The Official Finals Crowd Thread

[Brutus]

ANZ pulled 40k + crowds for games involving the Roosters and Eels against the Cowboys back in 2004-5...

Good point. Also Warriors v Penrith & Cronulla finals attracted well over 40k.

Dragons v Storm was another semi that attracted well over the 40k mark in Sydney.

A less than half-full MCG for Western Bulldogs v Fitzroy:lol: And AFL has Melbourne all to itself.

 

[$$Poor Boy Blues$$]

Numbers lessons, girls.

If a team can double its regular season average, thats considered an impressive crowd. For genuinely big games such as finals, anything less than this is disappointing. Any more than double the average (surely hard to do) and that would be considered a momentous occasion - a great feat.

That would mean, broncos getting 52k or the bulldogs 40k. Get the idea. Be real. Have some bloody standards.

AFL crowds that impress me are those of 65k+. Anything less at the MCG is underwhelming. In general for most league teams, to be impressive, the crowd needs to be over 30k. This is simply because by any standard, sub 30k crowds for big games are disappointing, by Australian AND world standards. And we should be holding ourselves to the highest possible standard.

 

[Brutus]

lol, you fools. Eddiesmith is right...you girls will raise your hands at me....and no one will ever have a clue on here.

An impressive storm crowd would have been in the region of 25-30k+. It wasn't. Its a small consolation that it was 6k larger than olympic could have held. Thats a 50% increase on olympic park. Still disappointing, either way you look at it.

There's always next year. nuf said.

Nobody cares tool.

Move on to a moth forum or something else more appropriate.

 

[VictoryFC]

ANZ pulled 40k + crowds for games involving the Roosters and Eels against the Cowboys back in 2004-5...

I don't care how amazing you think it is. If the AFL is really "in a league of it's own", then finals footy should be filling at least half the MCG, given it's essentially the "home of AFL". As for Brisbane being an interstate team, you're kidding right? :lol: They might be based in Queensland but the club's history harks to the Fitzroy Lions, a very much VICTORIAN team for close to 100 years. The team would have considerable support in the Melbourne area, more-so than interstate teams from SA or WA.

We aren't being at all unfair with our criticisms. Last year the Swans (an AFL team in NRL heartland) hosted a QF @ ANZ Stadium and only drew 19k through the gate in an 83.5k seater stadium. This year the Storm (an NRL team in AFL heartland) hosted a QF @ Etihad and drew 21k through the gate in a 55k seat stadium, on the same night a home final for a local team failed to fill more than half the MCG.

Given the status, coverage and such of each respective sport, the NRL has performed very well in Victoria this time.

If you're really that keen on AFL, I'm sure that there are many forums to accommodate you. The only posts I've ever seen from you are in these Crowd threads where you go into bat for the AFL... why do you bother when it's an RL forum? :lol:

Yeah, its always an attack when anything pro-AFL or anti-League is even whispered. What am I bothering with exactly? Just trying to be objective. My "code/sports" loyalties are split by about 6 different sports (including League although I doubt you'd believe it), so I hardly have an agenda. 21,000 at Etihad was a good result, 47,000 at MCG is not a poor turnout.

 

[Brutus]

The entire point here is that 21k at Etihad for the rugby league isn't a bad result when compared to the 47k at MCG for the "only game in town".

 

[Lowdown]

21.5k to Etihad is a very good result. Its not great - it's very good.

Most of you blokes have little/no idea how little coverage the Storm get down here. Channel 9 treats Victorians with contempt for league. Their news coverage basically ignores us. There was little or no advertising for the game. It was going up against an AFL final and most people will either go home to watch it - or go out on the town.

Channel 7 actually tries to destroy league here, as does Channel 10. Its a miracle we got 21.5k in the first place.'

Storm's form has not been great this year - but I can promise you one thing: the next time we play at etihad, either next week or the week after - the crowd will be closer to 30k.

And pls remind me: How many people came along to watch last years final between Sharks and Storm at SFS?

 

[VictoryFC]

The entire point here is that 21k at Etihad for the rugby league isn't a bad result when compared to the 47k at MCG for the "only game in town".

You're right, its not. Without being overly optimistic, I think Melb will break 20k at least 3-4 times at Swan Street next season, even if its a big jump from Olympic. Blind prediction but Storm to become 2nd biggest drawing team in the next 5 years.

 

[JF_Henson_Hill]

I'm an AFL diehard but since I have moved away from the ratrace that is life in Sydney I am well and truly behind the Storm. (Is it a crime to love sport in general?)

I was a little disappointed with the crowd last night. But I'm not surprised to be honest. Storm have a core support base of 10-12000 fans. So drawing 21000 is to be expected to be honest.

The best thing about the make-up of a crowd of that number is that at least 70% of people were wearing Storm colours. Lots of old-school Fila Adecco jerseys as well. and lots of locals buying purple Storm scarves in the supporters store wanting to show their support.

Just a shame that for the most part the atmosphere at Jihad at Storm games is for the large part comatose. The only people making much noise for the first 15-20 minutes were the travelling Manly fans.

Still, it is more than we'd have had at Olympic Park. And there is another final, hopefully not in opposition to an AFL final as well.

Storm drew 33000 to a prelim final a couple of seasons ago. I can see them doing just as well if we get another. Surely they wouldn't have it on AFL Grand Final night FFS!

JF

 

[brad_19]

Yeah, its always an attack when anything pro-AFL or anti-League is even whispered. What am I bothering with exactly? Just trying to be objective. My "code/sports" loyalties are split by about 6 different sports (including League although I doubt you'd believe it), so I hardly have an agenda. 21,000 at Etihad was a good result, 47,000 at MCG is not a poor turnout.

I'm with you... being a "Victorian", it's pretty much intrinsic in your make up to follow AFL. In fact, it would be virtually impossible not do given how saturated the media coverage is. It definately borders on the rediculous.

Anyway... for my 2 cents. I was at the Storm last night. Being at the match, the crowd looked terrible. The entire top deck was shut on one side, which they don't even do for Victory matches that draw 15k. BUT, what that did do is force the majority of people onto the bottom 2 levels, which generated a brilliant atmosphere. In fact, I'd go as saying the crowd sounded alot better then the Kangaroos-England WC match there last year, which had around the 35-40k mark. And considering the match recieved virtually no promotion, and got 5-6k more then Olympic, I'm relatively happy overall. Should be able to beat the crowd in our next finals match.

Also, the AFL crowd was really good as well. The corresponding semi last year (v Swans, who are larger drawing in Melb then Brisbane), drew 42k. Considering the Dogs are running into the freight-train that is St Kilda next week, not many of their own fans are even giving them a chance so a lot wouldn't have been that enthused about going. The weather was terrible as well.

Anyway, this post isn't designed to defend the AFL. Both crowds were really good. I'm longing for the day where an NRL semi can draw 47k against an out of town team....

 

[JF_Henson_Hill]

You're right, its not. Without being overly optimistic, I think Melb will break 20k at least 3-4 times at Swan Street next season, even if its a big jump from Olympic. Blind prediction but Storm to become 2nd biggest drawing team in the next 5 years.

I can only agree. Melbourne is the fastest growing city in the country. The amount of yellow (& maroon) number plates you see driving around town is startling at times. Many Storm fans are already expats from interstate (or indeed PNG NZ or the UK) as it is.

The facts are, your average family will NOT go to Olympic Park. It is cramped. It is freezing, 60% of the crowd have to stand in the rain & wind on what constitutes to little more than mud. They will still have to walk from Richmond Station in the rain, but at least they will have a seat to sit in, decent toilets and food facilities to use, you should see Storm crowds lift by 15% at least.

This is where the AFL draws so much of its support from. They create a family-friendly environment & you not only get Dad still turning up as he used to, but you now get Mum & the little tackers going every week as well. That is 4 extra bums on seats when there used to only be one.

What the NRl & Storm need to do is get smart with their match scheduling. The AFL draw is set in stone. There are 50000+ MCG blockbuster matches nearly every week or so. Playing a Storm match at say 7:30pm after a 2pm AFL MCG game & then plugging it to AFL fans leaving their match is a sure fire way of trying to add to Storm existing supporter base, as there are sports fans already in the area. Apparently at the Essendon-Hawks game the other night they made announcements saying that people should go across to the Storm game. I saw several Essendon and Hawthorn people put their Storm jerseys over their footy guernseys on Swans Street between games.

There is no reason that the NRL cannot avoid obviously clashes with big-drawing AFL match. This involves the Storm & NRL sitting down & looking at the AFL draw & scheduling matches according. And this involves the NRL actually caring about drawing bums on seats rather than hoping people will stay home and watch the games on Foxtel. :roll:

There are LOTS of AFL fans & Melburnians who may take any interest in how Storm are going but don't go because their games clash with their AFL team's games. Hopefully we can draw on these people in the finals.

JF

 

[yakstorm]

Honestly, regardless of what the AFL, A-League, Union, Netball, and any other sport played in Melbourne got, lets look at the facts with the Storm crowd.

This year the Storm averaged 11,979.

They got 21,155 last night to Etihad Stadium. So thats a 9,176 crowd increase or 77% increase.

That is an impressive figure. Yes it could have been larger, but that is encouraging increase from their week to week crowd, and shows there is an encouraging number of people who are prepared to pay to watch NRL in Melbourne.

From an NRL perspective as well that means the body will have made more gate revenue thanks to the Storm than they will from the Dragons.

 

[ME SO HORNBY!]

St George Illawarra are arguably the best supported club in the NRL. The absurdity of the home finals layout at the moment means that they will play to the smallest crowd this weekend. 21,000 @ Etihad last night, 27,000 @ Skilled tonight, and well in excess of 20k expected at ANZ, possibly even 30k... and we can only get 18k max to a semi final because the ground's so small.

Rothfield might be a sh*tstirring a*hole, but there is a point to be made, playing a semi in front of 18k when playing it elsewhere could easily see the attendance doubled boggles the mind. Other codes, particularly AFL, must be laughing at us...

A have no problem playing at the SFS... NEXT YEAR when David Gallop changes and makes the rules known BEFORE the start of the season.

 

[eddiesmith]

No,both prelim finals will be at the MCG.

St Kilda v Bulldogs
Geelong v Adelaide

Yeah and? Where did I say otherwise? What I was getting at is if Adelaide is playing Geelong it will be Saturday Afternoon, therefore if the Storm played Sat Night they would have absolutely no competition in Melbourne and might even be able to draw some fans who go to the footy in the afternoon

 

[nathanbrown'sghost]

:arrow: fight club

 

[ME SO HORNBY!]

Yeah and? Where did I say otherwise? What I was getting at is if Adelaide is playing Geelong it will be Saturday Afternoon, therefore if the Storm played Sat Night they would have absolutely no competition in Melbourne and might even be able to draw some fans who go to the footy in the afternoon

Victorian

 

[$$Poor Boy Blues$$]

Nobody cares tool.

Move on to a moth forum or something else more appropriate.

you care, little man

suck a lemon

with all the talk of Victorians, and the dick comparison with afl crowds, and people sprouting off at crowds-should-be-this/crowds-should-be-that bullsh*t, here you are having a cry when someone comes along and sends sense to your house with a flaming fire-cracker!

grow a brain

 

[Timmah]

Didn't you leave? :?

 

[dragondad]

Good weather,I reckon 35k for the Bulldogs game.

Lots of Newy fans down aswell.

 

[Timmah]

15-20 buses, average of 50 per bus makes at least 1,000 on those alone.

The pax on my ticket yesterday when I purchased was close to the 15k mark, I purchased a ticket for the Dogs/Warriors game on the Thursday beforehand when it got 41k and the pax was 16k, so we're on track for close to 30k IMO...

 

[nathanbrown'sghost]

15-20 buses, average of 50 per bus makes at least 1,000 on those alone.

The pax on my ticket yesterday when I purchased was close to the 15k mark, I purchased a ticket for the Dogs/Warriors game on the Thursday beforehand when it got 41k and the pax was 16k, so we're on track for close to 30k IMO...

Great day for it too. Been 28 degrees and perfect blue skies. Hope it stays mild for tonight. Should be a cracker.