The moment the NRL were aware that Manly and North Queensland were set to contest last Saturday’s rugby league ‘second-placed versus seventh-placed’ play-off match, they should have scheduled the game for Brookvale Oval.
That would have been a decision that made the most commercial sense, and would almost certainly have attracted a full house of 20,000 plus to the Sea Eagles’ home.
As it turned out, just over 13,000 fans attended the Sydney Football Stadium for the game, won 42-8 by the Sea Eagles.
Various pundits from shows such as the Footy Show, the Sunday Roast, as well as the Channel Nine commentary team, have had their say about the relatively poor crowd.
Terry Kennedy, from the Roast, opined that it was “only 21 kilometres” from Brookvale to the Sydney Football Stadium.
Ray Warren, from the Nine team, thought it was “ludicrous” that the game was not played at Brookvale.
Andrew Voss declared that finals games deserve to be played in the best stadiums, to highlight their showcase status.
Apart from Kennedy, whose throwaway line was made with as much thought as a gold fish, the various opinions have all had a degree of validity.
It is often said Manly fans don’t travel. That’s possibly a truism, and might at times, be more accurately portrayed as “can’t travel.”
Kennedy’s 21 kilometre-jibe assumed that all Manly fans live at Brookvale, and all own cars.
Pretending for a moment that they all did live around Brookvale, if a supporter wanted to get to the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday by using public transport, it would mean catching a bus, a train and another bus. Or, a bus, ferry, train and bus if you wanted to throw in a nice cruise across the harbour.
It might be 21 kilometres, but using northern Sydney’s notoriously unreliable public transport, the distance is the least of the issues.
If a supporter did decide to drive, there’s a nice fat $20 parking fee on top of ticket prices, food and drink, which would soon make it an expensive venture for a family night-out.
Given that this was not sudden death for the Sea Eagles, not to mention the game was on live free-to-air, perhaps a few decided to save their hard-earned for future finals games.
No doubt many neutrals would be telling the Eagles fans to toughen up and get out to the game, not have a sook about it being taken away from Brookvale.
But that’s not the problem here.
The problem is that the NRL painted itself into a corner, with Ray Warren saying they should have left themselves a loophole for such a situation.
From a smart marketing perspective, forgetting for a moment who is playing, surely the idea is to maximise the potential size of the crowd?
Had the game been between the Sea Eagles and the Tigers or Dragons, then playing at the Sydney Football Stadium would have made perfect sense, because the game had the potential to attract a crowd greater than what would have been able to fit into Brookvale.
As soon as it was known the opponent was an ‘out of town’ side, the potential for a 20,000-plus crowd plummeted.
Most fans knew it, so why didn’t the NRL?
Only 14,845 fans went to AAMI Park today for Melbourne’s clash with Newcastle. Once again, the Storm were guaranteed another chance regardless of the result, so Storm fans are probably looking at going for a game, deeper into the finals.
I don’t know if the crowd figure at AAMI is regarded as disappointing, but the Sydney Football Stadium figure should be looked at as ‘inevitable’.
And the NRL marketing gurus shouldn’t look north to blame anybody. Just into the mirror.
Jeff
Guest
Can someone please tell me, what mindless Cretin has organised this timeslot???... I wanna boooo somebody!! lol Surely not another conspiracy by Nine and NRL..? At least I will get a seat, If I can make it to the ground!
Jeff
Guest
I have just read that the Storm qualifying final has been scheduled for 7-45 start at AAMI Stadium, -- the same timeslot as the AFL Prelim Final across the road at MCG... ASK ME why we don't get the crowds to our games with this stupidity happening. There will be no parking , Public transport will be ovrcrowded and the Storn fans who do follow AFL (First), will be at their game. Please tell me that this is April 1st!!!.
Meesta Cool
Guest
This 'Challenge Cup" would be the perfect set up for trialling Mr Gould's suggestion for a 'zoned comp'.
Meesta Cool
Guest
For once in my life, I am going to compliment AFL.. at the start of their season they have created a knock out (Challenge Cup Style) mini comp. It is slowly gaining recognition and becoming quite a money spinner for the Clubs. Does it not make sense to use a competition such as this for the start of our season instead of the 3or4 Practice games that our clubs use.? If a team want to use it to try out different players make the bench 10 players, and make it that once replaced that player can not return to the arena excepting an injury to the person who replaced him.. I would love to see something similar trialled, with the right promotion it could be sold to Sponsors and get reasonable TV coverage. .Thoughts please?.
Junior
Guest
Allow me address your points one at a time: - who cares if it takes two buses or one train or a spaceship to get to Central if it takes the same amount of time? you say yourself that it is no quicker either way. - so the 2008 GF in which Manly played an interstate team had a crowd which was 80% Manly fans? My point is it should be 80% Manly fans. No team deserves credit for getting its fans to turn out for the biggest club game of the year. The challenge for Manly fans is to get there for games earlier in the finals series to support their team, regardless of where it's played. - the event promoter was the NRL. The NRL announced, after a unanimous vote of its 16 clubs, that all finals would be played at the larger ground. It was agreed by all parties that home ground advantage for the finals would instead be home city advantage, at the discretion of the NRL. To my knowledge, it was not agreed that if Manly happened to play Nth Qld in week 1 of the finals, the game would be played at Brookvale. Hey look I did it! No anti-Manly rant! I disappoint myself sometimes. Hope I'm not losing my touch.
apaway
Guest
OK, Junior, you've clearly missed the whole point of the article so I'll take you through it slowly, even though it will no doubt end up with you going on another anti-Manly rant. Parramatta, Cronulla, Penrith and Campbelltown are all on major rail lines with direct services to Central. Brookvale and the northern Peninsula is not. That doesn't mean it is quicker to get from Campbelltown or Penrith, just a little more direct. The last time Manly played a finals game at Homebush it was the 2008 GF. A full house, and at a conservative estimate, 80% of the crowd were Manly fans. Or "spineless" fans of that "evil" club. If I was an event promoter I'd want to stage an event where I thought I'd get the maximum attendance. For last weekend, in that game, with those teams playing, that was Brookvale. Note, if it was a game against another Sydney side, or was a sudden death match, it would NOT have been Brookvale. If you think my argument lacks logic, fair enough. But at least I have an argument, rather than a whole lot of cliched vitriole. Might be time to grow out of that, Junior.
jamesb
Guest
the NRL should do more to attract neutral fans to go along the NRL finals matches and not rely on the two clubs to provide the crowds If the NRL grand final can attract neutral fans, why can't it be the case through out the final series. This week theres only 1 sydney game. Its on friday night: tigers v warriors. thats it.
Renegade
Guest
Apaway, No your right, you didn't....i just got the feeling that was being implied so thought i would jump in. Nothing better than a healthy debate :)
Sea Eagle of ACT
Guest
I admit the time it took me to get to my hotel was my fault and mine alone I didn't check if busses were available of look at a map before I went so I will cop it on the chin! And no on most occasions SFS or Homebush is not to far to travel( I travel from Canberra for most Saturday and Sunday home games)! But for familys to travel that far for a game that starts after 8:30 then yes it is too far. If the Broncos Wariors game was played at 3:30 or 4 which isn't unreasonable considering it was a Saturday and the Manly Cowboys game was played at 7 or so I bet there would have been a lot more people there! Secondly I have no drama with the game being moved at all and the ideas behind doing it where good ones the exicution is the issue! If you take your I hate Manly hat off and have an unbiased look at the situation I think you would agree.
Junior
Guest
It takes about the same amount of time OR LESS to travel from Brookvale to SFS as it does to travel from Parramatta, Penrtih, Campbellltown, Cronulla, Wollongong or Kogarah to the SFS. And what about Homebush which is close enough to the geographic centre of Sydney? It would take people from Brookvale, Penrith, Cronulla or Campbelltown about the same time (an hour or so?) to get there. So clearly we shouldn't play finals there either? If Manly make the GF (heaven help us) then SFS is too far and Homebush is too far. Hell, let's play it at Brookie? Yeah right! Your argument lacks all sense of logic. Don't blame the NRL. Don't blame the public transport system. Blame the spineless Manly supporters and their evil club for not doing enough to motivate supporters to attend. Just play the game where EVERY CLUB agreed to play the game before the season started and stop bleating. Or else do everyone a favour and give up your spot in the NRL to a team that wants it and doesn't think it is bigger than the league. Footnote: If you walked to Bondi Jn from the SFS you would have been back in your hotel room listening to Eagle Rock or some other crap on your iPod well before midnight. A walk up to Oxford St (15m) to catch a bus to Bondi Jn would have been even quicker. A cab? Quicker still. Anyway, why go home? Why not stay in town (or Paddo) for a bit and celebrate an historic come-from-behind semi-final win with the other Manly fans? Oh........
Sea Eagle of ACT
Guest
Very will said! I was at the game and I suspect there was maybe 500 to 1000 Cowboys fans there so when you look at it that way there was probably about 13000 Manly fans there which isn't a bad turn out for a game in that time slot!
Sea Eagle of ACT
Guest
Thanks for the tip! I will know now for next week to get on the bus to central! But my point still stands how long to get from the SFS to Brookvale using public transport? It would have to be upwards of an hour! That combined with an 8:30 game it was never going to draw a big crowd we can just hope the NRL have learnt a lesson and will maybe be a little more intelligent about how they approach these sorts of things in the future
apaway
Guest
Fair enough, Renegade, though I can't find a post where I have used the two together.
Renegade
Guest
Apaway, I just wanted to correct the statement about Manly and good crowds.....they shouldn't be used in the same sentence. That is all.
Patrick Angel
Roar Guru
Mate, ine of those games features a team fom a rural area, and the other a team from outside the country. Geelong vs Hawthorn (Tassie) shouls have gotten more (Is Geelong counted in the metro, I assume not).
The Cattery
Roar Guru
These are the official 5 city metro figures (the numbers the decision makers follow closely): Geel v Haw 1,165k Coll v WCE 953k St K v Syd 920k Wests v St G 978k Bris v NZ 793k Man v NQ 699k
apaway
Guest
Junior There is no evidence to suggest the club instructed fans not to attend. You may be right about the attitudes of some Sea Eagles fans but I can't speak for them in that regard, especially with all that sand in my teeth. :)
apaway
Guest
Lest I get beaten into submission about this, can I state for the record (Your Honour), that this was not intended to be a story about average home crowds, who draws well, who draws poorly etc. There may be a lot of reasons why Manly's home crowds are what they are, but that is an article for another day. No doubt the Manly club wishes their fans would turn out in greater numbers, and I would assume the NRL does too. And THAT is the point of the article. With all the evidence pointing to a lower crowd for the North Queensland game being played at the SFS, it made zero sense from a marketing perspective to play it there rather than Brookvale. All the arguments presented about average home crowds are valid, but in a way confirm that the NRL erred in their scheduling.
voodoo people
Guest
You are wrong apaway. Manly (2nd) had the fourth worst home attendence in the league in 2011, only in front of Cronulla (13th), Penrith (12th) and Canberra (15th). The NRL does not count doubleheaders in official tallies, so from the 11 other games they finished with roughly 13,500. Manly also had 3 crowds under 9,000, as did the Roosters and Sharks. In a year where the club finished second that is pathetic.
voodoo people
Guest
Sounds like a pointless place to put a national sporting franchise