Two observations from today:
1) the lions are the real deal
2) the giants should counter offer horse $6m to stay in Sydney, just a bit west. Leon Cameron will not deliver them a flag.
Two observations from today:
1) the lions are the real deal
2) the giants should counter offer horse $6m to stay in Sydney, just a bit west. Leon Cameron will not deliver them a flag.
Apparently 12500 at lions GWS game. Looked easily less than 10000. And that's for 4 v 5 with both sides capable of playing attractive footy. As a fan of the game, I would turn out to watch guys like Kelly, Coniglio, Cameron, Greene, Neale, Zorko, Charlie etc. If they can't get a crowd to this, imagine what will happen if their premiership window closes, they start losing players and keep GC company at the bottom of the ladder?
Were you there, Ralph? I was, and was a bit surprised when they announced the crowd figure. I was thinking it was more like about 9K-10K.
But then on Saturday, we were at the MCG to see our game and sitting with my longtime Bombers fan mate, and he swore black and blue there
weren't more than 50K at the game, and they announced the crowd at 60K. Maybe it's AFL policy to add on 20% to the actual figure, ala League.
Man, the Lions looked pretty good. You could tell in the first ten mins how switched on they were, and how if they kept it up (which they did)
they would win. Not convinced the GWS are going to fall off a cliff anytime soon though. They bat pretty deep.
I went to the game (got there just before half time) and thought that it was a bigger crowd than I expected, but by 4th quarter many had left.
I think 12,000 represented the initial crowd.
Giants had half decent crowds (7 or 8000) when they were rubbish, so there is a pretty hard floor of support.
But I agree, should be getting many more at this stage of their development.
It would be disappointing if interest in AFL in Sydney (with a population of 5M people) is only really big enough to support
one team in the long run. I think at the moment there is a hard core of seven or eight thousand people that will show up
to Giants Stadium come what may. You would think it should have been a bit higher by now. But even our crowds, whilst
being OK for a team that's been around a lot longer, are not exactly going gangbusters. I just think interest in footy in
Sydney has kind of plateaued. There is just a lot of competition in terms of other forms of entertainment these days.
Statistically a one team town get a grand final shot every 9 years. A Flag every 18 years. (1 in 18 chance of winning, 2 in 18 chance of making grand final)
A two team town gets to a grand final every 4.5 years, and a flag every 9 years.
Now due to the inherent victorian bias in the system, realistically a 2 team Sydney town could make a grand final every 6 years and win one every 12.
Even that is barely enough big-event interest to grow the code. Maybe we need 3 teams.
Sydney Swans started in sydney in 1982, was a one team town until 2011. 29 years. Made 3 grand finals 1996, 2005, 2006 ( approx 1 in 9 years (on par)) and won one flag (1 in 29, well below par)
Sydney was a 2 team town from 2012 to 2018 (not counting this year). Made 2 grand finals in 2012 and 2014 (1 in 3 (above average)) and wont one ( 1 in 6 (above average)).
Poor old giants havent had a look-in as far as support generating events.
It's a weird one. Basically there is a notional national (sorry) comp that was created out of a one city comp because it (the VFL)
was about to collapse. And now it's success in the other states is judged against how it fares in Melbourne, which itself has benefitted
substantially (ie it's still going) because of the addition of the interstate teams.
Maybe we need to start looking at things a little differently. Maybe crowds of 12,000 at Giants Stadium, or 8,000 at Blundstone,
or 15,000 at a North home game at Marvel are OK in the current climate and taking into account how much competition there
is for the entertainment dollar these days, and not utter failures just because 65,000 show up to a Richmond-Collingwood game
at the MCG.
BTW, the average H & A crowd at the SCG this year is down 10.7% on last year, and the average H & A crowd at Giants Stadium
is down 4% on last year. Though once the derby game is played there in a few weeks, the average H & A crowd at Giants Stadium
will probably show a slight increase on last year. I just think interest in going to games in Sydney has plateaued.
Last edited by KTigers; 8th July 2019 at 04:02 PM.
Just looking at the official NRL combined number of attendance at 4 games over the weekend 43,220 averages out at 10,805 per game
Bookmarks