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Winter NSL's attendance was 71 percent of the summer competition

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Roar Rookie
12th July, 2021
34

Is the grass really greener in winter?

The Winter NSL Seasons had an average attendance of 3187 which includes three seasons of a failed conference model from 1984 to 1986 which had the lowest turn outs in NSL history due to 24 teams that weren’t ready for it. The conference jumped from 16 teams in 1983 to 24 teams in 1984.

The average of all Summer NSL Seasons had an average attendance of 4501.

That means that Winter NSL had 71 percent of the attendance that Summer NSL had.

Which funnily enough was the same figure calculated without any of these figures here where I did an approximate calculation for the winter drop in A-League from 2019 to 2021.

So should the A League be a winter season? Let’s ask APL Managing Director Danny Townsend.

“It’s really key to what Football Hub is all about. Adjacency is really important for us,” APL managing director Danny Townsend said via a recent Sports Pro video conference.

“I’ve always said I don’t need to go out and convince a 45-year-old rugby union fan to suddenly love football or the A-League for that matter. What I want to focus on is the Liverpool fan that’s never been to an A-League game and based on COVID isn’t going to Anfield anytime soon to get their live football fix.”

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So Danny doesn’t care about convincing cross code fans about joining fans and is more interested in the EPLer that already has predisposition to football and surprise, surprise wants a better football product.

It has been proven that the A-League in winter is faster as per the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Before the A-League went into hiatus in March, only two teams had more than 14 passes per minute of possession with four teams below 13. After the restart in July, six teams had more than 14 passes per minute, some close to 15, while no teams were below 13.”

So doesn’t the core A-League football fan deserve a winter season? This is what the fans, players, coaches, administration and some clubs already want. It is time. Brace yourselves, winter is coming…eventually.

All the Summer NSL attendance figures can be found here.
Seasons
1990, Average Attendance 3280, Highest Attendance 10556, Lowest Attendance 282, Teams 14
1991, Average Attendance 3463, Highest Attendance 11636, Lowest Attendance 482, Teams 14
1992, Average Attendance 3509, Highest Attendance 13000, Lowest Attendance 620, Teams 14
1993, Average Attendance 3362, Highest Attendance 13763, Lowest Attendance 782, Teams 14
1994, Average Attendance 3475, Highest Attendance 11918, Lowest Attendance 773, Teams 14
1995, No Attendance Figures, 13 Teams
1996, Average Attendance 4834, Highest Attendance 11956, Lowest Attendance 1145, Teams 12
1997, Average Attendance 5674, Highest Attendance 40466, Lowest Attendance 600, Teams 14
1998, Average Attendance 5163, Highest Attendance 17764, Lowest Attendance 1419, Teams 14
1999, Average Attendance 5995, Highest Attendance 27556, Lowest Attendance 1100, Teams 15
2000, Average Attendance 5225, Highest Attendance 43242, Lowest Attendance 1214, Teams 16
2001, Average Attendance 5280, Highest Attendance 31710, Lowest Attendance 763, Teams 16
2002, Average Attendance 5278, Highest Attendance 42735, Lowest Attendance 1580, Teams 13
2003, Average Attendance 4032, Highest Attendance 38111, Lowest Attendance 1004, Teams 13
2004, Average Attendance 4447, Highest Attendance 17524, Lowest Attendance 892, Teams 13

The Winter NSL season average attendances can be found here.

So what’s the verdict?

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