NRL is missing the point and losing fans

[Beaussie]

Waits for the but, but, but, News Ltd, head in the sand response we've come to expect from the NRL and it's dwindling fan base.

Paul Kent: The NRL is too concerned with image and not fixing real problems — losing fans
Paul Kent
The Daily Telegraph
March 26, 2015 12:00AM




DAVID Gallop was removed as NRL chief executive nearly three years ago and one of the first criticisms levelled at him came from Commissioner John Grant.

Grant said Gallop was “reactive, not proactive”, an opinion supported by many.

What would some give for Gallop’s brand of administration now?

Two rounds ago Tigers chairwoman Marina Go, a woman with little clue of rugby league, looked out from the luxury of her corporate box at the thousands of fans stuck outside at kick-off because she failed to put on enough gate attendants and Tweeted: “Game has started. Still queues to get into the game — for miles. Love our fans.”

Not sure if they feel the same way, Marina.

Go, who should be gone, later accused Phil Rothfield of “bullying” her because he revealed her incompetence and demanded answers.

The NRL has little clue who its fans are or what they want.

When Rothfield said on Wednesday that crowds are at a 12-year low the NRL’s immediate reaction was to call Fox Sports, with angry tones, for providing the stats. The NRL is more interested in spin-doctoring than addressing the problems.

It has been caught before trying to spin that crowd totals were up while not revealing they were actually including games not previously tallied in figures.

They were going to do the same with television figures last season, secretly including Origin figures, until their deception was called.

The AFL kicks off its season in a week and, like the NRL, is aware of the need to strategically grow its game.

Unlike the NRL it has identified its fan.

The first 2.3 million are passive fans, the kind that observe the game but aren’t kicking stones if their team loses.

Next are armchair fans, 1.3 million people who also don’t go to games but follow the game and their team.

Neither the passive fan or the armchair fan attend games and are unlikely to.

Then there is the casual fan, interested in their team and attending between one and two games a year. The AFL has 1.5 million casual fans.

They have 800,000 pragmatic fans, who like the footy and love talking about it in the pub, but realise other things take priority.

Pragmatic fans go to about four games a year.

The patrons live for their footy, number about 400,000 and attend nine games a season.

Last are the fanatics, the diehards who number about 200,000 but get out to 13 games a season.

The AFL is targeting the casual and pragmatic fans, totalling 2.3 million people, and asking for just one favour: to attend one more game.

The AFL, in return, did its part by negotiating with stadium caterers to lower food and drink prices while other games, such as Sunday Funday, will see children admitted for free.

It is playing the long game, aware that habits created now are life-changing. The hope is the children of casual and pragmatic fans will grow up to be patrons and fanatics.

The most vital fans are the casual and pragmatic. Those prepared to give the game a chance, to spend, but who do not feel obligated.

And it’s their dollar most affected by refereeing blunders, overly structured play, poor facilities, expensive condiments, overpriced tickets, poorly behaved players and same mistakes being made over and over again.

These are the people the NRL is losing.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 7278559498

[ParraEelsNRL]

Well gee, lets have a look eh?

Hmmmmm, I see we are in front of 2005, anyone here have any clue what happened in 2005 in regards to NRL crowds after a slow start?

Lmfao.

[ParraEelsNRL]

Oh and cheers for posting the whole thing, saves me having to corrupt my pc going to that merkin of a paper with all their news "Limited" agendas.

Aye NEWS "LIMITED", the NRL is not controlled by you any more, suck shit you fucking kents.

[ParraEelsNRL]

2005 had 15 teams, look at the total then come back and say it's behind.

I am not making things up like the News "limited" lot, I look at facts.

AND ON FACTS, DID YOU SEE HOW THE DT SAID RATINGS WERE DOWN BLAH BLAH BLAH?

Tell me mr bookkeeper of ratings and crowds, are the ratings down like News "limited" said or not?

Don't bother answering as we both know the true facts.

[ParraEelsNRL]

Also, did any of the rounds at the beginning of last year or the fucking decade before have any games hosted at small regional towns with NO $300 million stadium?

Ofcourse not, so lets not let facts get in the way of a good news Fucking "limited" RL bashing exercise.

[Beaussie]

Parra - you arent in front of 2005 either. Total crowd might be higher, but you play an extra game a week now. Your crowd average is still lower now than it was then.

Oh dear, poor Parra made to look like a fool again.

[ParraEelsNRL]

How, because I showed that it's not a like for like situation?

Grow a brain you fucking dork.

[ParraEelsNRL]

Yet Sunday football is up near 70%, I wonder how any fta average rating could be down then?

serious too, the Sunday live game is kicking arse yet they don't mention it.

[ParraEelsNRL]

I can understand Brisbane being down with delayed games plus the fact that RL unlike the afl is going head to head with the cricket world cup, I see no one mentions that either.

What a whole heap of News "limited" agenda crap.

http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/showt ... 149&page=8

Strange, this thread says the complete opposite with links about so called falling ratings that are not falling at all.

[ParraEelsNRL]

Just read the thread again and it seems Sunday footy in Sydney alone is up 59%, so how the hell can the ratings be down on FTA TV, I can imagine the cricket having a big impact as I watched both last week switching between the two, but Friday night is not down 59%, so what gives with all the bullshit?

[ParraEelsNRL]

I also love how the News "limited" lot don't bother mentioning that this year, we didn't have the Warriors hosting the eels or someone else in round 1 at Eden Park where one game from there to kick off the season had 38k, you can't get 38k into the Warriors home ground. We had no local derbies in r1 as before with certain teams being contenders, they are still to come.

We had a game in a regional area already, the last few years have had these games on during the SOO period in the bush, not this year.

News "limited" and their agendas and lies can get farked.

[ParraEelsNRL]

For fucks sake, he was talking about Sunday games not Friday night, you do know we have a fta game on 9 on Sunday right?

It's only been delayed for the last two fucking decades and gone live this year.

The ratings for the chooks and bunnies was near a million on a Sunday, the usual delayed ratings for Sunday were around the 150-200k mark every week just in Sydney with qld barely at times getting 100k because it was delayed and usually no qld team is involved.

Already we have had ratings from 1 match on a sunday being over 4 times the average of last year. There has only been 3 rounds so how could they be down, did no one watch the other sunday games before or after the chookies and bunnies?

I think not.

[ParraEelsNRL]

Sun TV #NRL #NRLSouthsTigers Nine 515k (Syd 380k Bri 134k) GEM 33k (Mel 27k Per 6k)

https://twitter.com/MediaweekAUS/status ... 2890237952

See, another Sunday live game rating double what they usually did last year, have a look at your own figures for Sunday footy last year wookie and see that I am not bullshitting or lying.

[ParraEelsNRL]

I see Monday night footy is up as well, hmmmmmmmmmmm what was news "limited" saying again?

Oh, I guess those matches didn't go head 2 head with the cricket aye News "limited", did they?

Lying agenda driven arseholes that lot.

[Pete_09]

I just read a lot of the comments from that Daily Telegraph article & wow there are some very unhappy Rugby League supporters out there that seem to be sick of the sport & the way it is run. The main problem seems to be that people think games are too predicable & that the style of play for every team is boring & the same. About time people woke up & realised what a sh.t game it is.