Popularity of A-League in NZ

Rugby�s ITM Cup Under Serious Threat From NRL

Tuesday, 21 September 2010, 2:11 pm
Press Release: UMR Research Ltd

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday 21 September 2010


Rugby�s ITM Cup Dominates In South But Under Serious Threat From NRL In Auckland & A-League In Wellington

While more New Zealanders are interested in the ITM Cup than in the NRL or A-League, a new poll released by UMR Research shows big regional variations. The poll asked New Zealanders to choose whether they were most interested in the ITM Cup Rugby, the NRL Rugby League or in the A-League Soccer.

Amongst New Zealanders as a whole, 41% choose the ITM Cup, while 22% choose the NRL and 16% choose the A-League.

In Auckland, however, the NRL leads the ITM Cup by 33% to 26%, with the A-League on 17%.

In Wellington, 31% prefer the A-League and the Wellington Phoenix, while 40% choose the ITM Cup and only 10% prefer the NRL.

The ITM Cup is the choice of the majority of people in Lower North Island provincial areas (54%), in Canterbury (54%) and in other parts of the South Island (53%).

The poll also shows that 63% of New Zealanders prefer Super Rugby over the ITM Cup.

Rugby remains clearly New Zealand�s number one sport, however, and interest is up slightly since June. It is still clearly the most popular support in both Auckland and Wellington.

64% are interested in Rugby (up 2% since June), including 62% of Aucklanders and 66% of Wellingtonians.

Soccer remains in 2nd place on 45%, down 8% since June and the World Cup.

Rugby league is behind netball in 4th place, with league down 2% to 40% and netball up 2% to 44%.

The New Zealand data is from UMR Research�s latest online survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,000 New Zealanders aged 18 years and over .

Not surprising. If you have a team of that code in your city,it is bound to be more popular.

Im suprised how well the A League rated to be honest. 17% in Akl, c/w 33% for ITM Cup and 26% for NRL is not bad at all imo.

Not that bad, 18-29 and Asian New Zealanders have higher interest in A League. Interestingly football has second highest interest, probably lots only in All Whites/overseas leagues and not converted to A League yet.

They never asked me what my thoughts were. Did anyone here get asked?
I'm guessing NO.

Not surprising. If you have a team of that code in your city,it is bound to be more popular.

I am not sure if the FFA is prepared to do that in the immediate future...

Who funded the survey?

[/QUOTE]
If you had a look at the link it outlines the methodology.

Margin of error of 3.1%

[quote]Results in this report are based upon questions asked in the UMR Research nation?wide Online Omnibus survey; this is a survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,000 New Zealanders 18 years of age and over conducted online. Detailed quotas and weighting are used to ensure that the sample is as representative as possible.

Fieldwork was conducted from the 24th to 31st August 2010.

The margin of error for a sample size of 1,000 for a 50% figure at the �95% confidence level�is 3.1%.

A League - isn't that a bit like the J and K Leagues (only with an A)?

Asian Leagues all look the same to me�

Actually it's mostly rugby league respondents who only heard the league part...

To get 17% in Auckland, do you think they by some fluke managed to contact all of Bloc5?