Crowd

[The Mad Hatter]

More people at the GWS vs Essendon match than at the South Sydney vs Canberra match.

Pretty sad really.

As there are 20,000 season ticket holders, there were just on 10,000 people on Friday night, so where are the Souths faithful? Too many Bunny Buddy's and not enough full ticket holders? Money too tight to mention? Venue (we've been there for 7 seasons!)? I dunno.

I don't care about weather, venue or timing. It's on, it's on! We're TOP 4, have spent 20 years crying out for a winning team, and many people marched to get SSFC bag in the comp. I'd say now: GET TO THE GAME!!!

People used to chant at the Roosters about not going to games. We really need to hold the mirror up and take a good, hard look at ourselves.

 

[Newcastlerabbit]

True,even allowing for the cold,10k was pathetic.Yesterdays Telegraph tipped there could be 40k at ANZ this Sat night.

 

[DC_fan]

More people at the GWS vs Essendon match than at the South Sydney vs Canberra match.

Pretty sad really.

As there are 20,000 season ticket holders, there were just on 10,000 people on Friday night, so where are the Souths faithful? Too many Bunny Buddy's and not enough full ticket holders? Money too tight to mention? Venue (we've been there for 7 seasons!)? I dunno.

I don't care about weather, venue or timing. It's on, it's on! We're TOP 4, have spent 20 years crying out for a winning team, and many people marched to get SSFC bag in the comp. I'd say now: GET TO THE GAME!!!

People used to chant at the Roosters about not going to games. We really need to hold the mirror up and take a good, hard look at ourselves.

I think that while we have 20,000 plus members we don't have that many season ticket holders.

 

[Big Sam]

I don't need to have an excuse because I went, but in relation to your points:

More people at the GWS vs Essendon match than at the South Sydney vs Canberra match.

Pretty sad really.

Don't believe the AFL's propaganda machine. No way was that over 10k.

I don't care about weather, venue or timing. It's on, it's on! We're TOP 4, have spent 20 years crying out for a winning team, and many people marched to get SSFC bag in the comp. I'd say now: GET TO THE GAME!!!

Agree completely but I think the weather's more a Sydneysider thing than a Souths-specific issue. Anytime the temp drops below 15 the bulk of the city turns into a bunch of pussies who won't venture out. Harden up Sydney!

People used to chant at the Roosters about not going to games. We really need to hold the mirror up and take a good, hard look at ourselves.

We're averaging 5k more to our games than the Roosters who are yet to have a crowd over 14k.

 

[Ziggy the God]

That crowd was shiate, but when have we ever drawn well against the Raiders?
Better yet, who in Sydney has big crowds against them in night games?

In terms of our Memberships, of course they are not all ticketed.
That is the same with all clubs.

Our Membership without ticketing is $100, so go and compare that against the ticketed members prices at other clubs. If we can get to the finals this year, watch our ticketed numbers increase next year.

Lastly, we have finished Round 12 without a solitary Sunday match.
We had an away one against the Tigers at the SFS, go and look at the crowd.

That all said, it is a Dogs home game this weekend, but get out there if you can.

 

[Rabbitohs6]

yeah it really was sad, we aiming for a top 4 spot and there was 10,800 and something people there, really disappointing, ive been to every game, except the games in Melbourne, Perth and NZ, havent seen Russ on the big screen at all this year either....

 

[hennessy]

More people at the GWS vs Essendon match than at the South Sydney vs Canberra match.

Pretty sad really.

As there are 20,000 season ticket holders, there were just on 10,000 people on Friday night, so where are the Souths faithful? Too many Bunny Buddy's and not enough full ticket holders? Money too tight to mention? Venue (we've been there for 7 seasons!)? I dunno.

I don't care about weather, venue or timing. It's on, it's on! We're TOP 4, have spent 20 years crying out for a winning team, and many people marched to get SSFC bag in the comp. I'd say now: GET TO THE GAME!!!

People used to chant at the Roosters about not going to games. We really need to hold the mirror up and take a good, hard look at ourselves.

 

[hennessy]

I believe that the stadium is the basis of the crowd problem. Especially with visiting supporters - they just don't turn up, except for some exceptions like the Dogs.
The ground is difficult to get to and expensive once you are there. My wife and I have reserved seats but last Friday night still cost me over $100 after a couple of beers (mid strength!!) and a hamburger each. Heaven help the poor bloke who takes his kids and wife along, it would cost about the same as the national debt.

I live in the Shire, if I go by train to a night game I can expect to get home about 11.30 if I leave straight after the game. If I go by car it costs me $20 to park and I don't always get into P1. a couple of weeks back we were forced to park at P4 and needed to get a shuttle bus to and from the car. It does not make for a pleasant evening and if the team loses it's even worse.

 

[Dogs Of War]

It's a 5min walk to P4. P1 is a nightmare to get out of, I would rather park in P4 unless I get their early, and can get one of the spots that takes you straight onto the exit ramp. Sometimes I just park at Concord West station and walk from there (it takes 20mins, but you more than make up for it by avoiding all the traffic, plus you can have a couple of full strength beers at the pub there).

Personally I think that this ground needs more Sunday day games. It's great for those. The Dogs and Souths also need to get together and have double headers with our poor drawing crowds such as Canberra, Cowboys, Titans etc. This will then allow big crowds to attend, and together we would draw more than we would seperately. Especially if you schedule these on a Sunday.

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

It's a 5min walk to P4. P1 is a nightmare to get out of, I would rather park in P4 unless I get their early, and can get one of the spots that takes you straight onto the exit ramp. Sometimes I just park at Concord West station and walk from there (it takes 20mins, but you more than make up for it by avoiding all the traffic, plus you can have a couple of full strength beers at the pub there).

Personally I think that this ground needs more Sunday day games. It's great for those. The Dogs and Souths also need to get together and have double headers with our poor drawing crowds such as Canberra, Cowboys, Titans etc. This will then allow big crowds to attend, and together we would draw more than we would seperately. Especially if you schedule these on a Sunday.

Agree with this bit and have been saying this for ages. Not only the Dogs and Souths need to do this though. I think there should be at least one double header every week at one of Suncorp, SFS or ANZ.

If you look at this week as an example, there is no reason why the Eels Sharks game couldn't be played on the back of the Dogs Rabbits game at ANZ. Perhaps you would have to have the games on a Sunday evening or something to squeeze them both in but there would be a crowd of close to 60k turn up for a double header like that imo. Split the gate and food two ways and both the Dogs and Parra would end up with more money in the pocket than what they will as things stand. It would have been especially beneficial for the Eels as it costs a fortune to get Parra stadium up and running on game day. They need something like 10k people just to break even. Remove that overhead all together and it seems a lot smarter to me.

 

[Dogs Of War]

You know what, I didn't think about that part, the stadium hire fee would be split, thus they would both make more money even if the total crowd wasn't as high as they would have got seperately.

The other good thing, is that even if you went with a fixed schedule next year, because you have two games, you just don't commit to the times on the Sunday (just the event time, start 2pm, second game at 4pm and thus live!!) and thus can promote the better TV game to that slot.

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

Makes too much good sense. The NRL will never do it.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Day games would be excellent...but everyone is crying out for them. Still, if they had a Saturday afternoon game and 2 or 3 Sunday arvo games, would be better IMO, but I've been told before it's not. Monday night football is a hassle for me to get to. But the gambling money that pours in for that Monday game is massive and the NRL and the TABs aren't going to change that...and I can't blame them.

Seriously though, my family has 3 adult full season tix and 2 GA kids tix. My wife can't come because we have a 7 month old. I take the 3 year old with the father in law, but when it's cold, I can't really take the older one either.

Prices are horrendous too, but I don't buy anything there - maybe a beer once or twice in the early part of the season when warm, and maybe a coffee like last Friday when I froze.

We also have drawn plenty of out of town teams to home games this year: Cowboys, Canberra.
The big ticket games - Roosters - was a Monday night, as was the Sharks game (whose small contingent of loyal fans come to games, but otherwise no) and the Broncos was in Perth. We get the Knights and Panthers soon but they aren't big ticket games, so it's only Dragons, Tigers and Eels left in the last 7 rounds. Consider too the horrendous HHAAHHAA staggering to most of the season as well.

I also realise plenty of Souths fans come from all over, and the public transport is a bugger to get to esp if you live somewhere like the Shire. Parking takes 40 mins to get out of P1 even when 10,000 people...LOL and it's not cheap either.

These are all legit excuses. The NRL needs to figure out how they get more people to games - not just Souths ones. I'm all for sharing matches a la Souths vs Tigers, Dogs vs Para in a double header. And I'd stick around for both.

That said, with an inkling of a decent season, I still think more Souths fans need to attend a game or two or three...

Lastly, I just got the GWS crowd figure from the TV and paper. I have noticed that their Melbourne crowds appear to have thinned a little...esp the all-Melbourne Friday night games. Makes me wonder if this all free to air TV games coverage is chewing in to the crowds, now people who used to put the money on the ticket sit at home. And you can't blame people either when it's cold/wet and cheaper.

 

[Dogs Of War]

Lastly, I just got the GWS crowd figure from the TV and paper. I have noticed that their Melbourne crowds appear to have thinned a little...esp the all-Melbourne Friday night games. Makes me wonder if this all free to air TV games coverage is chewing in to the crowds, now people who used to put the money on the ticket sit at home. And you can't blame people either when it's cold/wet and cheaper.

Foxtel had some sort of deal with AFL clubs where if they signed up for Foxtel, they also got a season membership of the club of there choice. So those with Foxtel would probably decide to sit at home on a colder night. Be good to see the NRL get that sort of thing setup with Foxtel as well.

 

[W.Smith]

Channel 9 must be spewing they didnt pick this game for Sunday and have lumped themselves with the Bronc's V Knights, i know Nine picks the games weeks in advance but after the beauty these 2 put on on Good Friday i thought this woulda be a no brainer to have the rematch on Sunday or Friday night

Souths v Canterbury should be a beauty and hoping it draws 30K+ as the atmosphere would be awesome

 

[Dogs Of War]

Just dirty I have to work and then have no internet at home for 2 weeks I move on the Sunday. Boo!!