Do you think the message is starting to sink in?

[The Who]

Just 6,000-odd fans turned up at the state-of-the-art Football Stadium last night. It must have brought a smile to the faces of TV executives because it meant more people chose to stay home and watch it on Foxtell.
Television is killing crowds.
No-one seriously wants to watch football at night. It is a daytime sport. The skill level is better during daylight and it's much more comfortable for fans.
No-one wants to attend a match on a Monday night. This is an 'afterthought'. All matches should be decided by Sunday at 5pm.
This week the TV get their way again and extend the round to a Thursday. Why stop there? There is still Tuesday and Wednesday available for TV matches?
I hope this pathetic crowd also proves that it is not the quality of the ground that attracts fans. Even the Easts' coach agreed, saying it would be great to get to Leichhardt Oval and some atmosphere.
Rugby League is really in trouble. I read that 55,000 turned up to watch an exhibition soccer match in Sydney last weekend. It's probably as much as all the RL matches attracted.
I love my RL, but there are very few games during the season I'll bother to attend that are played away from Brookvale Oval (finals are the exception, of course).

 

[BOZO]

NRL is paying people lots of money to run the game that havent got a fkn clue .

 

[bob dylan]

Mate of mine went and said the crowd was nowhere near 6000. He suggested somewhere between 3500-4500.

 

[HappilyManly]

The ultimate FU to the NRL by Nein is the delayed Sunday game

In this technological age, how a Sporting Event, that is broadcast live on every other media, can be relayed an hour into a 1 1/2 game, is farcical :dodgy:

Manly v Titans is that game this week

Pretty sure that all ticketed Memberships are counted as a 'crowd' figure. The 6k was the lowest NRL crowd this year - SBWurst has left the building

 

[Daddycool08]

I don't like the way the game is run either.

But until the fans can cop up the $1Billion or so we cannot have a real say in what happens.

It's the old "Golden Rule" them what got the gold make the rules.

Anyway we are just kidding ourselves if we think we as fans actually matter to the NRL.

If we had a piece of SHYTE and an NRL FAN the SHYTE shines every time.

 

[Scorpio]

You can only hope that someone is getting the message.

That looked dreadful on tv, presumably the atmosphere was just as awful.

 

[Berkeley_Eagle]

Didn't even watch it either
Had a feeling it would be a dud game

 

[EagleFromMay1967]

I'm sure the 'powers that be' are well aware of the message. But feel they can do nothing about it. :s

Lets face it, the TV companies, Nein & Newscorp OWN and run the game, in terms of the key decisions. Scheduling, venues, sponsors, media coverage, and probably refereeing - albeit indirectly. The NRL have been reduced to the role of 'Administrators' just carrying out the commands, demands of the TV. The lastest obvious encroach on running the game was the handling / allocation of the last six rounds.

What you then get is 'even up' penalty counts, with matches a lot closer than they would otherwise be, for the sake of high ratings all the way thru to the end of the broadcast.

It will be Souths v Manly GF for the simple reason it will be a promoters dream - sold as 'Good vs Evil' - 'Poor vs Rich'. The Battlers vs the Successful. And Ceccin, Hayne whoever will be charged with the responsibility of 'making it come out right'. And they will deliver.

The Broncos will be left to their own devices. Just look at the way the ILuke - Burgess chicken wing thing will be dealt with. There is no way that they will be allowed to miss the finals series.

 

[Frogz]

well wait for this weekend.

THURSDAY...ANZ
FRIDAY...ANZ
SUNDAY...3rd weekend in a row without a game in Sydney.
Monday ...Penrith

 

[Fluffy]

Wait a minute, I have been told over and over that Brookie with its "crappiness" gets a guarenteed 10,000 less than the SFS so we would have had a crowd of -4000 for this game. Few, missed a big one there.....

---

So the plan is to have Manly move to a stadium which has the lowest crowd for the year and people think our crowd numbers will go up due to this?

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Not long now guys until we see "virtual crowds"....as they do with advertisements they can super impose a full crowd scene into the big empty stand, its no matter that the crowd in question attended a game 3 years ago, they'll just blank out any banners that refer to Money Bill (or whomever is no longer at that club).

When there's a run of play you'll hear the crowd screaming (again super imposed), and after a score they will show the fans going nuts.

Who cares if only 500 turn up, its got nothing to do with the fans its all about how good it looks on TV.

Might sound fanciful BUT I bet they are thinking about this already.

 

[Jethro]

The ultimate FU to the NRL by Nein is the delayed Sunday game

In this technological age, how a Sporting Event, that is broadcast live on every other media, can be relayed an hour into a 1 1/2 game, is farcical :dodgy:

Manly v Titans is that game this week

Pretty sure that all ticketed Memberships are counted as a 'crowd' figure. The 6k was the lowest NRL crowd this year - SBWurst has left the building

At least it's better than the 52 minute highlights package that they used to serve up back in the day when they first won the TV rights to fit in between the end of the 6 o'clock news and 60 Minutes at 7:30.

 

[HappilyManly]

I reckon if we took out the ads, the promotion of Nein Shows by Gus/Rabbits etc, it would still be 52 minutes of game time :dodgy:

I forgot to add - Nein have missed the HD age too :s

 

[mickqld]

I'm assuming then it's ok if you're anyone other than Manly to have such a pitiful crowd as I'm pretty sure the Daily rag would have been slagging off this morning on us if that game was a Manly home game last night.

 

[EagleFromMay1967]

Not long now guys until we see "virtual crowds"....as they do with advertisements they can super impose a full crowd scene into the big empty stand, its no matter that the crowd in question attended a game 3 years ago, they'll just blank out any banners that refer to Money Bill (or whomever is no longer at that club).

I suggested this almost a year ago. Yes the CGI will be 'there' by the beginning of 2016. And then it will truly be ALL ABOUT THE TV. Fake sounds, cheering, crowds, even fake vuvezela effects. Nein and Rupert need to exit the game, to safeguard its survival.

 

[HoldenV8]

At least it's better than the 52 minute highlights package that they used to serve up back in the day when they first won the TV rights to fit in between the end of the 6 o'clock news and 60 Minutes at 7:30.

At least you got highlights at a decent time. "Back in the day" (1990's) the 52 minute highlights were shown around the country (i.e. outside NSW & Qld) from at the earliest 11:30pm on a Sunday night, though from 1992-94 they actually did show the games live on Nein on a Sunday here in Adelaide....back them league enjoyed kind of a 'flavour of the month' thing when St George were playing one game per year at the Adelaide Oval. Of course it helped that the crowds for those games were anywhere between 15 and 30,000.

Only about 6,000 last night between the Rorters and GC? Must have been the fault of Manly fans who didn't want to go over the Spit Bridge on a Monday night. Expect a full report from "Buzz" in tomorrows DT explaining that Manly fans refusing to travel past Brookvale Oval are to blame for low NRL crowds across the board.....