2024 Crowd Watch

[taste2taste]

RL at the moment is a niche sport in Fiji while RU is like a religion with the “flying Fijians“ national side, the 7’s side and the super rugby team the Fijian Drua.

If that’s the case you’d think they’d price the tickets accordingly?

sell them cheap to fill the stadium. What’s the point of playing these games in Fiji if the stadium is 75% empty.

 

[Iamback]

there are probably a few T20 leagues around that get bigger crowds that international matches - particularly tests and even 50 over matches

Barcelona average 83,000 for the season, but the spanish national team played a match recently against Denmark that drew only 30,000

Correct. Even Test cricket outside of a couple of countries pulls horrible crowds

 

[warriors 95]

If that’s the case you’d think they’d price the tickets accordingly?

would make a lot of sense to do so.

sell them cheap to fill the stadium. What’s the point of playing these games in Fiji if the stadium is 75% empty.

pit could just be me but I get the feeling that RL is going backwards in Fiji compared to 6-7 years ago when it seemed like there was a good number of Fijians playing in the NRL, NSW&QUEENSLAND cup and Jersey Flegg etc.

 

[warriors 95]

Correct. Even Test cricket outside of a couple of countries pulls horrible crowds

I’m not a cricket fan but it appears to me that Outside of the ashes and maybe India or a Pakistani tour to England the rest are nothing to write home about.

 

[yakstorm]

What’s going on with league in Fiji ?
storm only got 5k and looks like the bati will get the same.
meanwhile the super rugby team sells out every home game, is league that small in Fiji they don’t even bother watching their national team ?

Its sooo rugby league that a club, the broncos, can average 40k but the national team can only pull 25k, what other sports are that club centric ?

Firstly, to clarify, the Dura don't sell out every game, this was from earlier this year against the Pacific Moana where they named 3,000. They've had other games as well where the capacity has been well below capacity during their time in Super Rugby.



Outside of the lack of history of fans in Fiji attending Rugby League matches in big numbers, the reality is every match taken so far over there has had minimal promotion. Storm v Knights had a few newspaper articles and ads, but not much else. The PMXIII match and the 40/20 Tri-Nations concept were put on and crowds were expected to turn up.

The Super League World Nines, back in 96, possibly had the most promotion, and it got the highest crowds for a RL match / event in the past 30 years.

You compare that with the Dura, and literally you can see Dura matches being promoted everywhere. There is big pushes at Nadi & Suva airports, a number of the major roundabouts in Fiji have countdowns to their next games, many of the resorts offer 'day trips' out to Dura matches, etc. They have invested in marketing and do a pretty solid job with it. The fact there is also generations of Fijians who have only ever supported Rugby Union helps as well.

The FNRL on the other hand barely has enough resources to run it's ever growing number of competitions. Rightly or wrongly, marketing is not on their list of priorities. The NRL, does itself no favours announcing a game like this so late, and then just doesn't have the network it has in Australia to push an event in Fiji.

In terms of your club v national team comparison, the reality comes down to staffing. If the Kangaroos, Kiwis or any other RL national team had the same sized marketing teams as an NRL club, it's crowds would be a lot bigger. Same if they had the certainty of fixtures. For the Broncos, their fans know they'll have 12 home games in Brisbane next year. For Kangaroos fans, we suspect they'll be playing the Great England Britain Lions in a Test Series between 1 - 3 matches, but we don't know for sure where those games will be, etc.

 

[yakstorm]

Ok some positive movement at Suncorp. 518 and 525 have both gone on sale on the eastern grandstand (with most of the bays inbetween being stadium members bays).

Bays in the North have increased from what was 530 - 533, to now to 528 - 535.

Seats seem to be moving reasonably quickly there as well which is encouraging. Lower bowl corners starting to look a lot better as well.

At least we're starting to move into 20K territory now.

In Auckland, second tier of the North Stand has now been put on sale and there has been definitely some solid sales around other bays in the ground.

 

[Iamback]

I’m not a cricket fan but it appears to me that Outside of the ashes and maybe India or a Pakistani tour to England the rest are nothing to write home about.

yep and 50 over games get even smaller crowds

So NRL is not alone in this regard

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

At least we're starting to move into 20K territory now.

I haven't been keeping an eye on the map so not sure if they went to every second row in some areas. If not we could be in 22-24k presold.

If level 5 south has been gifted to junior clubs and schools we'd be sitting around 27k. Good stadium members and 30k isn't out of the question.

 

[bazza]

Correct. Even Test cricket outside of a couple of countries pulls horrible crowds

Even in Australia - games that aren't against England or India tend to get poor crowds of late

 

[bazza]

That’s exactly my point, basketball is the only other sport where players will do anything they can to avoid playing internationals, USA fielded D grade teams in those tournaments…and still won 1. And like league there is only 1 team that dominates, USA have won 17 of 20 olympics and the majority of those they only sent college players.

Basket and league, the only sports where internationals are below clubs.

If only rugby league was more like hockey where there is a lot more interest in internationals every 4 years than the weekly club games

 

[bazza]

yep and 50 over games get even smaller crowds

So NRL is not alone in this regard

not sure that it is so bad having 200 club games average 20,000 and then only getting 15,000 to 6 international games at the end of the year

 

[yakstorm]

527 just gone on sale in Brisbane. 529 - 534 down to single seats now, so hopefully we'll see more parts opened up tomorrow.

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

527 just gone on sale in Brisbane. 529 - 534 down to single seats now, so hopefully we'll see more parts opened up tomorrow.

Sadly 516 and 517 are open for sale now, so my speculation (and hope!) of those areas being gifted/redeemed by junior clubs and schools was wrong.

30k is still possible, but maxing out 27-28k is more likely. I'll be shocked to see anything less than 25k from here. Lets see how we go - usually the Thursday night before the game is the Broncos best sales night, so hopefully we see 2-4k shifted the next couple of nights. Will be good nonetheless, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see a fairly even crowd split which will be amazing.

Edit: 506 is now open. Very strange!

 

[Wb1234]

Rugby league got massive test match crowds in the 60s

Having the pacific cup as a regular event will build each year

Having nrl clubs in png and nz2 will provide a huge benefit to test match footy

Who knows once we expand beyond 20 teams a Fijian nrl side could be on the card if png is doing well in the nrl

League will then be the only Australian sport with a strong club origin and international levels

 

[Matt_CBY]

What’s going on with league in Fiji ?
storm only got 5k and looks like the bati will get the same.
meanwhile the super rugby team sells out every home game, is league that small in Fiji they don’t even bother watching their national team ?

Its sooo rugby league that a club, the broncos, can average 40k but the national team can only pull 25k, what other sports are that club centric ?

It’s all relative. Once upon a time no one would have believed that a Rugby League match between Australia and Tonga would draw a crowd of 25,000-30,000.

 

[Perth Red]

The Int comp has to be seen as legit if you want fans to spend hard earned caring about it. Players withdrawing, late announcement of fixtures, half arsed marketing, a very nonchalant media and its no wonder fans are hardly clamouring for tickets. I miss the test matches of the early 90's when it seemed liked it really mattered to the players. 1990 Ashes tour remains the highlight for me, two star stacked teams, 3 close games all three games large crowds (54k, 46k, 32k). Glory days indeed for the Int game.

 

[yakstorm]

Sadly 516 and 517 are open for sale now, so my speculation (and hope!) of those areas being gifted/redeemed by junior clubs and schools was wrong.

30k is still possible, but maxing out 27-28k is more likely. I'll be shocked to see anything less than 25k from here. Lets see how we go - usually the Thursday night before the game is the Broncos best sales night, so hopefully we see 2-4k shifted the next couple of nights. Will be good nonetheless, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see a fairly even crowd split which will be amazing.

Edit: 506 is now open. Very strange!

Maybe they've gifted the bays inbetween. It is strange that they've not put on sale between 509 - 513 of they haven't been filled already.

 

[Wb1234]

The Int comp has to be seen as legit if you want fans to spend hard earned caring about it. Players withdrawing, late announcement of fixtures, half arsed marketing, a very nonchalant media and its no wonder fans are hardly clamouring for tickets. I miss the test matches of the early 90's when it seemed liked it really mattered to the players. 1990 Ashes tour remains the highlight for me, two star stacked teams, 3 close games all three games large crowds (54k, 46k, 32k). Glory days indeed for the Int game.

The irony was the best recent test matches v England /gb were pre super league when the game was semi pro in England bar two clubs

 

[Billythekid]

The Int comp has to be seen as legit if you want fans to spend hard earned caring about it. Players withdrawing, late announcement of fixtures, half arsed marketing, a very nonchalant media and its no wonder fans are hardly clamouring for tickets. I miss the test matches of the early 90's when it seemed liked it really mattered to the players. 1990 Ashes tour remains the highlight for me, two star stacked teams, 3 close games all three games large crowds (54k, 46k, 32k). Glory days indeed for the Int game.

100%. I’m a long term fan of international league. I’ve organised a bus load of fans to attend World Cup matches in the past. I’ve watched the shitty low quality streams of qualifying matches. Even I can barely muster any interest in this tournament, you can’t blame the fans for that.

 

[Perth Red]

The irony was the best recent test matches v England /gb were pre super league when the game was semi pro in England bar two clubs

Not sure Id say that
2001 ashes series started well
2003 ashes series had 3 very close games
the 28-20 game in 2013 RLWC with 45k watching in cardiff was pretty good
2017 RLWC final in front of 40k was a tough battle