Knights fans, where are you?

[Serc]

I'll rephase slightly then - assuming the 'gameday experience' was better (like I said I have no idea) then the players and maybe the club would not escape the wrath of your keyboard ;-)

 

[Sacrolishes]

Btw..Mullen is becoming pure class.... i can see the calmness that Joey had in setting up[ plays In him..its exciting!

the Atmosphere of the crowds died when Andrew left..thats obvious..and sadly has died more since budsy has gone..

I prob is the redevelopment..but.. if we dont fix our attendeces b4 then..we wont be at the ground when its complete... this entails Knights Management doing something for long distance fans..they are suffering most

And Mac your right... there a just one too many Drongos from this town mixing with Sydney upper class!

 

[Karmawave]

I'll rephase slightly then - assuming the 'gameday experience' was better (like I said I have no idea) then the players and maybe the club would not escape the wrath of your keyboard ;-)

I was more positive not so long ago. ;-)

And I'm getting better in the more recent past too! Even you said so yourself I'm getting a bit soft on Benchwarmer.

 

[antonius]

I think the atmosphere was better in the early days because most of the ground was grassed hills, people were closer together, and I know in my case the same people were in our area of the hill week in week out. Also I'll say it again, the crowd related to the players, they were like their mates if you like. We saw them come through the grades in most cases (sure 1988 was different, we were brand new) and felt they were a part of us. Now we don't see players coming through anymore, and the majority of the team are fringe players from other clubs, for me they are like strangers ATM. That may change in time, but I just don't see the old atmosphere returning.

 

[Frederick]

but I just don't see the old atmosphere returning.

Not with that attitude

 

[Bring it home Knights]

I sent this to the herald today. It's part of a piece I wrote for the forum sevens a couple of days ago (how ironic eh?) Hopefully my piece will be in the next round of the sevens, if not I'll post the whole thing in here.

Dear Sir,
Once upon a time you could go to the game and watch Jersey Flegg, Reserve/Premier League and sometimes even a Ball or Mathew’s game prior to first grade. There was nothing better than sitting on the hill at EAS with the regulars there, and discussing the progress of this junior, or how so and so was going coming back from injury. Making predictions about this young guy, and when he may hit first grade was all part of the match day experience.
Now you go along watch the youth game, then straight to first grade, the middle step for juniors (Premier League) is gone, and we fans are left to guess what happened to them.
To watch them now requires you to travel to the distant grounds that make up the local Newcastle competition and watch them with a handful of the local fans. This was brought about by the clubs decision not to field a team in Premier League due to costs. Instead they farm the players not required for first grade to clubs in the local competition. Whilst this might be good for the local competition, it leaves the Knights fans in the dark as to the progress of juniors they have been following in previous years, and of course their form, and likely hood of them making it to first grade.

Prices have risen enormously, 3-4 years ago it cost me $32.00 for a family ticket. Now you get 2 games, no opportunity to watch players coming through the grades, and it costs a family $53.50, or $62.50 if you buy at the gate. That is a huge increase. It's no longer a reasonably cheap day out for mum, dad and the kids. We are paying more for less.
Call me old fashioned, but I long for the Sunday or for that matter the Saturday arvo game, three grades, sitting on the hill, in a big bunch with my mates chanting for my team. Not the clinical setting of today in plastic seats, stuck in front of some idiot for the whole year with my season ticket, watching two games, (if your lucky,) and wondering where that guy in the centres came from. We can’t change the ground format, that’s progress, but we can improve the game day.
Regards

Very well written and there are some great points there that I can seriously relate to.

 

[PrideKnight]

I agree with antonious, I really miss Premier League, and I feel somewhat miffed that we are paying all this money to contracted players who are running around in the local comp.

I know that scrapping Premier League has apparently saved us $300k, but when we are still paying out money to those players and losing crowds because of it, I can't see where the benefit lies.

Bring back our PL team, or at the very very least put on an NRL game or two....

Further to that, I can sympathise with the Baron. The cost of getting to games from sydney has been progressively rising year after year. Until I got my LPG conversion last year, a round trip was at least $100 in petrol.

The Sydney based crusaders floated the idea of putting on a hired minibus each week to get to the home games, but then the fluctuation in numbers makes it very difficult to guage (do we need one bus, two? is it going to be $10 each of $20, you get the idea).

 

[antonius]

Not with that attitude

Sorry to disapoint Frederick, but I'm as loyal a fan as any, but I'm stating it as I see it, I've been going to games since day one, and the atmosphere in those days will be very very hard to recapture, so many factors now affect it. Ground configeration is a big one, lack of personalities in the side is another, and mate for the most part the game has become boring.

 

[mozza91]

Sorry to disapoint Frederick, but I'm as loyal a fan as any, but I'm stating it as I see it, I've been going to games since day one, and the atmosphere in those days will very very hard to recapture, so many factors now affect it. Ground configeration is a big one, lack of personalities in the side is another, and mate for the most part the game has become boring.

The atmosphere at the Melbourne game last year was great the best since the late 90's early 00's

 

[voltron]

Further to that, I can sympathise with the Baron. The cost of getting to games from sydney has been progressively rising year after year. Until I got my LPG conversion last year, a round trip was at least $100 in petrol.

$100!??!?
wow
it might be a tank of petrol for me? so max $45
what kind of car are you driving??

The atmosphere at the Melbourne game last year was great the best since the late 90's early 00's

i was at that game
it was sooo awesome!!

going up for the bronco's game on may 2nd
bringing up a bunch of knights and bronco's supporters!
cant wait!

 

[PrideKnight]

$100!??!?
wow
it might be a tank of petrol for me? so max $45
what kind of car are you driving??

Mitsubishi Triton V6. Admittedly I only use Premium 98 Octane, so it was one tank, just a lot more expensive, I used to get about 550k to a tank, now I get roughly 500k's and it is usually <$30 to fill... I :hg: LPG

i was at that game
it was sooo awesome!!

going up for the bronco's game on may 2nd
bringing up a bunch of knights and bronco's supporters!
cant wait!

Come sit with us!

 

[lizziebra]

Newcastle as a town has changed. There are a lot more douchebags around now than in the years to 1994.

society has changed

 

[Sacrolishes]

Gotta commend Keebs for the letter too..It was solid stuff..

Can someone answer this for me...

What is so bad about Privitisation?? if there is someone there to get us out of the red..then why do we not take it up!?

Mr Tingle is a passionate Knights fan to boot...
Spell it out for me people!!!

 

[macavity]

Come sit with us!

but don't bring the broncos fans...

 

[Jobdog]

Ok, a few things.

Firstly, and it's actually becoming more of a regular occurrence than I'd like to admit, but I'm beginning to agree with most of what Karma says ...

My old man has been trying to tell me this for a long, long time and only now have I actually begun to admit it and see it, but Knights fans are a very fickle bunch. Sure, we have the usual 8-9k of diehards who will go to the game every week no matter what, but the rest are all made up of "hmmm, how did we go last week? Oh we lost, so we won't bother turning up." That attitude sh*ts me and that attitude is the reason why, unless we go on a 8-game winning streak this year, we won't get 20k to the ground.

Another thing that also sh*ts me is the whole attitude of people that go "Oh, this team isn't ours, so what's the point of supporting it?" For God's sake, they're wearing red and blue, they're playing at EAS - of course they're your f**king team. The whole Polynesian influx into the NRL isn't restricted to the Knights, it's common across just about every club and is a further indication that the game is becoming more about athletes, and less about individual's talent (for want of a better word). While you still have Lockyer, Prince and Thurston, players with a freakish ability to turn games is becoming phased out.

Antonius summed it up - the game is becoming boring - it has been for the last 3-4 years with five hit-ups, kick to the centres/wingers and score the try. You don't have too many teams with natural attacking flair (it seems the Knights and Raiders are the only two) who throw the ball around.

In terms of atmosphere returning to EAS, I disagree, I think it can be, but I am also aware that it'll be a long process. We need to get those narrow-minded people who think the team aren't "theirs" coming back. It can be done. The atmosphere at the Storm game last year, as already mentioned, was the best it's been at EAS for a long time. There's no reason it can't be replicated.

 

[Hanscholo]

Lost of things have changed.

Its not just a day at the football anymore, its a mini family holiday, it is outrageously expensive to buy tickets. The knights went down the same road as the sydney clubs splitting ticket pricing up in the stand and sealing areas off excluding people for more money to be paid out. It didnt work in sydney, and it sure as hell isnt working in Newcastle, GET RID OF IT. You didnt pay for the stand knights, why charge people 40 bucks for a single ticket?

Foxtel, no doubt about it. Its the main problem here. Back in the days when we would draw 22k + to every game, 90% of our games werent broadcast at all on TV. Now you get them all live, and we are lazy people.

How do we fix this?

Its simple, most sports in the world have successfuly worked this out, im sure we can to.

1) broacast blackouts. As with major league baseball, australian cricket etc broadcasting blackouts of the home sides games are a real option here. Foxtel and 9 would have a fit, but it isnt their call, not if we negotiate it correctly.

2) One price for adults, one price for children and pensioners. Get rid of the massively over inflated prices for a grand stand seat. Make the tickets cheap, give it time to work with the broadcast blackout.

I find that article rediculous. Its simply just a matter of getting peopkle out of their lounge rooms. The two major stopping blocks to that are their TV and their wallet.

 

[Timmah]

I don't want this to take away from the awesome work of the Crusade over the past few years and it's certainly not an attack on them - I think every team needs supporters groups... but I think a part of the lack of atmosphere comes with the change in 'concentration' of passionate fans around the stadium.

With all of the most passionate and loud fans in the one bay, sure there's plenty of atmosphere right there in that spot... but what that does it saps all the energy from the rest of the ground where these loud and passionate people would previously have randomly sat. We're talking people who are capable of starting the NEW CAS TLE chant and the like. They're all in one bay at the southern end, what do the people up the other end or on the other side of the stadium care? Those people being in different spots around the park, that was what got it.

And I definitely think the departure of Bedsy & Joey has changed things in Newcastle. These are tough times but you're a tough club, and I reckon you'll rise again.

 

[Pika]

It cant be PL.

The fans on here might miss it, but its not the average Joe.

For years I have sat in empty stadiums watching as the crowd piled in to watch first grade and catch the last five minutes of PL.

I think it has a lot to do with having a team we do not relate to.

Last year actually made it worse.

The geniune characters of the side let us down or were not picked. Houston, who is outstanding this year, was agravating us with penalties. Wicks was a debacle and Aku never really got picked.

Our big signing in Cross struggled to get on the park as well.

Finally, Joey has made the halfback position sacred to Newcastle. Scott may not be the player Joey was, but he was well liked, even Karma, who does not rate him, I think likes him.

We messed around with our halves and made it impossible to see them gel and progress. It may not seem like much, but I think its a big deal for fans.

This is turning around. Wicks is showing his talent. And while Karma still puts House in the average catergory, I have seen enough of him this year to believe he will be a fan fav, especially without the penalties.

Aku is a fans dream, you hold your breath every time he touches the ball just waiting for something to happen.

Cross is now there or there abouts and Hilder is showing the heroics that mmake for a player the fans cant help but love.

If we can just sort the halves out, I think we have a team the the fans can get into.

And thats what gets people to games, watching players they love.

 

[Johns Magic]

For me:

The sh*t plastic seats. I never got the chance to sit on a "hill" at NRL games, but I do every week at club rugby games. Obviously the crowds are a lot smaller, but being able to watch on the comfort of the grass where you haven't been forced to sit upright like a schoolboy in a classroom is so much better. It's a way to relax and wind down. The plastic seats have the opposite effect on me.

No premier league. I used to go to NRL games moreso to watch PL than the NRL match. If I want to watch the NRL team run around, I have a TV. Premier League was always filled with players I wanted to watch and see how they were coming along, who was challenging for first-grade spots, how the recently promoted juniors were handling the step up, etc. Premier League not being televised forced me to go to the game.

No Andrew Johns. Whenever I got the chance to go to a Knights game, which wasn't often for a schoolboy with sport on the weekends and no car/license, I would go purely to watch Andrew Johns play. Along with being able to see PL, being able to watch someone in the flesh who will go down in history and who I'll tell my grandchildren about was the major reason to get out to the game. As far as childhood idols go, Andrew Johns was #1 for me.
I'll never forget being at EA Stadium and watching us destroy the Sharks in 2005. We'd just lost 13 in a row and were coming dead last, then Johns returned from injury, won NSW the Origin, we went on a massive winning streak, then he put 44 points on a top 8 side playing a completely dominant style of attacking footy right in front of me. His combination with Thaiday that night was electric. I remember sitting there at the time and thinking that I'd never forget that experience. To be at the ground when he was playing when so many others will only ever get to hear about him was an honour.

I almost never travel to Newcastle to watch anymore because of these reasons.

EDIT: Oh, and obviously keep in mind that I live in Bondi. If I lived in Newcastle I'd go to games frequently.

 

[antonius]

It cant be PL.

The fans on here might miss it, but its not the average Joe.

For years I have sat in empty stadiums watching as the crowd piled in to watch first grade and catch the last five minutes of PL.

I think it has a lot to do with having a team we do not relate to.

Last year actually made it worse.

The geniune characters of the side let us down or were not picked. Houston, who is outstanding this year, was agravating us with penalties. Wicks was a debacle and Aku never really got picked.

Our big signing in Cross struggled to get on the park as well.

Finally, Joey has made the halfback position sacred to Newcastle. Scott may not be the player Joey was, but he was well liked, even Karma, who does not rate him, I think likes him.

We messed around with our halves and made it impossible to see them gel and progress. It may not seem like much, but I think its a big deal for fans.

This is turning around. Wicks is showing his talent. And while Karma still puts House in the average catergory, I have seen enough of him this year to believe he will be a fan fav, especially without the penalties.

Aku is a fans dream, you hold your breath every time he touches the ball just waiting for something to happen.

Cross is now there or there abouts and Hilder is showing the heroics that mmake for a player the fans cant help but love.

If we can just sort the halves out, I think we have a team the the fans can get into.

And thats what gets people to games, watching players they love.

Pikja
In our not too distant past years I've seen 10,000 fans at the ground watching Premier League on a regular basis, for me that is where our next crop of players emerge from (or used to) frankly now I have no idea hown those guys are going or if they are still at the club for that matter. Like I said before those fans were at those lower grade games for the same reason I was, to watch the progress of players to firsts. Sure you can see the younger guys in NYC but there then becomes a gap between them and firsts. How much money did the clubs receive when Saturday night games were introduced? and more recently Monday night games simply because FOX wanted them. I bet it was nowhere what it's cost our club in lost crowd numbers, if in fact they received anything. It's time TV paid the game what it's worth. That money would finance a premier league side, or at least go someway towards doing that.