A number of years back while sitting in a practical anthropology class the question was posed by the lecturer: “What is the single biggest factor about Australian culture that is unique?” The overwhelming response was our nation’s mad love affair with all things sport.
The reasons for Australia’s love affair with sport are hard to put the finger on.
Perhaps it is that we are a nation descended from underdogs and we love the chance to come from behind and win.
Perhaps it is that we want to be noticed by the world, and as we are a small country, sport gives us a chance to punch well above our weight in the world, and be noticed.
In Australia, there seems to be no city that has a bigger love affair with sport than Melbourne.
Perhaps the reasons for this can be found in Melbourne’s rapid rise to become the richest city in the British Empire on the back of the 1850s gold rush. The rapid rise in income turned Melbourne into Australia’s biggest city and gave people a lot of free time for recreational activities. It was in this climate that the sport of Aussie Rules Football was born and rapidly spread across the country.
Sydney had a different nature to Melbourne, its growth was more gradual.
Rugby Union came to Sydney in 1864, yet Aussie Rules did not make it there until 1877. Nevertheless, there was a large uptake of Aussie Rules in Sydney, so much so that the Waratahs club and Sydney University petitioned the NWSRU to change to Victorian Rules Football.
This was a little too much for the upper class Rugby Union administrators of the day, and the status quo remained. In 1903, Victor Trumper, the Australian test cricketer, set up an Aussie Rules football league in Sydney. In 1907 Trumper changed his mind and promoted Rugby League instead due to the potential money to be made from the game.
Sydney has always had more of a fractured football environment than Melbourne has. Until the dawn of Rugby League, there were two major football codes: Rugby Union and Australian Rules. After the decline of Aussie Rules, there was then League and Union.
Now in the early 21st century, Sydney again faces a fractured football scene. There are now four football codes competing for the Sydneysider’s attention.
Over the last 26 years, the Swans have made themselves a strong home, with many Sydney people warming to them and claiming them as their own.
Over the last 12 years Sydney have enjoyed Rugby Union at a professional level.
Then, over the last few years, Sydney have warmed to the new Sydney FC.
When the big picture is taken into account, professional sports are less attended than in the past. State of Origin Rugby League matches are no longer selling out. Rugby League attendance averages are hovering around 17,000, with some clubs failing to average 10,000. David Gallop, NRL Chief Executive, has warned that many Sydney clubs are facing financial crisis.
Rugby Union is not immune to struggles either. The sport is also struggling, and will sorely miss the $25 million that was denied to them in the recent Federal Budget.
The Sydney Football Club has had some high attendances in recent years. Most notably, the game against LA Galaxy attracted 80 000, although many argue that the majority were there to see David Beckham play.
But even the Sydney FC has not performed as well as Melbourne Victory. Sydney FC played to average crowds of 16,373 in 2007-8, while Melbourne Victory played to average crowds of 26,064.
Are Sydney people losing an interest in sport?
Perhaps Sydney people are overwhelmed and confused by four codes competing for space in the one city. Still, Sydney is increasingly becoming a cosmopolitan international city with its eyes towards the world. Perhaps it is forgetting its Australian cultural sporting roots.
Others have argued that Sydney traffic and public transport is so horrendous that people would prefer to stay at home and watch the game on TV.
Perhaps Sydney people do have less time for sport these days. The trend would suggest that the Sydney population may eventually support professional football codes to the tune of 1 or 2 AFL teams, a Rugby Union team, 1 or 2 A-League teams and 4 or 5 Rugby teams.
There are troubled times ahead for Sydney’s sporting landscape.
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May 30th 2008 @ 11:58am
Paul said | May 30th 2008 @ 11:58am | Report comment
Link, Sheek,
You are right, this was a somewhat football centric article. I wanted to throw the topic up for discussion, but did not research the depth of all sports to do so. I know that cricket is still doing well. But football codes are the staple of sports in Australia. When all football codes are combined there is greater participation and attendance than cricket. Cricket still rates as Australia’s overall “favourite” sport, but not the most popular in terms of participation and attendance. Cricket is still my favourite sport to play and watch. There is a revolution going on in the cricket world and we shall have to wait and see what happens there too.
Interesting to hear your comments on sailing, rowing and surfing. This would explain the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Even though the initial race was only held in 1945, the two cities are the oldest in Australia and perhaps they had the strongest sailing tradtions of all cities.
It is also very true that Melbourne’s explosion paved the way for the indigenous code to flourish. Sailing is a sport that requires more money to participate in, and would have precluded a lot of people from participation. The advent of surfing opened up water sports to a lot more people, but a surf board still costs a lot of money.
For participation in sports it is interesting to look at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (I just had a look now).
Participation in NSW for the year 2005-06 (Census year) Selected sports (Aussie Rules not included in stats)
(Male and female combined). Bearing in mind that some of the traditional sports are more highly participated in my males.
Walking for exercise: 1 206 500
Aerobics: 659 600
Swimming 556 400
Tennis 309 000
Cycling 298 300
Golf 277 000
Running 244 500
Soccer (outdoor) 219 800
Bush walking 195 400
Touch football 131 000
Surf sports 130 100
Netball 121 500
Yoga 113 300
Basketball 98 100
Lawn bowls 89 100
Cricket (outdoor) 85 900
Fishing 85 500
Martial arts 70 800
Dancing 68 700
Squash & racquetball 64 000
Weight training 64 000
Ice and snow sports 62 300
Soccer (indoor) 59 700
Motor sports 53 000
Rugby League 49 500
Horse sports 46 300
Rugby Union 44 700
Gymnastics 38 000
Cross country running 33 500
Pilates 32 700
Sailing 32 500
Total 5 540 700
There is going to be some overlap in these figures. with some people participating in more than one sport. But there are also some sports that did not make it on to the list- Indoor Cricket and Aussie Rules Football. The figure still seems to be quite a healthy one, but it can certainly be argued that not enough people participate in sport as shown by fitness levels around the country. Perhaps it should be a lot higher.
Of the traditional ball sports: Tennis 309 000; Golf 277 000; Soccer 219 800; Touch football 131 000; Netball 121 500; Basketball 98 100; Cricket 85 900; Rugby League 49 500; Rugby League 44 700.
If touch football is included with the two rugby codes 225 200 is slightly higher than soccer’s 219 800. I am not sure how much transfer there is from touch football to the Rugby codes. Both Rugby codes have low participation, and this will not bode well for future recruiting for their respective competitions.
Total participation is at 103.4% of society, so then it comes down to overlap to know how active people are. But the traditional sports are not extremely high on the list.
(Sports included 31).
The same figures for Victoria:
Walking for exercise: 971 600
Aerobics: 476 700
Swimming 323 300
Cycling 256 100
Golf 236 900
Tennis 191 300
Running 171 000
Australian Rules Football 132 500
Netball 126 900
Cricket 113 800
Bush walking 112 400
Basketball 106 400
Soccer outdoor 76 700
Lawn bowls 67 700
Yoga 64 800
Soccer indoor 62 900
Fishing 54 600
Dancing 50 500
Ice and snow sports 50 300
Martial arts 50 000
Squash / racquetball 42 600
Horse sports 33 900
Volleyball 33 500
Gymnastics 32 000
Weight training 30 600
Badminton 28 800
Motor sports 26 300
Cross country running 19 900
Total 3 943 000
Participation rate: 98%. (sports included 28)
Interesting point of comparison: Cricket has a particpation of 113 800 (8.8% of men participate) compared to NSW 85 900 (3% of men). This does rase some controversial questions about the selection process for the Australian team. It has been argued that poor quality wickets at the MCG in recent years have affected the quality of the game in Victoria.
Soccer is the single most popular football code in NSW, Australian Rules in Victoria.
There are a lot of sports that are much more popular than the football codes.
Bob,
On sports in schools, I read an article recently that said a certain school in Australia has banned the game of “tiggy” or “chasey” in the school grounds, for “safety reasons”. If schools progress with this attitude they made remove sport from our society altogether. So it certainly does place a question over how sports are approached in schools.
May 30th 2008 @ 12:13pm
Lazza said | May 30th 2008 @ 12:13pm | Report comment
If Cricket is doing so well why was there a lot of media talk in the summer about whether football had become our No. 1 summer sport?
The No. 3 ranked nation, Sri Lanka, didn’t seem to capture the imagination of the public and A League games were getting bigger attendances. The Soccerroos can sell out a game for the 96th ranked team.
Besides an Ashes series which means more to us than the majority of English sports fans I don’t think too many other nations would be huge draw cards. Perhaps Cricket really does have to become like other sports and have a club based competition in 20-20?
May 30th 2008 @ 12:18pm
Michael C said | May 30th 2008 @ 12:18pm | Report comment
Cricket is always a hard one to get a real measure on as it can vary so much based on who is playing the tests – - and crowds, averages vs aggregates etc relative to the ruddy weather!!!!
Lazza – a lot of that talk was alarmist, the SL crowd figures actually weren’t too bad, just, too many people were comapring to the previous years Ashes series.
And, then the Indians came, and everyone was happier again in cricket world.
So – the talk about soccer being number 1 summer sport was a little premature (not to say it may not happen – - and, in a sense, soccer could well be the number 1 summer ‘club competition’)
True Tah -
I reckon, this new ‘e-connected’ world we live in allows greater diversity, and hopefully will avoid silo style fragmentation…….after all, look at all of us on here!!!!
May 30th 2008 @ 12:24pm
Paul said | May 30th 2008 @ 12:24pm | Report comment
Lazza,
I agree with Michael that there has been some alarmist talk about cricket figures being down. Cricket figures are still quite healthy. The big factor though is that as cricket has only ever been a representative not a league sport, people only turn out to see the best, i.e Australia. And this only happens a few times a Summer.
I think it is inevitable that a League based Twenty 20 will come to Australia in the not too distant future. India have led the way in this revolution (Australia did in the World Series revolution). Australia and England will make a decision within the next couple years and ramp up professional league cricket. It will be interesting to see how Sydney people respond.
May 30th 2008 @ 1:44pm
40/20 said | May 30th 2008 @ 1:44pm | Report comment
Paul would you care to point out which nrl club in sydney has an average bellow 10,000
Next time do your research and dont just make up **** like all the other hacks on this website
May 30th 2008 @ 1:59pm
JimC said | May 30th 2008 @ 1:59pm | Report comment
Paul – SOO “no longer sells out”
Do some research.
20 years ago (that would be 1988)
SOO1 SFS – 26000
SOO2 Lang park – 31000
SOO3 SFS -16000
It was a great series, just like 2008 one is becoming. i don’t recall alot of handwringing about crowds.
May 30th 2008 @ 2:06pm
Spiro Zavos said | May 30th 2008 @ 2:06pm | Report comment
From the perspective of sports writer and as a fan of many sports, there are two elements about the Melbourne – Sydney sports interest discussion. The first is that Melbourne is the capital of a state that was a leading protectionist state. This protectionist attitude has infected (or protected, depending on your passions) the general attitude towards new things from outside the state, including sport.
NSW was a leading free trade state and Sydney as a port city was the main protaganist of this attitude. This free trade mentality means that in general there is a greater willingness to embrace things, including sporting teams, that have moved into Sydney from outside the state.
The protectionist attitude and the free trade attitude probably means, as well, that the passion for a team is likely to be not as deep as in Melbourne. Sydneysiders are notorious for not supporting their team, in any code, if it is not doing well. In Melbourne children are born into the colours of their club and, like Catholics, are branded for life.
Then there is the transport system in relation to the main sporting grounds. The system is superb in Melbourne and hopeless in Sydney. Going to the ANZ Stadium at Homebush is OK but coming back is a nightmare on a big sporting occasion.
May 30th 2008 @ 2:31pm
Redb said | May 30th 2008 @ 2:31pm | Report comment
Spiro,
Some interesting observations, not sure I agree with a polar attitude approach between totally protectionist and totally free. It is true that Melbourne has been more singularly focused on one code of football where as Sydney has generally had 2 to 3. However, I think youv’e missed the biggest element behind Melbourn’e passion for Australian rules – it is our game.
In Sydney’s case all other codes are imported from elsewhere. Melbourne has a sense of ownership of AFL its why fans are more passionate and defensive of criticism of the code from outsiders – it is our game, our culture, our heritage. It may also be a bit obsessive too
I guarantee the same mentality exists in the USA towards baseball and gridiron towards ‘foreign’ sports.
I often think folks from Sydney are poorer for it – they dont the passion for their club, its colours, its song – the players. In AFL the best players rarely leave the club in other codes they seem to play musical club chairs.
Sydney seems to be interested in most sports but rarely fully commits to any I think partly becuase of that lack of ownership compared to Melbourne.
Finally, Sydney rugby league fans seem every bit as one eyed about their code as Melbourne AFL fans – the difference is there is about 3 times as many that are tragics in Melbourne.
Interesting topic.
Redb
May 30th 2008 @ 2:32pm
Paul said | May 30th 2008 @ 2:32pm | Report comment
40/20
I haven’t just made things up. The figures may be a little out of date now, but earlier in the season NRL clubs were averaging the following figures:
Canterbury Bulldogs: 24 279
Gold Coast Titans: 22 645
South Sydney Rabbitohs: 21 404
North Queensland Cowboys: 20 147
Parramatta Eels: 20 121
Newcastle Knights: 17 675
Wests Tigers: 16 410
Sydney Roosters: 15 431
Melbourne Storm: 15 402
New Zealand Warriors: 14 227
Canberra Raiders: 14 063
Cronulla Sharks: 13 852
Manly Sea Eagles: 12 800
St George Illawara Dragons: 12 493
Penrith Panthers: 9 171
So, I made the mistake of saying “some clubs” instead of “one club”. Sorry for that. It was a little provocative, but not entirely inaccurate.
Thanks for the label of “hack”, I really appreciate it. I hope you can offer up something better in the near future 40/20.
May 30th 2008 @ 2:32pm
Michael C said | May 30th 2008 @ 2:32pm | Report comment
Spiros:
Actually -
Melb PT can be over rated.
And, depending where you are trying to get home to, you often still have to try to get back to Flinders St, or end up on a merry waste of time last night loop around the cityloop – where you see those poor tragics getting on at Parliament station after another 15 hour workday……
Protectionism vs Free Trade:
hmmm,
republican (Melb) vs royalist (Syd)
independantly proactive (Melb) vs Imperial outpost awaiting Imperial orders (Syd)
initiative and ability to go it alone (Melb) vs retain and strengthen links to the old dart (Syd)
I could make arguments supporting each of the above,
and each might be just as much a generalisation as protectionist vs free trade,
however -
Sydney is a port city……
hmmmm……guess what…..so too is MElbourne, in fact it’s by many measures Australias busiest port (I think Newcastle claims on some measures, and Brisbane is 3rd).
I think you must be forgetting what many Melbournians forgot to show off for many years – and that IS that Melbourne IS a ‘water city’.
actually – 2 googles:
“Australian Protectionism Melbourne” – result 12,300
“Australian Protectionism Sydney” – result 41,200
- – - – -
I might argue that to a large degree, Aust Footy, once established (WHEN IT DID and WAS – - and this is the critical bit – - TIMING) – - that Aust Footy was pretty well self-protecting.
It had ticked all the required boxes at the time – -
it was well established – i.e. the VFA formed by 1877 – before anyone had really got serious about ANY form of football in Sydney – - let alone that soccer in England was only just reaching it’s final stage via the effective hybrid rules of London and Sheffield, that RU was only eventuating,
so, that, 30 years hence, the ‘damage’ had been done. There was no looking back. Just as Soccer stole the march in England with respect to codifiying and going professional and going OUTSIDE of schools, and that Rugby – despite existing ok, has never really threatened soccer since – - is that a ‘protectionist’ plot? Well, of course not. It’s just who got in first. In Sydney, no one had done that, the fact that Sydney was still in a state of flux basically 100 years ago – - to me, says more, at very least, it’s about 1 or 2 generations behind MElbourne on this issue.