"World Cup Hangover"

 

An argument of the form, "A only confirms why B may be the case" is known in philosophical circles as limpus wristus.  By avoiding making a definite claim, Harris can always retort to future critics with, "Well, I only said it was possible..."

 

However, a number of the explanations are plausible.  Let's start with what this topic says on the tin - the supposed "World Cup Hangover".  If it's a good excuse in New Zealand, it should happen in other countries.  Let's look at England's attendances at Wembley:

 

5 September 2009: 67,232 (Slovenia, Friendly)  67,232

3 March 2010: 80,602 (Egypt, Friendly)

24 May 2010: 88,638  (Mexico, Friendly)

11 August 2010: 72,024 (Hungary, Friendly)

3 September 2010: 73,246 (Bulgaria, European Championship Qualifier)

12 October 2010: 73,451 (Montenegro, European Championship Qualifier)

 

This suggests that "Hangover" is inaccurate - what really happens is that casual fans come out ahead of a World Cup, leaving crowds to revert to normal afterwards.  If you're concerned that England's disappointing campaign may be an unfair comparison, consider that all-conquering Spain only mustered 16,800 fans for their first home match as World Champions - and that, at the Bernabeu!  (Admittedly, they were only playing against Lithuania.)

 

...

 

You know, I was going to carry on the argument, but the facts speak for themselves.  Harris doesn't know what he's talking about.

 

 

 

His suggestion that footy will never get big crowds is flawed, but curiously he identifies a major factor - marketing at the beginning and then dismisses it later on ("footy fans knew these events were on") .

 

I think that despite all the succeses in the last year we still have a few more years to go before it becomes a "majority" spectator sport.

 

Other than Akld (warriors) you'd have to say that League is still a minority code and that has been going on for years.

 

Still I am VERY dissapointed with crowd numbers generally and maybe some advertising/marketing dollars might have been a good investment.