Crowds - The thread of Australian whining

We were there and it seemed like less. That I believe was our 93rd A League game played at home. Ie includes our travelljng circus games and p,ayoff games. Along with some kthers, I hope to hit the 100 in our 7th game at home next season. Can fhat be confirmed?

They must have been all in Deloittes then, cos there was no-one in the stands. The queues for food at half time were a tenth of even the last home game

I will claim the moral low ground...

A crowd of 5000 odd means 1 in 7 seats occupied. I call absolute bullshot on there being 5000 there

Maybe we could measure the amount of seats that were occupied at some point during the match. That would include every seat the conga line walked past.

It must have been packed to the rafters in the corporate boxes

Our record at Westpac for the last two seasons:

2012/13 - P 12, W 3, D 4, L 5, F 15, A 17

2013/14 - P 10, W 2, D 3, L 5, F 11, A 16

Combined record at Westpac over past two seasons:

P 22, W 5, D 7, L 10, F 26, A 33

Not hard to see why the crowds have dropped when we have won just 5 of our last 22 games at Westpac.

I don't know how much Welnix currently spend on marketing but they would be better advised to spend that money on the squad in my opinion.

Have crowds really dropped? 

6-8k seems our consistent crowd figure even when we were having a good season. 1st season being an outlier due to novelty value. And excluding one off important games like playoffs and "need to win to make playoff" type games. 

Where is 2B when you need him. 

I'll check again at some stage. Last couple of games have probably lowered it this season.

Funny - The Phoenix seem to want to attract casuals to the games. Back in Scotland in the 80's we were trying to kick casuals out of the games.

I have some graphs at work. If I remember will post them on Tuesday. Split Westpac from our overall and also compare 1st and 2nd half of the seasons as 6 out of 7 seasons we have been better in the 2nd half (iirc, a couple of seasons if we had managed to mimic our 2nd half form in the first half we probably would have won the league. ~1.7-1.75ish ppg), also plot it against 3game ppg rolling average for each season to see any affect of form.

Not sure where it was posted about the new stadium food menu (think it was this thread) but Tegal rates the stadium food:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sport/hurricanes/9961803/Fans-chow-down-on-Super-fare

Damn you J82! 

I don't rate tui however. 

While we continue to debate the merits of taking home games on the road, CCM are also planning to do it.

"Central Coast Mariners plan to play up to two home games in Sydney next season by bringing games to Brookvale Oval and North Sydney Oval, subject to the approval of the Football Federation of Australia."
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/central-coast-mariners-planning-home-games-at-brookvale-oval-north-sydney-oval-20140424-zqz06.html

That is probably consistent with CCM seeing North Sydney as their natural feeder territory. This was improved further while Graham Arnold was the coach, as he had strong connections with the North Sydney football community (notably through his Northern Spirit FC days).

I'm just back from Sydney and the CCM fan base is seething over this proposed shift to the extent that crowd numbers have already noticeably declined. Gosford has no other major "footie" team - Manly NRL play a coupla games there but no more - and so locals have consequently adopted CCM to their hearts over the last decade. But now the FFA are eyeing up the " higher demographic" in Nth Sydney, i.e. a potentially bigger spend if not bigger attendances a shift might bring. IMO it's a bit like the gamble they're taking in allowing Melbourne Heart to change name and shirt to the colours of Man City knowing they're alienating many present Heart supporters.

Not many at the AFL by the looks (well nowhere near last year's attendance). Nothing to do with 15% surcharge on crap $7.50 beer I am sure...do they ever learn?

Not saying that's the sole reason incidentally.

Seemed like there were a lot less Aussies over here this year than last, and less Wellingtonians talking about going for the novelty. I guess this is what happens with these home-away-from-home games....

Although the Easter break being so close to ANZAC day has also meant that a lot of people took a few days off work and went away this week, which probably hasn't helped either

If crowds are down, what about TV ratings?

Was no surcharge (Stadium is 'wearing that' to quote Shane Harmon :D), also was reasonable beer up in the Mezzanine bar, and pretty good food too, everyone seemed to enjoy their Chicken burgers, Steak Baguettes, and I really liked my Beef & Yorkshire pud.

Beer in Mezzanine bar: Speights Distinction, Crafty Beggars (Think it was their Pale Ale), Triple Hops Pilsner, Macs Gold & something else.

As for the crowd itself, definitely less Aussies here, St Kilda filled 2 bays with supporters last season, this season was about 3/4s of 1, and Sydney also filled a bay last season, I don't think I saw a single Brisbane supporter (Exaggeration). Add to that a LOT of Wellington have taken the ten day break and left the city for places with beaches and it was always going to struggle. 13k was a bit disappointing, but was good weather and a VERY exciting game, not high scoring, but it ended up being a 4pt loss, with St Kilda attacking hard at the end and nearly scoring twice, I admit to jumping and yelling near the end as well. Definitely a good night, and will return next year as well.

Fair enough on surcharge - I stand corrected, they DO learn!

Not sure they made much of it in the ads for games though? They should've if not.

How many of those tickets were actually paid for?

Loads were given away to schools for free, and without much effort I got 14 free adult tickets which I either used or handed out for free at the gate.

Heaps. I got given 14, could have had more. 

I had free tickets. the PAX on them was 11800....

No AFL next year probably...why get 14,000 (half of which are freebies) when you can get 60,000 in Melbourne?

They've got a 3 year deal so will be back next year.

Plucked out of thin air to be honest. Although really it was based on seeing bits of games in Aussie before and after the Wellington game and it looked like massive crowds over there. Obviously wasn't St Kilda though.

Seeing as the Petone stadium thread is now closed, this seems like the best place to post this: 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/10156608/What-about-the-state-of-New-Zealand-stadiums

While great for New Zealand Rugby coffers, Massey University's Richardson says the All Blacks have warped stadium construction priorities.

"It's an absolutely huge detriment. If you're building a stadium where the financial viability year to year relies on an All Blacks test, there's no question New Zealand Rugby plays a massive part in whether these facilities are going to be used to their potential," he says.

....

Canterbury University economist Eric Crampton says building capacity for a solitary annual All Black test is akin to "buying a six-bedroom house just in case both sets of grandparents come to visit at the same time".

Sigh. Although in our case it was a combination of wanting to have those All Blacks tests combined with trying to cram cricket in there too.

I get from that article is that new stadia should be small...

#nimbytwunts

In Wellington, Westpac Stadium's yellow seats have been among the most visible in Super Rugby for the second year in a row, with an average of 10,114 attending six matches so far.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/10164253/Crowds-lag-as-Super-Rugby-looks-to-reconnect