Another record year for Super crowds

All this talk of 'expansion'? I mean expansion is obviously needed in SA. They have the crowd numbers, the player numbers and the obvious expansion locations (Both the Southern Kings and the Lions in at the same time). Australia doesn't have the support or the depth to warrant a 6th team. I'd be more in favour of adding a Japan based team (similar time zone), or a pacific islands combined side (based in the Australian conference and administered by the ARU but playing wherever - even the odd home game in NZ). I'd love to see an Argentinian side but the logistics would be ridiculous (distance, time zone, etc) I don't know enough about the situation in NZ to comment on expansion there, but they definitely have the player depth. Any suggestions as to where the new franchise would be based?

Leo/TB, That's not always true. Remember most states don't have NFL teams and some states have three. Pittsburgh for example is a city of 300,000 (2.3 million if you include the surrounding area), and has sold out every home game for the last 40 years. There is also a college team sharing the same stadium, and an ice hockey team (which also sells out most games) as well as a baseball team whose season partly overlaps other codes. Some Friday night high school games get 10-15,000. In other cities there are college teams that sell out 110,000 seat stadiums, and there are 117 teams in Division 1 alone. Yes the US population is 15 times larger, but each weekend the crowd numbers at various football games in the US exceed those in Australia (in all codes) by much more than that. I think we could look at getting tips from the US as to how they do it, but I also think a lot of it comes from the fact that all the 'competing' codes over there have sat down and worked out ways to make sure they don't actually 'compete'. Almost every Pittsburgh Steelers fan is also a Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL) and Pittsburgh Pirates (baseball) fan and most are also Pitt Panthers fans. The way they do it is they work out schedules that allow people to follow multiple sports. High school games are Friday nights, college is on Saturday, NFL is on Sunday, and other sports adjust their schedules accordingly. It's something we couldn't really do in Australia because our codes are such bitter rivals.

Good work as ever Kovana but wouldn't it be great if you could get all those S15 stadiums packed to the rafters.

"The NBN being built in Australia will completely change the media dynamic in Oz". Perhaps, however because of the cost structures, the NBN will only change life for those that can afford it in the short term.

Nice one, Kovana - all that takes a lot of work. Thank you. I've done similar for NH comps, and what I sometimes do - particularly for H Cup attendances is take off the lowest and highest for a club, (generally, the worst weather game, and a play-off/final match) which can distort the averages sometimes. Not sure if it's the same case with Super 15. Cheers.

Hey Kovana, Great article mate - I know how hard it is to get those crowd numbers at times. Given viewership is also up it shows things are moving in the right direction for the code.

Emirc, to be honest with you I would like to see expansion go down rather than sideways. I don't have an issue with having 6 teams per conference, but then it has to stop. My personal opinion is when it comes to keeping the "super" in Super rugby we have to be realistic and realise that our countries can only have a certain number of "Super" teams. For me the quality and intensity of Super rugby must be enhanced and not compromised ever. So the expansion in my view and perhaps you would rather call it "SANZAR EXPANSION" is to start looking expandig down, rather than sideways. We have the Rugby Champioship We have the Super Rugby. What can we do at a level below that to help these three countries produce a sustainable pool of talent by working together? Be it a way to accommodate the Provincial Competitions or U21 competitions, or a second division competition, whatever. But continuing to expand laterally and not building the bottom up, we will dillute the quality of the Super rugby comp.

Biltong I'm a die hard believer in expansion. If I was running the NZRU I would be backing the expansion to 16 teams and allowing the kings to be involved why? because South African Rugby is the heart which pumps the life money around NZ/Aus let them have another team as long as the original agreement is honoured until the end of 2015 and SA fund the new team out of their portion the time table is not that hard to rejig and it won't change how many cross over games would happen. I'm also for expansion in NZ/Aus as well as bringing in Argentina so we can start racking in the cash for their TV stations as well (as well as splitting the money 4 ways rather then 3) hopefully we will get the point of around 750 to 800 USD million in the next tv deal

Emric, absolutely, the last I read about the revenue breakdwon said that the Tri Nations brought in about 70% of the revenue. And it has always bugged me why SANZAR would put so much focus on expanding the Super Rugby if by revenue per match it was s much less than the Tests.

Biltongbek. Super Rugby makes up only part of the money - the tri-nations/RC make up the biggest piece of the rugby pie the tv stations have said it over and over they value the international competition more then they value super rugby. Anyway if SA didn't divide the cash evenly Aus would collapse, NZ would do better but would be in a bad place mostly because SkyTV is reliant of Rugby to keep its numbers up and while there is no competition in NZ against Sky people would turn off Sky if they didn't have Rugby so the two are a symbiotic relationship Sky can't afford to let Rugby go and the NZRU can't afford to bleed sky dry. Aus would collapse without NZ/SA.

so many cynics enjoy writing on the roar. Super Rugby had a good year, I enjoyed watching it and the crowds around me did to, said crowds were subsequently up. this is a good thing... unless you for some absurd reason want to downsize interest in a game we all love. I merely assume the majority of whining cunstables are sad middle aged blokes who somehow are stuck behind a computer spending an overtly large amount of time on the roar. great article! thanks, Keep the statistics coming, really good reading Look forward to this weekends matches!

there is a highlights package on australian free to air

Kovana I know that we need SA - but SA also need NZ/Aus its not super rugby which makes the real money but the Tri-Nations which pulls in the real ratings and provides the TV stations with a real marketable product.

Perhaps try having 300m people and only 32 teams as well as being the most popular sport and then only play a 16 game season.

They were screwed over by the suspension of Cooper and the appointment of Kaplan. The Qld crowd knew it and stayed away. They're not stupid.

Guys Super Rugby is looking good , we know it the players know it and most importantly the CEOs know it ,that's why there going to stick with the conference system and get us ready for expansion in 2016.

How exactly were they screwed over? Yes, 34K to a playoff final was poor. But if you see the stats, the Reds Crowd average was bigger this year than it was last season. And no, i dont agree with you about next season, i expect the Reds to stay around the 30K region... and if they get playoff spots again next season... i expect it to go even higher than this seasons.

Thats why it is called an average.

It would be interesting to see if there would be a shift in numbers if everyone played everyone or if the current model is better. For example the Crusaders and Reds draw great crowds on away games, potentially more that a local derby does.

Don't expect the same numbers at the Reds next year. Queenslanders are too proud to let themselves get screwed over by SANZAR powerbrokers. The 'poor' turnout for the QF is a reflection of that.