Any SEQ residents got info, anecdotal or otherwise, on how well the Dolphins are building a reliable support base beyond their immediate catchment area?
I accept the point about AFL attendances in absolute terms, but it's important for the NRL expansion strategy that the second franchise in Brisbane performs as well, proportionate to the Broncos, as the second AFL franchises in Perth and Adelaide. I would put that as an average of roughly 25k at Suncorp.
I agree the crowds aren't good enough but I think the past two games in particular the train line closures have been an issue.
For the Knights game the previous Sunday, all of the northside train lines were closed all weekend for maintenance including the Redcliffe train line which would have impacted the crowd quite heavily.
For Thursday's game, the Shorncliffe line (the line directly south of Redcliffe) has been closed all week for upgrades and would have had a small impact on the crowd. The rain was heavy and regular enough on Thursday afternoon to be a big factor together with playing a low-drawing team. Crowd of 20,000+ should still have been considered par though.
The other issues the Dolphins have:
1. Poor promo of their home games.
2. Poor schedule for drawing crowds - they've been gifted an 'easy' draw to help them out however this means playing most of the teams that draw the smallest crowds at Suncorp, even for the Broncos.
3. Lack of star power - they have a lot of toilers in the Dolphins team but not a huge amount of players who would attract 'neutrals' to their games compared to the Broncos, regardless of results. Most neutral attendees would probably rather save their money for Broncos games to see Walsh, Reynolds, Mam, Carrigan etc. Hammer is the main one for Dolphins and he's out.
4. Geographic identity - I think the lack of geographic identity makes it hard for people actually in Brisbane to identify with them. In the absence of a location in their name, there have been players and commentators over the past year refer to them in interviews as Redcliffe which reinforces a perception that they're a Redcliffe team and not a true 'Brisbane' team. I'd be fascinated to know how many members and supporters they have in the south Brisbane-Logan area. If they want larger crowds at Suncorp then they really need to tap into all of Brisbane and all surrounding council areas, not just Moreton Bay/north Brisbane/Sunshine Coast.
