But when you see that the Wellington Lions crowds have dropped from 20,000 to 2,000 over 10 years, then something is up.
It is not rocket science.
Sky happened.
Sky does not want people to go to the games live, because they make their money when people watch the games on TV. In particular sky wants people watching games in pubs.
So sky has a vested interest in encouraging:
1. games to be played at times which suit TV audiences, and not live attendances. e.g. rugby games at 2.30pm suit live audiences, rugby games at 7.30pm suit tv audiences.
2. pubs to screen sky, so that sky is a premium entertainment brand, which has the side effect of trying to lure people into the pubs in the city for a good night out and not to the ground.
3. live coverage IN THE CITY THE GAME IS BEING PLAYED IN, to both pubs and private homes, MUST reduce attendances.
The sports administrators who sell out to Sky are making a conscious decision to erode their live attendances supporter base to fund Sky's profits. This is a short term decision. Eventually crowds dwindle. As crowds dwindle and people watch the game on tv, they become less likely to buy merchandise over time. They are also then exposed to competing sports on tv, and become less committed fans.
This started in the 80's in NZ Rugby, and has gradually increased each decade since.
Now the rugby supporter base is a pale shadow of it's old self, and now they can't demand as much for their TV rights, and they are struggling to make the books balance because without the people through the gates the next generation(s) of fans are not getting the bug... to them, the tribalism that is infused by being part of a crwod and hearing and feeling the roar of that crowd, has been lost. There are generations now who grow up with their relationship to their team being through the TV screen.
And now with Sky HD and live pause, they are EVEN LESS vested in their team, because if the game is a bit boring they can live pause it, do something else and then fast forward through the boring bits and catch up.
Block the live broadcasts in the city the games are being played in. If you don't do that, you will never grow the crowds. They did it for test match cricket in Australia when the crowd numbers WORLDWIDE were in the toilet for test cricket, and now look at the test crowds in Australia.
It's SO SIMPLE. But for some reason sports administrators in New Zealand either don't get it, or keep ignoring it, or simply lack the balls to stand up to Sky and do what they have to do to save their sport.