By Ben Somerford
January 29th 2010 @ 2:49am
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Why are bottom-club Adelaide’s crowds so good?
Adelaide United's fans seen during the AFC Champions League semifinals second leg match between Bunyodkor and Adelaide United in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008. AP Photo/Anvar Ilyasov
Despite a season of on-field struggle, A-League cellar-dwellers Adelaide United have managed to retain excellent attendances this campaign with an average home crowd of almost 11,000. So I decided to ask Reds Chief Executive Officer Sam Ciccarello how they’ve done it.
To emphasise the point of their success, throughout this A-League campaign only the populous centres of Melbourne and Sydney have managed better average crowds than Adelaide.
For a club who’ve regularly been amongst the on-field leaders in the A-League (having only missed the finals once when they finished 6th in 2007-2008), the 2009-2010 campaign has been a different one for the fans, yet they’ve still flocked to Hindmarsh.
Ciccarello started, “I think it is a cumulative thing in terms of the support we’ve received this year. It’s been outstanding, notwithstanding the ordinary season we’ve had.
“And there’s definitely been a drop-off in our crowd numbers when you have a sustained period of results that don’t go your way. You tend to get a drop-off.”
But Adelaide’s drop-off has been far less dramatic than seen from other A-League clubs in the past, which is amazing considering the Reds have gone from Grand Finalists last season (with average crowds of 11,712) to likely wooden-spooners (where Hindmarsh averages are currently sitting at 10,959).
And Ciccarello believes there’s a lot of factors behind those figures, but acknowledges the club’s wonderful journey to the 2008 AFC Champions League (ACL) Final has helped greatly.
“We believe our extraordinary successes, even though we didn’t win the Champions League, gave us a platform in 2008 to be able to connect with our community, not just the sports community or the football community, but the general public in a different way,” Ciccarello said.
On the back of that, he claims had the club achieved their minimum on-field expectation of a top 4 A-League finish this campaign, the attendance figures could be even more impressive.
“We’ve got record memberships this year. The signs were very strong, especially during the early part of the season. But we haven’t been able to deliver on the expectation that we set ourselves and that we promised our fans.
“Our view is that if we had performed to our expectations on the field that in fact our crowd numbers would have regularly sold out Hindmarsh Stadium. That’s how strongly we feel that our supporter base has grown in the last two to three years.”
But Ciccarello believes there’s more to the figures than just their 2008 ACL campaign and points to several key initiatives employed by the club over the last two to three years, which have ensured they’ve been able to engage with the local community and develop a core group of loyal supporters.
“Part of why we are where we are is, we believe, that one of the main pillars of our organisation is to ensure that our connection and relationship with our community is very active and a meaningful relationship. There are a number of key parts to that.
“We have, I would say, the most comprehensive wide-ranging program of grass roots in our community. It is significant, it is about corporate, it is about the general public, it’s schools programs, it’s about connection and relationships with sport and with clubs.”
Ciccarello mentioned several initiatives with community engagement at heart, including their rebate program whereby anybody who buys a membership can direct 25% of those dollars back to their local club. It has seen United distribute over $70,000 to local clubs.
The Adelaide CEO also mentioned other initiatives such as their strong membership drive, academy program and their warm relationship with the media as reasons for added local interest in the club.
And Ciccarello revealed the club got plenty of positive feedback following their membership drive which included the popular Friday Night Shout, which allows members to bring four friends free of charge to any match subject to subscription.
Adelaide have also enjoyed hosting eleven of their fourteen home games this season on a Friday evening and Ciccarello acknowledged that has contributed.
“What we’ve found through past experience and member feedback is that Friday night is the most popular night to maximise match attendance. People love going out on Saturday nights, but there’s a lot of competition in terms of other offerings.
“And Friday nights is not without it’s competition either, but it was the strongest supported. A lot of people would come straight from work, the office and make a night of it.”
He added, “Because we’ve been able to have 11 out of 14 home matches on Friday nights, the offering in terms of consistency and regularity its easier to say ‘I know I’m going to be available for a fair chunk of them, so I can grab a membership’.”
And Ciccarello indicated he wanted more Friday night games in Adelaide for next season and beyond.
“We’ll be strongly lobbying for as many Friday night games as we can. But I’m not sure what the other ten clubs will want next year, I’m not sure what suits other markets. But in terms of match attendance, our fans and members voted with their feet.”
The Reds CEO also acknowledged the intimacy of Hindmarsh, the A-League’s smallest capacity stadium, may have helped create a better atmosphere and gameday experience.
“There’s some very strong points about Hindmarsh Stadium and the rectangular arena. From a viewing perspective it is the ideal arena, it’s what our game is designed for.”
But he also revealed an ambitious side about the club, stating, “Hindmarsh is a stadium which accomodates 16-17,000 people and I think that the medium to long-term ambition of our club is to attract more towards 15-20,000 people on a very regular basis. So hopefully we outgrow Hindmarsh in years to come.”
He concluded, “We’ve definitely got to do a lot more in terms of growing our numbers to get to that point, the sport is moving forward, there is greater take-up, there is greater interest and that also goes for the club.”
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True Tah said | January 29th 2010 @ 7:15am | Report comment
I think Adelaide are a fair bit more entrenched than most other clubs with the possible exception of Melbourne and the Central Coast. I suspect making the Asian Club Championship final as well as two HAL finals would certainly have helped this. The other two factors I think which would contribute are that Adelaide United was in the NSL, which would give it a longer history than most of the other clubs, and the strength of AFL in SA.
Im probably going to get shot down by futbol heads, but the AFL culture promotes going to games and watching them live, and I think this follows into futbol, as Im sure many Adelaide United supporters are also fans of the Adelaide Crows or the Power. Im aware that the Melbourne Victory advertise in AFL publications, Im not sure if this is the same in SA.
whiskeymac said | January 29th 2010 @ 7:55am | Report comment
i cant see how you’d get shot own for that – it stands to reason thata citizen of SA wld already have an established sports culture, for the Reds to be so successful (and whata great initiative the Shout is) they wld need to be aware of and in some respects mimic whats already knownand expected in the City. how much they borrow from sports such as AFL, 20-20 i dunno but it sounded like a good point to me at least. in any event there is precedent for such tactics, its how paganism was incorporated into christianinity (not that the you u/s i wld call AFL pagan or football christianinty it is by way of a simple example only)
AndyRoo said | January 29th 2010 @ 8:52am | Report comment
The AFL has done the hard work of conditioning people to buy memberships and that breads much more loyalty to their club than what we see in NSW/QLD.
No doubt Adelaides crowds would have dropped if they didn’t have that culture.
It also gives you the grace of a bad year, if Adelaide make a few good signings over the off season then they probably won’t suffer any losses next year.
Australian Football said | January 29th 2010 @ 11:17am | Report comment
True Tah,
Futbol in Adelaide have a passionate bunch of supporters and I think they realise that this year has gone, but the ACL is still very much alive for them. AU FC will try to redeem their high standards and give it their best shot for the ACL to repay the faithful for standing by them.. In truth they have been very unlucky this year with some results not going their way and their football has no been all that bad—–it’s hard to believe they are sitting where they are..
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AF
BigAl said | January 29th 2010 @ 12:21pm | Report comment
Futbol ?????
Australian Football said | January 29th 2010 @ 2:47pm | Report comment
BigAl,
yes that’s right “Futbol”—-that’s what True Tah (his second parra) prefers to call it and has done for over a year or so and that’s fine with me—–concentrate BigAl…
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AF
Australian Football said | January 29th 2010 @ 3:02pm | Report comment
btw BigAl,
I mean I’m not going to report him to the moderators like you do—–if that’s what you are getting at. ?
you are slipping in your con-cen-trat-ion ‘Punter’ has also referred to it as ‘Futbol’ in his comment to True Tah… Maybe he has some Portuguese blood line—–somewhere perhaps ? I think its kinda cool and global don’t you think..? Not too pretentious is it..?
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AF
dannyshepherd said | January 29th 2010 @ 3:14pm | Report comment
leave the textspeak to teenage girls…
Australian Football said | January 29th 2010 @ 4:29pm | Report comment
I don’t think that will go down well with True Tah
and nor should it.. If he prefers to use Futbol instead of soccer—-good luck to him, I’ve always admired folk who have a second language.
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AF
BigAl said | January 29th 2010 @ 5:24pm | Report comment
I am concentrating – thats how & why I picked up you subtle change in attitude !
So can we now expect a change in moniker to . . . Australian Futbol ?
That would actually be pretty cool ! . . . very 3rd millenium and multcultural.
True Tah said | January 30th 2010 @ 4:00pm | Report comment
Using futbol eliminates any doubt as to what sport I am referring to, here in Australia and the USA, the word football can mean two differant sports. If I was an Englishman, then I would no doubt use football.
Plus as you have aluded, futbol does give acknowledgment to Latino cultures who embraced futbol the most.
The final thing is, growing up and watching Les Murray on SBS, he says futbol, and it made an impact.
Daniel King said | February 18th 2010 @ 3:19pm (5 weeks ago) | Report comment
Yeah whatever true Tah, whatever!
ItsCalledFootball said | January 29th 2010 @ 12:47pm | Report comment
AF,
AU are rumoured to have two potential buyers in negotiations – the Coopers Brewing Group and the Makris Group.
Thay are also looking to recruit some players and get rid of a couple (including Owusu to China) for their next Champions League campaign in a few weeks.
Australian Football said | January 29th 2010 @ 2:49pm | Report comment
Great news… for Futbol
and for Football for us Aussies.
Punter said | January 29th 2010 @ 7:42am | Report comment
True Tah,
I’m a futbol head & I think you have hit the nail on the head.
Adelaide has with CCM & MV, the most consistent teams in the HAL.
They have by far the greatest achivement of any football (futbol) club side in Australia by getting to the ACL final last year.
They have a long history being a NSL club.
Football though a long way behind is the 2nd most popular football code in SA, they are encouraged to go & watch the games live. Remember while Melbourne has the tennis & Spring carnival, Adelaide only has the football to fillin during the off season for football (all codes) fans.
This is the same as Perth except that they have not had the success of Adelaide.
markwakefield said | January 29th 2010 @ 12:22pm | Report comment
futbol???????????
whiskeymac said | January 29th 2010 @ 8:05am | Report comment
Do other clubs have nay similar initiatives such as remitting 25% to a club/ the Fridayshout. these seem like very progressive and positive moves to engage the community. I wld hope new teams take note and adopt similar strategies, especially the WS Rovers. with such a large football community these cld help them engage a fairly fickle “potential”.
Am curious, has Adelaide always done this – did the FFA have a say in it… wld new owners decide it wld effect the bottomline too much?
wtf said | January 29th 2010 @ 8:06am | Report comment
Adelaide United grew out of the Old Adelaide City it had one season in the NSL and drew bigger crowds then what we have now. But the Adelaide United of the NSL was a different beast and many people turned there backs once the A-league started, it’s only now that they are starting to come back.
Sadly there still is a lot of football people in SA that refuse to go the games.
Now I just wish we could win a game!!
wtf said | January 29th 2010 @ 8:08am | Report comment
I think the rebate started 3 seasons ago
AGO74 said | January 29th 2010 @ 9:00am | Report comment
Kudos to Adelaide. Good initiatives which have no doubt helped. I have not been too Hindmarsh but for mine it looks like a great place to watch football and it always seems to have a good atmosphere . Being a lifelong Canterbury Bulldogs supporter I yearn for the days of a return to Belmore (or an equivalent venue). Bulldogs average about 20,000 which is a sizeable crowd but it is seriously diluted in the vacuum of 60,000 empty seats. Adelaide only have half of Bulldogs average attendance but in a 15,000 seat football specific stadium, it is a much more intimate venue. For that reason I hope that the new West Sydney team plays at Parramatta Stadium or Penrith Park rather than being suckered in by the $$$ offered to play at Homebush.
Ben of Phnom Penh said | January 29th 2010 @ 10:09am | Report comment
To be fair, I believe that a good run in the formative years assisted Adelaide’s garnering ‘rusted on’ support. There is also the more parochial nature of the local media and the community which has assisted in promoting the club and supporting its community engagement endeavours.
And yes, many supporters of Adelaide United are also supporters of the Crows (and to a lesser extent Port). It’s a healthy thing though does mean the scheduling needs to avoid clashes.
Lazza said | January 29th 2010 @ 12:59pm | Report comment
We are just the loyalist, most committed, educated and well behaved supporters in the land. A slight hiccup this season but with no owner or decent money to spend that’s understandable. Things are moving on that front so the future looks promising. Hindmarsh is a great little venue for watching ‘Futbol’ and 11k can generate quite a healthy atmosphere.
mattamkII said | January 29th 2010 @ 1:41pm | Report comment
“Futol” you know..say it like that and you sound all exotic.
I am from Adelaide and the key to their crowd numbers is playing the games at an accessible semi suburban ground. Inner north western Adelaide is a traditional yet ever slightly changing ethnic area. Thousands walk to the ground from their homes…or park their car at a mates house and walk to the ground.
Roar Fan said | January 29th 2010 @ 2:16pm | Report comment
Good on them……
I have no idea why but the Roar are suffering from less fans. I wondering if it ahs something to do with grass roots football. The long term investment ie. 5 – 10 years returns long term gain. Give every kid under 16 who is a registered football player a free ticket or next to nothing and get them in pretty soon they become adults and still follow the club.
Rob said | January 29th 2010 @ 3:10pm | Report comment
Ah, perhaps you missed the fact they massively hiked up the cost of tickets at the start of the season, grossly overvaluing the product they had, making tickets more expensive than the Broncos or the Lions? Add to that they slugged their most loyal fans, the season ticket holders and members hugely and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
The Roar have been playing catchup ever since the muppets in the suits made those calamitous business decisions.
Roar Fan said | January 29th 2010 @ 4:21pm | Report comment
yeah good call
Realfootball said | January 29th 2010 @ 4:23pm | Report comment
Absolutely. The damage will be lasting, too.
Australian Football said | January 30th 2010 @ 11:27am | Report comment
It’s Frank Farina and his column in the Courier Mail—–he’s doing his best to destroy the club. It’s about time the Roar FC fans write to the Courier Mail and complain about it. If I was a Roar FC fan I would certainly let Frank Farina know he should go an get a life. I find it disgraceful in what he is writing about the club and I’m not even a Roar FC supporter..
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AF
Realfootball said | January 29th 2010 @ 2:57pm | Report comment
Admitting kids free to A League games would be the single most effective answer to falling attendances. Unfortunately the clubs and the FFA seemed disinclined to take a long term view. Perhaps they can’t afford to – then again, they can’t afford NOT to, either.
Dogz R Barkn said | January 29th 2010 @ 3:26pm | Report comment
It’s seems like such an obvious thing to do, afterall, you can’t be making all that much from kids, kids will normally attend with their parents (who pay full price).
If you get the taste of it as a kid – you’ll become a lifelong supporter – that’s the way it normally works.
Punter said | February 1st 2010 @ 8:53pm | Report comment
I agree there Dogz r Barkin.
Timmo said | January 29th 2010 @ 3:41pm | Report comment
The other thing to consider is this average has been done on the back of no blockbuster games against Sydney or Melbourne at Adelaide Oval. If we had got 2 games of 20,000 plus for those games you would think our average would be greater. Good article Ben and I hope the feedback helped.
Jed said | January 29th 2010 @ 4:27pm | Report comment
I bought a membership for the first time this year and the main reason was the schedule. Friday night games are awesome to go to, and i always get there early to watch the youth league play, so it’s great value for money to be able to watch 2 matches. I’ve been more excited to watch the youth team this season. I hope FFA give United Friday night games because i’ve think we’ve earnt them.
However I doubt i’ll get a membership next season because i’m getting turned off the A-League now, particularly the standard off refereeing, it’s ruined the experience for me. Plus i’m not happy with current coach and playing list, and unless changes are made i can’t see myself rocking up every week.
I’ll always stick by them though. And while Hindmarsh is a great stadium, the crowds at Adelaide Oval were awesome, so i hope we get a new stadium built in the city which United can use when AFL season finishes. I can just imagine playing Friday nights most weeks, at a city stadium, and winning games, we could be getting 20,000 each week.
Jimmy Drama said | January 29th 2010 @ 5:40pm | Report comment
Adelaide United fans know that the Club has been successful in the past and and in all likelyhood will be successful again. The fans seem willing to stick out the temporary bad times with the belief thath the bad times will end.
Unlike other clubs who have never know success since the inception of the A-League. Their attendance heavily relies on current success.
Ben of Phnom Penh said | January 30th 2010 @ 2:19am | Report comment
Of course it could always be a result of good food, fine wine and excellent weather
hazza said | January 30th 2010 @ 1:11pm | Report comment
The A league needs a strong club from Adelaide. I am a Victory member and it would be nice to see some other city challenging Victory for members and crowds(Victory membership stands at over 20000). I believe Sydney will get there in 2-3 years but I believe Adelaide is primed to grow on the back of the new ownership group that is coming in. Believed to be headed by Alan Young.
gazz said | January 30th 2010 @ 2:46pm | Report comment
The more the merrier eh hazza! But Adelaide do seem to be going along a nice path. Hopefully they can build on this.
Ben of Phnom Penh said | January 30th 2010 @ 3:30pm | Report comment
It has been interesting that even without an owner, no marquee and bottom of the table there isn’t much doom and gloom about the fan base at Adelaide.
The Bush said | February 1st 2010 @ 8:22pm | Report comment
It’s easy to support a team when they have a real name and outfit. The Roar, wearing maroon and orange… thank god for the away strip or I wouldn’t own a jersey.
Adelaide games constently have the appearence of atmosphere on the tele thanks to their stadium being appropriate for their crowd numbers. Again, the Roar would look much better on TV playing at a 20 000 seat stadium…
Sorry to bitch on about the Roar… but geez…
Good on Adelaide. If only 10 000 was the minimum average for all A-League clubs…
Footbal Person said | February 19th 2010 @ 7:03pm (5 weeks ago) | Report comment
I don’t see what so gewd about it, Adelaide has a similar population to Bris, but if Bris averaged 10k it would still be poor.