2018 Crowd Watch

[taipan]

it's a worry that it doesn't spring to mind for Moffo

Think he suffers from a winter of discontent.

 

[Perth Red]

In Chicago and been to soldier fields today, nice stadium but sht they must be dedicated fans to watch a 4hour nfl game in the winter weather they get here, no cover on the stands at all!

 

[footy75]

In Chicago and been to soldier fields today, nice stadium but sht they must be dedicated fans to watch a 4hour nfl game in the winter weather they get here, no cover on the stands at all!

yeah they'll sit in snow watching NFL. The Bears are shit too.

 

[Differ To The Coifed]

It’s what they are used to, it’s just the same as when we have 40c days and the poms don’t understand how we don’t all die.

 

[Perth Red]

It’s what they are used to, it’s just the same as when we have 40c days and the poms don’t understand how we don’t all die.

Pretty extremes though, it’s lovely sunny 29 degrees today, hard to imagine it dropping to -15 wind chill they get!

 

[ReddFelon]

In Chicago and been to soldier fields today, nice stadium but sht they must be dedicated fans to watch a 4hour nfl game in the winter weather they get here, no cover on the stands at all!

Part of it is the clothing, I haven't found many places where you can get all weather proof clothes in any part of Australia at affordable prices. Comparatively when I lived in Canada even their generic K-Mart t-shirts are warmer than the ones in Australia.

 

[mave]

In Chicago and been to soldier fields today, nice stadium but sht they must be dedicated fans to watch a 4hour nfl game in the winter weather they get here, no cover on the stands at all!

Its all in the free soup and flowers the NFL offer fans.

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

Broncos v Cronulla looks like the usual for Brisbane on a thurs.

22k

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

In Chicago and been to soldier fields today, nice stadium but sht they must be dedicated fans to watch a 4hour nfl game in the winter weather they get here, no cover on the stands at all!

It is a very strange design

 

[Jamberoo]

I am all for promotion, the more the better. What I am saying is that the game of Rugby League struggles to stand on its own two feet as an attraction for people to attend games. Fans need that extra incentive to attend. That is why I made mention of what I believe to be the reason that 25,000 fans attended the Tigers/Rabbitohs game. Nothing wrong with that, but not every game is going to have that extra incentive. That is one reason why we have some pretty poor crowds.

I don't see the crowds as poor. They are only poor if you compare them to AFL (which is a freak for attendances even by world standards). Compare to any other sport in Australia and they are excellent. Compare to other sports around the world and they are pretty damn good. The crowds only LOOK poor because the stadiums are too big or too crap. AAMI is great with 17K. WSS will be great with 20K. SFS would be great if it held 30K. Update (don't expand, just fix the amenities) the suburban grounds or stop playing there. Put the cameras on the opposite side of the ground to the crowd for a start.
NRL crowds are close to that of the NBA, and not far behind many of the top European soccer leagues. So what if the average is 15K - that is a whole lot of people in the one place at the one time. Bigger crowds would be great, but the money and growth of the game is in broadcasting.

 

[thorson1987]

yeah they'll sit in snow watching NFL. The Bears are shit too.

They have nothing on Cleveland fans though. Imagine sitting in the freezing cold to watch the f**king Browns play.

 

[thorson1987]

It is a very strange design

I can't think of a single outdoor NFL/NCAAF stadium besides Centurylink Field (Seattle) that actually has covered stands.

 

[Diesel]

How many more years of this Thursday rubbish do we have to put up with? I don’t mind up to 10 matches a season but not every week

 

[El Diablo]

How many more years of this Thursday rubbing do we have to put up with? I don’t mind up to 10 matches a season but not every week

4 more after this year

 

[Perth Red]

I don't see the crowds as poor. They are only poor if you compare them to AFL (which is a freak for attendances even by world standards). Compare to any other sport in Australia and they are excellent. Compare to other sports around the world and they are pretty damn good. The crowds only LOOK poor because the stadiums are too big or too crap. AAMI is great with 17K. WSS will be great with 20K. SFS would be great if it held 30K. Update (don't expand, just fix the amenities) the suburban grounds or stop playing there. Put the cameras on the opposite side of the ground to the crowd for a start.
NRL crowds are close to that of the NBA, and not far behind many of the top European soccer leagues. So what if the average is 15K - that is a whole lot of people in the one place at the one time. Bigger crowds would be great, but the money and growth of the game is in broadcasting.

Not really though is it? in comparable wealth countries the nrl avg is significantly behind other number one sports. Population, travel distance for away fans and oversaturation of main market plays a part in nrl being 10-30k lower than these other codes but more concerning is the stagnation and the zero growth over a number of years in crowds for nrl.

I do agree though, if we arent going to make an effort to grow crowds then may as well concede and play games in 20-30k only stadiums so they look decent.

 

[DC_fan]

I don't see the crowds as poor. They are only poor if you compare them to AFL (which is a freak for attendances even by world standards). Compare to any other sport in Australia and they are excellent. Compare to other sports around the world and they are pretty damn good. The crowds only LOOK poor because the stadiums are too big or too crap. AAMI is great with 17K. WSS will be great with 20K. SFS would be great if it held 30K. Update (don't expand, just fix the amenities) the suburban grounds or stop playing there. Put the cameras on the opposite side of the ground to the crowd for a start.
NRL crowds are close to that of the NBA, and not far behind many of the top European soccer leagues. So what if the average is 15K - that is a whole lot of people in the one place at the one time. Bigger crowds would be great, but the money and growth of the game is in broadcasting.

Outside of the AFL, NRL crowds in Australia would be the next best. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that NRL crowds are not poor. Whilst I expect final figures for this year to be up slightly on last year, they will be still down on previous years. Yes you are right about the big money for the game coming from broadcasting. My big concern here is that if people stop attending games, do they eventually stop watch games being broadcasted. The big difference between NRL and NBA crowds is that teams there fill their stadiums 100 percent of the time http://www.espn.com/nba/attendance. How many NRL teams do the same.

 

[hutch]

Definitely room to improve our crowds, but dont forget the nrl has the biggest average and cumulative crowds of any domestic rugby comp on earth. That is still something to be proud of.
But yes, our crowds should definitely be bigger.

 

[footy75]

Definitely room to improve our crowds, but dont forget the nrl has the biggest average and cumulative crowds of any domestic rugby comp on earth. That is still something to be proud of.
.

Exactly.

 

[Jamberoo]

Outside of the AFL, NRL crowds in Australia would be the next best. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that NRL crowds are not poor. Whilst I expect final figures for this year to be up slightly on last year, they will be still down on previous years. Yes you are right about the big money for the game coming from broadcasting. My big concern here is that if people stop attending games, do they eventually stop watch games being broadcasted. The big difference between NRL and NBA crowds is that teams there fill their stadiums 100 percent of the time http://www.espn.com/nba/attendance. How many NRL teams do the same.

The NBA stadiums are full because a sport that is bigger than NRL has stadiums half the size, and ten times the quality. A season full of sell outs creates massive buzz and demand. New stadiums in Perth and Adelaide were built to a size that sells out half the time. This means fans have to buy memberships and reserved seats. Sydney has missed a massive opportunity to fix their stadium problem.

 

[Diesel]

The only way they’d be close to 80% full stadiums would be a blackout on local TV, or partial blackout on some games in the local market, but would only work if multiple games were played at the same time, say each round has 9-10 games a week with multiple Sat/Sunday games.
Friday night, Sunday 4pm would be stand alone games with the odd Sunday night thrown in for regional/state public holidays.