Are Rugby League crowds down because its too expensive and busy living in Sydney?

Question

Melbourne get great crowds to AFL, because their city isn't as busy, traffic not as bad and the place isn't as expensive. People in Sydney are consumed with the cost, crowds and workloads.

Answer 1

We would get the crowds in Sydney if they put all the games on a Sunday afternoon, when people would have a better chance of attending.  Friday, Saturday & Monday nights do not attract as many people because of the weather, indifferent transport and getting home late.

Answer 2

The answer is simple. Like it or not there are simply too many teams in Sydney and not enough fans to split amongst them. This is obvious by the one team towns such as Newcastle, Townsville , Brisbane, Gold Coast etc consistently getting good crowds while all Sydney teams struggle to put bums on seats. The problem is there is far too much "tradition" in the Sydney teams to merge any more of them. There's a lot to be said for merging teams but it'd far too late for that now.

Answer 3

andy k, if you are an AFL fan why are you answering NRL questions when you obviously don't like NRL?!

Answer 4

NRL Fans are pretty stupid so they wouldn't earn enough money for tickets, most probably don't even have jobs. Where as AFL fans have much better jobs and earn more money.

It was a joke people, calm down,

Answer 5

Sydney crowds are down because of one reason

small suburban grounds

Melbourne gets crowds because they have only 2 major grounds were people can get under cover seating good toilet facilities and good customer service

where the nrl and its stupid supporters with the mentality of lets keep Souths at redfern and stgeorge at kogarah

think about it with pay TV or games being shown in pubs and clubs who the h**l wants to go to the footy and stand in the rain wait 20min to go to the toilet and and wait 40min to buy a pie from a caravan

while the nrl and its supporters have this mentality they will always get 5000-10000 per game while the afl get 45000 plus per game, if all games were played at homebush and sfs within 10 years all clubs will be playing in front of 25-30000 every game instead of 5000

and yes league prices are to expencice for a game that only goes 80min

Answer 6

It is pricey living in Sydney.

Fortunately, I have my beloved Canberra Raiders and Bruce Stadium.

The Bunnies will get caned on Monday night

Answer 7

Wayne, the fact is that Melbournians have nothing else to do, it's not a very lively place at the best of times. But they only have the one main sport. Look what we have in Sydney, RL, RU, AFL,Soccer & all those other minor sports.

Answer 8

It may be that the Sydney NRL teams have left their fan bases to move to bigger stadiums. By removing Souths from Redfern, Bulldogs from Bankstown and Tigers/Magpies from Balmain & Campbelltown etc. and locating them at Homebush or Sydney Football Stadium, you isolate some of your fan base that otherwise would go to the game. The merger of the Dragons and the Steelers means that it is only reasonable to expect that not all fans can go to the games as the distance between Kogarah and Illawarra is over an hour by car. The cost of the tickets is not Family friendly anymore and the tradition of going to your local oval, to watch your local team play may have been lost to alot of fans (and it is very easy to just watch the games on TV).

Answer 9

for me a manly fan living in sydney the biggest reason is work load i saw the boys play 5 times last year bit haven't gone once this year purely down to my work load.

bit for most it's just not cheap to take a family of 4 it would cost about $100 that not really cheap enough for the average family.   GO  MANLY