2024 Crowd Watch

[It's Been Done]

Corey Parker on Fox League mentioned 14k in attendance tonight at Suncorp

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

Not a great crowd - hopefully the Dolphins learn from this and find ways to draw a few more on a Thursday night with a better ticket marketing strategy.

 

[Bukowski]

Corey Parker on Fox League mentioned 14k in attendance tonight at Suncorp

That cant be right

 

[League Unlimited News]

 

[Diesel]

Not a great crowd - hopefully the Dolphins learn from this and find ways to draw a few more on a Thursday night with a better ticket marketing strategy.

They sent two two SMS today advertising 2 for 1 tickets

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

They sent two two SMS today advertising 2 for 1 tickets

Too late - needed to do that on Monday

 

[TheEroticGamer]

Biggest sporting institution in the world

 

[Brian potter]

Maybe the dolphins should look at playing all Thursday night games at Kayo because that was shocking.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

They sent two two SMS today advertising 2 for 1 tickets

I got them as well.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Corey Parker on Fox League mentioned 14k in attendance tonight at Suncorp

That's not bad considering it was very cold and wet. Thursday isn't a good night for people from Moreton Bay to travel to Lang Park.

 

[Ride the Lion to Zion]

I forgot about that... so many stories they could be telling... yet the only stories they put out to hype up the game have been:

Kaufusi ready for Suncorp Stadium return
Stone living 'next man up' mentality
Woolf chasing consistency

Literally ChatGPT style content which arguably could be used multiple times in the year.

Too much, or wrong type of, hype can backfire. Pull a crowd to see a particular player and the bloke could have an awful game or be carted off inside the first minute. Same hazards ensue from generating superficial interest in a successful team.

Despite last year's sharp rise in attendances, this year's crowd thread is still peppered with posts in the style of "good crowd, but they need to keep winning" or "they lost last week, so this week people won't bother". Prior to the 8k at Souths/Penrith, someone with a rabbit in his profile was cheerfully opining he'd be surprised if 5k turned up.

This is a RL forum. Most contributors are presumably RL fans. The belief that NRL games are not inherently events worthy of attendance is profoundly entrenched. There always has to be an extra reason to prise supporters away from their sofas.

Whatever the cause of the fatalism, whether it's in the nature of the game on the field or an ethos derived from a fanbase traditionally composed of those with less disposable income, without a radical shift there's little hope of emulating the AFL's attendance culture.

Add scheduling, ticket release and pricing policies. TV fans are unmistakably the NRL priority.

 

[Lidcombe Bull]

Maybe the dolphins should look at playing all Thursday night games at Kayo because that was shocking.

Kayo can't hold 14K. So although 14K in a 53K stadium looks bad it is still bigger than anything they can fit into Kayo (capacity 10K).

Perspective is useful too though, 14K on a wet Thursday night is actually a good crowd compared to any other team bar Brisbane. Redcliffe also are only in their second season.

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

Kayo can't hold 14K. So although 14K in a 53K stadium looks bad it is still bigger than anything they can fit into Kayo (capacity 10K).

Perspective is useful too though, 14K on a wet Thursday night is actually a good crowd compared to any other team bar Brisbane. Redcliffe also are only in their second season.

The week before magic round isn't the best for crowds too, some people will be planning on anywhere from 1-4days next weekend so would have stayed at home

 

[moffla]

Kayo can't hold 14K. So although 14K in a 53K stadium looks bad it is still bigger than anything they can fit into Kayo (capacity 10K).

Perspective is useful too though, 14K on a wet Thursday night is actually a good crowd compared to any other team bar Brisbane. Redcliffe also are only in their second season.

Might be an unpopular opinion, but I think selling out a 10k seater and having a a couple of thousand miss out is better for the Dolphins in the long run. Creates a sense of FOMO and makes it seem like a hot ticket.

But, you're right in saying that 14k on a Thursday night is a pass mark - just doesn't look fab on the TV.

 

[Lidcombe Bull]

While on the subject of perspective, here are the crowds from round 21 in 1984.

Jul-21​	Sat	Cronulla	22​	Penrith	22​	Endeavour	4,095​
Jul-22​	Sun	Canberra	8​	Illawarra	14​	Seiffert	3,465​
Jul-22​	Sun	North Sydney	4​	Manly	56​	North Sydney	2,828​
Jul-22​	Sun	Parramatta	3​	St George	2​	Belmore	13,108​
Jul-22​	Sun	South Sydney	10​	Balmain	0​	Redfern	3,406​
Jul-22​	Sun	Western Suburbs	6​	Eastern Suburbs	8​	Lidcombe	1,395​

 

[westerntiger]

While on the subject of perspective, here are the crowds from round 21 in 1984.

Jul-21​	Sat	Cronulla	22​	Penrith	22​	Endeavour	4,095​
Jul-22​	Sun	Canberra	8​	Illawarra	14​	Seiffert	3,465​
Jul-22​	Sun	North Sydney	4​	Manly	56​	North Sydney	2,828​
Jul-22​	Sun	Parramatta	3​	St George	2​	Belmore	13,108​
Jul-22​	Sun	South Sydney	10​	Balmain	0​	Redfern	3,406​
Jul-22​	Sun	Western Suburbs	6​	Eastern Suburbs	8​	Lidcombe	1,395​

The good old days when every ground was packed every weekend.
Seriously though it was probably raining.

 

[horrie hastings]

The good old days when every ground was packed every weekend.
Seriously though it was probably raining.

It was , i remember thinking of going to the West vs East game at Lidcombe but the rain became torrential during the morning, also another reason why that game wouldn't have drawn apart from the rain was it was second last playing last.

 

[Valheru]

I haven't seen an official crowd yet but if it was 14k then that, on a wet Thursday night, is better than the 18k they got on a sunny Sunday arvo IMO.

 

[yakstorm]

This was posted on the Wests Tamworth FB page last night:

 

[League Unlimited News]