Super Rugby crowd numbers hit 500,000 after round four

I have noted that the attendance at games this season (2013) seems to be dropping - empty stadiums and all! nowhere can I fing stats on attendance over the oast competition, so please provide same to compare.

But also you've got to consider the Warriors have spent a huge amount of money advertising the game. they were advertising this game online before Christmas, and over the last two months basically booked out the whole NZ Herald web site front page every day. They must have spent a phenomenal amount on ads.

Those figures are impressive, and augurs well for the rest of the championship.

Blues have the bye this weekend - Eden Park being used by league - and with 24,000 pre-sold by Wednesday they are expecting over 30,000 for a Warriors match, may even beat the Blues attendance figure of 31,000. The reason - well it's not that there is so much support for a team that has lost 8 in a row, media suggest it's because Sonny Bill Williams is in the opposing team.

In fear of going in circles KPM, yes culture can be created and is being but the process of creation,conversion and adoption is a slow one, which brings us back to... it will take time, more time then impatient people are willing to allow. It cant be rushed, artificially created or forced....

To a degree yes, but the culture can be created. If people are exposed to a sport the culture grows. But that takes the government being able to do it well.

Even if Government install a major policy it will still take 12-15 years to bare fruit and I am sad to say the ANC simply cant think that far ahead.

King again it was only an example of culture but as your in depth response has shown, that culture is the only real reason. Government can't intervene if the culture is not there to support it, as in Australia. Football is in black culture which far out weighs that of rugby support wise.

Temba I think all the countries should have more (and the same number as each other). I think the five team model was a terible mistake and has hugely disadvanted all three, depriving them of playing opportunities for their players, spreading the game, money from TV income. It was a decision made at the end of the amateur era with little real thought that it was a professional competition they were setting up.

Good luck convincing SANZAR that SA needs 10 teams :)

Yep, they can start by planting some grass.

Temba but Australia is different. The government will not support rugby in the way they would in South Africa. They can't put rugby in schools. They can't fund clubs. Or rather they won't because rugby is a minority sport compared to the NRL and AFL and so they have no desire or incentive too, not least because votes won't come that way. Plus South Africa is surely more exposed to rugby in general than Melbourne, which is obsessed with AFL. If the Australian government decided to make Melbourne play rugby they could probably do it pretty quickly. Putting rugby in every school and funding a whole lot of local clubs would have a fast effect.

biltong but as I was saying lower down to Temba, with more games for broadcasters, the broadcasting rights are far higher. Basically broadcasters pay for games, so long as the games are well watched. So 14 teams would produce huge quantities of product, and a gigantic TV deal. Hence the NRL and AFL with 15 teams get 1, billion dollar TV deals, because they can produce three times as much content as Australian rugby with three times as many teams. However, for the time being there's also the issue of quality. In France they spread their talent over 14 teams and while that makes the game mega-rich and maximises playing opportunities, the downside is that the competition is less intense than Super rugby. So perhaps with 10 teams there would be some compromise. The market would be maximised but it would double what it is now, the playing opportunities wouldn't be maximised, but they would be double what they are now. But crucially, the standard would be much higher than with 14 teams. I think that given the greater playing opportunities and the growth of the game, the standard wouldn't be much lower than now. Also consider, that players would get a chance who don't now and so go abroad and end up playing for England or France, and that because of the huge TV deal there would be enough money to keep more of the top players in South Africa thereby strengthening the teams. Maybe the standard wouldn't be quite as high as now, but probably almost as high. The result though I think would be many more areas involved and with teams to support, growth of the game, and many more players found and developed leading to an even stronger national team.

Agree BB, also things like training camps in townships, I loved the reds idea from 2011. The boks often do that sort of thing. The bulls playing a game or two a season in Soweto. People are doing what they can to create interest and simply put that's all that can be done without gov spending. If the ANC invests 10% of yearly corruption figures into rugby, there will be no end to the line of registered black players in 15-20 years. Grassroots... That's where it needs to start.

In theory king, anything is possible especially when over looking the cultural issues SA face. The reality of it is far far more complicated. Ill use the following example, the Melbourne rebels... Melbourne have over 4 million people with money, stadiums and transport why can't they fill a single 25k seater for their local team? The answer is simple, culture. People follow AFL, religiously so much that they dislike other codes simply because they watch AFL. It didntt make sense to me, I can follow more than one code, why can't they. After 6 years of living here I now get why but it does not apply to me.

Temba, I do think rugby is slowly take a hold in black households, but as you say it is not enough. When you look at the spectators at Super Rugby matches, you often see a school from one of the townships at rugby matches, the same happens at cricket matches as well. There are also more and more Blacks coming to enjoy rugby at the stadiums. Baby steps mate.

Temba the TV broadcasts deals don't work quite that way though: although maybe most who would tune into a game are already, with more games, there is more TV watched. If you had double the number of games to watch for example, you would have double the quantity of TV watching and the broadcasters would pay accordingly. Hence in the new Super format last time round, there was a 17% increase on the TV rights, largely because it had been reorganised for there to be many more games. I think in terms of keeping the standards good, the way to do it is that if you increase the number of teams in one conference, you do it in all, keeping the playing field level. South African rugby seems to be the best supported in the world. Nowhere else are there crowds like that. Given the support it would seem as if it should be organised on a scale closer to other well-supported large countries like France and England, not smaller countries like New Zealand and Wales.

HEY, I like the twins. odwa and Akona are two very solid wings. Defensively sound, decent size and love their dreadlocks. :)

Yep Mania, sadly it isn't ever going to stop.

KPM The ideal scenario for me in SA is to have all 14 Provincial teams play in the Currie Cup Premier division, but the problem is without money there are 11 provinces that reamin under funded, or not making profit. If we can have those 14 teams have the ability to pay players around 150 - 200 thousand Australian Dollars, we will have skme serious deoth remianing in the country. Sadly I doubt that will ever come to fruition.