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2024 Crowd Watch

Messages
660
Incredible result. Hopefully the club keeps winning, if the Warriors are going well, it will give a big uplift to the following upcoming matches:
If Warriors keep winning, their opponents will lose. Presumably the only hope for those losing teams is if they start winning. Which in turn means their opponents will lose. And so on, ad infinitum.

Can you foresee a time when NRL clubs will attract good crowds irrespective of who wins and loses? Simply because NRL games are events that NRL fans enjoy attending. Is that a pipedream?
 

Bowyangs

Juniors
Messages
5
The Broncos next two home games are experiencing a bit of a sales surge. Estimates are based on good (better than that ghastly performance on Sunday) form and weather.

- Round 14 v Cronulla - probably at 34k sold.
- Round 18 v Penrith - probably at 40k sold.

As for further down the track:
- Round 19 v St George Illawarra - a few thousand more to sell and then level 7 should open. A bit concerned that this might be our smallest crowd of the year so far unless we (and the Dragons) go on a bit of a run.
- Round 21 v Canterbury - a rare Saturday 3pm game - level 7 should open soon. Could be a very good crowd. If Reynolds comes back a week early it could sell out.
- Round 25 v Paramatta - selling the slowest of all, but yonks away. A bit to go in level 6, but very few available in level 5. Crowd will be reliant on good form and weather.
- Round 27 v Melbourne - selling slowly but level 7 is open. It's a Thursday night, but if in the 8 we should se 35-40k. If we're both around the top 4 it should sell out.
This is very helpful insight! Would you recommend waiting to buy tickets to the Dragons game? Or just buy the best ones available now?
 

Wb1234

Referee
Messages
28,112
If Warriors keep winning, their opponents will lose. Presumably the only hope for those losing teams is if they start winning. Which in turn means their opponents will lose. And so on, ad infinitum.

Can you foresee a time when NRL clubs will attract good crowds irrespective of who wins and loses? Simply because NRL games are events that NRL fans enjoy attending. Is that a pipedream?
Happening now to some extent
 

SLRBRONCOS

Referee
Messages
24,390
This is very helpful insight! Would you recommend waiting to buy tickets to the Dragons game? Or just buy the best ones available now?
There is a chance that more seats in the lower levels which are held back for one game memberships will be made available much closer to the gameday, but I'd absolutely buy some seats up in level 6 section 604 now.

Not the best seats as they aren't centre, but a good view that is out of the weather, and they are priced as 'corners' for this game rather than 'sideline' so IMO it's the best value at the moment.
 

Bowyangs

Juniors
Messages
5
T
There is a chance that more seats in the lower levels which are held back for one game memberships will be made available much closer to the gameday, but I'd absolutely buy some seats up in level 6 section 604 now.

Not the best seats as they aren't centre, but a good view that is out of the weather, and they are priced as 'corners' for this game rather than 'sideline' so IMO it's the best value at the moment
Thanks that’s great advice, the view from there looks ok and it is significantly cheaper than the sideline seats.
 

yakstorm

First Grade
Messages
5,724
If Warriors keep winning, their opponents will lose. Presumably the only hope for those losing teams is if they start winning. Which in turn means their opponents will lose. And so on, ad infinitum.

Can you foresee a time when NRL clubs will attract good crowds irrespective of who wins and loses? Simply because NRL games are events that NRL fans enjoy attending. Is that a pipedream?
I think some clubs can get to the point where on field form has less of an impact on their crowds, but it is reliant on them building a good game day experience, growing membership and arguably creating some scarcity around tickets.

Manly & Warriors are possibly the most likely to achieve that first. The capacity limits on their venues is definitely creating scarcity, which in turn is also helping drive memberships which then is raising the baseline for all future games. Already you can see people buying tickets games in advance, even though there is no guarantee that the team will be going any good later in the season.

Broncos are entering a bit of a golden period in terms of having a very marketable team. Hopefully they can maximise the next few years and make their matches at Suncorp events that are hard to get a ticket for.

Ultimately it will require clubs to not become greedy and rush to push up membership prices significantly for it to work. The Eels undid a lot of work with two significant membership price increases and removing the free kids membership packages since their GF appearance.
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
67,292
If Warriors keep winning, their opponents will lose. Presumably the only hope for those losing teams is if they start winning. Which in turn means their opponents will lose. And so on, ad infinitum.

Can you foresee a time when NRL clubs will attract good crowds irrespective of who wins and loses? Simply because NRL games are events that NRL fans enjoy attending. Is that a pipedream?
Until we get to point where stadiums are sold out to full memberships then no. There will always be a band wagon %. Understandable, no one likes paying big money for poor product experience.
the trick is to get the good time crowds up so when the bad times come the 20-30% natural drop off still means lower clubs are getting healthy crowds.
 

SpaceMonkey

Immortal
Messages
39,276
Until we get to point where stadiums are sold out to full memberships then no. There will always be a band wagon %. Understandable, no one likes paying big money for poor product experience.
the trick is to get the good time crowds up so when the bad times come the 20-30% natural drop off still means lower clubs are getting healthy crowds.
The Warriors are potentially there already. 20 years ago there was a hardcore supporter base of 10-11K who always showed up. In good times that’s increase to 17-18K. 20K only happened in the final games of good seasons. Now sellouts are the norm when the the team is going even moderately well, so hopefully even a prolonged form slump would mean crowds in the high teens.
 
Messages
660
Until we get to point where stadiums are sold out to full memberships then no. There will always be a band wagon %. Understandable, no one likes paying big money for poor product experience.
the trick is to get the good time crowds up so when the bad times come the 20-30% natural drop off still means lower clubs are getting healthy crowds.
NRL needs a generational cultural shift. More people attending games as they would other leisure pursuits.

Check out the game day threads on this forum. Relentless vilification of players, teams, officials, games, and the comp as a whole. Nobody seems to enjoy watching RL. Just an exercise in anger management.

Which carries across to the crowd thread where it's deemed necessary for every team to placate the anger of their fans by winning every game.
 

Wb1234

Referee
Messages
28,112
NRL needs a generational cultural shift. More people attending games as they would other leisure pursuits.

Check out the game day threads on this forum. Relentless vilification of players, teams, officials, games, and the comp as a whole. Nobody seems to enjoy watching RL. Just an exercise in anger management.

Which carries across to the crowd thread where it's deemed necessary for every team to placate the anger of their fans by winning every game.
Nrl at record crowd levels despite Friday 6 pm and Thursdays night games
 
Messages
660
I think some clubs can get to the point where on field form has less of an impact on their crowds, but it is reliant on them building a good game day experience, growing membership and arguably creating some scarcity around tickets.
I agree with the points about pricing, membership, game day experience, etc.

Don't you think though that overall growth depends on the fanbase regarding wins and losses as merely one element of the experience, rather than the be all and end all?

Pessimism would be forgivable if your club were getting spanked every week, year after year, decade after decade.

The salary cap does its job. Every NRL team and game is potentially competitive.

Sharks are top of the ladder, yet lost 0-42 at home last week. It's in the nature of modern RL that such a defeat can happen to any team, whatever their position on the ladder. Means nothing, long-term. Just inevitable ups and downs of a strong and healthy competition.
 

Vee

First Grade
Messages
5,441
I've often thought in the past that t
If Warriors keep winning, their opponents will lose. Presumably the only hope for those losing teams is if they start winning. Which in turn means their opponents will lose. And so on, ad infinitum.

Can you foresee a time when NRL clubs will attract good crowds irrespective of who wins and loses? Simply because NRL games are events that NRL fans enjoy attending. Is that a pipedream?
I've often thought in the past that the ideal result would be every team being strong at home with only the top teams winning away from home.
 

SouthsCountry

Juniors
Messages
565
Also if Parra stop charging $115 a ticket for sideline seats in the upper tier on an Origin round Thursday we may see Commbank a little fuller. I hope Penrith don't rip off their fans there next year like the Eels are.
 
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