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The Saints and the Blues took the trip across the ditch to Wellington, New Zealand to play the third game in New Zealand.
The previous two were the Saints against the Lions, and the Saints against the Swans.
Over these three years, the crowds have steadily dropped on each occasion.
2013 – St Kilda versus Sydney: attendance of 22,546
2014 – St Kilda versus Brisbane: attendance of 13,409
2015 – St Kilda versus Carlton: attendance of 12,125
So after a good crowd in 2013, there has been a dramatic drop since. An argument many put forward is that in the last two seasons, we have had three lowly sides sent to New Zealand. There are also those who argue that the sides sent have not been popular enough to pull a crowd.
I doubt it. You could play the best sides in the competition and it wouldn’t have much of an effect. New Zealand, right now, are just not into Australian football.
Are the latest attendance numbers really dismal?
Let’s compare the crowds to Hawthorn’s home games in Tasmania. Hawthorn, the best team in the competition over the last few years and considered possibly one of the best sides ever from 2008 until now.
2014
Hawthorn versus Brisbane: attendance of 12,430
Hawthorn versus West Coast: attendance of 15,504
Hawthorn versus Gold Coast: attendance of 13,178
Hawthorn versus Western Bulldogs: attendance of 14,187
Last year’s games averaged a crowd of 13,824 people. St Kilda’s matches in Wellington average 16,026 people. Can we really say that the crowds are bad in New Zealand because of the lack of successful teams playing? Was Sydney really the reason that the 2013 game had a much better crowd?
No. The ‘novelty-factor’ would have been a very real thing for the first match played over there. People going because they could say they went to the first game in New Zealand, people going to try and will their team over the line to WIN the first game in New Zealand.
The fact that the team that travels back their the next year is St Kilda, means that for every year the Saints (who unfortunately in a rebuilding stage right now) lose in New Zealand, that less Saints fans will take the trip again the following season.
This means crowds now look to stay around 12-13 thousand. There are still fans from the opposing side crossing for the same novelty factor of seeing their side win their first game across the waters.
So these games in Wellington are drawing crowds just as good or better on average then games in Tasmania, which is actually a part of Australia. Wellington is not.
Around 4000 Australians travelled to Wellington to watch the game, meaning around 8000 Australian expats and home grown New Zealanders attended the game. Is that really that bad?
Before we discard the New Zealand experiment we need to take into account its financial gains.
The economic impact for New Zealand was estimated 3 million and above. Wellington pay St Kilda $500,000 per year to host the game. Everyone gets a piece of the pie. That 500k that the Saints receive counts for 1/3 of their annual gate receipts, as mentioned in the Sunday Huddle on April 26th. That’s obviously a staggering amount, the financial game is the equivalent of eight games at Docklands or two games at the MCG.
It really is a good investment from a money point of view which will come in handy for a rebuilding club in the middle of a couple of unsuccessful seasons.
In comparison to other sports that are being played at Westpac stadium, suddenly the crowds that Australian Football attracts don’t look so bad. The last four games played at Westpac Stadium in the A-League, which involve Wellington Phoenix, average 8,692 people turning up to the game.
In Super Rugby this year, the (Wellington) Hurricanes first two games (that they won) at Westpac Stadium in Wellington managed crowds of 13,528 and 13,369. Despite this many still scoff at the crowds AFL games get in Wellington, when in reality in comparison to other sports played there, we are about the same or doing slightly better.
Actually growing the game in New Zealand will take a long time, no one is expecting it to happen overnight. But we are being active and making the right steps towards it, live game coverage of some AFL games each week in New Zealand would be a good start and is being discussed as we speak.
Players such as Joe Baker-Thomas, Giovanni Mountain-Silbery from the Saints and home grown New Zealanders recruited to other clubs are growing each season, so the AFL is doing some things right in getting hold of some New Zealand talent.
Hopefully we see more of this in years to come.
Wellington’s population is around 200,000, it’s not a huge place. Auckland for example has a population of 1.4 million. Perhaps an AFL-friendly stadium could be made in Auckland to get AFL games going in a larger city with more people and overall a greater attendance.
Whether or not the game will successfully become popular in New Zealand is yet to be seen, and it will be quite a few years yet before we start really seeing big changes, if we do. Right now it isn’t as doom and gloom as many are making it out to be.
See you at the ‘cake tin’ in 2016.
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