Does anyone have the text for this article.
Western Australia’s appetite for NRL has been called into question, with TV ratings analysis showing fewer than 6000 people on average watched some weekend games last year in the State.
thewest.com.au
ive been saying ratings were asshole for months but perthwrongs ding dong tried to refute that claim lol
this also is why budding the bears in west aussie makes 100% sense to broadcasters and nrl as a business. its a fail safe to ensure theres viewers and bums on seats in away games plus all the other stuff grass roots etc
WA election 2025: Push for WA NRL team questioned after data shows poor TV ratings
WA’s appetite for an NRL side has been called into question, with an analysis of TV ratings showing fewer than 6000 viewers on average watched some weekend games last year in the State.
The new data comes as Premier Roger Cook continued to refuse to put a deal with the Sydney-based NRL to voters ahead of the March 8 election, raising further concerns over a big taxpayer spend after the poll.
Ratings data from 2024 revealed outside flagship games, such as the and State of Origin, West Australians switched off from regular season NRL games.
West Aussies were four times more likely to watch Thursday night AFL games than NRL, while on Fridays, the gap was more than fivefold.
While Saturday afternoon and night AFL games were viewed by as many as 70,000 West Australians, on average, fewer than 6000 tuned in to NRL games.
Sunday afternoon games in the AFL — the domain of WA’s two sides — drew as many as 86,000 viewers last year, while NRL games attracted as few as 7000.
The NRL’s big Las Vegas push last year drew slightly more viewers in WA, with ratings data showing 14,800 eyeballs on the US game between Sydney Roosters and Brisbane.
Rita Saffioti says WA taxpayers wont front cash demands for WA NRL team but won’t confirm cost Federal Ausplay statistics reveal just 6188 West Australians played rugby league, including fewer than 2000 children, in the 2023-24 financial year.
That compares to more than 124,000 participants in local footy across the State.
Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Cook again refused to seek a mandate from voters to pursue the deal with the NRL, but argued for a WA-based team.
“We’re considering a range of things in relation to the conversations with NRL,” he said.
“It represents an opportunity for WA to boost economic activity, increase our participation in a national sporting code, and obviously for more West Aussies, to be able to take advantage of the opportunities to play, spectate and be involved in sports.
Roger Cook refused to seek a mandate from voters to pursue the deal with the NRL, but argued for a WA-based team. YES
“When those conversations reach a point in time where we’re able to do the modelling and able to see what those opportunities are, we’ll obviously have an opportunity then to consider them in more detail.”
Asked if there was a big enough fanbase in WA to justify an NRL team, Mr Cook repeated the line “West Aussies love their sport”.
“Any opportunity to continue to bring more Western Australian sporting opportunities to WA is one which we’d welcome,” he said.
“We’d also welcome the economic activity which comes from major sporting codes, and we need to see what those opportunities.”
Asked earlier in the day on Triple M radio about progress with the NRL, Mr Cook hit out at league boss Peter V’landys over leaks to the media.
“He’s a tough bugger and look if he could just shut up for a little while . . . you ring him up and say how are you and the next day in the Daily Mail, you get ‘The Premier asks about my health’,” Mr Cook said.
“(The NRL) are a funny mob to deal with.”
Libby Mettam.
Liberal leader Libby Mettam said Labor needed to explain what deal the Government had done with the league.
“Why is there so much secrecy — we are talking about taxpayer dollars during a cost-of-living crisis,” she said.
“It’s quite clear the Cook Labor government are willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a deal with the NRL and a Sydney businessman at a time when Western Australians are struggling to make ends meet.
“It does not pass the pub test.”
Kerry Stokes and Aussie Rules wankers working overtime to try derail west aussie bears nrl club. This will only fuel V'landys more and more. each time a negative article like this comes out i reckon it makes the west aussie bears more concrete. lol
anyways the fact they'll get a team will ensure the viewership numbers increase. thats the whole purpose of tapping into untapped market. journo who wrote this doesnt understand business 101 by looks of it lol
perthwrongs, instead of talking horse shit on this forum and socials how about ya ask ya group of muppets to tune into games and improve the viewership cob.
