Talking Footy

Footy turf war erupts over stadium crowd sizes
Pat McLeod
01Mar07
http://www.gcbulletin.com.au/article/20 ... ports.html

THE football turf war for Gold Coast sporting fans erupted into a bitter public slanging match yesterday with the capacity of the Carrara stadium at the centre of the dispute.

Queensland Aussie rules boss Richard Griffiths has described 'official' rugby league crowd figures at Gold Coast Stadium as 'crap'.

Titans managing director Michael Searle has hit back claiming AFL is embarrassed by the 'bitterly disappointing' crowds that code had attracted on the Gold Coast.

The cold war between the two codes has been forced out into the open with both hosting games at Carrara within a week.

Last Friday night 11,431 people turned up for the Kangaroos v Collingwood pre-season clash at Carrara. That crowd figure has been described by AFL officials as 'very close to capacity'.

Yet the Titans predict that they could get up to 15,000 for this Friday night's trial against Penrith, the first time the Gold Coast team has played at home.

The yawning gap between what the two codes believe is the capacity of the Coast's major sporting facility highlights one of the great Gold Coast sporting unknowns.

What is a full house at Carrara?

The Titans claim they have attracted crowds of up to 20,000 to games in recent years. But Griffiths, the general manager of AFL Queensland, described that figure as 'crap'.

"I don't have an argument with league, but that (20,000) is crap. There is no way known you could fit 20,000 in that stadium.

"For the Brisbane-Essendon game last year we had about 15,000 and that was jam-packed."

However Searle says he could supply the proof to back up league's figures.

"We had ticketed receipts for a crowd of more than 17,000 for the Cowboys-Bulldogs game last year," he said. "Our crowd figures were delivered to the NRL as part of the due diligence process.

"I have had to show the NRL that revenue derived from those games reconciled with crowd figures.

"The AFL can sit there firing shots over the bow, but he should spend more time worrying about getting crowd numbers to the venue.

"All he is doing is saying our figures are inflated to make his attendance look good. As far as I am concerned 11,500 for an AFL game featuring Collingwood and the Kangaroos would have been bitterly disappointing for them."

From being a sporting wasteland from the late 1990s that no national code wanted, the Gold Coast has now become a prized possession.

Since the NRL announced that the Titans would be part of their competition from this season all other codes, especially the AFL, have expressed renewed interest in the region.

The AFL's Kangaroos will play at least five games at Carrara this year as the league attempts to maintain a major presence here among the fans.

"Our strategy is about the AFL product on the Gold Coast with the Kangaroos a critical component of that," said Griffiths.

"We are investing in game development issues to build participation, interest and awareness.

"Ours is a bit more of a holistic approach to the development of the AFL game and the AFL product, whereas the Titans are a privately owned franchise that need to deliver bottom line profit, etc etc.

"Our approach is a little bit different to the Titans."

Searle fired back.

"If the AFL wants to take the gloves off, well we can do that," he said. "At the end of the day the only community-based football team, owned and operated throughout the Gold Coast, is the Titans.

"When we go to Robina (to a new stadium in 2008) we will know how popular rugby league is compared with AFL. He (Griffiths) will be getting 11,500 at Carrara and we will be getting 25,000 at Robina."

Willis 21 wrote:

Do you think crowds of 7,000 will be acceptable later in the year when they are not playing the Lions?

Willis 21 wrote:

I don't think that will happen...

Willis 21 wrote:

The Storm are averaging 12,300 this year. .its actually higher than St George...

If they maintain that they will be doing OK...

They are actually averaging higher in their 10th year then the Swans were in their tenth year in Sydney..

Two Queensland teams 'too much'


LEIGH MATTHEWS believes Brisbane's worrying drop in support should make AFL expansionists think again about a second club in the north.

Matthews delivered the warning ahead of the Lions' "away" match against Melbourne at the Gabba tonight after being hit with figures showing a dramatic 16.9 per cent slump in membership.

Three years on from the end of the club's golden era, Brisbane has the smallest membership base (21,976) in the league and crowd numbers have plummeted to an average 27,000.

The turnaround is highlighted by the fact the Lions boasted a peak membership of 30,941 in 2004 when they made a fourth consecutive grand final and drew an average 33,500 to home games.

Matthews said the membership drop - easily the worst in the league when memberships are up by 2.6 per cent - was partly explained by their recent lack of success.

"That 2001 to 2004 period was our golden era," Matthews said. "You can't expect that you are going to be playing in grand finals every year.

"When you are doing that, it doesn't matter what club it is in the competition, you are getting bigger support when your team is winning more often.

"We haven't been giving our supporters and members the enjoyment at the footy that we were in the golden era and there's been a percentage of those people that have stopped coming."

He didn't believe the blame could be laid at the fickle nature of fans in a non-traditional Australian rules state but felt it sent a message to expansionists.

The Kangaroos, playing 10 home games over three seasons at Carrara, are under heavy pressure to relocate from Melbourne to the Gold Coast full-time.

The Kangaroos' on-field success has not translated to membership sales, with the club second worst (22,366) behind the Lions, and Matthews felt a move to Queensland would present both clubs with a huge struggle.

"The AFL have said clearly for a year or two they want a game of football in south-east Queensland, at the top level, every weekend, therefore can a club be based on the Gold Coast?" he said. "That's admirable but the practical possibilities of it being financed is what we're talking about."

Matthews denied the loss of crowd-pullers such as triple-premiership skipper Michael Voss and Bulldogs recruit Jason Akermanis had a major effect.

"I don't know how many people go to the footy to watch individual players," he said.

"If a side is winning week after week I reckon that's the main thing they want, to be honest.

"(Former VFL president) Allen Aylett said 20 years ago a club's financial strength must be judged on how they're going when it's going poorly and not winning too many games.

"We've certainly had a year or two when our win-loss ratio has been very much in the negative. We know what the membership is this year and it was down 20 per cent, what it is going to be next year none of us know."

14,000 odd went to an NRL trial game this year at Carrara when the ground was in AFL mode so this is rubbish when people are claiming the game was sold out...