Canberra crowds are renowndly crap when the team they are watching isn't running too well. Last year, the Raiders slowly dragged the numbers up as they continued to win matches. People believed they would be fun to watch towards the end of the season, and they turned up then. The numbers started ok this year, but have dropped as the performances of the team have dropped. Even when the Brumbies had their sh!t year, their crowd numbers dropped. Canberrans are a fickle bunch. You have your locals who are the die hard supporters, you have the out-of town folk who moved to canberra for work, and they tend to support other RL teams, or they go to the Kick-n-Clap because they are assured of success at the moment. Then there is the disenchanted types (I like to refer to them as girls blouses), who take interest when the team starts to do ok, but most of the time talk about the Super League guff and how they were 'disenchanted' by that era of the game. It's a tough market, the get a decent crowd, especially when you throw into the equation the cold weather, and live Pay TV matches. All these adversely affect crowd numbers.
I wouldn't be blaming management for the problems with crowd numbers. They could give away free tickets, which would be good in order to get a bigger crowd, but that costs the club money. But it is an initial cost that may turn to profit if the crowds came back. But to the ordinary canberran, RL isn't attractive at the moment. Give them a premiership and watch them come back. The bandwagon jumpers they are.
