Ideas to boost crowds

[carcharias]

Become a member of another club then so you can get half price tickets?

Either way, it encourages members to go to away games for 1.5x the cost instead of 2x the cost.

Should be encouraging away fans to travel to games.

Maybe just make members and game day tix cheaper
Then you'll get more members and locals show up.
Kids $10 entry + drink and hot chips or something.

Surely you'd have more success catering to the fans who live nearby but are on a tight budget.
There'd be a heap of people that'd probably love to go but can't afford to take the whole family and feed them.

 

[adamkungl]

Where to start...

Scheduling is the #1 be all and end all. People want Sunday games. Let's start there. f**k off the 6pm Friday game and put 3 games on Sunday - either 2, 4, 6pm or 12, 2, 4pm.

If we're serious we piss off Thursday games too and put 2 on at 7.30 Friday, 1 in Sydney and 1 in either Brisbane or Melbourne.

Which brings me to the next point on scheduling.. starting times. Night games should start no later than 7.30pm. No one wants to be hitting full time after 10.

And another - public holidays. Instead of everyone writing off Roosters crowd average because of the Anzac Day boost, they should be copying it. Every public holiday that falls within the season should have 1 or 2 big stadium games. Every club should have at least 1 big holiday home game. Make traditions of them. If you think "Why do Roosters and Bulldogs get the big holiday games" you're right. 1 big crowd can boost a clubs average by thousands.

Still on scheduling - prioritise rivalry games! Big draw games should be played twice a year every year. For Sydney clubs, low draw interstate games should be the ones they sell off to QLD, Perth, NZ, Darwin.
Faux-conferences to generate the draw make this easy.


Next up, Prices. I don't think they're that bad, there are good offers around especially for family passes, but if enough people say they can't afford it (especially after parking/transport, food, drinks) then I'm not gonna argue. A recent article said they are too expensive for a lot of families but not expensive enough to actually generate any serious revenue for clubs, especially compared to the mammoth TV money.
Slash the prices of tickets and in-stadium purchases.
Sell the premium seats to season ticket members as is, but aside from those designate every other seat in the ground GA. Remove tiered ticketing entirely (except for season tickets). Premium tiered seating is a joke when you aren't selling out the ground. GA memberships $100 Adult $50 child. $15 Adult GA . $40 Family GA.


The Rules. This is likely a minor issue if everything else is smooth sailing, but they've made it an issue. Spending big on refereeing revolutions that result in no improvement, ill-advised tinkering with rules, and banning exciting parts of the game. They create ill feeling around the game and give free ammo to critics. There will always be sooking about refereeing, but the problem now is the rulebook and the referees coaching and systems making a difficult job close to impossible.


And finally Create some positive feeling in the game. In Rugby League it constantly feels like "the game is dying" is drowning out anything good, EVEN AMONG OUR OWN FANS. It makes people less enthused to spend their money on it.
The NRL needs some serious pushback on this. Make fans want to be part of something big. Regular, exciting events. Expansion and internationals. For every insular sook calling them mickey mouse games and whinging about injuries, there are far more who have a great time and will come back again. Think of the Pacific tests earlier this year!
Build the Pacific Cup into a tournament that runs parallel to Origin (and give them both breathing room from the regular season).
Invest in the Kangaroos and the Kiwis. Get them playing more games every year home and away. Support the World Cup.
And expand the bloody competition. A game that is dying looks inwards, a game that is thriving looks outwards.

PS one more
Game day experience
It's probably the least important for some people here, and the old merkins will say "who cares we're there to watch football not sing and listen to music" BUT it ties into the above positive feeling and being part of big events.
I'm not sure the answer is to copy American sports outright or anything like that, but it would be good to see some effort. Most clubs pre-game and half time is dead air. A long, pointless wait after the reserve grade game which makes the idea of showing up to actually watch it completely unappealing.
There are some great ideas floating around the sporting world, even within Rugby League.
Even something as simple as the viking clap has improved Raiders fans enthusiasm for attending games and given them a unique selling point.
Toronto Wolfpack have a craft beer bar at the game. (at Roosters we drink overpriced VB)
Newtown Jets recently tied in a game to a food and beer festival, while American football does tailgate parties pre game - Imagine something like this in that big usually empty Roosters carpark, probably illegal in this stupid arse backwards city anyway but the idea can be adapted.
American sports fill dead airtime with music and performance - maybe it's not for us but again ideas can be adapted.
English fans create their own atmosphere with constant chants and songs.
Just make an effort - the NRL gameday experience around the game (which is usually great) is f**king dire.

 

[big hit!]

3 best fixtures of each round on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, all others 3pm Sunday arvo.

just f**k off the thursday night and friday 6pm and play more games sunday day. maybe have a month of thursday and sunday nights at start of season until daylight savings end, then f**k em off.

sydney is a soft f**king town. gyms and everything go quiet when the 'mild' weather sets in.

main weekly schedule:
1x fri 745pm
1x sat 3pm
1x sat 5pm
1x sat 7pm
1x sun 12pm (warriors home)
3x sun 2pm (2x when warriors home)
1x sun 4pm

 

[adamkungl]

Sydney loves a big event but most drift off when the week to week grind sets in.

 

[lockyno1]

How much does takeaway dinner usually cost?

Dare say takeaway dinner isn't a pie and chips!

 

[Vee]

Where to start...

Scheduling is the #1 be all and end all. People want Sunday games. Let's start there. f**k off the 6pm Friday game and put 3 games on Sunday - either 2, 4, 6pm or 12, 2, 4pm.

If we're serious we piss off Thursday games too and put 2 on at 7.30 Friday, 1 in Sydney and 1 in either Brisbane or Melbourne.

Which brings me to the next point on scheduling.. starting times. Night games should start no later than 7.30pm. No one wants to be hitting full time after 10.

And another - public holidays. Instead of everyone writing off Roosters crowd average because of the Anzac Day boost, they should be copying it. Every public holiday that falls within the season should have 1 or 2 big stadium games. Every club should have at least 1 big holiday home game. Make traditions of them. If you think "Why do Roosters and Bulldogs get the big holiday games" you're right. 1 big crowd can boost a clubs average by thousands.

Still on scheduling - prioritise rivalry games! Big draw games should be played twice a year every year. For Sydney clubs, low draw interstate games should be the ones they sell off to QLD, Perth, NZ, Darwin.
Faux-conferences to generate the draw make this easy.


Next up, Prices. I don't think they're that bad, there are good offers around especially for family passes, but if enough people say they can't afford it (especially after parking/transport, food, drinks) then I'm not gonna argue. A recent article said they are too expensive for a lot of families but not expensive enough to actually generate any serious revenue for clubs, especially compared to the mammoth TV money.
Slash the prices of tickets and in-stadium purchases.
Sell the premium seats to season ticket members as is, but aside from those designate every other seat in the ground GA. Remove tiered ticketing entirely (except for season tickets). Premium tiered seating is a joke when you aren't selling out the ground. GA memberships $100 Adult $50 child. $15 Adult GA . $40 Family GA.


The Rules. This is likely a minor issue if everything else is smooth sailing, but they've made it an issue. Spending big on refereeing revolutions that result in no improvement, ill-advised tinkering with rules, and banning exciting parts of the game. They create ill feeling around the game and give free ammo to critics. There will always be sooking about refereeing, but the problem now is the rulebook and the referees coaching and systems making a difficult job close to impossible.


And finally Create some positive feeling in the game. In Rugby League it constantly feels like "the game is dying" is drowning out anything good, EVEN AMONG OUR OWN FANS. It makes people less enthused to spend their money on it.
The NRL needs some serious pushback on this. Make fans want to be part of something big. Regular, exciting events. Expansion and internationals. For every insular sook calling them mickey mouse games and whinging about injuries, there are far more who have a great time and will come back again. Think of the Pacific tests earlier this year!
Build the Pacific Cup into a tournament that runs parallel to Origin (and give them both breathing room from the regular season).
Invest in the Kangaroos and the Kiwis. Get them playing more games every year home and away. Support the World Cup.
And expand the bloody competition. A game that is dying looks inwards, a game that is thriving looks outwards.

Good post. I should have specified in my OP that I was thinking about factors other than scheduling, we are locked into Thursday night and Friday 6pm because our leaders can't see past the TV cash.

Totally agree with 7.30pm start. Even an 8pm start for Origin would be okay if they started on time and kept HT to 10 mins instead of 22 in a game this year.

In short, stop letting TV dictate to us. Just put the game on and if they're not ready to go, let them cope with the backlash.

 

[Captain Apollo]

Just a few bits and bobs from me.

Regarding the break between the Holden Cup and the NRL games, the reason it is there is be a buffer in case of stoppages for injury and the like in the Holden Cup games. I can remember when they used to be all three grades played at the one ground, but they ran them so close to each other they made no provision for time outs due to injury and what happened quite often? Both lower grade games would have significant stoppages due to injuries which resulted in the first grade game starting later, with on one game I was at first grade started 45 minutes later than the scheduled kick-off time.

As to the suggest of an "NRL season membership which guarantees entrance to any NRL game?" I could see a logistical problem with there being more people wanting to attend a game who hold that ticket tan could fit into the venue? Could you imagine the complaints?

Add in that money would be going into the NRL's coffers whereas revenue from ticket sales to regular season games go to the home club. I somehow doubt any of the current 16 NRL clubs would support the idea somehow. Sorry to sound like a party pooper Canard.

 

[Last Week]

Thursday night and Friday 6pm are here for a while. Hopefully ratings crumble for them.

f**k those two off to Saturday and Sunday and I'm happy.

 

[Timmah]

Holden Cup gap is meaningless come 2018 - there are only 17 games of it left ever.

 

[Last Week]

Holden Cup gap is meaningless come 2018 - there are only 17 games of it left ever.

Will there be games played before first grade still?

 

[Mister M]

What about a NRL season membership which guarantees entrance to any NRL game?

I live in Melbourne and support both the Storm in the NRL plus the Richmond Tigers in the AFL. Because so many of my friends and relatives barrack for different teams I actually have an 'AFL Membership' instead of a club membership.

The AFL Membership for $600 a year provides access to:

• 40 Games a year at the MCG or Etihad Stadium (the two grounds in Melbourne) out of a possible 91 this season subject to capacity.
• Access to an Exclusive 'AFL Members Reserve' at both grounds. At the MCG this is a section of 10 bays across each level with premium viewing quality (from the centre to the 50m mark on the wing) that I can either pay a small upgrade fee ($7) to get a reserved seat in or just walk up and swipe my card and sit anywhere in that section that is GA for that game (which varies depending on crowd expectation).
• Priority access to finals tickets

It makes it really use for me as a sporting fan to be able to watch as many games as possible of a game that I really enjoy. Only last weekend for example I was going to the Storm V Rabbitoh's game at AAMI Park, but because I decided to leave home early before the Storm game I was able to head into the 'G and watch the 2nd half of the Collingwood/Melbourne AFL game.

Being making it easier to combine multiple sporting events into an afternoon/evening is one thing I would do to boost NRL crowds, particularly that of the Storm here in Melbourne. I would make the 5:30pm Saturday afternoon game the Storm trademark for home games, trying to match them up with big MCG AFL games (1:45pm or 2:10pm start games are finished by 5pm, where as the NRL is normally finished either by or just after the 7:25pm Saturday night start times).

As to the suggest of an "NRL season membership which guarantees entrance to any NRL game?" I could see a logistical problem with there being more people wanting to attend a game who hold that ticket tan could fit into the venue? Could you imagine the complaints?

The problem could be easily solved by placing the 'subject to capacity' clause and the ability to reserve a seat with your membership in the same way that the AFL membership currently does it. As an AFL member I get a weekly e-mail on the Thursday letting me know how much GA capacity is available in the AFL 'members reserve' each week to guide me into deciding whether I should upgrade my ticket or not go to the game due to capacity issues.

Add in that money would be going into the NRL's coffers whereas revenue from ticket sales to regular season games go to the home club. I somehow doubt any of the current 16 NRL clubs would support the idea somehow. Sorry to sound like a party pooper Canard.

Once again looking at the AFL model (it's the easiest comparison), AFL members each have a 'club support' element to their membership, where a portion of the membership price is paid by the AFL to the club ( I believe it's around 30% of the cost, so approx. $200). Thus the clubs are still reimbursed in a similar way. There is also an agreement in place where they get a portion of the money from the upgrade fees & guest passes that members buy through out the season.

I think it's something the NRL should definitely consider for the Sydney Stadium's, so instead of having to appeal to such a wide range of supporters they can focus on a smaller group of members who are passionate enough to go to multiple games if the quality of seating/pricing is suitable.

 

[hutch]

Where to start...

Scheduling is the #1 be all and end all. People want Sunday games. Let's start there. f**k off the 6pm Friday game and put 3 games on Sunday - either 2, 4, 6pm or 12, 2, 4pm.

If we're serious we piss off Thursday games too and put 2 on at 7.30 Friday, 1 in Sydney and 1 in either Brisbane or Melbourne.

Which brings me to the next point on scheduling.. starting times. Night games should start no later than 7.30pm. No one wants to be hitting full time after 10.

And another - public holidays. Instead of everyone writing off Roosters crowd average because of the Anzac Day boost, they should be copying it. Every public holiday that falls within the season should have 1 or 2 big stadium games. Every club should have at least 1 big holiday home game. Make traditions of them. If you think "Why do Roosters and Bulldogs get the big holiday games" you're right. 1 big crowd can boost a clubs average by thousands.

Still on scheduling - prioritise rivalry games! Big draw games should be played twice a year every year. For Sydney clubs, low draw interstate games should be the ones they sell off to QLD, Perth, NZ, Darwin.
Faux-conferences to generate the draw make this easy.


Next up, Prices. I don't think they're that bad, there are good offers around especially for family passes, but if enough people say they can't afford it (especially after parking/transport, food, drinks) then I'm not gonna argue. A recent article said they are too expensive for a lot of families but not expensive enough to actually generate any serious revenue for clubs, especially compared to the mammoth TV money.
Slash the prices of tickets and in-stadium purchases.
Sell the premium seats to season ticket members as is, but aside from those designate every other seat in the ground GA. Remove tiered ticketing entirely (except for season tickets). Premium tiered seating is a joke when you aren't selling out the ground. GA memberships $100 Adult $50 child. $15 Adult GA . $40 Family GA.


The Rules. This is likely a minor issue if everything else is smooth sailing, but they've made it an issue. Spending big on refereeing revolutions that result in no improvement, ill-advised tinkering with rules, and banning exciting parts of the game. They create ill feeling around the game and give free ammo to critics. There will always be sooking about refereeing, but the problem now is the rulebook and the referees coaching and systems making a difficult job close to impossible.


And finally Create some positive feeling in the game. In Rugby League it constantly feels like "the game is dying" is drowning out anything good, EVEN AMONG OUR OWN FANS. It makes people less enthused to spend their money on it.
The NRL needs some serious pushback on this. Make fans want to be part of something big. Regular, exciting events. Expansion and internationals. For every insular sook calling them mickey mouse games and whinging about injuries, there are far more who have a great time and will come back again. Think of the Pacific tests earlier this year!
Build the Pacific Cup into a tournament that runs parallel to Origin (and give them both breathing room from the regular season).
Invest in the Kangaroos and the Kiwis. Get them playing more games every year home and away. Support the World Cup.
And expand the bloody competition. A game that is dying looks inwards, a game that is thriving looks outwards.

PS one more
Game day experience
It's probably the least important for some people here, and the old merkins will say "who cares we're there to watch football not sing and listen to music" BUT it ties into the above positive feeling and being part of big events.
I'm not sure the answer is to copy American sports outright or anything like that, but it would be good to see some effort. Most clubs pre-game and half time is dead air. A long, pointless wait after the reserve grade game which makes the idea of showing up to actually watch it completely unappealing.
There are some great ideas floating around the sporting world, even within Rugby League.
Even something as simple as the viking clap has improved Raiders fans enthusiasm for attending games and given them a unique selling point.
Toronto Wolfpack have a craft beer bar at the game. (at Roosters we drink overpriced VB)
Newtown Jets recently tied in a game to a food and beer festival, while American football does tailgate parties pre game - Imagine something like this in that big usually empty Roosters carpark, probably illegal in this stupid arse backwards city anyway but the idea can be adapted.
American sports fill dead airtime with music and performance - maybe it's not for us but again ideas can be adapted.
English fans create their own atmosphere with constant chants and songs.
Just make an effort - the NRL gameday experience around the game (which is usually great) is f**king dire.

Petty much the post of the year.

These are all essential if we are serious about improving the sport.

I bet nrl management havnt even thought of any of this.

 

[Captain Apollo]

Holden Cup gap is meaningless come 2018 - there are only 17 games of it left ever.

Timmah, are you saying they will only have the 1 game on, namely first grade? I doubt it some how. I suspect the new state based replacement competition games will just slot straight in.

 

[Captain Apollo]

I live in Melbourne and support both the Storm in the NRL plus the Richmond Tigers in the AFL. Because so many of my friends and relatives barrack for different teams I actually have an 'AFL Membership' instead of a club membership.

The AFL Membership for $600 a year provides access to:

• 40 Games a year at the MCG or Etihad Stadium (the two grounds in Melbourne) out of a possible 91 this season subject to capacity.
• Access to an Exclusive 'AFL Members Reserve' at both grounds. At the MCG this is a section of 10 bays across each level with premium viewing quality (from the centre to the 50m mark on the wing) that I can either pay a small upgrade fee ($7) to get a reserved seat in or just walk up and swipe my card and sit anywhere in that section that is GA for that game (which varies depending on crowd expectation).
• Priority access to finals tickets

It makes it really use for me as a sporting fan to be able to watch as many games as possible of a game that I really enjoy. Only last weekend for example I was going to the Storm V Rabbitoh's game at AAMI Park, but because I decided to leave home early before the Storm game I was able to head into the 'G and watch the 2nd half of the Collingwood/Melbourne AFL game.

Being making it easier to combine multiple sporting events into an afternoon/evening is one thing I would do to boost NRL crowds, particularly that of the Storm here in Melbourne. I would make the 5:30pm Saturday afternoon game the Storm trademark for home games, trying to match them up with big MCG AFL games (1:45pm or 2:10pm start games are finished by 5pm, where as the NRL is normally finished either by or just after the 7:25pm Saturday night start times).



The problem could be easily solved by placing the 'subject to capacity' clause and the ability to reserve a seat with your membership in the same way that the AFL membership currently does it. As an AFL member I get a weekly e-mail on the Thursday letting me know how much GA capacity is available in the AFL 'members reserve' each week to guide me into deciding whether I should upgrade my ticket or not go to the game due to capacity issues.



Once again looking at the AFL model (it's the easiest comparison), AFL members each have a 'club support' element to their membership, where a portion of the membership price is paid by the AFL to the club ( I believe it's around 30% of the cost, so approx. $200). Thus the clubs are still reimbursed in a similar way. There is also an agreement in place where they get a portion of the money from the upgrade fees & guest passes that members buy through out the season.

I think it's something the NRL should definitely consider for the Sydney Stadium's, so instead of having to appeal to such a wide range of supporters they can focus on a smaller group of members who are passionate enough to go to multiple games if the quality of seating/pricing is suitable.

Cheers, thanks for the reply. Most informative

 

[King Ben]

Game day experience
It's probably the least important for some people here, and the old merkins will say "who cares we're there to watch football not sing and listen to music" BUT it ties into the above positive feeling and being part of big events.
I'm not sure the answer is to copy American sports outright or anything like that, but it would be good to see some effort. Most clubs pre-game and half time is dead air. A long, pointless wait after the reserve grade game which makes the idea of showing up to actually watch it completely unappealing.
There are some great ideas floating around the sporting world, even within Rugby League.
Even something as simple as the viking clap has improved Raiders fans enthusiasm for attending games and given them a unique selling point.
Toronto Wolfpack have a craft beer bar at the game. (at Roosters we drink overpriced VB)
Newtown Jets recently tied in a game to a food and beer festival, while American football does tailgate parties pre game - Imagine something like this in that big usually empty Roosters carpark, probably illegal in this stupid arse backwards city anyway but the idea can be adapted.
American sports fill dead airtime with music and performance - maybe it's not for us but again ideas can be adapted.
English fans create their own atmosphere with constant chants and songs.
Just make an effort - the NRL gameday experience around the game (which is usually great) is f**king dire.

I went to Melbourne v Sharks at AAMI Park last year. Their game day experience was phenomenal. Even the most diehard AFL fan couldn't help but get excited after the pre-game spectacle - and it wasn't anything complicated either. Just very well-organised.

The other teams could take a hint from the Storm. Also the past few Origins in NSW have been pretty good at pumping up the crowd. They have a big budget of course but it's not like they're doing anything crazy.

 

[moffla]

@adamkungl, For me your last point is actually the most significant despite you saying it's the least significant for fans.
Walk through the concourse at AAMI Park and you get a real home ground feel. They sell beer in cups with storm imprinted logos, there are mini bars, one of which is a fat yak bar with fake grass and seating, that offer a place to meet up pre game.

Next door there is food trucks and activities for kids.

Compare that to when I went to last went to Allianz for a league game and that was f**king dire. No wonder why fans hit up the pub, or have their mates over.

I know it's hard to compare as we have the luxury of having our own team down here, but there's certainly things clubs can implement just to make fans feel at "home"

 

[big hit!]

Where to start...

Scheduling is the #1 be all and end all. People want Sunday games. Let's start there. f**k off the 6pm Friday game and put 3 games on Sunday - either 2, 4, 6pm or 12, 2, 4pm.

If we're serious we piss off Thursday games too and put 2 on at 7.30 Friday, 1 in Sydney and 1 in either Brisbane or Melbourne.

Which brings me to the next point on scheduling.. starting times. Night games should start no later than 7.30pm. No one wants to be hitting full time after 10.

And another - public holidays. Instead of everyone writing off Roosters crowd average because of the Anzac Day boost, they should be copying it. Every public holiday that falls within the season should have 1 or 2 big stadium games. Every club should have at least 1 big holiday home game. Make traditions of them. If you think "Why do Roosters and Bulldogs get the big holiday games" you're right. 1 big crowd can boost a clubs average by thousands.

Still on scheduling - prioritise rivalry games! Big draw games should be played twice a year every year. For Sydney clubs, low draw interstate games should be the ones they sell off to QLD, Perth, NZ, Darwin.
Faux-conferences to generate the draw make this easy.


Next up, Prices. I don't think they're that bad, there are good offers around especially for family passes, but if enough people say they can't afford it (especially after parking/transport, food, drinks) then I'm not gonna argue. A recent article said they are too expensive for a lot of families but not expensive enough to actually generate any serious revenue for clubs, especially compared to the mammoth TV money.
Slash the prices of tickets and in-stadium purchases.
Sell the premium seats to season ticket members as is, but aside from those designate every other seat in the ground GA. Remove tiered ticketing entirely (except for season tickets). Premium tiered seating is a joke when you aren't selling out the ground. GA memberships $100 Adult $50 child. $15 Adult GA . $40 Family GA.


The Rules. This is likely a minor issue if everything else is smooth sailing, but they've made it an issue. Spending big on refereeing revolutions that result in no improvement, ill-advised tinkering with rules, and banning exciting parts of the game. They create ill feeling around the game and give free ammo to critics. There will always be sooking about refereeing, but the problem now is the rulebook and the referees coaching and systems making a difficult job close to impossible.


And finally Create some positive feeling in the game. In Rugby League it constantly feels like "the game is dying" is drowning out anything good, EVEN AMONG OUR OWN FANS. It makes people less enthused to spend their money on it.
The NRL needs some serious pushback on this. Make fans want to be part of something big. Regular, exciting events. Expansion and internationals. For every insular sook calling them mickey mouse games and whinging about injuries, there are far more who have a great time and will come back again. Think of the Pacific tests earlier this year!
Build the Pacific Cup into a tournament that runs parallel to Origin (and give them both breathing room from the regular season).
Invest in the Kangaroos and the Kiwis. Get them playing more games every year home and away. Support the World Cup.
And expand the bloody competition. A game that is dying looks inwards, a game that is thriving looks outwards.

PS one more
Game day experience
It's probably the least important for some people here, and the old merkins will say "who cares we're there to watch football not sing and listen to music" BUT it ties into the above positive feeling and being part of big events.
I'm not sure the answer is to copy American sports outright or anything like that, but it would be good to see some effort. Most clubs pre-game and half time is dead air. A long, pointless wait after the reserve grade game which makes the idea of showing up to actually watch it completely unappealing.
There are some great ideas floating around the sporting world, even within Rugby League.
Even something as simple as the viking clap has improved Raiders fans enthusiasm for attending games and given them a unique selling point.
Toronto Wolfpack have a craft beer bar at the game. (at Roosters we drink overpriced VB)
Newtown Jets recently tied in a game to a food and beer festival, while American football does tailgate parties pre game - Imagine something like this in that big usually empty Roosters carpark, probably illegal in this stupid arse backwards city anyway but the idea can be adapted.
American sports fill dead airtime with music and performance - maybe it's not for us but again ideas can be adapted.
English fans create their own atmosphere with constant chants and songs.
Just make an effort - the NRL gameday experience around the game (which is usually great) is f**king dire.

gonna cop a pasting here, but gonna say it anyway....................the rules in rugby league have turned it into a predictable one-out slog until there is line break or defensive error which are becoming less and less common with specialised positioning and defensive systems. add to that the rules that we do have a not policed consistently anyway.....particularly playing the ball, and because of this, wrestling is more important than ever to keep players up and preventing them from quickly 'rolling' the ball between the legs.

and what am I comparing this too? the two recent bledisloe tests (basically the only rugby i watch) where there is still a whole heap of variety in the rules. yes, it can be dire when things dont go to plan, like the technicalities of the scrum and most of them collapsing in the first test, but f**k me, it was really eye opening to see the variety of situations and scenarios in that form of the game. it really hit home how simplified and predictable the 5 tackles and a kick form of our game has become, with scrums basically pointless.

 

[Spade]

Keep prices low = better crowds.

 

[adamkungl]

gonna cop a pasting here, but gonna say it anyway....................the rules in rugby league have turned it into a predictable one-out slog until there is line break or defensive error which are becoming less and less common with specialised positioning and defensive systems. add to that the rules that we do have a not policed consistently anyway.....particularly playing the ball, and because of this, wrestling is more important than ever to keep players up and preventing them from quickly 'rolling' the ball between the legs.

and what am I comparing this too? the two recent bledisloe tests (basically the only rugby i watch) where there is still a whole heap of variety in the rules. yes, it can be dire when things dont go to plan, like the technicalities of the scrum and most of them collapsing in the first test, but f**k me, it was really eye opening to see the variety of situations and scenarios in that form of the game. it really hit home how simplified and predictable the 5 tackles and a kick form of our game has become, with scrums basically pointless.

Shrug. Rugby League is a streamlined game. It is what it is at this point. I don't see contests for possession coming back, and I don't agree with further attempts to dilute what we have - removing the scrum for example.

I think there's merit to somehow removing ruck dominance as a key point of games - playing the ball isn't interesting, slowing down the play the ball isn't interesting. Not sure what the solution might be, this isn't the thread for it anyway.

All we can do is ensure the rules we have are sensible, fair, entertaining, and refereed the best as can be reasonably expected.

 

[King hit]

How much does takeaway dinner usually cost?

I had a 3 piece box from KFC yesterday and it cost me $10.95.