Allianz Stadium may have signed off with a record attendance in the Roosters-Bunnies NRL clash, but in doing so it raised an interesting question. Why don’t those fans simply turn up every week?
There are a few myths around our sporting culture worth debunking, one of which is that the Australian sporting experience is somehow unique.
It’s not – but that never stops the inhabitants of a city like Sydney from using every excuse under the sun to explain why they don’t attend sporting events.
The main reason more fans don’t turn up at NRL games in the harbour city is because they couldn’t be bothered.
Now that we’ve got that self-evident truth out of the way, it’s worth examining how our sporting culture got to this juncture and what it means for the A-League.
It’s nice that 44,380 fans saw fit to watch the Sydney Roosters down their erstwhile local rivals the South Sydney Rabbitohs at a ground they once shared, but it’s not the only time they met at the old Sydney Football Stadium this season.
Back in April, a much smaller crowd of 15,242 occupied around one in every three seats at the venue for the traditional showdown. It ended up being the Roosters’ second-highest attended game at Allianz Stadium all season.
Why the big difference? Try starting with the fact that the game was on a Thursday night.
But having long ago made the decision that fans turning up at games was an irrelevance the NRL could do without, it’s been interesting to watch the hand wringing of late over the sight of empty stadiums.
Broadcast deals are the only thing the NRL has cared about for years, so they’re simply reaping the attendance figures they long ago sowed.
Why does any of this matter for the A-League? Well for starters the current head of Football Federation Australia is a former NRL bean counter.
And for the past few years the A-League has fallen into the same trap of treating paying spectators as ‘customers’ whose patronage can be taken for granted.
It never occurs to the decision-makers cracking down on active support what effect this might have – to use one example of an A-League public relations disaster – because most of these executives have never stood behind the goal or even paid to get into a stadium before.
And football is at an added disadvantage in Australia because many refuse to acknowledge that the sport even exists.
Three of the largest attendances at Allianz Stadium were for A-League grand finals, and until last night, the Round 2 clash between Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers in October 2014 drew a bigger crowd than any rugby league game in the stadium’s 30-year history.
And while it was nice to see football mentioned in at least some of the eulogies for the old ground – particularly the Socceroos’ clash with Argentina and one Diego Maradona in 1993 – many in the mainstream media view the sport as little more than an inconvenient interloper.
That’s why there are calls to unveil a statue of former Roosters fullback Anthony Minichiello outside a rebuilt Sydney Football Stadium, but not – for example – Alex Brosque.
But this also illustrates another glaring problem. Not one A-League club owns their own stadium.
The first club that does – possibly one of expansion hopefuls Southern Expansion or Western Melbourne – will enjoy a clear advantage over the rest of the league.
(AAP Image/Darren England)
Unlike in countries where sporting attendance is culturally engrained, none of this means much until our administrators stop treating supporters as short-term targets first and potential lifelong fans second.
There’s not much incentive for parents to pass down the joy of live sport to their kids when they feel like nothing more than a chance to pad the metrics from the get-go.
Sydneysiders might be the most fickle sporting fans on the planet, but you can’t exactly blame them.
When faced with spending their hard-earned on being treated as an afterthought or watching on TV, it’s no wonder so many fans simply reach for the remote.
UKRL
Roar Rookie
You must have been either living in another city or hiding under a rock. I've seen plenty of Roosters fans walking and driving around.
UKRL
Roar Rookie
Just like Melbourne. It caters for other codes too. If AFL is not your thing. You can watch the Melbourne Victory or Melbourne United in the A League. You can also watch the Melbourne Rebels in the Rugby as well as the Melbourne Storm in the NRL. Also Melbourne has Melbourne United in the NBL Basketball. This is great for an all code city like Melbourne.
chris
Guest
Mike do you live in Sydney? Being an AFL fanboy are you orginally from Melbourne? Also, why hang around the football tab when its obvious you dislike the game? Are you like Mr AFL? Cheers
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
That really though IS Sydney. The topography means that you have a far greater sense of poorly connected villages. Close to the CBD/Harbour and driving around feels for a Melbourner to be more like driving around the Dandenongs (up/down/around.....anything other than flat/straight/wide). It always feels to me to be far more 'localised' in nature than the contrast to Melbourne or Adelaide in particular.
chris
Guest
clipper I work in the city. So people come from all over. Im not convinced that where you are in Sydney(?) that they did not know there was a RL gf on. They must either be originally from Vic, SA or WA or you arent in Sydney.
clipper
Roar Rookie
I know you're replying to chris, Nemesis, but that really supports my argument - sport, especially in Sydney is very localised. If you're not interested in one sport, there's no need to know about it. If you are, it's easy to get info and participate.
Nemesis
Guest
You're spot on. I'm in Melb & I know Storm is playing in the Grand Final. Wouldn't have a clue about the other team. I don't know which Netball Teams played the Grand final. Nor, the NBL results from the weekend. Right now, I can access information about any subject that interests me. So, there is absolutely no reason, nor time, to bother with subjects that do not interest me. And, the beauty about most news websites in relation to sport, you can choose to select only "football". With print news, or TV news, you were forced to find the football information &, therefore, would absorb information about other sports. No longer the case.
clipper
Roar Rookie
As I explained to Punter, it is very localised - I asked 4 people in the office today and not one knew who was playing in the NRL final - all they knew was someone called Slater was in trouble - one thought it was Kelly Slater! You wouldn't even know there was a GF weekend (for any sport) around here. Don't know where you're from so can't comment on your area.
chris
Guest
clipper I asked 5 people in the office this morning whos playing in the AFL gf and not one person knew. I'm not being facetious but its literally got zero footprint here. I bet if other people did the same thing they'd get similar responses. If Storm werent playing in the gf it would be similar in Melbourne. No one would know who's playing.
clipper
Roar Rookie
I'd say Lance Franklin would be well known, even if it's mainly due to Jesinta Campbell
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
#Paul I was wondering too - one on hand many people complain about SFS and the SCG too near to the CBD (i.e. on the east coast). Then Don complains about the large stadium built...well - near the 2016 demographic centre of Sydney is Ermington......not too far from Homebush so surely that was a smart move? Seems there's no pleasing everybody. Well - of course not - but there should be an ability to please enough people??
clipper
Roar Rookie
Yes, Punter - I absolutely agree with you. Sydney is very localised and the Swans main support comes from the east inner city and north, but my point still stands that most attending the Swans would be Sydneysiders now. A great example of this is that there is just indifference in the east, even with the Roosters playing - driving through over the past couple of weeks, the best you may get is one of two tatty signs in some shop. Compare this to when Canterbury or Cronulla played the GF - there were cars with flags, posters in shops, various paraphernalia in peoples homes - huge support - but the east now - zero, nada, zilch.
Punter
Roar Rookie
And incorrect.
Punter
Roar Rookie
Funny then Clipper, why today I heard some folks discussing whether Billy Slater would get off to play in the GF or not, but not one person discuss the Brownlow from last night. I reckon 95% of Sydneysiders would struggle to even tell you what team the winner belonged to.
Punter
Roar Rookie
And yet the best known AFL player in Sydney is a guy who now runs around for the Wallabies.
j binnie
Guest
Griffo - Yes I have mentioned it before and it does not surprise me that the people who run Suncorp have not bothered to examine the Vancouver model. I have attended a game there,that was played under lights,and with the curtains in place and the 20,000 fans in attendance crowded into the lower sections of the stands, the atmosphere was incredible,not to mention the savings being made in security numbers etc. That appears to be a problem with our government sports admins. they don't appear to give a damn if there is 60,000 in a stadium or 6000, no doubt the fees will remain the same and as you suggest it is left to the "tenants" to come up with the answers. Cheers jb.
clipper
Roar Rookie
I'm from Sydney and would disagree with Chris - the Swans, for the first many years, were mostly attended by ex VICs, but that is not the case at all now - how can it be with them getting double the attendance of the next team down. It was quite funny when both the Swans and Easts played at the same time - around the inner city there were four times as many AFL fans than NRL fans. Anyway, sport sometimes isn't static - Sydney is an all code city now, with Football and Aussie Rules rising and league and unfortunately, Rugby declining.
Paul
Guest
Don is incorrect. He ignores the population that lives in the west . Homebush is closer to population centre of Sydney and therefore, theoretically more accessible, to all of Sydney's people. The problem with Stadium Australia is that most of seating is too far from the pitch. It is also multi-purpose and becomes unsuitable in winter due to NRL and Rugby Union games destroying the surface. The business case for redoing Stadium Australia would have stacked compared to the absolutely pathetic case for a Sydney Football Stadium rebuild. The stadium at homebush is filled far more regularly than the one in the east (last Saturday was a blip) with NRL grandfinals and Rugby Union tests, mid-winter football (soccer) friendlies or qualifiers. The only other thing it needs, other than for some Sydney radio shockjocks to shut up, is a retractable pitch for football.
Griffo
Roar Guru
JB, I've seen you mention this before and it surprises me this hasn't been looked at. Although I can only think state governments would look at the tenants to pay for this 'curtain' in the first instance, I'm not sure this question has been posed to the stadium 'owners'. Hunter Stadium has upper Eastern stand closed for a number of seasons now (for obvious cost cutting measures in rental hire), while people will avoid the lower Eastern (direct afternoon sun in summer) if possible with early kick-off times although people buy seated memberships there. The stadium is relatively open (it still has mostly grassed ends) so in terms of crowd noise atmosphere I'm not sure curtaining and compacting in lower tiers changes this somewhat from a noise perspective with lower numbers, but it does look good from a TV screen perspective at denser crowds. Noise-wise a more vocal, inclusive, and supported, active support would help this. Issue with Hunter Stadium is cameras on on western side pointing east. Most crowds are in western stand but crowds above 10-12k start to thicken out the grassed ends, and lower eastern in cooler weather. Still major Jets banners on the upper eastern would be a good look. While some of these could be used to show club sponsors, it might become costly each season if the sponsor changes. Better to highlight Jets and Hunter football heroes past and present...
mattq
Roar Rookie
interesting comment about women and soccer. do you know whether the AFL has a strategy to address their aging baby-boomer supporter base? and with their China obsession, do they have plans to import club scarves once all the old knitting ladies die out?