Who is the most supported NRL club in Sydney?

Look. I dont mind acknowledging that Parra and Canterbury are the big Sydney money powers at present and I must admit to past soft spot for Parra. I also recognise that it is important that these two clubs have their share of success to ensure other codes dont break in too successfully. But as a Manly supporter I have to say my second favourite side since the 70s has been Souths...probably because in Manly's halcyon days of the 70s. there were more than one or two Souths players bolstering Manly up. Now days its ex Manly players who are bolstering up other teams. Such is the financial seesaw of life

Eels are the biggest club in Sydney and everone's second team, though the Dogs, Souths and Saints have solid support, while Wests have done a great job stealing many neutral fans as Parra used to in the 80s. Parra are a sleeping giant and always have been, save for the 76-86 golden era, the 97-2005 'silver' era and the 2007-2009 'bronze' era. Take these periods away and the club and they have been mediocre, yet still have huge support and massive latent support. One person's 'fickle' is another person's 'fan waiting for something to cheer about', and that's why the 2009 Grand Final saw more NRL merchandise sold than any previous year - Sydney loves having a strong Parramatta Eels. Wests lost their opportunity to steal this mantle: if they had made more finals since 2005 plying their signature style (versus the hot and cold inconsistency), they would be in the top 3. As it stands they have no money and a rookie coach.

It interests me Jade why you have to come onto a Rugby League forum to raise this issue. However in response, yes Sydney Swans (who are premiers and therefore at the peak of their likely support) have done very well in Sydney and should be commended for their excellent PR. Of course they are one club in Sydney, GWS yet to establish even a small crowd even though tickets are given away in bulk. Sydney has, if you dont include St George-Illlawarra, 8 city sides, and though individual crowds are not as high as Sydney Swans at their best, the combined crowds are somewhat well in excess of Oz Rules crowds. Melbourne Storm is also gradually getting bigger crowds and will compete with your suburban teams down there in melbourne in the not too distant future. Will that make Melbourne an Rugby League town...hardly. Oz Rules is making good inroads into RL areas and League needs to follow the example. But Oz Rules has a long way to go yet to be matching League in NSW and QLD

It interests me living in sydney why the swans don't get more credit for the amount of support they get....With 29000 members; which is more than any NRL team; they have the biggest membership base in Sydney. They pulled 58000 in the preliminary Final with ticket prices nearly double what the dogs/rabbits game charged. That game pulled 73000. In my mind AFL is strong and healthy in Sydney

I cant speak for brisbane because its in another state. But to me the most common jersey and team that seems to be supported is South Sydney. I think because the team has been near the bottom so long there has been impression that their supporter number is lower than many teams. But when they are playing well it seems everyone and their dog has an opinion about the bunnies and I suspect it is the second most popular team of most non Rabbitoh supporters. Of course this is anecdotal and I have no figures to justify that statement...its just a feeling. Of course in Sydney my team Manly seem the least popular, but I suspect its one of the teams most supporters like to see their team play against the most.

People will like anything on facebook. Alot of people who don't follow Nrl will see a team advertising it's page on the side of the screen and just click 'like'. It doesn't men they necessarily support them. Also, some teams promote their page more than others. Generally, people don't go searching for their club's page on facebook to like it.

in this modern age of social media,facebook would have to be the most acurate gauge of popularity. When you consider that more than 8 million aussies are on facebook, it is by far the biggest sample audience available. If we use facebook as a guide , the most popular teams are... broncos 231,000 fb fans melbourne 161,000 fb fans parramatta 130,000 fb fans titans 100,000 fb fans rabbits 94,000 fb fans bulldogs 84,000 fb fans in nsw , its parramatta no.1, rabbits no.2 & sydney swans no.3

If,as this article states, they pulled 30000 last friday after the rubbish they have served up this season so far then that's a fair showing of loyalty I would have thought.

I reiterate what I was saying before. I noticed that several comments have placed Manly, Cronulla, Penrith and Sydney City at second tier of support. Your assessment though is distorted by the obvious issue of distance. Other than Sydney City, which has a smaller demographic and junior comp and therefore relies on a wealthy club to survive, the other three teams are all out on the fringe of Sydney Met in terms of travel access. What this means is two things. Firstly supporters of inner city teams are more likely to attend more centralised games within the Canterbury, Wests, Souths, Parramatta hub, all of which use the Stadium as one of their home ground locations because of proximity (or in Parra's situation have a large close stadium itself nearby to rely on). This means on average crowds attending contests between those teams is going to be virtually home games, even when they are designated away games because travel time is quite short. You are therefore going to get a large number of your own crowds and a large number of the other opposition inner city team's crowds. This skews the the crowd figures. Secondly, the outer city teams instead are less likely to attend the more distant inner city grounds or other outlying grounds because distance makes travelling more difficult especially with a family. Further inner city teams and other outlying teams are less likely to attend an outlying home ground fixture. So as an example a Manly Vs Wests match a Brookvale Oval or the Stadium is likely to have a smaller crowd than say a Wests Vs Canterbury match at the Stadium as both clubs these clubs use the Stadium as a home game. So the proportion of fans supporting Manly at Brookvale will be much higher than opposition supporters while it will be significantly less proportionately against an inner city side at the Stadium. This means a Canterbury vs West match at the Stadium, whether a home or away fixture will have close to 50% for each supporter base depending upon how the team is travelling. This therefore increases your over all crowd attendance. A Manly vs Wests fixture at Brookvale will probably be something like 80% Manly supporters and 20% Wests, and it may reverse when Wests play Manly at the Stadium, because less overall supporters are attending the 'away fixtures because of distance. This same principle applies to Cronulla and Penrith but not to St George which has the advantage of a city of supporters in the 'gong as well as the Kogarah area. Therefore determining team crowd support is much more complicated than just looking at game attendance, Just as Manly supporters are loathe to cross the bridge to come to other grounds, other teams supporters are just as loathe to cross the bridge to come to Brookvale Oval games. Its the tyranny of distance, related transport costs, time and isolation.

Fair enough. I think game attendance is important and a lot of people wear there oldest merchandise. So both would be important.

It's definitely an important factor, but I wouldn't say that it's the "only" factor. It does need to be included (though like you I have no idea how to find those figures) because there are a number of fans who can't make games for various reasons who would do this but it's not the be all and end all. I don't think that I've bought much merchandise at all over the past 5 years, yet I've been to a large number of games. I prefer to use the money that I can afford to use on my club on attending games. Obviously that's not an option for people like yourself but it is a reason why merchandise revenue, whilst being an important factor to consider, isn't the "only" thing to consider.

Merchandise sales over 3 - 5 year period is the only way to tell. A "Fan" is someone who SHOWS support for there team. I am a tigers fan but don't live in sydney so I don't go to home games and the membership packages don't include anything I want so I purchase the Items i do want to SHOW my support & hoping the profits go to the club. With the constant changes in jerseys and new merchandise available every year you would have to take the average over 3-5 years. Some clubs peak for 1 year (Panthers 2003) so the real value would show. Would be interesting if someone could get these figures.

Freo's membership and crowds are ok...but if you asked the 2M people living in WA who their favourite AFL team is, 75% would answer "Eagles". Ditto Broncos in Qld.

Again, using AFL Dream Team/SuperCoach fantasy figures it seems as though West Coast supporters outnumber Fremantle 2:1. That's nothing to sneezed at though for Dockers fans.

Do you think that's still the case though? Fremantle's numbers are impressive considering the club's lack of on field success. As Michael said they have more than 42,000 members and attract very good crowds. I think that with consistent form on the field, they could very easily begin to rival West Coast.

Didn't mean to disrespect the Dockers...but let's be honest, WCE were initially set up to represent the whole state and have by far the greater support. When Freo entered the comp in '95, they represented 1 Perth suburb and attracted all those who wanted an alternative. WCE dominate WA just as the Broncos dominate QLD.

Did you know that there is a team called the Fremantle Dockers in WA? Which has about 42,000 members and planty of fans on there own.

But you don't have to be a local to walk into a league's club pokie addicts can travel despite having reduced funds to play with.

How many of your stupid fans will walk into their club and stick notes of donation into a machine designed to STEAL your money.

I agree. They're a useful figure to use. The numbers do seem to follow a similar pattern to other potential factors like crowds and memberships. Certainly if we look a variety of factors (fantasy numbers, crowd figures, memberships etc) we do see a pretty clear trend emerge. Clubs like Bulldogs, Dragons and Tigers are basically among the top few clubs in each category whilst clubs like Manly, Cronulla, Penrith and the Roosters are generally in the bottom half. Oddly, Parramatta seem to be high up in fantasy team numbers but down a bit in terms of crowds/memberships. perhaps this is an indication of how the Eels have gone on the field over the past 2-3 seasons. South Sydney seem to be the complete opposite of this.