Crowds - The thread of Australian whining

Considering that rugby is the national sport and that the Hurricanes play in the best club/franchise rugby competition in the world their crowds aren't that much better than our minority sport (in mainstream NZ's eyes) competing in a globally insignificant league. Same population base, roughly same time of the year, same stadium and its associated sh*tty parking and food experiences too. Not 100% sure but I think ticket prices are roughly equivalent as well. Plus they have the added bonus of playing against other kiwi based teams so more travelling opposition fans are to be expected too.

Not to say that we shouldn't or can't aim for bigger crowds but in context we aren't actually doing that bad really

Win against WSW and we get 10 to 12k next home game against Mariners. Just the way it works.

I find that very difficult to believe.

I think if we were on a good run of results we would average 8000-9000. Only for finals could I see us getting over 10000.

That sounds a lot more realistic.

needs an "if the weather is good" conditional

Think you'll be surprised if the weather's OK. Way more interest out there from the potentials even before this Xmas/New Year run. A good transfer window signing wouldn't hurt, and key media will give us a good run prior. Be a good test of where the market's at.  

It is my understanding that kickoff times are outside of the club control, right?  If so, then we can't do much about the obvious loss of numbers on a Sunday night with a 7pm kickoff without HAL management coming to the party.

It is one thing to complain about having to get up for work next morning, but it is something else to have to drag tired kids home and then getting them up bleary eyed on Monday morning (school holidays end in a few weeks).

My unscientific wild guess is that for every bloke who can make it to the game with no concern there may also be a few who would be happy to say "honey, I am off to the game, but I am taking kids with me, so you can enjoy a quiet afternoon / glass of wine with your girlfriends", if the game was at a civilised time. The children tickets / family tickets would add far more to the total headcount than we suspect, since one Dad could bring his kids and then for company he'd ask a mate with his kids to the game too. As it stands now, late Sunday kickoff even for one game is possibly a few hundred if not more potential tickets lost. Sure, I have no hard facts to support this claim, so feel free to come up with comparative statistics if you have them. How did we go with the 3pm kickoff of past seasons? I know this would be hard to sell to the networks (that's a 1pm in eastern Australia). But even a 5pm kickoff on a Sunday would work better than a 7pm.

The clubs need to be financially viable to have HAL in the first place. Some time ago the A-League club owners (granted, this was in the Palmer & Sage days) held a meeting with HAL board to air their concerns - how their interests were hampered by the board.  The issue of kickoff times (suiting the Foxsports but not the club) is something WelNix would be well placed to get some mileage from.

Well the team have performed and now it is time for the Wellinton public to stand up and be counted. Sure we'll all be there but so too, the casuals and first timers. I'd love for a 12 k crowd but I am predicting 7k.

(Typing on a pad can  be tiresome with spelling)

Kids free with an adult for this game.

Now, that is a positive move.

Every first game of the year is kids (3) free with an adult.

Exactly. Should have 1 or 2 new cover signings announced before then for more media exposure. 7pm kickoff is a killer for kids, so test for the Phoenix marketeers. I still think we can do 10K - but a good new signing would help.  

Think it might be a bit of a stretch to say we'll have new signings announced before next weekend.

If I brought Micki to a game I'd be spending 90 mins chasing him around.......unless Ernie wants to start him.

Shame its not on at 3pm.

Funnily enough, I just remembered that my dad started bringing me to games when I was about 4. I yelled and applauded with the best of them. I think I must have been about 6 when I finally got Dad to explain to me the basic rules of the game, and which one was our home team.  And by the way, our kickoff time then (nineteen sixties in Europe) was 3pm, on Sundays.

yeah my lad has been going since he was 8 months old, first year he was in awe of the big screen, since then he has been mad about football, loves the nix and nixie.....knows the players knows the chants etc. A 3pm start on a sunday would be perfect, 5pm is ok but 7 pm is horrid for families.

 Speaking of Nixie, he needs to move around the ground. Plenty of children over in the shady side ofthe ground out of the heat and sunlight. Would make a few parents happy to see him. Or is this again another case of exclusively only for ailses 23-28?

good call, I agree,my lad and sit in 23 close to the zone, but nixie tends to hang in the family zone futher to 25 onwards.

Each week down at the bottom of Aisles 111,12 &13 I see kids at the front row or a few rows back with their mum and dads. It would be nice to reward their attendance. Hence my previous criticisms of the competitions and things fired into the stands type comments.

All the kids want to see the NIX

Stuuuuueeeeeeeeeeee!

We need some yellow fever splitter groups in isle 25-30 to repeat and motivate the crowd outside the zone. We had one really loud guy last year in 26 who started chants and then everyone around him turned in. There must be some math thesis about crowd chanting behavior. but as far I can see it, if the chant is to far away, people do not join, and most people don't know more than the basics and started clapping if someone close is starting.

Quick Googling brought me that: Stadium Experience A Qualitative Study about the Experience Economy in the Swedish Allsvenskan.

This is interesting, do not read the whole thing, go to Discussion: Sport Stadium Athmosphere

Maybe we need just some a epic song to get it going, worked here: Crowd Sings Bohemian Rhapsody

We try hard in aisle 12 but naf all join us. Very disappointing to be honest.

Wolfman was following him at Police Utd in Thailand last season.

still playing there according to his facebook posts - yes I'm FB stalking him

Daniel is being used as an AM (His proper position Ricki) and scored over 10 goals last season. Since he's moved on, we have changed it to the Siggy fan club with Ben's permission and input.

A workmate of mine is coming down for the game on Sunday. He managed to get two of the $10 tickets and two of his kids for free as its bring a kid for free game. Four extra punters and it cost him $25. Hopefully others do the same and we may see a big crowd. By the way, he is travelling from Palmerston North with two children under 16 for a Sunday 7pm game so good effort by him.

not a bad article loosely related to crowd incidents...

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/double-standards-at-play-over-football-violence-20140108-30gko.html#ixzz2pmdlKXJ8