Empty stadium vs sold out suburban grounds

[Brissie Kid]

Danny Weilder wrote this and it is 1000 times true. The NRL office thinks it knows rugby league but as we are seeing they are failing whether it is venue strategy, salary cap, shoulder charges or new rule changes. It is Super League revisted and they are going to go the same way down the gurgler unless they change.

NRL boss Dave Smith is sitting on a mountain of money — but he should not get too smug.

Fewer than 30,000 fans were at the season opener, and less than 20,000 fronted up on Friday night. The image of Smith hopping on a train to go to the game was hardly inspirational.

It appears the NRL has misread its audience by taking games to big stadiums.

Perhaps their money should be spent doing up suburban grounds and creating better facilities there and potentially having sell-outs.

What should be music to the NRL’s ears is fans complaining they couldn’t get a ticket to a game, not the echoing cheers that occur in three-quarter empty stadiums.

Think about your favourite restaurant – you might get annoyed if you can’t get a booking one night, but you’ll turn up again.

Clubs should stop thinking about corporate fans and start thinking about the game’s real fans.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/shane-flanagans-50000-legal-limit-20140308-34e09.html

 

[globaleagle]

Brookie looked awesome....anz looked like Chernobyl.

 

[Brissie Kid]

The NRL and the media should just give up on this constant comparison to AFL crowds as some sort of yardstick of success.

Just stick to RL friendly grounds and put up the house full sign.

The Fox ratings last night for Manly Storm were phenomenal and easily beat RU and soccer.

So what if the Aleague had 40000 and Brookie half that. The NRL's money comes from tv and sponsorship. Playing in front of full grounds make the tv viewing more exciting and get even more viewers. Putting that same size crowd into ANZ just makes NRL look a code that is dying.

But NRL office thinks Manly playing out of ANZ is the way to go.

 

[tookey]

Brookie looked awesome....anz looked like Chernobyl.

They were just souths supporters with two heads and six fingers on each hand

 

[HappilyManly]

14,200 was the crowd - we were all mystified as it was pretty full and even when the heavens opened up, nobody left

Win or lose - Brookie is all Manly love

BTW - nobody shook the Referees hands as they rushed off the Ground to our resounding Boos 😛

 

[Brissie Kid]

Oh no. Toddy won't be pleased.

 

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

Beautiful sunny Sunday arvo in Sydney...

ANZ Ghost Town

 

[castle eagle]

danny wierdler must have a ghost writer now.
no way he could've thought of something that intelligent😀

 

[Brissie Kid]

Beautiful sunny Sunday arvo in Sydney...

ANZ Ghost Town

Proves the point. There were 19K there today which is bigger than a full Kogaroh or Leichardt could hold but Ch9 news called the ANZ crowd another worryingly poor crowd for the NRL.

 

[ManlyArmy]

Beautiful sunny Sunday arvo in Sydney...

ANZ Ghost Town

Proves the point. There were 19K there today which is bigger than a full Kogaroh or Leichardt could hold but Ch9 news called the ANZ crowd another worryingly poor crowd for the NRL.

Very poor considering it was a Dragons home ground and most Tigers members were allowed in for no extra charge.

 

[conanu]

So far this round the crowds have been 115363 which will be close to 130000 after tomorrow night. I reckon thats fairly on par with most other first rounds i can remember. It would have been more except there was a cyclone warning in townsville which would have kept a few people away up there.

 

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

Beautiful sunny Sunday arvo in Sydney...

ANZ Ghost Town

Proves the point. There were 19K there today which is bigger than a full Kogaroh or Leichardt could hold but Ch9 news called the ANZ crowd another worryingly poor crowd for the NRL.

Very poor considering it was a Dragons home ground and most Tigers members were allowed in for no extra charge.

I reckon they were counting the turnstyles at the train station all day long and not the ground entry to come up with that figure. yeah the place is huge but there were literally bays where you could count the people in them on one hand... and im not talking the closed off top bays either!

 

[wedgetail eagle]

The NRL and the media should just give up on this constant comparison to AFL crowds as some sort of yardstick of success.

Living in Darwin, my AFL workmates see poor crowds, saying, no one wants to go to NRL.
It's a bad look, no doubt, 20K people in a ground that holds 80K plus.

 

[Brissie Kid]

Living in Darwin, my AFL workmates see poor crowds, saying, no one wants to go to NRL.
It's a bad look, no doubt, 20K people in a ground that holds 80K plus.

It does look bad. Not that there is much you can say back to an AFL fan, but the NRL and Origin is the most watched (tv/web) and attended rugby competition in the world.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Thought I just heard on radio that the first round attendances will be smaller than A League this week.
I think A League is football. (Soccer)
Could this really be true?

 

[The Who]

The NRL can't have it both ways; you either give the TV networks what they want or you give the fans what we want. Because we are told rugby league is a 'business' we fans are no longer important. Getting people to watch from their loungerooms is more lucrative to the NRL than getting us to the games.

If the NRL really cared about us they would stop scheduling virtually all matches in the evening. They would abandon Monday night football, which is a disaster for everyone except those with Foxtell. The weekend is over yet the round is still not completed. That's ludicrous.

The standard of football improves in daylight. People want to watch football in daylight. There should only be one night match - Friday night. The rest should start between 2pm and 4pm on Saturday and Sunday.

So, NRL, don't give us this crap that you care about live crowds. You have sold out to TV. You are to blame! It will only get worse as you hike up admission prices and force fans to watch their local teams from non-local venues.

 

[StuBoot]

The two crowds that probably disappointed the most was Bunnies/Chooks and Dragons/Tigers.
Why take two inner city teams to Homebush when Allianz holds 40K? Not to mention an 8pm kickoff on a Thursday night.
They would've been better of taking the Dragons game to Allianz as well that way fans can make it a day out rather than just a destination as the Homebush precinct is effectively not much. It be interesting to see how many of the crowd at ANZ yesterday turned up for all three grades or just the main game.
All the other games were against out of towners so not too bad really.
14K at Brookie isn't too bad in context.
How many Storm, Warriors, Canberra fans were at their respective games?
Sharks tonight v Gold Coast, how many Coasties will come down for Monday night game.

The Nrl really have rethink and look at their scheduling / venue strategy of whos playing who, whether certain teams crowds travel etc.

Their obsession with the large venues is fraught with danger.

I can't believe I'm agreeing with Weidler but they're taking the "regular" fans for granted. I don't know anybody who prefers ANZ/Allianz over Brookie, Leichhardt, Kogarah, Parra Stadium etc.
Leave the games at their home grounds, offer free public transport and sensible scheduling and they will come.

 

[Wolfpack]

Thought I just heard on radio that the first round attendances will be smaller than A League this week.
I think A League is football. (Soccer)
Could this really be true?

Unless the Sharks game gets over 17k tonight (which they won't), yes, it's true & tbh it's not suprising.

 

[The Who]

I don't know anything about soccer. Do they televise every game, like the NRL? If not, then you have the answer. Why go to the trouble and expense of attending a match when it's on TV?

 

[Mals]

I don't know anything about soccer. Do they televise every game, like the NRL? If not, then you have the answer. Why go to the trouble and expense of attending a match when it's on TV?

A-League has all games live on Foxtel & 1
game per week on delay on FTA (SBS). So yeah we are comparing apples with oranges.