Big NRL crowds are a non-negotiable

The NRL is the world’s premier rugby league competition and boasts most of the world’s most talented football players including Jarryd Hayne, Greg Inglis and Johnathan Thurston.

Yet the NRL is constantly battling to attract the big crowds to attend regular season matches.

There is a multitude of reasons and excuses for the crowds experienced this year and certainly in previous years. The move away from traditional suburban grounds, pricing of tickets and food as well as the State of Origin series have all been blamed for the small crowds that the NRL tends to attract.

As a fan of the NRL, as well as the AFL and A-League, I am always curious as to how each code stacks up against the other in terms of the crowds they attract.

So where does the NRL currently sit?

I would like to take tonight’s matches as an example. Tonight, competition leaders Manly take on the Broncos who sit in eighth position on the competition ladder at Brookvale Oval while the Canterbury Bulldogs will take on the Penrith Panthers for outright second place on the table.

While the move to second on the ladder may only stand until Sunday when the Rabbitohs clash with the Knights, many fans will fancy Newcastle’s chances of upsetting the Rabbitohs who have lost a number of key players to injury.

Despite Manly taking on an out of Sydney team, you would think that they would be able to draw in excess of 17,000 people as they look to almost certainly lock in the minor premiership against a side looking to avoid missing the eight for the second straight year. Brookvale Oval has a total capacity of near 23,000 people and while a sell out would be out of reach against a non-Sydney team, 17,000 plus people seems a reasonable target.

Even more is at stake for the Bulldogs and Penrith who are both coming off losses and will be looking to hit some form leading into the finals. Being optimistic, you would hope that third versus fourth would be able to attract a minimum crowd of lets say 25,000 people. But no. Reports are that the crowd will struggle to pass 20,000 with the AFL match, which sees the Swans taking on Essendon at the SCG to attract a figure around 40,000 people.

Many will argue that having the AFL on the same night is detracting from the NRL’s fan-base. While this might be the case, it is something that the NRL and AFL would have known well in advance and both codes should be battling it out to attract the larger crowd.

Lets compare the expected NRL’s crowd tonight with that of the MCG who last weekend hosted first versus second on the ladder. This crowd drew in more than 70,000 people and while it is certainly impossible for the NRL to expect that number at tonight’s game, you would hope that they would be able to draw in near half of that.

If they are, where is the NRL going wrong? The NRL has worked closely with many clubs and their CEOs to boost crowds this year with the Sharks match against the Knights many weeks ago proof that the NRL is capable of drawing good crowds on a regular basis. The Sharks promoted the game extremely well and provided kids with multiple activities and even free admission if they arrived before 2pm (kickoff was 3pm).

Despite the Sharks and Knights both having terrible seasons buoyed by off-field incidents, a large crowd of more than 17,000 turned out to see two cellar dwellers battle it out. While 17,000 might not seem like a huge crowd, it was deemed a success by the club and rightly so considering the season both clubs have had and the fact that the Knights are a non-Sydney based team.

My question is, how does the NRL look to attract bigger crowds to matches that offer high quality football?

The A-League is going to experience more growth this season with a number of high quality players making their way to Australia in what is one of the world’s emerging football leagues. With the Waratahs and Brumbies doing extremely well in the 2014 Super Rugby season, expect membership levels to surge and overall interest to also increase. Add all of this to the Sydney Swans success in the season thus far in which they yesterday passed 40,000 members.

The NRL’s premiers the Sydney Roosters have averaged 12,000 people since their Anzac day clash with the Dragons and although not reaching their full potential yet, the crowd figure is not up to standard for the Roosters and the NRL.

Something has to change or the NRL will be left behind. How do we fix it Roarers?