Will 2024 be the best NRL season ever?

[unapologetic pedant]

11 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

There is no dismay from this quarter. You can follow any c—-. You might want to find some kindred spirits rather than wasting our time on a UK league site. There is even a fat Vichy/TGG sub site on here. Tbh, it’s a bit sad that you have no like minds to hang out with. 

Attracting fans of other sports can vastly expand the RL fanbase. I reckon most Storm fans also have an AFL club. We want more of them. Wouldn't you like to see 30k NRL/AFL fans regularly filling AAMI Park?

[Damien]

Even RU coaches and fans can't resist watching the NRL instead:

Edited March 10 by Damien

[eal]

6 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

Yes definitely, to much dismay from some on here that it would be even possible to like two different codes of football. Then again, some people can’t even understand how one person can like two different league’s of the same sport.

Unfortunately many English rugby league fans aren't even fans of sport, they just like rugby league. I'm not quite sure what ranks higher, their hatred of any other sport, or their love of rugby league?

[Damien]

2 minutes ago, eal said:

Unfortunately many English rugby league fans aren't even fans of sport, they just like rugby league. I'm not quite sure what ranks higher, their hatred of any other sport, or their love of rugby league?

Complete nonsense. 

[Copa]

11 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:

Swans and Lions are higher than average. Suns and Giants are far higher than average.

In any case, a claim that the first two are normal backs up my argument that now is no time for complacency.

AFL is VERY strange all round. Toss up whether it's stranger on or off the field. Nonetheless, the volume of crowd support in RL States must indicate something.

Posters on Aussie RL forums tenaciously insist that AFL is completely invisible in NSW and QLD. All the Swans and Lions fans must live underground.

AFL are very good at getting the few fans they have in RL states to actually attend a game. For a very long time their stadium attendance figures have not been accompanied by similarly impressive TV viewing figure from the same state.

The NRL can learn a lot from the AFL regarding how to get fans to attend in person.

Edited March 11 by Copa

[Sports Prophet]

5 hours ago, Damien said:

Anyway, back to the thread:

 

Here is a link to that 2011 record round. I think I went to that Broncos v Cowboys match. Apart from that match and a big season opener at Eden Park, if you had have listed those crowds to me I doubt I would have been very impressed or bothered to add the numbers to see how big a round it actually was.

 

 https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/seasons/nrl-2011/Round_1/summary.html

[The Rocket]

12 hours ago, Damien said:

Anyway, back to the thread:

 

I just don`t get this only counting this Las Vegas crowd once, two separate games, two sets of unique views. 

When people sit down to watch 3 games of League on a Saturday afternoon on Foxtel they aren`t counted as one viewer, but as three separate views, I can`t see why the double header isn`t viewed in the same manner when calculating crowd figures. 

[Damien]

3 hours ago, The Rocket said:

I just don`t get this only counting this Las Vegas crowd once, two separate games, two sets of unique views. 

When people sit down to watch 3 games of League on a Saturday afternoon on Foxtel they aren`t counted as one viewer, but as three separate views, I can`t see why the double header isn`t viewed in the same manner when calculating crowd figures. 

I'm happy for double headers to be counted the way they have been. Double counting isn't for me.

[Dunbar]

3 hours ago, The Rocket said:

I just don`t get this only counting this Las Vegas crowd once, two separate games, two sets of unique views.

 

8 minutes ago, Damien said:

I'm happy for double headers to be counted the way they have been. Double counting isn't for me.

I think it depends on how you use the numbers.

If it is to calculate average attendances then you use the number for each game.  There are two games and therefore two crowd figures... one for each game.

But if you are recording aggregate attendances then I think you count once because it is the same people at both games.

[The Rocket]

15 hours ago, Damien said:

Even RU coaches and fans can't resist watching the NRL instead:

 The chances of a super rugby match being shown in the coach`s box of an NRL game, about zero I`d say.

Edited March 11 by The Rocket

[The Rocket]

29 minutes ago, Damien said:

I'm happy for double headers to be counted the way they have been. Double counting isn't for me.

 

18 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

 

I think it depends on how you use the numbers.

If it is to calculate average attendances then you use the number for each game.  There are two games and therefore two crowd figures... one for each game.

But if you are recording aggregate attendances then I think you count once because it is the same people at both games.

Look I`m all for honesty and avoiding rubbery figures but I do think we are selling ourselves short here. 

That Broncos/ Roosters game could have easily drawn 35k as a standalone match back in Oz and even the other match may have pushed 30 000 at Accor.

[The Rocket]

Magic Round at Suncorp in May this year has completely sold-out for Saturday and Friday is getting very close and I was reading the other day that the Origin match in Brisbane this year sold out within hours of going on sale. Back to the good old days of Origin someone remarked.

[Damien]

37 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

 

I think it depends on how you use the numbers.

If it is to calculate average attendances then you use the number for each game.  There are two games and therefore two crowd figures... one for each game.

But if you are recording aggregate attendances then I think you count once because it is the same people at both games.

Yeah I think that's a good way of doing it too in this particular case which has the two figures.

[Damien]

16 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

 

Look I`m all for honesty and avoiding rubbery figures but I do think we are selling ourselves short here. 

That Broncos/ Roosters game could have easily drawn 35k as a standalone match back in Oz and even the other match may have pushed 30 000 at Accor.

This to me is the downside of double headers, if we didn't have 65k across two games then that is the NRL's choice/fault!

Ticket sales will always be what counts to me and counting the same sales twice just doesn't work. It's the kind of logic that says we had 67,545 for the Australia v Fiji RLWC semi final back in 2013 and also for the New Zealand v England game, which plainly wasn't the case. As Dunbar says in this case there are two crowd figures for each game so I'd be happy enough with that way of doing it in this instance.

I don't want to derail the thread, as this discussion takes away from it and it's been had many times before, so it will be my last reply on this. I do get where you are coming from but will just never agree as it just feels too rubbery to me and it is something I would absolutely criticise other sports for, and have.

[Damien]

24 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

Magic Round at Suncorp in May this year has completely sold-out for Saturday and Friday is getting very close and I was reading the other day that the Origin match in Brisbane this year sold out within hours of going on sale. Back to the good old days of Origin someone remarked.

Good news and I know Magic seems to have done well in Australia but I can't help but think they can do a lot better than that concept with the crowds they are getting anyway on a weekly basis. It seems to have been transplanted from England but the reasons for doing it in England are quite different, with the best will in the world we aren't averaging 20k a week and wouldn't fill St James Park for a SL match.

The Queensland clubs can fill or get close to filling Suncorp anyway! I know its probably a money making thing, a boon for their hotel now etc, but from a crowds point of view surely Queensland clubs alone could do something like that anyway over a couple a days then have something like that in NSW too.

Edited March 11 by Damien

[The Rocket]

Spencer Leniu suspended for 8 weeks. Great result for me, no excuses, we can`t have that stuff in the game, it`s an implicit green light in the playground if we don`t come down tough at the highest level.

[Damien]

Looks like great TV viewing figures to me:

 

 

[Sports Prophet]

I think what is great to see is that for NRL round 2, there really shouldn’t be any excuse for any team to host less than 15k fans except for Sharks and Dolphins.

[Damien]

Huge figures from the Panthers group, with the NRL club itself making a profit of $9.6 milion:

 

 

[Damien]

And also the Cowboys:

 

 

[going for the corner]

21 hours ago, Damien said:

Even RU coaches and fans can't resist watching the NRL instead:

Up the wahs

[going for the corner]

5 hours ago, The Rocket said:

Magic Round at Suncorp in May this year has completely sold-out for Saturday and Friday is getting very close and I was reading the other day that the Origin match in Brisbane this year sold out within hours of going on sale. Back to the good old days of Origin someone remarked.

Suncorp stadium seriously needs an upgrade to at least a 60k capacity.

 

[going for the corner]

5 hours ago, Damien said:

Good news and I know Magic seems to have done well in Australia but I can't help but think they can do a lot better than that concept with the crowds they are getting anyway on a weekly basis. It seems to have been transplanted from England but the reasons for doing it in England are quite different, with the best will in the world we aren't averaging 20k a week and wouldn't fill St James Park for a SL match.

The Queensland clubs can fill or get close to filling Suncorp anyway! I know its probably a money making thing, a boon for their hotel now etc, but from a crowds point of view surely Queensland clubs alone could do something like that anyway over a couple a days then have something like that in NSW too.

I’d normally adopt the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach but I’d really love to see the magic round taken to Optus stadium in Perth and Eden Park Auckland.

[StandOffHalf]

On 10/03/2024 at 15:43, unapologetic pedant said:

True, which makes it more surprising he isn't alert to the commercial implications of bunkerized refereeing. 

In some ways, the product on the field was better placed to take advantage 30 years ago. Pre bunker and pre knock-on/obstruction derangement syndrome. Watch any game from that era and you see the difference. Recurrent points where then it was "Play On", now it's a stoppage and obsessive compulsive deliberation.

AFL would never let this happen. Spectator appeal is their overriding priority.

The AFL is tippy-tappy soft nonsense now. A completely sanitized product, compared to the rough and tumble excitement of decades past. It is an emasculated shadow of what it used to be IMO.

[unapologetic pedant]

9 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

I think what is great to see is that for NRL round 2, there really shouldn’t be any excuse for any team to host less than 15k fans except for Sharks and Dolphins.

"Sorry, we've spent everything on the Leagues club"