Pathetic Sydney Roosters Crowds

[Big Pete]

So it's final then.

12 Monday Night Games a Year (only in Canberra)

12 Saturday Night Games a Year (only in North Queensland)

The rest can be divided between Friday night, and Sunday.

Now in all seriousness let's review...

The crowd, no matter how you slice it, was poor. 6 400 at a stadium that fits well over 7 times (possibly even 8 times, what's the official capacity again?) is poor and it was a bad effort by the Roosters.

However it's not the end of the world and they don't deserved to be kicked out based on that figure.

How many people here have actually gone to SFS? Compared to Suncorp it's like an old raggedy doll. Transport there is terrible (non-existant if memory serves, I recall catching a taxi from the city in 2007) and the stadium was poor. Decent if not good design but the seating and everything else was dated. The whole stadium needs a face lift.

But then again that's not the biggest concern. For mine, the reason why that crowd and most crowds are poor is because they haven't done enough to encourage people to go to the games. Before this year, I can't recall memberships ever being blatantly advertised on official websites nor anywhere else. It's only now, in the year 2010, 102 years after first grade commenced that the NRL has gotten on board with memberships.

How stupid is that?

For mine, the NRL should be heavily behind promoting memberships. Start with a reasonable price, maybe even a little bit below you'd expect what you'd expect to draw in a large number of fans and over the years steadily increase the price as the quality of your club and the NRL increases as the fans will by then be getting what they pay for.

Promoting said memberships needs to expand beyond the internet. Advertise memberships during the games, it seriously will be the best times and it would sure beat the commentators trying to prop up centrebet every time they can.

Once you get fans to the game, now you have to try and keep them there. Give them benefits for going to the game. Whether it be running onto the field after the game, prizes, player exclusives and try and get a supporters group up and running and nurture it so it can expand and encourage more people to the game.

Honestly, that last one would be awesome. And if it was worked right, it would bring more fans to the game. Imagine it, a whole stand say of 500-1000 (at first, obviously that number would expand) fans perched right in the middle of the stadium getting chants started (anything simple as the logo of the club) and giving them free reign in the stands (banners and what have you) and trying to get a real party atmosphere into the game that everyone will enjoy.

Combine that privilege, with exclusive offers, give aways (say if a player is having a 200th game and a shirt is on sale, they would receive those shirts for free and would be encouraged to wear them to the game) and chances to meet the players after the game it would be a good deal.

By exclusive offers, I'm saying deals like half price (if not more) for opposition games. This would work a treat at a place like Telstra stadium which itself can barely seem to get filled. Give them the same privileges and surely the crowds would increase exponentially over the course of five years.

Food for thought I guess...

 

[Nashy]

**** changing when they play, they can suck it up.

If they want to have pathetic crowds, let them. Sounds like residents of Sydney need to harden the **** up more than anything.

I'll point people's attention to Jeb when he lived out in Stanthorp. Didn't matter when they played, he was pretty much always there.

 

[Anonymous person]

if i got a jersey with a season membership, id become a season member. as it is, i wont buy a membership as the only incentive is saving some money if i was intending on going to lots of games. give people that might only go to 5-6 games a year some incentive to become a member and more will.

 

[Charmamba]

**** changing when they play, they can suck it up.

If they want to have pathetic crowds, let them. Sounds like residents of Sydney need to harden the **** up more than anything.

I'll point people's attention to Jeb when he lived out in Stanthorp. Didn't matter when they played, he was pretty much always there.

LOLZ. You do know why the Cowboys get a shit load of Saturday night games already right? Because they draw such good crowds on a Saturday night. If they can do it for the Cowboys, they can do it for Sydney clubs too.

[\quote]

And because as said, they have fans travel from 4hrs away for the games, the club asked the NRL/News to consider that without those fans they would only get about 10,000 in the gate.

I remember back in 08 they had a Monday night game and they had to give the tickets away almost. The paper up there bitched about it from the moment it was announced.

 

[Nashy]

The fact that Rocky is comparing the Cowboys situation with lazy, can't be bothered Sydney fans just voids his entire argument.

People in Sydney need to get off their ass and make the effort. Do that, and maybe then they should get better nights. Until then, teams that continue to produce decent crowds will get first dibs on whatever they want.

 

[Coxy]

The fact that Rocky is comparing the Cowboys situation with lazy, can't be bothered Sydney fans just voids his entire argument.

People in Sydney need to get off their ass and make the effort. Do that, and maybe then they should get better nights. Until then, teams that continue to produce decent crowds will get first dibs on whatever they want.

Oh but it's very valid. With the appalling public transport and roads in Sydney it easily takes as long to get from Campbelltown to the SFS as it does to get from Mt Isa to Townsville.........

 

[Bannermania]

can we just change the name of this thread to Pathetic Sydney?

 

[Coxy]

can we just change the name of this thread to Pathetic Sydney?

+1

 

[Anonymous person]

i personally like the 'people in sydney have so much to do on saturday nights that scheduling footy matches on them is silly' excuse lol. pretty sure brisbane and every major city has just as much to do on a saturday night as sydney does.

 

[Bannermania]

i personally like the 'people in sydney have so much to do on saturday nights that scheduling footy matches on them is silly' excuse lol. pretty sure brisbane and every major city has just as much to do on a saturday night as sydney does.

There's riots to be started man, geez.

 

[Anonymous person]

well thats subjective to opinion. im personally not a fan of gay bars and drug dealers, so i wouldnt find sydneys nightlife as appealing as some.....

 

[Nashy]

Those bogans with jobs work at the mines which pays for your stupid little city to survive. They don't draw shit crowds because the fans aren't interested, or have something better to do, they can't physically make it without taking a day off.

The distance to travel to Townsville for a footy match is simply too far. No traffic, no lazyness, they have to work!

 

[Huge]

Rocky..I realize you neither want nor need my support but I will say this, Sydney is one fabulous place to live and work in. For the younger brigade I say, get yourself down to Sydney before you marry him/her and have a party. The place is alive with every conceivable distraction available. I loved my time down there and reckon everyone should try it out at least for a few months.

Brisbane and environs are great too but I can't say one is better than the other. They are both huge in their own way.

 

[Professor47]

Those bogans with jobs work at the mines which pays for your stupid little city to survive. They don't draw shit crowds because the fans aren't interested, or have something better to do, they can't physically make it without taking a day off.

The distance to travel to Townsville for a footy match is simply too far. No traffic, no lazyness, they have to work!

And people in Sydney physically can't get to games either. If I was working on a Monday, the only stadium that I'd be able to get to on site is ANZ, and that's because I'm 500 metres from it! Any other stadium would be impossible to get to. Traffic is bad, transport is shit. It's physically impossible.

Yup - I'm telling you guys now... to make it to that Monday game you would literally have to work in the CBD and catch public transport there straight after work and then you'll be stuck after the game and have to public transport it out... no good.

If you work out in the west or Inner west ... forget about it... honestly you're not going to sit in traffic to get to a Monday night game... call it lazy or whatever but its just the way it is.

Monday night games don't really make sense to me - I'd say make it ANZ stadium games and hope for the best for Sydney.

You have to make the people WANT to go to the games - and some of the ideas mentioned already are some good points.

 

[Fozz]

Crap public transport, crap roads and disinterested people.

Brisbane > Sydney.

 

[Bajar]

Personally, I friggin' hate Sydney for the exact reasons Fozz mentioned. That being said - Rocky has a point, but I still question whether or not it will have a great effect on a club's survival. Are there really that many Cronulla supporters still out there?

 

[Jeba]

Yep. Just like people from up north who don't want to go to Cowboys games on a Sunday because it's too hot. That's fine, valid excuse. But if that's a valid excuse then so is Sydney's excuses.

I don't pay too much attention to crowd figures but would it not make sense to allocate the Monday night Sydney games to Manly, Tigers, Dragons, Panthers and Parramatta? Have it in the suburbs where the grounds aren't hard to fill and those teams have fans that will watch them play at 4am on a Wednesday morning if the had to. The clubs that play at ANZ and SFS are always going to have bad crowds on a Monday night. Would I be correct?

Then have the other Monday night games allocated to Melbourne and Canberra, easy. Although, I do understand that Fox Sports decides this. Can the independant commission fix that? It's a massive problem.

 

[Black Philip]

Yep. Just like people from up north who don't want to go to Cowboys games on a Sunday because it's too hot. That's fine, valid excuse. But if that's a valid excuse then so is Sydney's excuses.

I don't pay too much attention to crowd figures but would it not make sense to allocate the Monday night Sydney games to Manly, Tigers, Dragons, Panthers and Parramatta? Have it in the suburbs where the grounds aren't hard to fill and those teams have fans that will watch them play at 4am on a Wednesday morning if the had to. The clubs that play at ANZ and SFS are always going to have bad crowds on a Monday night. Would I be correct?

Then have the other Monday night games allocated to Melbourne and Canberra, easy. Although, I do understand that Fox Sports decides this. Can the independant commission fix that? It's a massive problem.

Good point, and it's strange that the NRL haven't picked up on this. Do they realise how bad it looks when we are playing a game in front of 6000 people in a stadium that holds 80000?