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Crowd Stats

In-goal

Bench
Messages
3,523
I have just been gowing through crowd stats of Both the NRL/ARL/NSWRL and the AFL/VFL, now before you say this is us verses them wait a second.

In the late 80's to early 90's AFL crowds stated to boom on the back of highly succesfull expansion clubs, and well organised blockbuster matches at the M.C.G.

Rugby League was starting to gather this same boom in the early 90's before the Super League war came to town, Brisbane were drawing crowds of over 45,000 the Knights were above the 20K mark as were the Crushers, Reds, Warriors and Cowboys. We all no what followed this shot in the arm that Rugby League had recieved.

It's only now were our crowds are on the rise again and i think marketed properley we can see Sydney clubs with average gates of over 20,000 people, first things first we need to try and spark a bit of rivalry between the old foe and the new blood. I propose that we have organised blockbuster matches in sydney amongst the big clubs in the big stadiums for example.

Parramatta v Canterbury Telstra Stadium Sunday afternoon, this match would be a pay tv match to try and gather more fans to the stadium, i also think that the big matches like this have no place on Friday night football.

Souths v St.George Sydney Cricket Ground Sunday afternoon, I went to a similar fixture on a saturday afternoon back in 99 there was a crowd of about 13,000 which is pretty good in Sydney in that timeslot. When St.George came out the dressing rooms it was a sight that would humble any RL fan seeing the red V walk down to the playing surface infront of the members.

Easts v Penrith Telstra Stadium Sunday afternoon, after last seasons climax no one could argue against such a fixture.

Matches that i would have Ch.9 show on Friday nights would be Newcastle v Brisbane, Brisbane v St.George.

I would also be inclined to have ch.9 do sunday football from townsville when the cowboys host the Broncos as this always attracts a bumper crowd regardless of the Northerners form.

The NRL needs to start stimulating the crowds like the AFL did in order to gain respect from the national media, this maybe what the game needs to get back on FTA nation wide again.
 

Parra_Eels

Bench
Messages
2,531
and the afl only really has 2 stadiums in melbourne - mcg and telstra dome. optus oval and kardinia park are for carlton ang geelong respectively but the rest are just at the big 2. maybe we can have blockbusters at telstra or aussie.
 

In-goal

Bench
Messages
3,523
Further more to my last post Matches like Easts v St.George always draw a good gate as do Easts at home to the dogs, I think the NRL needs to aim for 10+ games in Sydney next season with gates over the 30K mark and have atleast 2 above 40K.

Once fringe supporters see that it is fashionable to go to the matches crowds will explode, or so thats the theory.

I have no doubt if Souths were competitive it would do wonders for RL.
 

Parra_Eels

Bench
Messages
2,531
yeah have em at aussie coz telstra would look pretty dumb. i remember when the doggies first moved there they had 9000 in a 110000 stadium
 

Bengal

Juniors
Messages
877
In-goal said:
Further more to my last post Matches like Easts v St.George always draw a good gate as do Easts at home to the dogs, I think the NRL needs to aim for 10+ games in Sydney next season with gates over the 30K mark and have atleast 2 above 40K.

Once fringe supporters see that it is fashionable to go to the matches crowds will explode, or so thats the theory.

I have no doubt if Souths were competitive it would do wonders for RL.

I agree
 

In-goal

Bench
Messages
3,523
we must aim big or we will never achieve much

With this i'm not saying Canterbury should play all there games at Telstra, what i'm getting at is they should play there big drawing games there on a sunday afternoon.

Another day for a big game is the Easter weekend there is good Friday which has been succesful in the past with 30,000 crowds.

I'm just sick of hearing people say Rugby League has piss week crowds, through this plan i think we may turn the whole culture of the game around.
 

legend

Coach
Messages
15,150
SOme excellent suggestions so far. The Bulldogs are on the right track with their Aussie Stadium blockbusters but they need to add Penrith and New Zealand to that list.

This season was the highest ever crowd average over the regular season. It was around 14,300 and I have no doubt that next year the numbers will climb past the 15k mark.

Canberra have won back ground from the Brumbies and the Warriors support will continue to grow. The problem childs are Souths and the Sharks. Both clubs need to get their house in order ASAP and Manly need to do a bit of soul searching as well. The remaining clubs seem to be building their member bases progressively and Melbourne should be better off next season when you consider the ratings in Melbourne for the GF.
 

knights 2004

Juniors
Messages
556
yeah hopefully some of the 500,000 people that watched the GF in Melb might get off their butt and get to a game.
i understand that half of them viewers were just watching for the event, and coz it was on, and they arent really league followers.
but surely even if u have that number, 250 000 ppl, and only 10,000 to a game?
 

In-goal

Bench
Messages
3,523
Melbourne have 1 big problem there stadium is shite, and i can't see the victorian government forking out for a Rugby stadium.

There are no reasons that the bulldogs couldn't aim for about 22K next year form pending, the biggest problem the league will have with organising such big games is of course of television masters ch.9.

Sunday afternoons are a must for this sort of program to realy work, obviously clubs like Manly will strugle in there current plight but they should still be averaging around 15K with a couple of big matches at the bigger venues.
 

In-goal

Bench
Messages
3,523
Another proposal to help stimulate the crowds would be for the Warriors, Knights, Broncos, Raiders and storm to host the majority of Friday night fixture oh and the Cowboys.

This way the out of Sydney teams can play more matches at there best crowd drawing timeslot which is a winner for the game and Ch.9
 

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