59,721 watch State of Origin rugby league in Perth

[deluded pom?]

2 hours ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

What was the intended one for the England vs New Zealand game?

You'd assume the end game of playing big events in Perth was fairly obvious.

Erm.... the intended USA WC. I look forward to seeing the Perth team in the NRL very soon.

[kev p]

6 hours ago, Cheshire Setter said:

Every time I go to Perth I don’t see or hear any Aussies, just Brits and Irish.   Probably some potential there based on the fact that some expats will be from Northern England and the Irish seem to admire RL whenever I’ve spoken to them.

Perth is full of brits or ex pats & Chinese.

[kev p]

Surely if 60k turn up fo a SOO game it’s ripe for a NRL team, especially as the union side we’re taken from Perth. 

[Rupert Prince]

8 hours ago, Manfred Mann said:

State of Origin went to Perth for the first time today. The crowd of 59,721 at the new Optus Stadium was a ground record, beating the Australian Rules final played there last year.

This shows that Perth is ripe for its own rugby league team in the NRL, and that rugby league must expand its geographic reach to that city.

 

Queensland clearly don't travel well.

[deluded pom?]

5 minutes ago, kev p said:

Perth is full of brits or ex pats & Chinese.

Ex pats from where?

[Copa]

7 hours ago, deluded pom? said:

I’m sure the NSW and Qld fans love having a game taken off them each year.

I don’t mind. It spreads the gospel and entrenches the series as a genuine national cultural event.

[Wellsy4HullFC]

1 hour ago, deluded pom? said:

Erm.... the intended USA WC. I look forward to seeing the Perth team in the NRL very soon.

Hopefully.

They can then host a Western Australia vs Victoria SOO series alongside it.

[JohnM]

10 hours ago, deluded pom? said:

As I said about one state losing a home game.  The QRL and the NSWRL will just have $ in their eyes. They won’t care about their own supporters.I also realise it’s been done for years.

I still don't get what's it's lost. Is the loss you are taking about greater than the gain others see? 

[Balmain1969]

5 hours ago, kev p said:

Surely if 60k turn up fo a SOO game it’s ripe for a NRL team, especially as the union side we’re taken from Perth. 

The crowd last night was a ground record for Optus stadium, slightly larger than the AFL final from last year. Rugby League also holds the 3 largest crowds at NIB Stadium in Perth (Just over 20K, Bunnies v Warriors x 2 + Aus v NZ Test) which is home to the Perth Glory Soccer team and formerly the Western Force Union team.

The main thing I think people on here might be missing is that Origin is primarily a TV product, hence why it is always played in Prime Time TV slots. It is always the highest rating TV program in Australia bar none so that is the main focus. Being able to take it to new venues around the country has risen its profile, and you'll find that a majority of supporters aren't concerned by 1 game being played elsewhere. 

[kev p]

11 hours ago, deluded pom? said:

Ex pats from where?

Many so called “ex pats” are brits but call themselves Australian now. My cousins have lived there for over 40 years and say they are Australian. Not ex pat. 

[MrPosh]

11 hours ago, deluded pom? said:

Ex pats from where?

Ireland, presumably. 

 

(Sorry)

[RP London]

how many were local and how many travelled from NSW and Queensland to watch? surely that is the indicator of how "ripe" it is for an NRL team... if its 20-30k perth then wow a team is needed for sure... 10-20k then yes probably worth it but work will need to be done... if its 5k then maybe not. 

[bobbruce]

14 hours ago, JonM said:

They were in the league for 5 years - a victim of the Superleague/ARL split.

They were created by the split but were a victim of the game coming back together. 

[Balmain1969]

46 minutes ago, RP London said:

how many were local and how many travelled from NSW and Queensland to watch? surely that is the indicator of how "ripe" it is for an NRL team... if its 20-30k perth then wow a team is needed for sure... 10-20k then yes probably worth it but work will need to be done... if its 5k then maybe not. 

Reported in Todays Telegraph that the game didn't have the desired tourism impact as most tickets were purchased by locals, apparently only 15k of those at the game were from out of town. Apparently there were still plenty of hotel rooms available on game day. This says that over 40k at the game were locals

[Copa]

10 minutes ago, Balmain1969 said:

Reported in Todays Telegraph that the game didn't have the desired tourism impact as most tickets were purchased by locals, apparently only 15k of those at the game were from out of town. Apparently there were still plenty of hotel rooms available on game day. This says that over 40k at the game were locals

Locals bought up huge numbers of tickets before east coasters could even start to plan a trip to Perth.

In July 2018 they had to release more tickets after more than 32,000 tickets were snapped up in no time at all. 

Most tickets were sold nearly a year in advance.

In Match 2019 only 3,000 tickets were left.

Edit: just checked online and apparently 30,000 tickets were sold on the first day of ticket sales nearly 12 months ago.

[paulwalker71]

37 minutes ago, Balmain1969 said:

This says that over 40k at the game were locals

...which does rather beg the question as to when Perth are going to be allowed to be in the NRL?

[RP London]

43 minutes ago, Balmain1969 said:

Reported in Todays Telegraph that the game didn't have the desired tourism impact as most tickets were purchased by locals, apparently only 15k of those at the game were from out of town. Apparently there were still plenty of hotel rooms available on game day. This says that over 40k at the game were locals

Thats fantastic numbers!! what on earth are the NRL doing NOT getting a team out in Perth it would seem a no brainer with that level of interest.

[Adelaide Tiger]

21 hours ago, Manfred Mann said:

State of Origin went to Perth for the first time today. The crowd of 59,721 at the new Optus Stadium was a ground record, beating the Australian Rules final played there last year.

This shows that Perth is ripe for its own rugby league team in the NRL, and that rugby league must expand its geographic reach to that city.

 

Pedantic hat on.  

The crowd at SoO was a great effort but it did not beat the attendance for the Australian Rules Final as that Final is held at the MCG.  The SoO attendance beat the ground record that was for the West Coast Eagles v Melbourne Demons FINALS game which is similar to the SL and NRL play off games.  But I can’t wait for The Back Page show on Foxtel this week when they will talk about the game and no doubt the 1 or 2 presenters that are Aussie Rules followers will ignore the attendance.

As for a Perth team in the NRL that surely is a no brainer.  But this is RL that we are talking about.

[Newguy]

2 minutes ago, Adelaide Tiger said:

Pedantic hat on.  

The crowd at SoO was a great effort but it did not beat the attendance for the Australian Rules Final as that Final is held at the MCG.  The SoO attendance beat the ground record that was for the West Coast Eagles v Melbourne Demons FINALS game which is similar to the SL and NRL play off games.  But I can’t wait for The Back Page show on Foxtel this week when they will talk about the game and no doubt the 1 or 2 presenters that are Aussie Rules followers will ignore the attendance.

As for a Perth team in the NRL that surely is a no brainer.  But this is RL that we are talking about.

He probably meant the pre-lim final there last year. 

[JonM]

1 hour ago, bobbruce said:

They were created by the split but were a victim of the game coming back together. 

My memory has faded somewhat, but I thought Western Reds entered the ARL a couple of years before the split and were then one of the clubs who defected to Superleague - unlike e.g. Adelaide who were created specifically for SL (and Melbourne Storm, who joined after the two competitions merged back together.)

[Adelaide Tiger]

12 minutes ago, Newguy said:

He probably meant the pre-lim final there last year. 

He probably misheard or did not fully understand what the commentator said.  As I assume that there are many on this site that have no idea about Aussie Rules - and living in Adelaide I get pig sick about hearing about it every chuffing day - I just thought that I would make the distinction between the Play Off Final series and the Australian Rules Final.

[koli]

Perth probably has large numbers of NSW n QLD "expats".

As we find with London getting people who already support a club team from "home" to watch a new club in their host town week in week out is a whole different thing.

 

[Big Picture]

26 minutes ago, Adelaide Tiger said:

Pedantic hat on.  

The crowd at SoO was a great effort but it did not beat the attendance for the Australian Rules Final as that Final is held at the MCG.  The SoO attendance beat the ground record that was for the West Coast Eagles v Melbourne Demons FINALS game which is similar to the SL and NRL play off games.  But I can’t wait for The Back Page show on Foxtel this week when they will talk about the game and no doubt the 1 or 2 presenters that are Aussie Rules followers will ignore the attendance.

As for a Perth team in the NRL that surely is a no brainer.  But this is RL that we are talking about.

The Grand Final is at the MCG, the rest of the finals (which is what the Aussies call playoffs) are played at the home stadium of the highest-ranked team involved.

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, JonM said:

My memory has faded somewhat, but I thought Western Reds entered the ARL a couple of years before the split and were then one of the clubs who defected to Superleague - unlike e.g. Adelaide who were created specifically for SL (and Melbourne Storm, who joined after the two competitions merged back together.)

A quick search suggests they were founded in 1992, but entered the NRL in 1995.That was the year that North Queensland, Auckland and Adelaide were admitted into the competition, bringing the total up to 20 clubs.

While the Packer/Murdoch power struggle really got going two years later, people and clubs had already started picking sides by 1995.

[thirteenthman]

1 hour ago, Futtocks said:

A quick search suggests they were founded in 1992, but entered the NRL in 1995.That was the year that North Queensland, Auckland and Adelaide were admitted into the competition, bringing the total up to 20 clubs.

While the Packer/Murdoch power struggle really got going two years later, people and clubs had already started picking sides by 1995.

Just to correct you slightly, Western Reds entered in 1995 with Auckland, NQ Cowboys and the South Queensland Crushers. Adelaide were simply a product of a need for the new Aussie Super League to have 10 teams, after attempts to get various ARL clubs to join them had failed.

The Super League breakaway plan was already being formalised when the 1995 season got under way, with news of the first signings by SL breaking just 3 weeks later.