue last weekend.

But the AFL has the luxury of a traditional Melbourne club in its grand final while the NRL has had just one Sydney team in its showpiece game since 2014.

Return flights to Sydney from Townsville have sky-rocketed to almost $1000 this weekend, forcing many Cowboys fans to stay in North Queensland and watch the game at home.

But the presence of the PNG Hunters, who won the Intrust Super Cup in Queensland last weekend to set up a showdown with NSW Cup winners Penrith, is set to attract thousands of fans from Papua New Guinea.

Extra flights from Port Moresby have been scheduled to accommodate demand.

The NRL remains hopeful Sunday's decider at ANZ Stadium will sell out.

"Ticket sales for the NRL Telstra premiership grand final are strong, with rugby league members and fans from across the country snapping up tickets to Sunday's decider," an NRL spokesperson said."

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sp...-stadium-for-grand-final-20170927-gypyip.html

Exactly - it's an advert.

I recall in 2015 when there was stony silence for a half year about how the AFL GF, the last game of the year in AFL, was the ONLY attendance to exceed the attendance for the second Origin game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. From June 2015 to the last day in September, this was not mentioned by a single member of the media from Victoria.

Also the number of AFL GFs to actually reach the MCG capacity of more than 100,000 over the last three decades is very small. In fact only 3 since 1987.

Yet every puff piece will mention '100k' all week.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Exactly - it's an advert.

I recall in 2015 when there was stony silence for a half year about how the AFL GF, the last game of the year in AFL, was the ONLY attendance to exceed the attendance for the second Origin game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. From June 2015 to the last day in September, this was not mentioned by a single member of the media from Victoria.

Also the number of AFL GFs to actually reach the MCG capacity of more than 100,000 over the last three decades is very small. In fact only 3 since 1987.

Yet every puff piece will mention '100k' all week.

Can't really blame that narrative given their last 10 grand finals:
2016 99,981
2015 98,632
2014 99,460
2013 100,007
2012 99,683
2011 99,537
2010 93,853 (replay)
2010 100,016
2009 99,251
2008 100,012

Two out of town teams in the NRL decider no doubt has a great deal of impact on the interest and current ticket sales. It is the showpiece event of the year, it needs to sell out or it isn't a great look. Giving out tickets shouldn't happen for the biggest game of the year. Pricing points should be revised as soon as grand final teams are known. Both teams have travel costs to consider to just get to the ground. Then a big amount of $$ to get a decent seat. Hard to get a good travelling crowd in those circumstances, especially with airline price gouging, the greedy bastards.

 

[Disinterested third party]

Can't really blame that narrative given their last 10 grand finals:
2016 99,981
2015 98,632
2014 99,460
2013 100,007
2012 99,683
2011 99,537
2010 93,853 (replay)
2010 100,016
2009 99,251
2008 100,012

Two out of town teams in the NRL decider no doubt has a great deal of impact on the interest and current ticket sales. It is the showpiece event of the year, it needs to sell out or it isn't a great look. Giving out tickets shouldn't happen for the biggest game of the year. Pricing points should be revised as soon as grand final teams are known. Both teams have travel costs to consider to just get to the ground. Then a big amount of $$ to get a decent seat. Hard to get a good travelling crowd in those circumstances, especially with airline price gouging, the greedy bastards.

And not a single sellout of the ground amongst those either. Thanks for confirming. MCG capacity is 100,024. Rather defeats the purpose of the AFL puff piece, written by an AFL puff, we are talking about. Does it not?

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

And not a single sellout of the ground amongst those either. Thanks for confirming. MCG capacity is 100,024. Rather defeats the purpose of the AFL puff piece, written by an AFL puff, we are talking about. Does it not?

Would be interested in sports across the country how many times the official crowd attendance equalled the ground capacity. If you cannot buy another ticket to the game anywhere it should be classified as a sell out. Would you rather them say 99k in articles so it sounds and looks less than 100k? Splitting hairs there fella. Lets worry about how to get ANZ filled for what should be a cracker game and not give tickets away.

 

[davi]

If GWS made the AFL GF they would have had to drop tickets from helicopters above Melbourne just to get 65k

Yeah I think you have a point. I looked up the Brisbane Lions vs Port Power 2004 AFL Grand final which didn't feature a Melbourne team and it was 77,671. It certainly wasn't in the stratosphere of 100 000.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Yeah I think you have a point. I looked up the Brisbane Lions vs Port Power 2004 AFL Grand final which didn't feature a Melbourne team and it was 77,671. It certainly wasn't in the stratosphere of 100 000.

That was the time of a massive stand upgrade at the MCG so capacity was reduced. Brisbane and Collingwood got 79k the year before in 2003.

 

[Disinterested third party]

Would be interested in sports across the country how many times the official crowd attendance equalled the ground capacity. If you cannot buy another ticket to the game anywhere it should be classified as a sell out. Would you rather them say 99k in articles so it sounds and looks less than 100k? Splitting hairs there fella. Lets worry about how to get ANZ filled for what should be a cracker game and not give tickets away.

Then I suggest you check out the figures on Lang Park you AFL patsy. Thanks for confirming everything I said above.

 

[Cumberland Throw]

Oh to have 1 week, where we dont have to fret about a crowd disaster..

cant wait for the offseason

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Then I suggest you check out the figures on Lang Park you AFL patsy. Thanks for confirming everything I said above.

Thought I'd take a quick look and based on capacity, Lang park has reached it twice in it's history. Not sure what your point is there? Based on attendance numbers I daresay there's been a lot more sell outs at Lang Park announced than two, and rightfully so.

 

[seanoff]

Yet another discussion by people with NFI.

The MCG has 95000 seats. Any crowd above that has a significant standing room element.

Almost no stadium, for any event will be at total capacity. People get sick, die, have their transport break down etc etc.

A sellout is that, it is sold out. You cannot buy a ticket from a primary official channel. If no one turns up its still a sellout.

Around 100k is the total capacity of the MCG. Any crowd around 100k is pretty much capacity whether that is 99962, or 100024 or 99460.

Same with Suncorp. Its listed capacity is 52500. Any crowd within a range of that is effectively capacity esp with restricted view seats etc.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Oh to have 1 week, where we dont have to fret about a crowd disaster..

cant wait for the offseason

Any reason you're not going league fan?

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Is there a reason, besides being Victorian trolls why the afl grand final crowd is being mentioned?

By all means mention the ridiculous prices. The fact that there are two out of town teams playing. But as soon as you troll out the afl you lose the last bit of credibility you have.

 

[DC_fan]

Would be interested in sports across the country how many times the official crowd attendance equalled the ground capacity. If you cannot buy another ticket to the game anywhere it should be classified as a sell out. Would you rather them say 99k in articles so it sounds and looks less than 100k? Splitting hairs there fella. Lets worry about how to get ANZ filled for what should be a cracker game and not give tickets away.

I have no doubt it will be filled

 

[Disinterested third party]

Yet another discussion by people with NFI.

The MCG has 95000 seats. Any crowd above that has a significant standing room element.

Almost no stadium, for any event will be at total capacity. People get sick, die, have their transport break down etc etc.

A sellout is that, it is sold out. You cannot buy a ticket from a primary official channel. If no one turns up its still a sellout.

Around 100k is the total capacity of the MCG. Any crowd around 100k is pretty much capacity whether that is 99962, or 100024 or 99460.

Same with Suncorp. Its listed capacity is 52500. Any crowd within a range of that is effectively capacity esp with restricted view seats etc.

Capacity is 100,024 no matter what you say. The ground promo material says as much. Happy for you to point out a single crowd of that figure in the last 30 years for AFL GFs. The standing capacity is two fifths of bugger all these days - it's not 1970 still wanker. Talk about NFI.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

I have no doubt it will be filled

I am also confident but it would be good to get to that point with a less negative narrative around it. Prefer to read about how it's sold out, which adds to the excitement around the game, rather than stories about tickets being given out for the showpiece game.

 

[Disinterested third party]

Thought I'd take a quick look and based on capacity, Lang park has reached it twice in it's history. Not sure what your point is there? Based on attendance numbers I daresay there's been a lot more sell outs at Lang Park announced than two, and rightfully so.

Hardly. I suggest you look at the records over the life of the stadium next time.