Talking Footy

Rebecca Wilson: NRL is running on empty

Rebecca Wilson
The Daily Telegraph
September 28, 2013 12:00AM


SOMETHING in rugby league is rotten when fewer than 10,000 members of the public pay for tickets to a final between two teams at a stadium that seats over 80,000.

That figure is not a one-off anomaly. In both weeks of the finals so far, the crowd figures have been truly terrible. Games which feature two teams from Sydney are attracting about 20,000 fans. That leaves Allianz Stadium half full and ANZ stadium short of its capacity by a whopping 60,000. Channel Nine is fuming.

The last thing the broadcaster needs is to televise games that feature empty seats as their backdrop. All of the crowing about South Sydney might have brought nearly 60,000 to ANZ stadium several weeks ago, but just a week later, in a finals game, the Rabbits could only manage 21,000.

The NRL promotes the finals series and holds 100 per cent of the commercial rights to each of the finals games. Instead of applying joint resources to attracting a crowd, the NRL gives the clubs absolutely no incentive to use their own clout to put bums on seats. The clubs boast a man and his dog in their marketing departments so stretching resources to finals is out of the question.

All of this points to a structure that has failed the clubs, particularly those in Sydney. The nine clubs jammed into the Sydney area are, at best, hand to mouth, and, at worst, basket cases.

The Wests Tigers are facing ruin without the intervention of the NRL, and the Cronulla Sharks are a well-documented financial nightmare, particularly given what could be around the corner with ­ASADA. Penrith and Manly have their own struggles.

Even the once great St George Dragons are reeling from several seasons of failure on field. They will survive but the pencils are being sharpened at head office before very tough decisions are made to either move teams or close them down.

It’s happened in rugby league before and it will happen again. All of these clubs are screaming at headquarters for a bigger slice of the financial pie, but they don’t want to use it for anything else than paying already well paid players more money.

Two decades ago, the VFL had average crowds of around 17,000. They became the AFL and set themselves some targets. First of all, they moved to major stadia away from small, shabby suburban grounds. They now attract an average crowd of more than double that figure, and the clubs’ marketing departments are brimming with resources.

They did that by chipping away at increasing club memberships, building grass roots support for the game and making the customer feel special.

A dose of Jessica Mauboy at the front and back end of the season is not going to make us rally to buy a footy finals ticket. Only Souths have copied the AFL on this front but even the Rabbits have only 16,000 season ticket holders (the Swans have 37,000).

For all the recent trumpeting about club memberships, the Bunnies boast nearly 30,000, you’ve still got to get them to games. That won’t happen while membership numbers are boosted with pets and other ridiculous categories.

Free tickets have become the norm and going to a final is not seen as special. Is there another major football competition in the universe that has quarter-full stadiums at the pointy end of the season?

The slide into oblivion for several Sydney clubs is gathering speed. The financial model is unsustainable. Cronulla fans took to social media this week barking about vendettas against them at the suggestion a move might be afoot to Brisbane.

That, unfortunately, is the only way out for clubs like the Sharks, who have suffered from more than a decade of neglect, lack of governance, no new members and, more recently, a drugs controversy. A bit over 20,000 rusted-on fans will not save a club if only half are willing to drive more than few kilometres to a final.

ARLC chairman John Grant and his allegedly crack team of commissioners were assigned the task of fixing all of this two years ago. Grant claimed types like David Gallop needed to be replaced with ‘proactive’ go-getters.

Dave Smith knows he has a problem but finding the resources and the people to find a million more league fans in the next five years will not be easy if this model remains in place.

Time is fast running out on a game that needs an almighty mother of all shake ups.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6728650216

Beaussie wrote:

Oh dear, fewer than 10,000 pay for tickets to a preliminary final in Sydney involving two Sydney teams - one of which is said to be the "pride of the league". Free tickets galore seems to be the new norm for NRL finals. Could the NRL get any more embarrassing.

Basket cases galore.

Rebecca Wilson: NRL is running on empty

Rebecca Wilson
The Daily Telegraph
September 28, 2013 12:00AM


SOMETHING in rugby league is rotten when fewer than 10,000 members of the public pay for tickets to a final between two teams at a stadium that seats over 80,000.

That figure is not a one-off anomaly. In both weeks of the finals so far, the crowd figures have been truly terrible. Games which feature two teams from Sydney are attracting about 20,000 fans. That leaves Allianz Stadium half full and ANZ stadium short of its capacity by a whopping 60,000. Channel Nine is fuming.

The last thing the broadcaster needs is to televise games that feature empty seats as their backdrop. All of the crowing about South Sydney might have brought nearly 60,000 to ANZ stadium several weeks ago, but just a week later, in a finals game, the Rabbits could only manage 21,000.

The NRL promotes the finals series and holds 100 per cent of the commercial rights to each of the finals games. Instead of applying joint resources to attracting a crowd, the NRL gives the clubs absolutely no incentive to use their own clout to put bums on seats. The clubs boast a man and his dog in their marketing departments so stretching resources to finals is out of the question.

All of this points to a structure that has failed the clubs, particularly those in Sydney. The nine clubs jammed into the Sydney area are, at best, hand to mouth, and, at worst, basket cases.

The Wests Tigers are facing ruin without the intervention of the NRL, and the Cronulla Sharks are a well-documented financial nightmare, particularly given what could be around the corner with ­ASADA. Penrith and Manly have their own struggles.

Even the once great St George Dragons are reeling from several seasons of failure on field. They will survive but the pencils are being sharpened at head office before very tough decisions are made to either move teams or close them down.

It’s happened in rugby league before and it will happen again. All of these clubs are screaming at headquarters for a bigger slice of the financial pie, but they don’t want to use it for anything else than paying already well paid players more money.

Two decades ago, the VFL had average crowds of around 17,000. They became the AFL and set themselves some targets. First of all, they moved to major stadia away from small, shabby suburban grounds. They now attract an average crowd of more than double that figure, and the clubs’ marketing departments are brimming with resources.

They did that by chipping away at increasing club memberships, building grass roots support for the game and making the customer feel special.

A dose of Jessica Mauboy at the front and back end of the season is not going to make us rally to buy a footy finals ticket. Only Souths have copied the AFL on this front but even the Rabbits have only 16,000 season ticket holders (the Swans have 37,000).

For all the recent trumpeting about club memberships, the Bunnies boast nearly 30,000, you’ve still got to get them to games. That won’t happen while membership numbers are boosted with pets and other ridiculous categories.

Free tickets have become the norm and going to a final is not seen as special. Is there another major football competition in the universe that has quarter-full stadiums at the pointy end of the season?

The slide into oblivion for several Sydney clubs is gathering speed. The financial model is unsustainable. Cronulla fans took to social media this week barking about vendettas against them at the suggestion a move might be afoot to Brisbane.

That, unfortunately, is the only way out for clubs like the Sharks, who have suffered from more than a decade of neglect, lack of governance, no new members and, more recently, a drugs controversy. A bit over 20,000 rusted-on fans will not save a club if only half are willing to drive more than few kilometres to a final.

ARLC chairman John Grant and his allegedly crack team of commissioners were assigned the task of fixing all of this two years ago. Grant claimed types like David Gallop needed to be replaced with ‘proactive’ go-getters.

Dave Smith knows he has a problem but finding the resources and the people to find a million more league fans in the next five years will not be easy if this model remains in place.

Time is fast running out on a game that needs an almighty mother of all shake ups.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6728650216

ParraEelsNRL wrote:

She or it has the swans with 37,000+ season ticket holders yet their average is 28,297

Phelpsy wrote:

Would have to agree with Dave here... RW seems to have an agenda against the nrl.

Phelpsy wrote:

RW seems to lay the boot in wherever she and rarely provides any constructive comment.

Phelpsy wrote:

Sure, most agree that the nrl is struggling in a lot of areas,

Phelpsy wrote:

but it may be just a bad year.

cos789 wrote:

Phelpsy wrote:

Would have to agree with Dave here... RW seems to have an agenda against the nrl.

She has a bigger agenda against AFL.

Phelpsy wrote:

RW seems to lay the boot in wherever she and rarely provides any constructive comment.

Deffinitely agree in her opinion peices. Normally it's wrapped around facts.

Phelpsy wrote:

Sure, most agree that the nrl is struggling in a lot of areas,

Only in the ones that count like attendances, ratings finances and image.

Phelpsy wrote:

but it may be just a bad year.

It's always a bad year.
Seriously.
But the nrl are best equipped to handle negativity because they have so much of it.

cos789 wrote:

She has a bigger agenda against AFL.

A grand tradition

SINCE I was a kid, Australian rules football has held a special place in my heart.

I am not a Victorian. I am from the Gold Coast and was introduced to the wonders of Aussie rules at the age of five by a Saturday afternoon television replay which invariably featured Carlton or Collingwood.

We became Carlton fans for three reasons: Mum's favourite colour was navy blue, Dad lived in Carlton and Mum reckoned Collingwood players were thugs. Her opinion of the Pies remains with me to this day.

On Sundays, Mum would take us to the local footy ground where we would watch the Surfers Paradise Demons take on their arch enemies from Southport (suitably wearing Collingwood colours) or the Palm Beach boys in purple and gold.

We sounded our horns when we scored a goal. My red and blue crepe paper streamers would last an entire season because it never rained in Surfers Paradise during winter.

The highlight back then was grand final day. Even if Carlton didn't make it to the last Saturday in September, they had invariably gone close.

In fact, one of my first memories of any football was actually not caring who was in the VFL Grand Final because it really didn't matter one zot who played in this amazing match.

Mum always did something special for her three kids on grand final day. She made a big fuss of it by whipping up a favourite toasted sandwich or making navy and white streamers if the Blues were playing. She would even take the phone off the hook for the whole afternoon.

My memories of those grand finals all fade into one because very little has changed in the 40 years I have been watching them. Sometimes change can be good. In the case of the AFL Grand Final, change is a terrible, terrible thing.

My memories of those Saturdays would be no different from most footy fans. Some of you might recall barbecues or breakfast picnics, or backyard re-enactments at half-time on grand final day.

Others will remember vividly the one time you got the chance to go to one or when your team finally won it.

It is one of those constants of Australian cultural life that I reckon stands above the Melbourne Cup.

I remember where I was sitting in my lounge room when the Blues made that miraculous comeback in 1970. I remember my devastation when Richmond won in 1973. I actually cried over a sporting event for the first time during a VFL grand final.

The National Rugby League succumbed to pressure from television when it moved its grand final from a Sunday afternoon to Sunday night six years ago. The NRL argues hundreds of thousands more fans watch the game now than when it was played during the day.

It is now held on a long weekend in the first weekend of October – another incentive, it says, to watch the game.

It tells you the entertainment, fireworks and atmosphere are much better at night. This is all stuff AFL fans will have to cop in the next few seasons as TV executives sink their claws into the AFL before the next rights deal is up for grabs. It is, of course, all rubbish.

Network Ten says this is not about TV ratings, it is about allowing people more access to the game. These two things are exactly the same. Whatever way they want to sell it, TV types want the ratings and the advertising revenue that only night-time sporting events can muster.

The AFL Grand Final is perfect in every way. It starts for me with work at the Sydney Swans breakfast in Melbourne and ends with the same people from the morning looking slightly worse for wear in a pub near the MCG.

My mum and my youngest son, 13, come with me now and plan the day down to the minute from around June each year.

We hold hands as we walk into the MCG (I think this could be the last year of that), my son in his Swans scarf, clutching his Record, and me with goose bumps, pinching myself that I am privileged enough to be able to call this work. Mum can't believe she isn't watching it back in her lounge room.

We cannot let this great day disappear into the ether of evening sport. It is the most wonderful sporting event in Australia every single year.

The AFL Grand Final is about holding on to something from our childhoods and never letting it go.

It ain't broke, so let's not fix it.

A grand tradition

SINCE I was a kid, Australian rules football has held a special place in my heart.

I am not a Victorian. I am from the Gold Coast and was introduced to the wonders of Aussie rules at the age of five by a Saturday afternoon television replay which invariably featured Carlton or Collingwood.

We became Carlton fans for three reasons: Mum's favourite colour was navy blue, Dad lived in Carlton and Mum reckoned Collingwood players were thugs. Her opinion of the Pies remains with me to this day.

On Sundays, Mum would take us to the local footy ground where we would watch the Surfers Paradise Demons take on their arch enemies from Southport (suitably wearing Collingwood colours) or the Palm Beach boys in purple and gold.

We sounded our horns when we scored a goal. My red and blue crepe paper streamers would last an entire season because it never rained in Surfers Paradise during winter.

The highlight back then was grand final day. Even if Carlton didn't make it to the last Saturday in September, they had invariably gone close.

In fact, one of my first memories of any football was actually not caring who was in the VFL Grand Final because it really didn't matter one zot who played in this amazing match.

Mum always did something special for her three kids on grand final day. She made a big fuss of it by whipping up a favourite toasted sandwich or making navy and white streamers if the Blues were playing. She would even take the phone off the hook for the whole afternoon.

My memories of those grand finals all fade into one because very little has changed in the 40 years I have been watching them. Sometimes change can be good. In the case of the AFL Grand Final, change is a terrible, terrible thing.

My memories of those Saturdays would be no different from most footy fans. Some of you might recall barbecues or breakfast picnics, or backyard re-enactments at half-time on grand final day.

Others will remember vividly the one time you got the chance to go to one or when your team finally won it.

It is one of those constants of Australian cultural life that I reckon stands above the Melbourne Cup.

I remember where I was sitting in my lounge room when the Blues made that miraculous comeback in 1970. I remember my devastation when Richmond won in 1973. I actually cried over a sporting event for the first time during a VFL grand final.

The National Rugby League succumbed to pressure from television when it moved its grand final from a Sunday afternoon to Sunday night six years ago. The NRL argues hundreds of thousands more fans watch the game now than when it was played during the day.

It is now held on a long weekend in the first weekend of October – another incentive, it says, to watch the game.

It tells you the entertainment, fireworks and atmosphere are much better at night. This is all stuff AFL fans will have to cop in the next few seasons as TV executives sink their claws into the AFL before the next rights deal is up for grabs. It is, of course, all rubbish.

Network Ten says this is not about TV ratings, it is about allowing people more access to the game. These two things are exactly the same. Whatever way they want to sell it, TV types want the ratings and the advertising revenue that only night-time sporting events can muster.

The AFL Grand Final is perfect in every way. It starts for me with work at the Sydney Swans breakfast in Melbourne and ends with the same people from the morning looking slightly worse for wear in a pub near the MCG.

My mum and my youngest son, 13, come with me now and plan the day down to the minute from around June each year.

We hold hands as we walk into the MCG (I think this could be the last year of that), my son in his Swans scarf, clutching his Record, and me with goose bumps, pinching myself that I am privileged enough to be able to call this work. Mum can't believe she isn't watching it back in her lounge room.

We cannot let this great day disappear into the ether of evening sport. It is the most wonderful sporting event in Australia every single year.

The AFL Grand Final is about holding on to something from our childhoods and never letting it go.

It ain't broke, so let's not fix it.