2024 Crowd Watch

[yakstorm]

I wonder where the NFL will choose to go if/when they play games in Australia

‘Time to make it happen’: Sydney jockeying for historic NFL clash

The NFL has just played a historic season-opening match in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Could Sydney be one of the game’s next international stops?

www.smh.com.au

It's down to two venues, Accor & MCG.

 

[The_Wookie]

View attachment 93877

Its not that they were ignored, the Victorian government chose not to even bid for this.

 

[EuroNymous]

dogs v manly 29068pax just then on the kennel

 

[Sky_Is_The_Limit]

^^
I just saw that too. Bit surprised that people in The Kennel forum are disappointed the pax is "so low." I wonder if it's because the regular season pax for the Dogs usually includes members (not to mention weeks of sales, not two days) and that has distorted people's perceptions?

In any case, I think the pax is very good. They've basically outsold the capacity of every other Week 1 finals ground in two days. They're clearly on track for a 40k+ crowd, and how big the "plus" is is probably contingent on the weather.

Sales will slow Wed-Thurs, but the pax should be 35k+ by the time the finals start on Friday, and each game leading up to Sunday will give sales a boost.

 

[BlueandGold]

Dogs/Manly has till Sunday 4pm to move tickets.

Going to be a massive crowd.

You have pay day on Thursday for most so expect tickets to move quickly on that day.

And centrlink pay goes in when? hahaha

About 1k tickets left for the Cowboys game.

Storm game still has a lot of tickets available, this is the game the NRL needs to push hard to fill the venue.

 

[jim_57]

^^
I just saw that too. Bit surprised that people in The Kennel forum are disappointed the pax is "so low." I wonder if it's because the regular season pax for the Dogs usually includes members (not to mention weeks of sales, not two days) and that has distorted people's perceptions?

In any case, I think the pax is very good. They've basically outsold the capacity of every other Week 1 finals ground in two days. They're clearly on track for a 40k+ crowd, and how big the "plus" is is probably contingent on the weather.

Sales will slow Wed-Thurs, but the pax should be 35k+ by the time the finals start on Friday, and each game leading up to Sunday will give sales a boost.

True sleeping giant, when was the last time (if ever) a Sydney club had 3 consecutive 30k+ crowds?

Slightly off-topic but when the Bulldogs’ Liverpool 40k capacity stadium idea was doing the rounds most recently many people said that was too big, now we’re seeing it might be about right.

 

[Vlad59]

Its not that they were ignored, the Victorian government chose not to even bid for this.

Because their stadiums are shit. Stop defending it.

 

[mattyg]

True sleeping giant, when was the last time (if ever) a Sydney club had 3 consecutive 30k+ crowds?

Slightly off-topic but when the Bulldogs’ Liverpool 40k capacity stadium idea was doing the rounds most recently many people said that was too big, now we’re seeing it might be about right.

Prior to that in Sydney, dogs sold out Belmore (easily), 27k against Warriors at 3pm on a Saturday and 2 games prior to that was 45k against Parra.

If the fixture is done well for next year (I.e. actually playing Souths & Panthers at home, Dragons at a friendlier time), the dogs could actually average over 30k if they are as competitive as this year.

 

[yakstorm]

^^
I just saw that too. Bit surprised that people in The Kennel forum are disappointed the pax is "so low." I wonder if it's because the regular season pax for the Dogs usually includes members (not to mention weeks of sales, not two days) and that has distorted people's perceptions?

In any case, I think the pax is very good. They've basically outsold the capacity of every other Week 1 finals ground in two days. They're clearly on track for a 40k+ crowd, and how big the "plus" is is probably contingent on the weather.

Sales will slow Wed-Thurs, but the pax should be 35k+ by the time the finals start on Friday, and each game leading up to Sunday will give sales a boost.

Corporates is another group that is unlikely to be included in the PAX yet. Considering the venues for Week 1 of the Finals, the NRL will be hosting most of its corporate partners at Accor on Sunday (with AAMI Park likely to also have a significant corporate attendance as well) which will help swell numbers.

I imagine there will be a larger number of Accor Stadium members who attend this week versus the last two matches.

 

[Wb1234]

 

[ouwet]

dogs v manly 29068pax just then on the kennel

30290 now...

 

[Sky_Is_The_Limit]

On level 4, Bays 404-410 are down to single seats only, and Bays 403 and 411 are down to limited seats (<5).

Unclear if all seats in Bays 403-411 have been released, but whatever stock is being released is selling very quickly. I suspect the rest of Level 4 East will be on sale tomorrow, and Level 6 East could be on sale as early as Thursday.

 

[The_Wookie]

Because their stadiums are shit. Stop defending it.

How about no.

Lol the Victorian Government didnt bid because it was done pre WWC before anyone really thought the matches were worth anything. At the time they were still playing in regional venues and perth.

Victoria defends call not to bid to host Matildas matches for 2026 Women's Asian Cup

Despite spruiking its state as the "home of the Matildas", the Victorian government opted not to make a pitch and will miss out on hosting matches for the 2026 Asian Cup.

www.abc.net.au

 

[The_Wookie]

VIC and SA gave up AAMI Park and Coopers, hence why they got the dregs of the competition games. Perth was nuked with nothing.

Thats going to be news to the operators of HBF Park who hosted 5 matches during the Cup.

All VIC had to do was hand over Marvel for 6 weeks during the AFL season and they would have at least got a semi-final and many other larger games.

Its 7 weeks. Not six. And a Bledisloe clash in their as well. And besides it seems that Football Australia just assumed things, and never made formal enquiries or requests to either the MCG, or the AFL, or the Victorian Goverment for that matter. Under the terms of the 2018 AFL-Docklands funding deal, Docklands must be made available to other sports and to events the Vic Gov classes as major for the next 30 years.

negotiations between it, the AFL – which owns Marvel Stadium – and the MCG did not proceed much beyond the polite inquiries stage."

ref: https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer...ren-t-playing-at-the-mcg-20230717-p5doxk.html

The AFL could have easily survived with the MCG and Geelong during the World Cup, and Victoria would have also reaped the benefits of a major influx of overseas tourism from the World Cup and a boost to their economy.

The average crowd at AFL matches in Melbourne this year exceeded the capacity of Geelong by some margin. Theres no way the MCC or the AFL allow their grounds to sit largely unused for 2 months in the middle of winter.

But no, the fear of the world game and rectangular sports in general showed through, to protect AFL.

The AFL doesnt really need protecting in Victoria.

Their self proclaimed "Sporting Capital of the World" is only perpetrated by them and is a fallacy. They cannot claim this when they continue to ignore the world's biggest sport like they do.

Its not the biggest sport in Victoria by any metric. Not TV, not attendance, not grassroots.

I mean they also claim it based on its hosting the Melbourne Cup, the Australian Open, the Australian Grand Prix, Bledisloe and Origin attendances, the Boxing Day test, and the 3rd highest average attended domestic sporting competition on the planet - noting that the AFLs attendance at Docklands and the MCG alone is also higher than the entire NRL competition. {4.154m v 3.9m].

Everyone but soccer is happy enough.

What is pretty cool is that the NRL just got on with our competition (without some of our major stadiums) and worked alongside another sport and yet we continued to be successful with our own growing attendances during that time.

Which is easy to do when your competition has average crowds of less than 20,000. You can literally host matches almost anywhere. Its a little less tenable when you average 36,000.

Furthermore, Australia is hosting the Woman's FIFA Asian Cup in 2026. It will again be huge, and again the AFL states will be given the dregs.

Western Australia is literally one of three states getting matches. Victoria never even bid for matches.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

They do have a choice though. The NRL, Rugby Australia, World Rugby, IRL, Football Australia don't have to play at Docklands or the MCG and they don't have to play in Melbourne at all, but they all have chosen to.

FIFA is the only body that has pushed back.

Now of course if Melbourne had a bigger rectangular ground, it could win some of those events that have gone to the MCG & Docklands, but firstly how big does it have to be? The NRL isn't playing Origin in a 40K-50K stadium in Melbourne, when it knows it can get 90K at the MCG & there is plenty of other events which would be thinking the same.

The Victorian Government knows this. Firstly they have the highest major event win ratio of any state government, so they don't feel like they are missing out significantly and secondly even if budgets weren't an issue, they know that at the moment they are lacking enough events to justify the investment currently.

That's the unfortunate reality of it. I'd love for it not to be true & for a modern Suncorp equivalent to be getting built in Melbourne, but it's just not anyone's priority, not even the Storm or the NRLs.

They don't have a real choice. Ignoring the country's second largest market is not an option and the only rectangular stadium is 30k. Hence their only choice is Docklands or MCG

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Thats going to be news to the operators of HBF Park who hosted 5 matches during the Cup.



Its 7 weeks. Not six. And a Bledisloe clash in their as well. And besides it seems that Football Australia just assumed things, and never made formal enquiries or requests to either the MCG, or the AFL, or the Victorian Goverment for that matter. Under the terms of the 2018 AFL-Docklands funding deal, Docklands must be made available to other sports and to events the Vic Gov classes as major for the next 30 years.


ref: https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer...ren-t-playing-at-the-mcg-20230717-p5doxk.html



The average crowd at AFL matches in Melbourne this year exceeded the capacity of Geelong by some margin. Theres no way the MCC or the AFL allow their grounds to sit largely unused for 2 months in the middle of winter.



The AFL doesnt really need protecting in Victoria.



Its not the biggest sport in Victoria by any metric. Not TV, not attendance, not grassroots.

I mean they also claim it based on its hosting the Melbourne Cup, the Australian Open, the Australian Grand Prix, Bledisloe and Originwow attendances, the Boxing Day test, and the 3rd highest average attended domestic sporting competition on the planet - noting that the AFLs attendance at Docklands and the MCG alone is also higher than the entire NRL competition. {4.154m v 3.9m].

Everyone but soccer is happy enough.



Which is easy to do when your competition has average crowds of less than 20,000. You can literally host matches almost anywhere. Its a little less tenable when you average 36,000.



Western Australia is literally one of three states getting matches. Victoria never even bid for matches.

Wow! You're really digging deep in defense of the AFL. Your AFL house media accreditation renewal is on the way from the AFL Communist Party

 

[dogslife]

Because their stadiums are shit. Stop defending it.

It's asian women's soccer.

You could play it at Lidcombe oval and not fill it. Why are we spruiking this as some massive missed opportunity for Victoria?

 

[Steel Saints]

Disagree. Storm crowds of 20k or even 28k would lack atmosphere at a 40k+ stadium. Wouldn‘t want to lose that just to gain an occasional soccer match. 30k is perfect until Storm are selling out the majority of home games.

Having more people at a game doesn't necessarily mean it will have a cracking atmosphere. I've been to games where the capacity is three quarters full or close to full, but it had a rather sedate atmosphere, because the home team was getting thumped. Kinda depends with what happens on the field too.

With regards to new or upgraded stadiums, politics and self interest does occur from time to time. The Roosters weren't selling out majority of their games at the old SFS, but thanks to the old SCG Trust, a new 40k plus stadium was built. While in Melbourne, AAMI Park was restricted to 30,000 capacity so that it would protect the interests of Docklands.

Now tbf to the Roosters, since their return in the last couple of years, they have averaged over 20k in each season. I don't think the Roosters averaged not even once over 20k during their 30 year period at the old SFS. LU, The Wookie, Roosters fans or anyone else could correct me if I'm wrong with those stats.

 

[Marlins]

A 50k odd stadium beside Aami would be ideal.
Storm permanent tenant, I personally think they would average higher than the Dolphins at Suncorp barring their match against The broncos.
The storm have so much growing ahead of them and Aami will only restrict them crowd wise.
Origins, tests for both Rugby codes, and of course International Soccer.
But the AFL mafia will never let this happen.

 

[Gobsmacked]

A 50k odd stadium beside Aami would be ideal.
Storm permanent tenant, I personally think they would average higher than the Dolphins at Suncorp barring their match against The broncos.
The storm have so much growing ahead of them and Aami will only restrict them crowd wise.
Origins, tests for both Rugby codes, and of course International Soccer.
But the AFL mafia will never let this happen.

Storms home ground is 27k , they average under 20k in a year when they lead the comp. They have plenty of room for growth.
This uproar over the odd game possibily pulling more is silly. I think we can leave the hall full stadium issue at homebush thanks.