2025 Crowd Watch

[Wb1234]

Dogs are going to get some massive crowds this year more than just Easter

If their season holds up late season they will crack 30k regularly and 40 k plus for the big games

One of their traditional rivals in Sydney doing well like dragons or parra (yeh I know not happening lol) they could crack 50k

I hate Accor but it’s decent when 30k plus are in and can cater for dogs crowds best

It’s been ages since a big Sydney club went on to win a comp and carry Sydney crowds with it

 

[Sky_Is_The_Limit]

This seems like a fairly circuitous argument.

The Broncos have a great culture of game day attendance, and Suncorp is a fantastic (and well located) stadium that helps enormously with this culture.

In comparison, I think most forumers would agree that Accor has an inferior game day experience (included in this scope - the commute, the precinct, the weather proofing and the stadium itself), especially for regular season NRL games.

See below for more thoughts -

COMMUTE:
- A game day commute from Eagle Street Pier (a reasonable landmark to define as the "centre" of the Brisbane CBD) takes approximately 20 minutes from door to door (i.e. including walk time and bus time) to Suncorp
- A game day commute from Martin Place (a reasonable landmark to define as the "centre" of the Sydney CBD) takes approximately 70 minutes from door to door (i.e. including walk time, two trains and transfer time) to Accor OR approximately 45 minutes from Parramatta Square (a reasonable landmark to define as the "centre" of the Parramatta CBD).
- Compare the Accor commute to one from Parramatta Square to Commbank (16 minute walk), or to one from Martin Place to Allianz (~20 min by bus or light rail).

The commuting experience to Accor won't improve until 2032, when Sydney Metro West slashes the in-transit journey time:
- From the Parramatta CBD to Sydney Olympic Park to 5 minutes (so assume maybe a 20 minute door to door commute from Parramatta Square to Accor)
- From the Sydney CBD to Sydney Olympic Park to 15 minutes (so assume maybe a 30 minute door to door commute from Martin Place to Accor)

THE PRECINCT:
- Suncorp has Caxton Street (plus the Brisbane CBD, Fortitude Valley, South Bank, West End) for pre or post-game bevvies and food.
- Accor has...Sydney Olympic Park, which hardly sets the world alight with its vibrant gastronomy and cutting edge cocktails.

WEATHER PROOFING:
- Long commute in rain with minimal game-day precinct vibes? Add to that weather proofing for seating? Suncorp does alright here. Accor again average.

STADIUM:
- This has been done to death on these and other pages on this forum.

 

[Sky_Is_The_Limit]

Here's an interesting anecdote:
- In 2019 (i.e the last pre-COVID year), Accor Stadium hosted 20 NRL Games for an average crowd of 13,212
- In 2024, Accor Stadium hosted 19 NRL Games for an average crowd of 18,893. That's an increase of 5,681 (or 43%) from 2019.

The difference? The Bulldogs getting their shit together and drawing crowd figures such as 45,496 vs Eels, 35,502 vs Manly, 32,437 vs Cowboys and 27,223 vs Warriors. 35,275 for the Rabbitohs vs the Dogs on Good Friday helped too.

Beyond the inevitable boost that comes from a home team performing well, other boosts will come from:
- Sydney Metro West making Accor Stadium much more accessible to more people,
- The NSW Government (through Destination NSW and Venues NSW) collaborating with the NRL and both clubs to optimise the game-day experience...in other words, co-locate events to make it worth people's while to go to Sydney Olympic Park.

Part of the reason Good Friday is a consistent drawcard is that it is co-located at Sydney Olympic Park at the same time as the Royal Easter Show. The Royal Easter Show typically includes two weekends, so in all reality, the Bulldogs and the Rabbitohs should both get to host a home game at Accor during it and the school holidays. Naturally this year, the Rabbitohs have taken one of their home games to Perth for the NSW school holidays and the Royal Easter Show. Wrong.

Similarly, this year the NSW Government had to cancel the Vivid drone show because of concerns about crowding and capacity at Circular Quay. Imagine if the NRL was a sponsor of Vivid and had exclusive rights to host the drone show at Sydney Olympic Park? It would be a ticketed event alongside an NRL game that was held inside a stadium that knows how to manage crowds. Heck, it could even be the halftime show! Vivid runs for four weekends this year - you could get the Bulldogs and the Rabbitohs two home games each at Accor during this four week run, and put on the drone show to keep the masses happy. If it was a Vegas style runaway success, you could run double headers with other clubs who could get in on the fun.

So by simply co-locating with major events at Sydney Olympic Park, you'd afford home teams at Accor six marquee games (or about a third of their annual allocation at Accor) that would get bums on seats and help to really push up the annual attendance.

Get me a job at the NRL.

 

[Rhysa30]

Whilst some might disagree I actually think Stadium Australia and the whole Olympic Park precent caters well for large events and is easy to get in and out of via public transport, with plenty of parking options around it. I understand it may be out of the way for some people but the largest crowds of the year are always there (Good Friday, SOO, Kings Birthday, Finals/GF) which shows people are willing to make the effort if they feel it’s worth it.

The NRL needs to be smarter with the fixturing of the matches there. Thursday nights and Friday 6pm is rarely going to attract a massive crowd, nor is Souths vs a low draw card team outside of a final. Personally I think Parra v Dogs home and away should be at Olympic Park as should Tigers v Eels which has previously drawn 50k on an Easter Monday during the Easter Show next door.

If the Dogs can continue working on creating a family friendly environment, there is also no reason they can’t average 30k or above for most of their games.

Another challenge for the NRL is figuring out how to entice the changing demographic of Western Sydney which is one of the NRL heartlands, into getting interested in attending games. My assumption is a lot of the current demographic aren’t all that sports mad or really only watching Soccer or Cricket.

With that being said I definitely think crowds are a lot better then they have been in many years, but there’s always room for improvement.

 

[t-ba]

Greetings LU. Been lurking for years, didn't imagine that I'd eventually break my posting duck over QE2, but here we are. t-ba, you're better than this. This one's gotten under your skin and things have become erratic.
The reality is that the Broncos from inception drew good but not huge crowds. Knights outdrew them in 88 & 89 (and again in 98 as they celebrated their first title). Brisbane footy fans were split between supporters, haters (for killing the BRL comp) & undecided. And old Lang Park was a good place to be for only about 60% of its 32k max.
The combination of the 92 premiership and the move to the big capacity QE2 in 93 saw crowd numbers explode. The first 3 years at QE2 posted crowd averages the game had never dreamed of. They were the 3 biggest ever right up until last year.
Then the super league fiasco did indeed smack the numbers back down to previous levels around 20k. And there they stayed until the flash new Suncorp arrived to help get the norm back over 30k.
Very short form Broncos home crowd averages from 1988 (launch) to 1997 (super league) --
16k, 18k, 23k, 19k, 22k, 43k, 38k, 36k, 24k, 19k. 1st 5 at Lang Park, next 5 at QE2.
tldr: Location of the ground was never the big issue. Everyone catches a free bus anyway.

Crowds had recovered league wide by 2002, the last season at QEII. Brisbane lagged. Blame Super League sure, but the average across the rest of the league managed to get back to an average of over 13k by 1999 (A figure seen exactly twice before the war broke out), but Brisbane was still crap?

There are a few 'Brisbane posters who seem content to hang shit on Sydney crowds, and accept no excuses for this, but all of a sudden bring out a massive list of excuses for when Brisbane had bad crowds by their standards. Like yeah sure, there are some bad ones, but we can all have a look at what's going on here.

But I am glad you agree about access. I've lived on both sides of the river and in Logan, and to be very frank, QEII is not particularly far from the city, and not particularly awful to get to or our of. I never got why, but some people from the North of Brisbane on occasion do seem to have the kind of allergic reaction to crossing a body of water that Manly fans do for some reason..

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Basically what he's saying is, you have zero right to be claiming yourself as the home of rugby league, and the greatest fans in all the land, when you can't even sell out 50,000 seat stadium when 2 local teams are playing. 2 local teams in a city of 2.6 million.

If any Sydney team had the same captive audience as either Brisbane team, they would monster their attendances.

Ah the game did sell out

 

[kurt faulk]

Ah the game did sell out

How many times did the Broncos sell out when they had 2.5 million people all to themselves?

.

 

[Mother Nature's Son]

Part of the reason Good Friday is a consistent drawcard is that it is co-located at Sydney Olympic Park at the same time as the Royal Easter Show. The Royal Easter Show typically includes two weekends, so in all reality, the Bulldogs and the Rabbitohs should both get to host a home game at Accor during it and the school holidays. Naturally this year, the Rabbitohs have taken one of their home games to Perth for the NSW school holidays and the Royal Easter Show. Wrong.

This has the fat-head Blake Solly`s fingerprints all over it.

Your other thoughts are brilliant.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

How many times did the Broncos sell out when they had 2.5 million people all to themselves?

.

Probably quite a few times. But not as many times as Souths and Saints have posted A-League level crowds after over 100 years in the comp.

 

[APPSY]

@SLRBRONCOS Any rough idea on Canberra?

 

[kurt faulk]

Probably quite a few times. But not as many times as Souths and Saints have posted A-League level crowds after over 100 years in the comp.

Quite a few times? But why not every time? There's 2.5m of you over there. I thought you were the best fans ever.

.

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

@SLRBRONCOS Any rough idea on Canberra?

Looks pretty rough, I'd think like 10-12k

 

[yobbo84]

If you haven't had the glorious privilege of driving from the City/East of Sydney down Parramatta Road (or from the South up Princes Hwy/King Georges Rd) at Peak Hour on a weeknight, all the way to Sydney Olympic Park, find parking, walk in the rain, sit in a cavernous stadium where you literally cannot see the ball when in opposite corner to where you are sitting..... you can kindly STFU.

Olympic Park is an absolutely miserable experience I only subject myself to because of my love of all things SSFC.

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

Broncos vs Tigers update from 10am Tuesday, for those who give a shit. Broncos ticketek rep is dropping the ball, unless some seats have been gifted to junior clubs for multicultural round. Back in the 2015-2019 years I'm pretty sure that they did this for one Saturday night game a year.

- Black - sold out
- Yellow - stadium members
- Red - was available, since removed from sale
- Grey - available for sale

 

[chrisD]

The Olympic stadium is a terrible rugby league ground for attending games. If I lived next door to the stadium I would still rather watch regular season games on TV.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Quite a few times? But why not every time? There's 2.5m of you over there. I thought you were the best fans ever.

.

Why does any Sydney club ever pull less than 10k to a game despite decades and decades in the comp to build a following?

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

The Wah's next home game against the Broncos in round 7 is very close to sold out.

 

[drcmuch]

Crowds had recovered league wide by 2002, the last season at QEII. Brisbane lagged. Blame Super League sure, but the average across the rest of the league managed to get back to an average of over 13k by 1999 (A figure seen exactly twice before the war broke out), but Brisbane was still crap?

Agree. I'd frame it as super league knocking the Broncos back to their old normal, the failure then being no restart of growth from 98 on. Why? Don't know. Winning team, big capacity. Never believed that QE2 wasn't good enough. My opinion of the joint was forged among huge crowds having so much fun that we didn't even care that we were drinking Powers bitter out of plastic cups. Albeit with eyesight 30 years younger than it is now. That'd make a difference on a wrong shape ground.

 

[kurt faulk]

Why does any Sydney club ever pull less than 10k to a game despite decades and decades in the comp to build a following?

It's very simple. When the team is playing like absolute shit, people don't want to drive and walk in the rain to watch them play. The saints have been awful since 2012. Let's see what the Broncos do if they suck for that long.

In 2022, after a couple of dud years, they averaged less than 30k for their home games. With 2.9m people available to them. That's worse than a Sydney team getting less than 10k.

.

 

[EuroNymous]

rd 5 crowds

Canberra v Cronulla 13k
Penrith v North Queensland 12k
South Sydney v Sydney 25k
Parramatta v St George 17k
Gold Coast v The 20k
Brisbane v Wests 42k
Manly v Melbourne 17k
Canterbury v Newcastle 25k

171k/21,375 average