19,000 & we can only get 9k to todays game. Wow
With respect Johnsy, can I ask which supporter package you bought? You would know there are choices.
We have a membership of approx 19,700. This is a mixture of supporter packages and season ticket holders that include Wollongong-only, Kogarah-only, neutral venues and I understand there exists a merchandise-only membership as well. Not all buy the entire package.
Out of this, we had approx 9,500 rusted-on supporters at Kogarah yesterday. The Titans supporteers there could fit into one car.
Even if the entire membership had a Kogarah ticket (which they most certainly did not), then we managed to get half of them to attend the game. Either way, this suggests to me that roughly half the membership are locals in the St George area. Why are we telling them to piss off?
Now, if we had a drawcard opposition - say a local Sydney team - the crowd would double. In 2014, Kogarah received no favours. Unfortunately, the drawcard events were sold off to neutral venues - with their freebies and major promotion. The crowd figures there are propped up further, all designed to make it look good on paper.
Further on the promotion thing and the raw deal we are getting at Kogarah, yesterday I saw one poster in the street outside of the ground. It was on the corner of Jubilee Ave and Princes Hwy. That's right, only 1 poster in the local area. Furthermore, the Leagues Club no longers promotes games at Kogarah. We used to have a big billboard outside the club to announce the next home game. It was seen by thousands of cars every day, but that's long gone. In it's place is a smaller LED sign that is essentially used to promote the pokies. Yesterday, it was promoting Jazz music that plays on Sunday afternoons in the Leagues Club.
It said: "3:00 PM... EVERY SECOND SUNDAY... JAZZ..."
Now maybe I'm the worst promoter all time, but would that sign be best served to promote an event that can draw thousands of extra people? I hope the jazz did well, but I don't think it would make as much money for the Club as a football game.
Add to all this the appalling online promotion: NRL.com still has us playing at WIN Jubilee Stadium, the ground has not been called that all year - It is Kogarah Jubilee Oval. And this filters down into errors across the board with Google listing the game as being played at WIN Stadium, Wollongong. IT COSTS NOTHING to get this sorted out in advance, just a few phone calls or emails at most. I can but imagine how many people rolled up to Wollongong only to realise they'd been stuffed around.
As one fellow supporter said to me yesterday, "They don't want us to play here." Hard to argue with given the level of mismanagement.
So... like all things Johnsy, it's not as simple doing a bit of addition and substraction. To simply it to such an extent and ignore other factors would ultimately lead the demise of this great club. Rather then bagging out on these rusted ons and our home ground, we should be rallying to save our heritage. Without it, we'll all be the poorer.
