Sharks v Penrith

[Fred]

Thought this was a sell out ? Or just assumed it would be ????

[azif]

Thought this was a sell out ? Or just assumed it would be ????

at Accor ?
82500 seats ..... was never going to sellout under any circumstance & was never claimed by anyone it was going to be
40K was the expected turnout by the NRL.

but the crowd wasn't just poor , it was diabolical
33,753
lowest prelim crowd at the ground in the venues 25 yr history .. NRL could have fudged it up a bit , night games you can hide attendees to an extent , but the NRL is all about the integrity & will leave that sort of thing to the fumbles & bumbles

The Sharks are a shit stain on the comp & for all their recent success , the Panthers are still one of Sydneys smallest NRL clubs. That prelim held no interest for neutrals & the heavy rain put at end to any curiosity there might have been. So that was all the 2 clubs supporters & that was well below par from both.

Still
you could count the number of dissapointing crowds in the NRL this year on one hand .. & 2 of them have been during the finals both involving the Sharks.
This Finals series will be attended by the same number approx as last year & with no finals in Brisbane & the 2 above teams involved, thats pretty impressive.

[Fred]

I just assumed a knock out final to decide who would go into the grand final - with two Sydney teams playing - would just naturally fill an 80000 stadium - guess not / not even a 40000 stadium …..

[azif]

I just assumed a knock out final to decide who would go into the grand final - with two Sydney teams playing - would just naturally fill an 80000 stadium - guess not / not even a 40000 stadium …..

showing your ignorance ... again
applying fumbleball & Melbourne expectations to a very different sport in a very different city ... Accor is a hole .. hard to access & no one likes going there ..
unlike the souless aflol , fans of its clubs often live anywhere but the names of the clubs .... you can over its 9 clubs in Melbourne .. in 9kms
they play in just 2 venues in a very boring city ... that are easy to get to .


there is a 65km spread between our most eastern & western clubs with plenty of barriers between , North south its about 50km & there is proper geographical tribalism, with most fans of clubs still leaving in these areas , that is a positive & negative at the same time for the NRL in Sydney.

Even with all the problems , the NRLs event & attendance culture in Sydney is growing ... the stats from the last 2 years categorically back this up

one dissapointing prelim final crowd really means nothing in the wider picture of a code that is unstoppable atm.

[Fred]

I think they also had a poor crowd at the final the week prior - so two dissapointing final crowds isn’t it - the one that was compared to am almost full scg. Good to see crowds increasing on average though for ntl - albeit from a low base but good to see nonetheless.