It's interesting to look at some of the old crowds nq used to get at the willows
Un believable numbers back in the day 24k was the norm
What happened up there ??
A couple of things, first of all the ground really is in a pretty shocking state of repair. It's just dirty, no cover (in what can be torrid weather) outdated design, just a shit stadium IMO.
Secondly and most importantly, Stadiums Queensland has assumed control of the operations. This means the old community-run food stalls are replaced with bland, EXPENSIVE shit that nobody likes. The local footy clubs who used to sell a steak burger and pie on game day have got the arse and it ruffled a lot of feathers in the local community. The game day atmosphere has been killed by these guys, they stop families bringing food into the stadium and they act as fun police on the hills. We used to have a live band playing in a box under the scoreboard which was always a lot of fun, that got removed to install more empty seats. Game day entertainment and announcing are shit as, they constantly play stupid music while the game is playing and don't do anything to get the crowd involved (in our heyday we used to get the Mexican wave going pre-game every time).
These might seem like minor quibbles but the sum of them together mean that a LOT of people aren't interested in taking the family along to the footy anymore. We draw a lot of support from outside Townsville and people aren't willing to make the drive in from Charters Towers or up from the Burdekin to go to the games anymore, mostly because of this mob.
Also a lot of people got disillusioned with the club in the period around 2008 when we sacked Graham Murray and we had a couple ordinary seasons on the trot. I could go on more but I think you get the point and I've ranted enough for one night.
