Another story about football crowds
Roar Pro By Con Stamocostas, 3 Sep 2009 Con Stamocostas is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- A-League, FFA, football, Football Federation Australia
While the action on the park in the first month of season five of the A-League has been filled with lots of action and goals (54 goals scored at at average of 2.7 goals a game) and controversy (cardboard Miron cut outs), most of the talk off the pitch has centered on the low NSL-type crowd figures.
Football pundits and bloggers have been speculating on why the crowds are so low.
Some have said that it’s because of the A-League’s early start causing the season to overlap into the peak of NRL, AFL and rugby seasons.
While I definitely think the overlapping seasons is one of the main reasons, I think there are three other main reasons.
And I’m sure you have read about them somewhere else.
First is the poor timing of the games, such as Thursday night and 3pm kick offs.
Number two is the backlash by fans not impressed with the overpricing of tickets in some markets such as Brisbane and Gold Coast.
The final reason is also a lack of promotion, with fingers pointed straight at the direction of the Football Federation Australia.
With no presence on free to air television, most people would not even know who is playing, never mind what times the games are on.
In a story John Taylor wrote for the Daily Telegraph this week, the only people happy with the low crowds appear to be TV rights holder, Fox Sports. Murray Shaw, the executive producer of football for the network, said: “The cumulative reach is up 4 per cent year on year, which means more people have watched this year’s coverage than ever before. This is an extraordinary effort given that two of the four rounds have been up against the Ashes.”
This is quite an ironic result as the reasons for the early kick offs is because of Fox Sports scheduling.
Another Thursday night kick off is sure to provide a smaller crowd for the Victory Jets game that kicks off round five of the A League, as Thursday is not a traditional football night in Australia, or anywhere else in the world.
When you decide to play with the Devil, you can’t really complain when he cheats.
Recommend this story.
- Explore:
- A-League, FFA, football, Football Federation Australia
September 3rd 2009 @ 12:11pm
chook said | September 3rd 2009 @ 12:11pm | Report comment
Looking at it from another view point the FFA must have a desired figure / average. 15,000 a round?
I dont know what that is but I would like to know.
But there has to be a saturation point to all the football codes in Australia,
how many more people can watch live games?
What pecentage of the Australian public watch live sporting events?
This is A- League game on population alone, all of a sudden Townsville and CCM look pretty good.
Per Capita
Sydney 0.3027691%
Melbourne 0.4815514%
Brisbane 0.5725454%
Perth 0.5445977%
Adelaide 1.0625044%
Gold Coast 1.3466025%
Newcastle 1.2278069%
Wellington 2.5995851%
Gosford CCM 5.9956322%
Townsville 4.7351441%
September 3rd 2009 @ 12:54pm
Pippinu said | September 3rd 2009 @ 12:54pm | Report comment
Check out this ABS site on attendance and participation:
you might find this link interesting:
http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/4156.0.55.001Feature%20Article1May%202009?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=4156.0.55.001&issue=May%202009&num=&view=
Note:
* As previously identified, soccer (outdoor) was the most popular of the football codes participated in by Australians aged 15 years and over with 2.6% (419,600) of the Australian population participating in 2005-06. However, this is not reflected in the attendance as it is the lowest attended football code, with 3.5% or 560,700 people attending.
* The attendance rate for Australian Rules football for males was 19% and for females 13%.
Even with attenances of 7 mill+ in one season, only 19% of the male population in Australia will see a game (that’s blokes that are seeing one game or 30 games).
What’s that mean?
Two things:
1. 81% of the male population is not watching any aussie rules; and
2. it’s not just a matter of people being interest in going to a game – but that they go to watch lots of games in a single season.
Here’s one other stat that will genuinely surprise people:
* Of the four main football codes, the highest attendance rate was reported for Australian Rules football for all three birthplaces; people born in Australia (19%), people born overseas in main English-speaking countries (12%) and people born overseas in other countries (5.8%).
What this is saying is that 5.8% of all people born overseas will go to watch at least one game of aussie rules during the season, and that that is a higher percentage than will watch any other code of football!!
Think about it!!
1. It’s a bloody amazing stat (even those born in English speaking countries are watching more aussie rules); and’
2. There are a stack of people born overseas who are clearly watching nothing!!
September 3rd 2009 @ 3:23pm
Brian Munich said | September 3rd 2009 @ 3:23pm | Report comment
Lies, lies and damn statistics – and thanks for the 7 decimal places! By this measure, we should base the 12th club in Manangatang – I’d guarantee they’d top these attendance per capita rankings.
September 3rd 2009 @ 12:24pm
AndyRoo said | September 3rd 2009 @ 12:24pm | Report comment
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/soccer/wires/09/02/2020.ap.soc.uae.big.goals.1071/index.html
A bit of topic but I thought I would post the above becasue I found it interesting.
UAE get 4 ACL spots too our 2. They do have Promotion and Relegation but their Average crowds (despite giving away many free tickets) is 2k. They also had a team pull out in the middle of the ACL yet they still get 4 spots.
September 3rd 2009 @ 12:55pm
Pippinu said | September 3rd 2009 @ 12:55pm | Report comment
The word “politics” keeps spinning around in my head, but I’m unsure why.
September 3rd 2009 @ 1:22pm
whiskeymac said | September 3rd 2009 @ 1:22pm | Report comment
politics, sex scandal and speculation on crowds? – no wonder canberra is now favourite to win a franchise.
September 3rd 2009 @ 3:42pm
Dink said | September 3rd 2009 @ 3:42pm | Report comment
I can only suggest from a Jets perspective, but 3pm games on a Sunday, is a completely inadequate time when a lot of local competitions are still being played, with only a eastern grandstand at the moment so you have to stare into a setting sun, no advertising on local television, or local radio, or in the local newspaper (not counting the paper Con Constantine owns which no one reads), finishing last in last seasons A-league, also another turbulent off season, seeing crowd favourite Joel Griffiths leaving and our coach being snatched by the FFA 6 weeks before the season kicking off, plus the Newcastle Knights rugby league team trying to make the semis at the same time A-league kicking off, are all contributing factors for why crowds are down in Newcastle. Lots of negatives you could say, but there seems to be a fan base of 6k who will turn up to EAS no matter what the circumstances are.
September 3rd 2009 @ 5:49pm
Con Stamocostas said | September 3rd 2009 @ 5:49pm | Report comment
geees for a pis-take article you guys went hard at it.
Before I start tearing my hair out and start jumping out the window regarding crowd figures I will wait till the Rockmelon codes are finished then it’s time for proper analysis. Once the floaters see how good the action is on the park they will come.(fingers crossed)
September 3rd 2009 @ 5:54pm
Pippinu said | September 3rd 2009 @ 5:54pm | Report comment
Don’t ever kick a rockmelon down the corridor – the missus won’t thank you one bit.
September 4th 2009 @ 5:55am
Michael C said | September 4th 2009 @ 5:55am | Report comment
If the HAL expands to 12 teams, with 6 matches a week – believe me, there’s going to be stuff all games at ‘ideal’ times. The obvious reason being that the capacity to provide the broadcast partner with non overlapping live content is a key to maximising broadcast rights.
And so you see the NRL running a Monday night time slot, or the AFL running a Sunday twilight slot.
But, no time slot is ideal – if an afternoon slot clashes with competitions, then, an evening slot is too late for young kids and country day trippers etc etc.
At some point, you have to just stop making excuses and get on with it.
September 4th 2009 @ 6:54am
Robbos said | September 4th 2009 @ 6:54am | Report comment
Very true. For football to succeed we need to not have excuses of when the games are on, because the broadcast partners wants to maximise their finanicial input. They rule the kick-off times & games cannot overlap when you only have 6 games to sell.
September 4th 2009 @ 11:40am
Killer_Tomatoes said | September 4th 2009 @ 11:40am | Report comment
NSL type crowds? get a grip on reality, what NSL team could pull 15k on a Thursday night.
September 4th 2009 @ 11:45am
Pippinu said | September 4th 2009 @ 11:45am | Report comment
I reckon Hellas vs the Knights would have pulled 15,000 on a Thursday night.
September 4th 2009 @ 11:47am
Art Sapphire said | September 4th 2009 @ 11:47am | Report comment
Dream on Pip – Hellas vs the Knights only got over 15k in the finals.
September 4th 2009 @ 11:49am
AndyRoo said | September 4th 2009 @ 11:49am | Report comment
Thats also two Melbourne Teams I bet Hellas vs Newcastle wouldn’t have.
Plus there is the fact that int he last couple of years the crowds and comp dived badly with teams frequently pulling out during the season.
September 6th 2009 @ 10:33pm
melbvictory87 said | September 6th 2009 @ 10:33pm | Report comment
na man, no chance i used to goto hellas with my greek friends and that game would get 5k max. 45%greeks, 45% cro and 10% other (meeeeeee). goto mvfc and i sit next to asians, indians, aussies, maori’s, italians etc. veryyyy broad appeal
September 4th 2009 @ 11:48am
Pippinu said | September 4th 2009 @ 11:48am | Report comment
In fact, check this bit of trivia out, Hellas’ largest crowd:
Best Regular Season VPL Crowd: 23,000 vs George Cross at Olympic Park 05/08/1962
That’s state league soccer in 1962!!!
September 4th 2009 @ 11:55am
Art Sapphire said | September 4th 2009 @ 11:55am | Report comment
Gee, you’re a pain PIp. Thats 50 years ago.
In all my time going to NSL games in the 80′s and 90′s. The only time they got over 15k was in the finals.
Why did you not paste these figures as well.
Best Regular Season NSL Crowd: 17,228 vs Marconi-Fairfield at Middle Park 23/04/1978
Best Regular Season VPL Crowd: 23,000 vs George Cross at Olympic Park 05/08/1962
Best Finals Series NSL Crowd: 23,318 vs Melbourne Croatia (1990/91 Grand Final) at Olympic Park
September 4th 2009 @ 11:59am
Pippinu said | September 4th 2009 @ 11:59am | Report comment
It’s 47 years ago to be exact – my age.
Actually, I was going to mention that 1991 grand final.
Anyway, I’m pointing out there was a 23,000 strong crowd for a VPL game back in 1962 – what’s the big deal? People might be interested.
In the early 70s you could watch VPL games on commercial FTA as well.
September 4th 2009 @ 12:43pm
Art Sapphire said | September 4th 2009 @ 12:43pm | Report comment
you could also watch the VFA on commercial FTA as well. Times have changed Pip.
September 4th 2009 @ 1:32pm
Pippinu said | September 4th 2009 @ 1:32pm | Report comment
…those were the days: VPL on FTA; World of Sport (which was 99% aussie rules); VFA; World Championship Wrestling; and to top it all off – that was the hey day of Australian soaps: No. 96 and The Box – where a 13 year old boy could learn a bit about human anatomy!