Don't forget the scg crowd numbers would be heavily impacted by all the fans who won't make the trek into such a hollow venue with a crap playing surface.
Don't forget the scg crowd numbers would be heavily impacted by all the fans who won't make the trek into such a hollow venue with a crap playing surface.
Mate i can remember when you went to a game and selection was amazing , watched Lions / Swans game on sale some swans beanies ?????????????
Fantastic story on Swans supporter Nell Cooper in today's Age.
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The SCG is a monster of a place to get to and away from, regardless of when games are played. And when Thu or Fri night, good God!!
Every time I go to the MCG, I am consumed by jealousy of their easy access. Two train stations, two tramlines, bloody tons of parking. The car park is desolate 30 minutes after final siren, just about the time the first 25 cars have got out of the Driver Av car parks.
Until the SCG access improves, it will have to be content with smaller crowds than the game deserves.
The game topped the night for Fox Footy (national figures, etc).
The city at the moment is in Vivid mode, so I think that also helped boost the figure on Thursday night. I couldn't attend since I had an early start at work at Campbelltown on Friday so didn't want to compete against traffic on a week day, etc.
Irrespective of the fox footy figures -which are not broken up by state - being healthy (240k), I think the free to air figures for Sydney (46k) were disappointing.
What they don't indicate is that many people were thinking "it's too hard to get to the SCG so I'll watch it at home instead".
Maybe the unfortunate reality is that the swans will always be very much on the fringe in Sydney.
Did the SOO game on Wednesday night perhaps take some air out of potential promotion / awareness of the swans/Geelong game? Or do Sydneysiders think it wouldn't have been much different if the SOO game hadn't been played the night before?
Its been interesting to read people's comments about general interest around their workplaces, friends etc.
Let's be clear about it. C7 didn't advertise the game a lot in Sydney and that is probably the biggest problem. No, matter what the club does they don't receive much media coverage in NSW that they deserve. To be honest C7 in Sydney has more coverage in their news about NRL than AFL and they paid for exclusive rights to show AFL games in the country. Go figure.
Some conversations I've had over the years indicate awareness , but not rabid support.
Saw people in March wearing Swans shirts around the beaches and asked "So you're going to the Collingwood game?" Not one person said they would go.
But , is that much different from the NRL ? Not too many in Sydney seem that keen on League, either .
Melbourne is different ,though.
It is very rare I speak to anybody from Victoria - even if they don't attend regularly - who does not support an AFL club.
Here are the attendances for our code :
http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/attendances
And for Rugby League , last season :
http://www.triplem.com.au/sydney/spo...-numbers-2014/
The best-supported team in the NRL , Brisbane , have crowd figures that would get them no higher than 12th in the AFL attendances rankings.
The hackneyed "Sydney is a LEAGUE town , mate ! " may be culturally correct , but it is not really borne out by the average NRL crowd numbers.
If I point out the superior attendances numbers for the Swans vs any NRL team, the standard retort is that it's because there are far more NRL clubs than AFL clubs in Sydney.
There is some truth in that , but it fails to explain why , based on crowds , AFL is far more popular , nationally.
Only reason I can suggest is: it's the greatest game on Earth !
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