Brisbane Lions fighting irrelevancy just two weeks into the season

The numbers at the last home game are worse than you imagine - the Lions actually had a real publicity push for that first home game. They had Lions players giving away...was it 3000 tickets? In the Brisbane Queen St Mall a few days before the game. They gave them away with free doughnuts. And they STILL had sub-par numbers at the game. You're right, no-one cares because not winning, but that's only half the story. No-one cares because they're not winning AND this isn't an AFL state. Quite frankly the AFL signed Brisbane's death warrant when they stopped treating them as an expansion side in 2003/2004. I'm pretty sure Leigh said at the time that the effect of that was that the Lions destined to become merely a training ground for Southern clubs - and he was pretty much spot on.

Agreed, the coverage if you're an interstate fan is great. You always get the Lions & Suns games on FTA, plus 2 other games of the round.

The way I view it they are essentially at Year 1 of building towards a Top 8 position. A long way to go, if they even get there, and they need to find a site, construct a plan and work with the AFL, Brisbane City Council and QLD Government to build an Elite Training and Administration Facility. The AFL have been master negotiators in the past and can assist the Lions with this situation. Small victories is what they need to focus on. Increase the number of wins each season, get experience into their talented kids and slowly regain the publics faith that they are worth watching at the Gabba.

Another factor that many dont realise is that between 2000-2010 the lions played nearly every home game on a Saturday night. This helped crowds due to the fact all local comps are played during the day! This may not sound like a big deal to EXPERT Victorians writing columns about a QLD based side but sadly it is. The lions will be fine. They have been rubbish for 10 years and are still managing to hover around the 22/23k mark in membership. Once again may sound terrible compared to southern based sides but check out the broncos membership numbers to see proof that qlders don't rush out and buy memberships even for their number one code. The lions are rebuilding (properly) now for the first time in their history. Get this right and sustained consistency will come.

The worst thing the AFL did was to force Fitzroy out of Melbourne. It may have ticked all the boxes with other clubs at the time and gave them a Brisbane team but no-one gave a dam about Fitzroy fans [ of which there are still quite a few now] 3 times on free TV a year is disgracefull and an insult to all the faithfull Brisbane - Fitzroy fans in Melbourne. The Afl promoted Brisbane when Fitzroy merged with them and we were told the money went with them. That money could have been given to finance Fitzroy to keep them in Melbourne, but that didn't suit the Afl. They deserve a real kick. We are one of the oldest teams with a history equal to none and now because the AFL can't add to their billions they have let everyone down including Brisbane fans. The young players try their hearts out for what every week. The Lions are a proud club who deserve support. If Brisbane doesn't want them bring them back home to Melbourne and support them. Its hard to follow a team you can't see. Booooooo to the AFL.

Still baffles me as to why the AFL has spent so many millions on building the Suns while neglecting the Lions. On numerous occasions on here I've read that GC have torn many Lions supporters away too. Living in Melbourne, you almost forget the Lions are in the competition. They're so irrelevant and have been so irrelevant for so long. Sad to see.

they need to be competitive, only then will people come back, for such a dismal record in the last few years, they do OK as far as crowds go, TV ratings have never been great, fox ratings is national so hard to tell

You are right about the struggles and concerns but there are less disturbing facts now than when you started the argument which creates the perception of a weakened case.

"Every little error? Please explain." - I don't want to speak for TomC but this is a discussion I have had before on this site - one little error doesn't make much difference but when you have a number of them they start the reader wondering what else might be wrong and weaken the argument as a whole. In this case on first read the poor viewing numbers and the fact Brisbane got so few free to air games seemed quite damning on first blush but then the numbers become fuzzy and it turns out every Brisbane game is on free to air and suddenly the disturbing facts aren't quite as disturbing.

If these things are concerning to Brisbane they're more concerning to the suns i would say. 25% less viewership, a lower crowd when Brisbane had a marked increase when compared to the year before against the same team. How much a difference would it have made? Given 7 pulled their number one tent pole show from its regular timeslot i would say it is a significant difference. Companies don't mess with those sort of things lightly There are concerns but the theme of this article seems to want to make them worse for the lions. Now had it been about the decline and issues with AFL in QLD then some of the points you made would be more valid. But given the tact you've taken by trying to make the lions figures sound worse than they are while ignoring the Gold Coast would point towards nothing more than an agenda against the lions.

Footyindustry aren't a primary source. I don't whether Gold Coast figures are included, but given they're included in Oztam ratings I'd expect they'd be include in footyindustry's source. They might not be, but it's the sort of thing that you probably need to look into rather than just assuming it's what you want it to be. Further, every little error in this article makes the situation look worse, so frankly I just don't believe you when you say you 'hate saying it and don't want to'. I think you are casting about quite deliberately for things to make the Lions appear even more 'irrelevant' than they actually are.

Interstate has better FTA coverage than any Vic side does.

It looks like the writer is taking the FTA figures for Brisbane and comparing them to the national figures across both FTA and Foxtel. No big deal, but those percentages are a bit deflated.. My understanding is that the Brisbane metropolitan area for Oztam ratings – which I assume is being used here – includes the Gold Coast, so it’s not quite true to say the Suns are outrating the Lions ‘in their own city’. I can’t see any evidence that many Brisbanites are attending Suns games rather than the local team, as the article concludes. And there’s an odd comment about how only three games are on channel 7; all Brisbane games are live to FTA in Brisbane. There are mitigating factors to some of the other figures, such as the round 2 crowd of 18,021; it was a very hot and humid day and the match was unfortunately scheduled for 1pm on a Sunday afternoon. But it’s inherently true. Poor performance over a long period of time has translated into poor attendance and ratings. The Lions are suffering from their own and the AFL’s mismanagement over a number of years. There needs to be a coordinated plan to make the team competitive again, but instead the AFL is investing more effort in trying to pare back the already meagre academy concessions.

Luke a timely article on the plight of the Lions presently. There are some bright sparks on the list in Schache, Andrews, Taylor to go with some experienced heads in Beams, Rockliff, Zorko, Martin, Rich, Hanley and Merrett. The biggest problem this club has had in recent times is the rebuild was derailed to a degree in 2013 when 6 players walked out on the Club so it had to be restarted again with the draft of that year. Most Clubs look at a 5 year timeframes and the Clubs that have done this the most in the past 15 years, Carlton, Melbourne and Richmond have the benefit of doing so in the heartland of Melbourne where the fans understand the limitations of the draft and that lists need to be built and can’t be created out of thin air. Contrast that scenario with the Broncos, Reds and Roar – nothing prevents them from going out to sign new players to provide an instant spike in performance other than poor recruitment. So it is a double whammy for the Lions – unforgiving town on teams that don’t win and lack of patience/understanding for an AFL Draft/Trade Period rebuild. A big factor (maybe even the biggest) currently is the form of the Broncos. Make no mistake Brisbane is a League town above all others and the Broncos have a list that has 2016 Premiership written all over it. Wayne Bennett speaks and people listen (and subsequently dedicate column inches in papers) to his pearls of wisdom. They have an amazing TV Broadcast schedule on Channel 9’s primary channel nearly every other Friday night throughout the season. They have a TV Show, Broncos Insider, televised on Sunday at midday after the Sunday Footy Show, they are in the midst of rebuilding their Red Hill Training Base to the tune of $27M and they are also building an academy at Logan for the next generation coming out of that area (google this if you get the chance). As an example they are scheduled this Thursday night against St. George which will make it 2 Thursday Night and 3 Friday Night Prime Time fixtures in the first 6 Rounds of the Season. Their sponsors cannot be more satisfied than that. The Brisbane Roar are an interesting case example in that they are performing very well and have a chance to claim the A-League Premiership this weekend. While they don’t have the coverage of the Broncos, they have shown in seasons past that should they win through to the GF there will be 50K at Suncorp Stadium to watch along with plenty of media coverage leading into that week. Going on to the point of winning teams – this is a big factor in Brisbane. When teams win their tickets become the hottest thing in town. When the Reds were on the ascendency during 2009-2011 (with 2011 being the year that they won the Super Rugby comp) the crowds continued to grow until the point they were regularly playing on front of 30K, finals were in front of 40K plus and the Final in 2011 was at a totally sold out Suncorp. Current day they are battling to avoid the spoon and cannot even half fill the stadium for a game against the NSW Waratahs – their longest and most bitter rival! The Lions during the heyday of 2000-2005 were getting 30K through the gate at the Gabba and even Round 1 in 2015 against the Magpies with the right promotion and scheduling there was more than 31K at the ground that night. The season fell off the rails and the crowds dissipated as a result. The overall premise is sound – start winning regularly, make finals again and the people will come back to the Gabba.