Diminishing crowds in the A-league

Diminishing crowds in the A-league

Are they really diminishing? Personally I beleive they are pretty much the same as last season's except they are spread over more teams hence lower crowds per team. Crowd numbers seem approximately the same as last seasons if we look at the numbers attending alone. However that means very few new fans have joined the fray :

Your thoughts?

that's certainly the spin that the FFA is putting on it, i.e. more people overall are watching even if there are less per match.  Which may be true but it does mean that teams are losing fans match on match which isn't a good thing and it's hard to argue that new teams in Queensland should have an affect on crowds in anywhere other than Brisbane.

I think the Phoenix home crowds have been pretty decent, given the results they've had at home.

I think all sports have been feeling the pinch with crowds this year, oval ball codes being no exception.

Pretty disappointing, this seasons crowds.

The average is about 9600 at present across the League.

Newcastle and Brisbane have been big let-downs.

Brisbane is a farce.

Wellington's as well but not nearly as much.

Have Gold Coast picked up at all?

Three teams in QLD can't help.

Not sure what Saturday's figure was. Looked about 5000 though as a guess.

Brisbane (say 1.7 million pop.) and Gold Coast (approx 600,000 permanent residents) have been terrible. These cities are also on 70km's apart which adds to the mystery.

Townsville though (1000km's north of Brisbane and approx 160,000 residents) is doing OK I'd say.

They seem to have a small (but growing) and loyal fan base.

Don't forget, the North Queensland Cowboys (who are Townsville based) pull spectators from as far west as Mount Isa (10 hours drive away).

Of all the 3 Queensland teams, the one doing the best this year is the Fury I'd say.

 

Using Wiki numbers (which look correct for the Nix) overall crowd averages are well down on previous seasons.

Overall numbers are down (even here in Melbourne) but yes, Wellington's drop isn't as dramatic as seen in other centres such as Brisbane.

welllington has actually improved on last tear hasn't it?

I think the average is down across the board, except for Perth and maybe Adelaide.

If you ignore the 2 new clubs the average crowd this season is 10,400. This is 16% down on last seasons average of 12,100.

Gold Coast's crowds have dropped - Clive Palmer has lost some weight lately and now requires two less seats

You mean he's eaten most of them in the early rounds so now there's not many fans left and he's losing weight.

So does anyone actually have an explanation why?
I'd say the standard of players is going up and up, to produce better quality football?
Yet numbers go down?

money money money

Crap advertising and marketing is the main reason imo. I am shocked if I see an ad for the A-League on TV and a lot of people don't even know it's on most of the time.

The first few years it was good. You're in Melbourne valeo, surely you've seen some of the billboards for MVFC around town.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/soccer/a-leagues-best-team-cant-attract-fans/story-e6frey4r-1225788438900

Gold Coast's ticket prices are their downfall. Absolutely the most expensive. They charge $55 for a category 1 ticket, category 2 $42, category 3 (general admission) $29, family $80, juniors $17 and concession $24.

Every club attendance is either steady or down except for Perth Glory.

Team � Last season � This season � Change
Melbourne � 24,516 � 20,089 � ?18%
Sydney � 12,375 � 12,075 � ?2%
Adelaide � 11,712 � 11,433 � ?2%
Perth � 7,942 � 9,419 � +19%
Brisbane     ï¿½ 12,995 � 8,573 � ?34%
Central Coast � 10,465 � 7,706 � ?26%
Wellington � 7,193 � 7,368 � +2%
North Qld � No data � 6,676 � could be better
Newcastle � 9,729      � 5,764 � ?41%
Gold Coast � No data � 5,044 � Terrible
Total � 12,180 � 9,486 � ?22%

Interesting stats.  I hope the FFA and the team owners get together and work something out.

More importantly, where is our damn licence extension?

Just for comparison, here are some attendance figures from the just-completed J-League season. Yes, I'm aware it's apples and oranges in terms of population base, the length of time the league has been running, local popularity of the sport, and probably other factors. However, Australia and Japan are both at the top of the Asian tree, and looking at their local leagues might be informative or interesting. wolfman2009-12-16 04:44:58

I wonder if the victory will bring in as many fans with the Heart coming next year in a brand new stadium,

Melbourne will be fine mate, we'll exceed the 10,000 minimum rule so it's all good.

Let's face it, the A League has been treading water - where are the marquee signings that will get bums on seats..? Dwight Yorke was a great signing for the league and Robbie Fowler has proved doubters wrong...but its not enough...needs more 'glam' factor...

I'd see the start of the 2010/11 season as a good litmus test:

1. Soon after the 2010 WC
2. Hopefully over the worst of the recession
3. People realising that the world is not about to end or the sky fall on our heads(it will do so gradually)

If we can't build on coverage of the world's best footballers on show and general optimism then we're muppets.

(cue M'nah m'nah song)

What are our ticket prices like compared to other clubs?

Look, once it will go free-to-air TV down the track, you will get to see a rise in the crowd attendance. Also, the year before the world cup final will always have a drop in the season's average. But you have to admire the FFA positive angles in all this.