Friday night produced some great examples of Footy Finals in the AFL and NRL, but it also highlighted a massive gulf between the two popular codes – the poor NRL crowds.
While the MCG saw over 90,000 people crammed in for the Melbourne – Hawthorn clash, the Sydney Football Stadium had around 20,000, a mere 4.5 times fewer people.
It’s not the first time the NRL have been embarrassed this year, and not the first time that their pathetic crowds have been in the spotlight, but the poor NRL crowd on Friday night produced a moment that had the NRL with their own pants pulled down rather than players of a certain club.
Sure the Saturday night crowd for the Rabbitohs v Dragons game was much better at almost 50,000, but so it bloody well should given the nature of the rivalry and having two sets of great fans. But does anyone think that the AFL equivalent of that fixture wouldn’t have filled the Olympic Stadium. Of course not.
And then the AFL doubled down on the Saturday night with another huge crowd.
So far in six NRL Finals games the total crowd figure is 173,757, mostly on the back of a Brisbane final at Suncorp Stadium and the Rabbitohs-Dragons rivalry. The AFL had 162,656 this weekend alone. And a mere 445,804 in total so far, just 156% more.
But does the NRL truly care? If so, can we let the blame game for poor NRL crowds begin? You bet. Here’s our sh!t list of who you could blame.
THE NRL?
We could easily blame the NRL, and we will. Their consistent lack of interest in poor NRL crowds or having zero knowledge in how to fix it should have been a concern a while ago, especially throughout 2018 when NRL crowds at certain grounds were getting outdrawn by Sydney Club rugby and the Toronto Wolfpack in the second tier Championship in England.
Maybe they are more concerned about selling the biggest games of the year to cities with zero rugby league heritage, or rubber stamping each team wearing up to seven jerseys a year, lining up an official tyre supplier for the NRL (like or ensuring referees or the Bunker attempt to ruin as many games as possible.
As long as they’re counting the Pay TV ratings they aren’t as concerned that fewer people are actually turning up. Perhaps that is part of the long term strategy, having no one at all turning up to the games, so then they could be played in giant TV Studios with canned applause and cheering. It would guarantee every Sunday afternoon 4pm game was played in Sydney, instead of the current 95%.
So yes, you could blame the NRL.
THE CLUBS
Maybe the clubs don’t do enough to sell themselves and the games. Friday’s night clash offered plenty, two great sides, both from Sydney, both almost equally inconvenienced by the ground.
You can’t blame the fans who turned up, who were as passionate as one could hope for. Despite the quality of supporter, the quantity sucked, and are the clubs doing enough themselves.
We’re sure either of these games would have been a sellout at their various suburban grounds, and that figure wouldn’t have been much lower than the one at the SFS. And been a better look for the sport and experience for the fans. But since those decisions are out of their hands, we can’t blame the clubs.
THE AFL
Perhaps its the AFL’s fault for being so good at what they do, and are consistently better than the NRL at most aspects of the running of their sport. But is it really their fault for running the game professionally and having fans who show up.
FOX SPORTS
Perhaps it is Fox Sports’ fault for their outstanding coverage meaning people would rather save their beans and spend them on friends like Bundy Rum and the Tooheys brothers,
Maybe the slide in fans coincides with the Fox League coverage. People were happier to go to a game knowing that the alternative was Gus Gould, Ray Hadley, and the parade of dross that the FTA coverage on Channel Nein serves up. There’s a reason it’s free.
So we can’t blame Fox Sports, but it might be their fault indirectly.
THE STADIUMS
Perhaps it is the Stadiums fault. Most of stadiums used in the finals are soulless pits, and the expense of game day is far beyond in a lot of cases. Although a tweet from the ground on Friday night said tickets were $25, reasonable compared to regular season tickets. Especially when compared to the usual extortion of away fans at the big grounds for the dedicated away section.
Luckily the Sydney Football Stadium is being upgraded and enlarged.
Maybe Sydney FC will fill it.
TOO MANY SYDNEY TEAMS?
Are there too many Sydney NRL clubs which causes the poor NRL Crowds?
On one hand yes. The NRL needs to expand, but has made it clear it won’t happen. Merging a few clubs together would in theory create superclubs with double the fans. In that scenario you could argue that the crowd could be significant larger if you have two sets of fans, made from a previous four sets of fans.
In reality it will probably go as bad as the Northern Eagles, and you could get fewer fans at games.
Although, the AFL v NRL argument is invalid if you consider the tight spread of Melbourne clubs geographically. Yet, they are still able to pull the massive crowd at the MCG last night. They also haven’t had to resort to merging Melbourne clubs either.
PETER BEATTIE
It’s easy to blame a person who can’t tell a Newcastle from a Barcelona. But the poor NRL crowds is hardly his fault, but will soon be his problem.
SYDNEY
For years Sydney has been granted a god given right for all of the biggest sporting events. Bledisloe Cup games, crucial Socceroos games and mostly everything with the title of big Australian sporting event, and ion the whole they turn up to these premium events. Because that is what Sydney is good at, the premium events.
Almost as much as being seen at the event rather than enjoying the event, Sydney pack out the one off big games to match the egos. Yet, when it comes to weekly chore of supporting a team, the masses disappear for the diehards.
An example is one wonders where the remaining 10,000’s of Rabbitohs fans are each week from the 100,000 that marched for their reinstatement.
