How many tickets sold?

[yakstorm]

26K in a 'non-league' heartland region does sound better in the media than even a 40K crowd in a league heartland in an 80K stadium....

 

[roopy]

If they put this game on in Newcastle they would get a guarenteed 26,000 sell out every time.

 

[yakstorm]

If they put this game on in Newcastle they would get a guarenteed 26,000 sell out every time.

True, any of the regional centres of Newcastle, Wollongong and Townsville would have no problems getting sell outs for a test match, provided its promoted a little bit (not like Aus Invitational v PNG last yr).

Canberra is one centre I'm wondering might benefit a lot from a Test in the future. The National Capital could possibly do with a League focus for a week, could be whats needed to re-invigorate the Raiders in view of the public down there...that said it also has the potential to be a big flop....

 

[League Freak™]

I was going to say Canberra would be good for a League test.

They get ZERO rep football and Im sure they would support a game as long as it wasnt thrown togeather at the last minute.

 

[Copa]

Yes... bring a game here to Canberra!!!

The Raiders are generally overlooked in most non-ACT media .... this has more of an impact than most realise 'cause many in Canberra watch the NSW/Sydney news on TV and not the local news broadcast.... the Brumbies are proably mentioned more on general news and TV than the Raiders... in the Oz media the raiders are a low profile team in Canberra in a comp with 15 teams..... the Brumbies are one of 3 (soon 4) S12/14 teams and get mentioned throughout the media often when their comp is going.

 

[PARRA_FAN]

Yeah i remember Canberra was supposed to host a test in 2002, but ARL knocked it back. They should put a test there, interesting to see what sort of crowd they'd get down there.

 

[***MH***]

Picked up tickets today.... PAX 21284 :S

 

[southsman]

Well 21 000 is positive. Were the tickets pre purchased sometime ago or did u just rock into the ticketek office off the street today?

 

[jed]

I bought mine yesterday, so the numbers are current

 

[Jackal Dog]

I think a 26,000-30,000 crowd is a realistic expectation.

 

[Calixte]

26-30K is miserable. Shame Sydney shame if that is the crowd.

 

[League Freak™]

I find it hard to blame Sydney sports fans.

Few cities in the world have as many big sporting events as Sydney does.


I blame the ARL.

 

[ash the bash]

picking up 3 tickets tomorrow, i would be dissapointed with something less than 35,000 considering the yawnion against samoa got about 34,000

 

[Calixte]

nospam49 - you miss the point.

Irrespective of how many sports events Sydney has, it has a long(er) and proud(er) history of supporting test matches in rugby league.

Let's go back beyond the last ten years for a moment (obviously pre-dating the Super League war and its residue):-

Sydney's international rugby league crowds throughout the decades (sample only; all played at SCG)

1910 - Aus v England 42,000
1914 - Aus v England 55,000
1920 - Metropolis (Sydney) v England 67,859
1924 - Aus v England 50,005
1932 - Aus v England 70,204
1936 - Aus v England 63,920
1946 - Aus v England 64,527
1950 - NSW v GB 70,419
1951 - Aus V France 67,009
1954 - Aus v GB 67,577
1955 - Aus v France 67,748
1958 - Aus v GB 68,720 (& 68,777)
1962 - Aus v GB 70,174

etc. etc.

Need I go on? How the mighty have fallen.

PS. Remember that a "comfortable capacity" for the SCG during most of this period was around 48,000.

 

[ali]

It's a shame, but I think we are partly a victim of circumstances. I think if SBW and Marshall were playing you could add 20,000 to the crowd. If they were backed by the best in the Super League then we'd have a NZ side that could beat Aus in Sydney and guarentee good crowds for future contests. So what we need is a bit of luck with injuries and improved scheduling.

We are getting decent coverage of this game. It was the lead story on 7 and 9 sports news tonight and 2nd on 10. Basically if you follow sport in Sydney, you should know this game is on. I bet the ratings will be brilliant despite only getting 35000 odd through the gate.

 

[League Freak™]

nospam49 - you miss the point.

Irrespective of how many sports events Sydney has, it has a long(er) and proud(er) history of supporting test matches in rugby league.

Let's go back beyond the last ten years for a moment (obviously pre-dating the Super League war and its residue):-

Sydney's international rugby league crowds throughout the decades (sample only; all played at SCG)

1910 - Aus v England 42,000
1914 - Aus v England 55,000
1920 - Metropolis (Sydney) v England 67,859
1924 - Aus v England 50,005
1932 - Aus v England 70,204
1936 - Aus v England 63,920
1946 - Aus v England 64,527
1950 - NSW v GB 70,419
1951 - Aus V France 67,009
1954 - Aus v GB 67,577
1955 - Aus v France 67,748
1958 - Aus v GB 68,720 (& 68,777)
1962 - Aus v GB 70,174

etc. etc.

Need I go on? How the mighty have fallen.

PS. Remember that a "comfortable capacity" for the SCG during most of this period was around 48,000.

Hold on a second, if you going to post the grouds dont stop in 62!

Even up untill 1994 the reason for bigger crowds was the fact that we actually had a contest.

The last few international played in Sydney have seen Australia destroy their opposition.

 

[Copa]

It's a shame, but I think we are partly a victim of circumstances. I think if SBW and Marshall were playing you could add 20,000 to the crowd.

If people respected their national teams it would add 20,000 to the event.

people actively find reasons to disrespect it... they suddenly have standards far higher than they would for their club team...

It's as if this part of theSL war is yet to be broken down.... many I know first think it is no good and then find a reason to justify why it is no good.... a kinda post-thought justification i guess.

 

[Calixte]

LF,

I only posted crowds until 1962 because my point was clearly made by that stage (and I was a bit sick of doing it to be frank...)

There has not been a "lull" in the quality of the contest between Australia and GB since 1994. The allegation that there was one after 1988 is wrong and not born out by the facts.

Fact one.

The lull was in the 1979 (3-0), 1982 (3-0), 1984 (3-0) and 1986 (3-0) Ashes series - all won by Australia. Albeit, the quality of the British performance in 1986 was greatly improved.

There has been a massive "hang-over" in the Australian press as a result of these victories ever since.

Fact two.

There was no lull between 1988 and 1994 (latter last series before Super League war).

1988 - Aus 2-1 in the series
1990 - deciding match Aus 2-1
1992 - deciding match Aus 2-1
1994 - deciding match Aus 2-1

Australia was extremely lucky to win all of the 1990-1994 series (inclusive), especially 1990, which but for Paul Eastwood's missed conversion for GB with 10 mins to go (10-10) probably would have broken the great stretch of defeats for the Lions.

Australia had some all-time great players in this period also.

Fact three.

The Super League war internationals (1995 World Cup included due to lack of all Australian players) 1995-1997 need to be taken out of the discussion given the lack of focus on international rugby league by anyone (...sensible).

Fact four.

The 2001 game Aus v GB in Sydney was an ambush and an aberration for that reason.

Fact five.

The 2002 series could have been 3-0 Aus (as it was), 2-1 Aus, 2-1 GB or even 3-0 GB.

Fact six.

The best side in the round-robin stage of the 2004 Tri-Nations was GB.

If GB wasn't crippled by its psychological issue with Australia (as per the English cricket side until this year too), they would have beaten us by now.

I have posted elsewhere about the "unlevel" playing field we currently play on at international level, so won't elaborate on that again here.

 

[Calixte]

To clarify, there was therefore only one "real" test in Sydney between Aus v GB since the first test of 1992, the 2001 debacle.

And that is a massive indictment on rugby league.

Basically, thirteen years of freedom for rugby union (and fourteen until next year). No surprise that the growth of the Wallabies has basically been in the same period (ie. since 1992 - yes I know they won the Union World Cup in 1991 also...)

 

[League Freak™]

That is the biggest steaming pile of BS I have ever seen on these forums.