The Game 2022 Crowd Watch

[guyver78]

I think the Tigers, Dragons, Dogs and Rabbitohs should all play the majority of their games out of either ANZ or SFS.

 

[Perth Red]

GWS would be using it if they made the finals.

They had a game earlier in the year, Sadly that gives them enough to stop the ends being brought it

Not theres money for it now but surely the NRL could say we wont use it for club games unless made rectangular? Dogs and Souths need to get out of there, its a sht ground for club RL.
The argument should have been that if they did the original plan souths, dogs and tigers would have it as home. Then Vlandys decided he wanted suburban tips doing up and gave them an out.

 

[Wb1234]

Only issue is who’s going to pay for it??? Stupid Covid munchers blew all our money on unnecessary Covid measures the last 2 years, no way they’re going to change ANZ stadium, nor should they. There’s nothing wrong with it.

I think the SFS is now a beautiful ground but it really didn’t need the sort of development that it got. It was the best ground to watch the NRL at in NSW.

I really have no issues with the AFL playing their games there. At the end of the day it’s a public ground, it doesn’t belong to anybody.

They should drop a bomb on accor and start again

the mistake was not selling accor to developers for 300 million instead of spending 300 million to buy the lease from some afl guy

then redo allianz as 65k to 70k and do more club grounds

 

[Timmah]

GWS would be using it if they made the finals.

They had a game earlier in the year, Sadly that gives them enough to stop the ends being brought it

GWS have exclusively used their home ground (Syd Showground) for the three home finals they've played in their history - they used it as a home venue in Round 1 this year I think purely on venue availability.

I don't see that as enough to keep the venue as available for AFL (or cricket, Thunder haven't been back there in yonks). It needs to be converted to a fulltime rectangular ground.

 

[Iamback]

GWS have exclusively used their home ground (Syd Showground) for the three home finals they've played in their history - they used it as a home venue in Round 1 this year I think purely on venue availability.

I don't see that as enough to keep the venue as available for AFL (or cricket, Thunder haven't been back there in yonks). It needs to be converted to a fulltime rectangular ground.

Home - Accor Stadium

Accor Stadium is home to the biggest and best sports events in NSW. Seating up to 80000 spectators Accor Stadium creates an electric atmosphere for live sport and entertainment.

accorstadium.com.au

At the bottom you see GWS listed, They must have some sort of deal.

While that is in place, The Stadium won't change shape

 

[SouthsCountry]

5 sellouts in 6 finals , ( All in Sydney )

pretty fair effort

12k sellouts count?

 

[SouthsCountry]

GWS would be using it if they made the finals.

They had a game earlier in the year, Sadly that gives them enough to stop the ends being brought it

And at that game were all 25,000 AFL fans in Sydney.

The only reason the Swans drew over that this year for some games are travelling old South Melbourne fans and opposition supporters

 

[SouthsCountry]

GWS have exclusively used their home ground (Syd Showground) for the three home finals they've played in their history - they used it as a home venue in Round 1 this year I think purely on venue availability.

I don't see that as enough to keep the venue as available for AFL (or cricket, Thunder haven't been back there in yonks). It needs to be converted to a fulltime rectangular ground.

I was gonna say you were wrong but the 60,222 game at the then ANZ was 1v4, and Swans were the 1. So, Swans home game, moved to Giants precinct to maximise attendance.

We had one Week 1 game there that year (same weekend as the leagues aligned that year), and it only drew 22,631 at Allianz (Canterbury v Penrith was the game).

So that proves the idiotic view that we didn't need a new Allianz wrong. The Roosters may be rubbish, but it would have been inhumane to make them continue playing in a dump with a useless roof.

And yes, this finals proves that rugba leeg is back!

 

[beave]

Doesn't sound like they're throwing up the temp seating at QCB northern end for next weeks prelim like the origin last year. A bit of a shame but they can honestly still sell a few thousand standing tickets for that area and elsewhere around the ground. Would be good to see 28k jammed in there, going to be a huge nights.

 

[guyver78]

They should drop a bomb on accor and start again

the mistake was not selling accor to developers for 300 million instead of spending 300 million to buy the lease from some afl guy

then redo allianz as 65k to 70k and do more club grounds

It’s all good and well to say that but again…WHO’S GOING TO PAY FOR IT? People can whinge all they like but it’s a bit hard to justify blowing all that money to please a few fans who “want to be closer to the action” when there is a perfectly good stadium there already.

The SFS is a beautiful ground but give it 6-8 weeks next year, the novelty will undoubtably wear off and the Roosters will be back to pulling in 10-13K for a regular season fixture give or take.

A stadium is just a stadium in a lot of cases, it’s the fans that make the atmosphere. The NRL as a product unfortunately even after all those years still isn’t set up in such a way to draw 30-40K for every regular season fixture.

We’ve been having these same debates for well over 10yrs now under these crowd watch threads and NOTHING has changed except the time.

 

[Perth Red]

It’s all good and well to say that but again…WHO’S GOING TO PAY FOR IT? People can whinge all they like but it’s a bit hard to justify blowing all that money to please a few fans who “want to be closer to the action” when there is a perfectly good stadium there already.

The SFS is a beautiful ground but give it 6-8 weeks next year, the novelty will undoubtably wear off and the Roosters will be back to pulling in 10-13K for a regular season fixture give or take.

A stadium is just a stadium in a lot of cases, it’s the fans that make the atmosphere. The NRL as a product unfortunately even after all those years still isn’t set up in such a way to draw 30-40K for every regular season fixture.

We’ve been having these same debates for well over 10yrs now under these crowd watch threads and NOTHING has changed except the time.

That's the frustration, for years we've been hearing the bleating from NRLHQ that crowds = stadiums.
Of course we all know it isnt just about that. But hey ho, we now have the stadiums, largely, and we will now see if they were right all along or if next year we are still talking about a 15k avg!
It needs a much bigger strategy, but more importantly an actual goal and desire to see change. Smith is the only CEO we have had who made a statement that growing crowds was an NRL priority. It dropped totally out of the latest strat plan. If anything under Vlandys thats gone backwards with his suburban mentality.

 

[guyver78]

That's the frustration, for years we've been hearing the bleating from NRLHQ that crowds = stadiums.
Of course we all know it isnt just about that. But hey ho, we now have the stadiums, largely, and we will now see if they were right all along or if next year we are still talking about a 15k avg!
It needs a much bigger strategy, but more importantly an actual goal and desire to see change. Smith is the only CEO we have had who made a statement that growing crowds was an NRL priority. It dropped totally out of the latest strat plan. If anything under Vlandys thats gone backwards with his suburban mentality.

Unfortunately better stadiums don’t = better crowds. I would love to be proven wrong here but in a skeptic. I joined this forum in 2013 and to be honest we’re still debating the same old points as to why crowds are still crap.

What people don’t ever talk about is the fact the NRL could EASILY increase these crowds if they just wanted to. The reason it hasn’t happened and it won’t happen anytime soon is because it’s simply not financially viable to do so.

3 things you could do to double your crowds everywhere almost immediately.

1. lower the prices of tickets, especially rubbish seats behind the dead ball line.
2. Play 1 game Friday night, 1 on Saturday avo and the rest Sunday afternoon at 3pm as it used to be.
3. Simply play less games

NONE of that will happen because the return on your investment doesn’t justify it. New stadiums are a small and modest path in the right direction but they won’t automatically bring in flocks of people week in week out for 26 weeks. It just won’t happen….

 

[Perth Red]

Unfortunately better stadiums don’t = better crowds. I would love to be proven wrong here but in a skeptic. I joined this forum in 2013 and to be honest we’re still debating the same old points as to why crowds are still crap.

What people don’t ever talk about is the fact the NRL could EASILY increase these crowds if they just wanted to. The reason it hasn’t happened and it won’t happen anytime soon is because it’s simply not financially viable to do so.

3 things you could do to double your crowds everywhere almost immediately.

1. lower the prices of tickets, especially rubbish seats behind the dead ball line.
2. Play 1 game Friday night, 1 on Saturday avo and the rest Sunday afternoon at 3pm as it used to be.
3. Simply play less games

NONE of that will happen because the return on your investment doesn’t justify it. New stadiums are a small and modest path in the right direction but they won’t automatically bring in flocks of people week in week out for 26 weeks. It just won’t happen….

That really isnt so. No sport with crowds over 20k has had to do those things (except NFL with number of games). There are undoubtably some things that can be done and that would require funding, but more importantly it requires the nrl and its clubs to have that goal and grow some balls.

 

[guyver78]

That really isnt so. No sport with crowds over 20k has had to do those things (except NFL with number of games). There are undoubtably some things that can be done and that would require funding, but more importantly it requires the nrl and its clubs to have that goal and grow some balls.

Like what? What do you think they could do that would be 1 financially viable? 2 worth their time?

 

[SouthsCountry]

We’ve been having these same debates for well over 10yrs now under these crowd watch threads and NOTHING has changed except the time.

Maybe we know nothing's gonna change but enjoy whinging about it every year

 

[guyver78]

Maybe we know nothing's gonna change but enjoy whinging about it every year

LOL I mean yeah. The NRL have a certain amount of what I’d call “premium supporters”, people like you or I. I myself have been a season ticket holder for the past 10 years and I’ll go and watch Souths play at home for most l, if not all home games all year regardless of whether they play at the SFS or ANZ. It’s what I also enjoy doing in my spare time, watching Rugby League live at a stadium.

For the casual non committed supporter tho, who doesn’t mind what he does. There’s not enough motivation or to put it better VALUE to pay $70+ for a good seat, be stuck in Sydney traffic trying to get to SFS/ANZ on a Friday night and sit there in the winter cold. I’ve seen the same supporters in Aisles 107/108 that have been there for the past 10 years now.

 

[Perth Red]

Like what? What do you think they could do that would be 1 financially viable? 2 worth their time?

Take back control of scheduling for a start. The old Dave Smith, right game, right time, right venue.
Take back control of membership activity, since the NRL handed it back to the clubs most of them have slowed down significantly compared to when NRL were running it.
Invest in subsidising cheap kids admission.
Make any future club grant increase determinant on offering free kids GA membership with every paying adult.
Make future grant payment 80% baseline and 20% kpi related.
Support clubs to get the best deals and use the best venues available.
Better use the $24.5mill of contra advertising they have

And thats just off top of my head! I'm sure brighter minds than mine can develop a fan engagement strategy for the competition! Look at AFL, as soon as crowds started to drop this year they brought in a raft of initiatives to address it. I cant honestly think of one thing the NRl has done in years?

 

[Iamback]

Take back control of scheduling for a start. The old Dave Smith, right game, right time, right venue.
Take back control of membership activity, since the NRL handed it back to the clubs most of them have slowed down significantly compared to when NRL were running it.
Invest in subsidising cheap kids admission.
Make any future club grant increase determinant on offering free kids GA membership with every paying adult.
Make future grant payment 80% baseline and 20% kpi related.
Support clubs to get the best deals and use the best venues available.
Better use the $24.5mill of contra advertising they have

And thats just off top of my head! I'm sure brighter minds than mine can develop a fan engagement strategy for the competition! Look at AFL, as soon as crowds started to drop this year they brought in a raft of initiatives to address it. I cant honestly think of one thing the NRl has done in years?

Penrith pay $550k for the upkeep of Penrith Stadium in lieu of rent
They make minimum of $100k extra sales at the club on game nights

Why should NRL decide what is best for them in their fans?

Junior players get free entry to games anyway. Why do they need to be a member?

 

[Perth Red]

Penrith pay $550k for the upkeep of Penrith Stadium in lieu of rent
They make minimum of $100k extra sales at the club on game nights

Why should NRL decide what is best for them in their fans?

Junior players get free entry to games anyway. Why do they need to be a member?

I've heard this about Jnrs and free tickets in some areas but I struggle to link how you can give 10k kids free tickets for every game and get crowds rarely topping 14k? Does it really happen or is it one of those urban myths that gets told so often everyone thinks its true?

Again you come up with a really good example, a club that didn't have much faith in growing its fanbase so invested in pokies to cover the $6mill operating loss they have from not having many fans. Ironically the fans seem to have come out the woodwork with the success of the team and a new stadium might actually shake them out of that slumber and give them some confidence they can attract new customers.

 

[Brutus]

GWS would be using it if they made the finals.

They had a game earlier in the year, Sadly that gives them enough to stop the ends being brought it

No they wouldn't. They made the finals a few years ago and didn't use it.