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Many people criticise Sydney attendance. It is often stated: how can a city of 4.5 million only get 15,000-odd people to games. After living in Sydney for three years now and attending many games, I am going to put my opinion forward on the matter.
Firstly, it seems it is a Sydney issue and is not code related. Therefore, I am going to point out some reasons which I believe are factors:
1. Geographic size.
2. Culture.
3. Public transport.
4. Traffic.
5. Membership.
6. Stadiums.
Firstly, size, or what I like to call the giant urban sprawl that is Sydney. By world standards Sydney is very large in area; it is a similar size to London and twice the size of New York. Why does this matter? Well, basically, it takes a long time to get anywhere by car or public transport.
Secondly, culture. Unlike cities such as Melbourne and Perth, it would seem people just don’t want to make the effort to go to live sport. It would seem they would much rather turn on the TV and watch it in the comfort of their home. It just seems to be the culture of the city.
Thirdly, public transport. It is often a logistic nightmare to travel any descent distance by public transport, often involving a bus, a train, a bus and so on. It is time consuming and annoying.
Fourthly, traffic. What can I say, Sydney traffic is horrendous and if you are unfortunate enough to travel anytime between 3:30pm and 6:30pm, forget about it. It is not uncommon for a distance of 13km to take the better part of an hour and if you think I am exaggerating, I’m not – I do it everyday to get home from work.
Fifthly, membership. I don’t know what it is but Sydneysider’s just don’t do memberships. Maybe it is because they have no intention of going to the games, maybe it’s because they save their pennies for Foxtel, I don’t know.
A campaign is needed; a “Your Team Needs You” army recruitment-style with a finger pointing at your face. Memberships are essential for your team to be financially secure; membership is money in the bank for clubs as it goes straight to your team.
They are not even that expensive. For example, Sydney Roosters offer a huge variety of memberships starting with a $34.95 supporter who can’t attend games, then a $65 for three games and an amazing $99 for general admission. Say what? That’s nine dollars a game. Now I’m no Roosters fan but that is a bargain in anyone’s language. Not to mention in the members pack you generally get some goodies like a hat or scarf and you get the bragging rights to be a member of your team.
My final point is stadiums. I admire Melbourne and their city planners; they have placed stadiums in highly accessible areas right in the middle of the city in the central area of public transport. What does this mean? All transport links lead to the CBD and thus the stadiums.
Combine this with Melbourne’s excellent trams and that a lot of teams share the same stadiums and you have a fantastic game day experience. Unfortunately, Sydney is not like this; pretty much every team has its own stadium and they are scattered all over Sydney. So if you live near your team’s stadium, no worries, if you don’t well your game day experience will be just that… all day. If you have a night game, well, I hope you don’t intend on bringing kids because you won’t get home till around 11pm or later.
So, in summary, the above factors, I believe, have a large influence in poor attendance in Sydney. How can we fix it? Well, maybe that’s for another article.
These are my thoughts on the issue please feel free to agree or disagree and add your thoughts. I know there are fans that believe if you are a true fan you will make it to the game no matter what and to those people that do I commend you.
But for your average Joe and especially with children in tow it is becoming increasingly problematic. When the transit time is longer than the game itself, no wonder why people are taking the less time consuming and stressful option of staying at home.
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