Crowd Watch 2014

[dogslife]

Easts fans stayed at home to listen to the voiceovers. How disappointing for them

 

[BranVan3000]

Definitely a hangover amongst the Rabbitohs contingent after last year's finish. Crowds will pick up again as the season moves along

Roosters needed to show better though

 

[RWB]

Forget the size of the crowd for a second and whatever you think the split was the atmosphere at the game was absolutely embarrassing. Someone commented to me at the game that it felt like we were watching a trial match and I couldn't agree more.

It was a shadow of what is usually one of the most intense games club games I go to every year.

Playing at ANZ Stadium certainly doens't help but the fans from both sides were very quiet tonight.

The A-league deserve their sell out on Saturday, it'll be an awesome experience for anyone who has a ticket. Sure it's an exception to their consistently mediocre crowds but so should the Round 1 clash between Easts and Souths be an exception to the average club game and it just wasn't the case tonight.

 

[Aaron_sfas]

8pm start, Thursday night. Face it, Channel 9 pretty much bought a big piece of the game with their $1b. I was hoping we'd break 30,000. So a bit disappointing, but given the circumstances hardly a crisis

 

[st george dragons]

I reckon that if it was a Roosters home game (at the SFS) that it would have easily cracked the 30k mark. People from working in the city make it easier to attend to. But either way, it is hard to get a family (or a group of friends) to attend a Thursday night game, where-ether it is held. Its a ''school night'' and people work the next day. But then again, sadly that's the same excuse I use for a Monday night game.

 

[Perth Red]

NRL not that popular in Sydney, accept it and you won't be disappointed with medium sized crowds every week.

 

[undertaker]

The ARLC can't bitch about crowds while 9 has a say in what games are played when

..and Fox Sports for that matter. Three words: Monday night football.

Also, absolute braindead decision to bring back regular Saturday arvo games. The one off is ok but regular 3pm Sat games will be deja vu of what happened in 2002 when Sat Arvo games were reintroduced and no one wanted to host them because of the crippling crowd attendances. I guarantee you come winter you will be hearing teams and fans complaining about ppl having to work on Saturday, kids having sport in Saturday etc.

Finally, I see that the NRL has cut down on Sunday arvo games this year. I understand it during daylight savings but even with the split rounds during origin, last year a 5 game round was 1 Friday night, 1 Saturday night, 2 Sunday arvo and one Monday night. This year, I see one of the Sunday games has been moved to Saturday night. Again, I say Sunday arvo footy is the fabric of rugby league. Get rid of it and you can't expect crowds to improve, especially during the cooler months. I understand them cutting down on day games during March, but to also cut then down in winter...what a joke. Can't believe theres only one Sunday game on Easter

 

[BuffaloRules]

NRL not that popular in Sydney, accept it and you won't be disappointed with medium sized crowds every week.

It's by far the best attended professional sport in Sydney year in year out though.

 

[sensesmaybenumbed]

NRL not that popular in Sydney, accept it and you won't be disappointed with medium sized crowds every week.

 

[georgesnmith]

whilst 27,000 isnt a fantastic crowd union only managed around 18k for the clash between waratahs vs reds on a saturday night and their game wasnt on free to air TV

people need to get some perspective

and it was a fantastic game of football, souths are up for it again this year

 

[canberra_raiders2k2]

You also need to mention that the weather was poor on Saturday. Raining. Even if the union game was between two rivals, ours was a season kickoff and by two rivals.

 

[newman]

Here's a thing. I've got a corporate box at ANZ. It was empty last night, couldn't get any clients/customers interested in going.

 

[franklin2323]

Will be one of the few times Souths will get more then their member numbers. The start time was never going to draw huge numbers.. The sooner we don't use ANZ the better.

 

[georgesnmith]

You also need to mention that the weather was poor on Saturday. Raining. Even if the union game was between two rivals, ours was a season kickoff and by two rivals.

nah thats BS

if lasts night game was on Pay TV you can add another 15k to the gate easy, even on a thursday

its just too easy to stay at home and watch it live with all the fantastic camera angles

and tickets last night were more expensive than the union game as well.

they were offering adult tickets to the union at $20

 

[duylm]

..and Fox Sports for that matter. Three words: Monday night football.

Also, absolute braindead decision to bring back regular Saturday arvo games. The one off is ok but regular 3pm Sat games will be deja vu of what happened in 2002 when Sat Arvo games were reintroduced and no one wanted to host them because of the crippling crowd attendances. I guarantee you come winter you will be hearing teams and fans complaining about ppl having to work on Saturday, kids having sport in Saturday etc.

And I get the feeling TV ratings will be god-awful as well. Especially when it becomes the same unpopular teams shafted to the timeslot.

 

[guyver78]

We don't get a cut of profits.

We get 100k a game. So if and when we get shit crowds it doesn't hurt us but we get bonuses on top of the 100k every time crowds go over a certain mark. I believe it is 20k.

Right, I stand corrected then in that case. So in that case WHO sets ticket prices to NRL games? Are you saying the NRL or Souths have no say whatsoever in how much a Cat 1 ticket is to a Souths home game?

Does it then depend on that stadium/venue? Reason I ask that is that ANZ stadium is obviously not owned by the same people who own Dairy Farmers stadium for instance.

In that case that would mean that 100% of the money in my season ticket is going to Souths.

 

[Timmah]

Several reasons, and yes hindsight is 20/20 but...

- Thursday night opener concept is dying. It worked for a couple of years but now it's not anymore. Time to go back to the traditional Friday opener, or better still try something new like a split round ala AFL.

- 8pm kickoff is simply too late, especially when the game is on FTA. For last night and tonight there's simply no justification for such a late kickoff.

- ANZ over Allianz - probably not the best option given it's a Thursday.

- 2013 hangover? I'm at a loss as to why these two clubs didn't have plenty of fans turn up... maybe Souths fans are disillusioned after consecutive prelim final bow-outs? That said they have only 100 less members than the crowd figure last night. As for the Roosters, being an away game I'm not surprised they weren't plentiful in number.


All this will possibly come back at me tonight if the Dogs don't pull a decent crowd... I accept that too. I hope we get around 25k but will be ok with anything over 20.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Apart from all the hype of Knights V Dragons a few years ago when bennett went to the knights, it seems the NRL has failed to match that even with a rivalry like roosters v souths.

 

[Timmah]

I think it's been ok the last couple of years, just this year seems to have failed

 

[bobmar28]

South Sydney = fail. What a pathetic crowd.