2025 Attendance Thread

[Ethereal]

19 minutes ago, Coastal_Geordie said:

You can’t sell say 35k tickets for a 25k stadium on the assumption that less than 30k will be seated at once.  Would never past safety etc.  You are always going to need the maximum number if doing the Magic multi game format.

As a biased Geordie - I don’t think another large stadium in the country compares to St James from a fan experience perspective.  The stadiums noted some are in really poor locations in their cities.  The quality of the location in Newcastle is unmatched with amount of bars, restaurants, hotels in a one mile radius.  Aware I am completely biased though!

Cardiff would match in terms of the nearby bars, restaurants etc.

Edited May 5 by Ethereal

[Damien]

Duplicate post

Edited May 5 by Damien

[Damien]

1 hour ago, Coastal_Geordie said:

You can’t sell say 35k tickets for a 25k stadium on the assumption that less than 30k will be seated at once.  Would never past safety etc.  You are always going to need the maximum number if doing the Magic multi game format.

As a biased Geordie - I don’t think another large stadium in the country compares to St James from a fan experience perspective.  The stadiums noted some are in really poor locations in their cities.  The quality of the location in Newcastle is unmatched with amount of bars, restaurants, hotels in a one mile radius.  Aware I am completely biased though!

The trouble is only selling 32k in a 52k stadium and only selling about 60% of seats for each day.

[hunsletgreenandgold]

1 hour ago, Ethereal said:

Cardiff would match in terms of the nearby bars, restaurants etc.

I'd like to see it go back to Cardiff at some point. It grew attendance by 8% from to 2007 to 2008 - then it went to Murrayfield, which saw attendances drop year on year by an even greater %. It definitely matches/surpasses Newcastle location wise and there is genuine location interest. 

[Exiled Wiganer]

I think having it in Newcastle every year is a brilliant idea. It feels like an event, and is building into a tradition. Plus, the game has amateur and junior roots alongside the Thunder which deserve continued support from the game. Sure, there are other places which might make sense, if we had to move, but I see no compelling push factors. 

[Eddie]

15 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

I think having it in Newcastle every year is a brilliant idea. It feels like an event, and is building into a tradition. Plus, the game has amateur and junior roots alongside the Thunder which deserve continued support from the game. Sure, there are other places which might make sense, if we had to move, but I see no compelling push factors. 

Do you know what junior and amateur activity there is in the NE these days? I had a look the other day and found very little sadly. 

[langpark]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

Do you know what junior and amateur activity there is in the NE these days? I had a look the other day and found very little sadly. 

Seems like there is a fair bit. A dozen or so active clubs (if I were to hazard a guess) at various age groups. 

This is the best page to follow for NERL updates:

https://www.facebook.com/share/16T1gVNgNS/

[Tommygilf]

6 hours ago, Damien said:

The trouble is only selling 32k in a 52k stadium and only selling about 60% of seats for each day.

The drop in Saturday attendance is a concern.

Whilst the drop on Day 1 was accounted for by the biggest Sunday attendance ever, both days were between 5 to 10k down on the highest single Day attendances we have had in the past at Newcastle.

That in itself is noticeable in the ground and affects the atmosphere.

So whilst Sunday being up was good, neither day was really as good as we have seen in the past. 

[Padge]

8 hours ago, Ethereal said:

Cardiff would match in terms of the nearby bars, restaurants etc.

But not for the hospitality of the locals.

[Damien]

Always love to see big crowds in Canberra:

 

[Sports Prophet]

On 05/05/2025 at 20:16, 17 stone giant said:

If it's going to be the only event of its type, then I don't like having Magic in the same place every year.

…

Like I said, if you've got other events doing that, then it's fine to keep Magic always in Newcastle...

Well, as many will know, I do like to throw an outside the box idea into the mix every now and then, so here goes:

Tour de Super League

London hosts every SL match, but instead of at one venue, hosted at three or six.

3 x Saturday (three different grounds)

3 x Sunday (three other grounds or the same ones as yesterday)

Free London public transport for ticket holders. 

Each club has an “embassy” at a centrally located bar, similar to London Olympics, with merch sales, memorabilia, classic matches on replay, former and/or existing player appearances.

A central SL Zone, licensed with big screens and even hosting a live Rugby League special episode of Fighting Talk (if that’s still a thing).

Fans tour through various parts of London throughout the weekend, taking in the city, perhaps attending two matches or even three matches in one day.

Sounds like a fun couple of days to me.

[Just Browny]

1 hour ago, Sports Prophet said:

Well, as many will know, I do like to throw an outside the box idea into the mix every now and then, so here goes:

Tour de Super League

London hosts every SL match, but instead of at one venue, hosted at three or six.

3 x Saturday (three different grounds)

3 x Sunday (three other grounds or the same ones as yesterday)

Free London public transport for ticket holders. 

Each club has an “embassy” at a centrally located bar, similar to London Olympics, with merch sales, memorabilia, classic matches on replay, former and/or existing player appearances.

A central SL Zone, licensed with big screens and even hosting a live Rugby League special episode of Fighting Talk (if that’s still a thing).

Fans tour through various parts of London throughout the weekend, taking in the city, perhaps attending two matches or even three matches in one day.

Sounds like a fun couple of days to me.

I think London is too big (and stadia tend to be on the fringes) for people to want to travel around. It might work if you did say Chelsea, Fulham and Brentford, as those are three grounds that are reasonably close to another (and on the same side of town). Costs of renting 3+ grounds would be eye-watering though.

[turn it in]

7 hours ago, Damien said:

Always love to see big crowds in Canberra:

 

A full GIO stadium looks great.

if the raiders ever get a new stadium or a redevelopment of GIO they need a roof!!

[Anita Bath]

Something that I cant explain but I have always liked Canberra’s stadium. Shame its not nearer the city centre though.

[Sports Prophet]

9 hours ago, Just Browny said:

I think London is too big (and stadia tend to be on the fringes) for people to want to travel around. It might work if you did say Chelsea, Fulham and Brentford, as those are three grounds that are reasonably close to another (and on the same side of town). Costs of renting 3+ grounds would be eye-watering though.

Yeah, heavy costs would need a good take up from heartland and local supporters to be viable.

You follow my general thinking. Brentford, Fulham. Loftus, Chelsea too. Then maybe The Den, Brisbane Rd, The Valley, Selhurst. It would be a wonderful tour of London and get the game some visibility in the capital.

Plenty of reasons not to do it, but a few reasons why it would be great too.

[JonM]

18 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

Well, as many will know, I do like to throw an outside the box idea into the mix every now and then, so here goes:

Tour de Super League

London hosts every SL match, but instead of at one venue, hosted at three or six.

Tut tut. You know how this works. Do it once, decide it doesn't work because London is too expensive and far away, then repeat it in Leeds the following year, with games at Headingley, Hunslet and Farsley Celtic. The latter to be moved to Dewsbury at short notice due to the lack of an actual pitch. No need to worry about public transport in Leeds either.

The 'embassy' and SL zones are great concepts though.

[Sports Prophet]

NRL Rd 9 - Magic Weekend

Friday - 48,359

Saturday - 50,658

Sunday - 50,309

Total - 149,326

Drop a tick for not hitting a 50k average each day???

Nah, great job not much else to say.

[Sports Prophet]

Parramatta v Dolphins @ Commbank last night 11,214 is atrocious!
 

[turn it in]

2 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

Parramatta v Dolphins @ Commbank last night 11,214 is atrocious!
 

Seriously??

 

Eels are bottom of the table playing an out of town team on a Thursday night.

 

id say it’s a pretty solid crowd and shows that the Eels are only a couple of wins away from getting 20k+ crowds on a regular basis especially against other Sydney teams.

[Archie Gordon]

Are we going to crack an aggregate 20k for 4 CCSFs this weekend? 

[Sports Prophet]

1 hour ago, turn it in said:

Seriously??

 

Eels are bottom of the table playing an out of town team on a Thursday night.

 

id say it’s a pretty solid crowd and shows that the Eels are only a couple of wins away from getting 20k+ crowds on a regular basis especially against other Sydney teams.

Couldn’t be more serious. Eels are on the improve with a returned Moses against an opponent they could realistically have beaten.

11k is scraping the barrel low for NRL.

Couple of wins away from 20k crowds! That’s almost a 100% uplift on yesterday!

A club their size and magnitude should be meeting the NRL average of 20k as a bare minimum. Excusing them performing at almost as low as 50% of the NRL avg because of form and Thursday night is being very generous in my opinion.

[EggFace]

3 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

Couldn’t be more serious. Eels are on the improve with a returned Moses against an opponent they could realistically have beaten.

11k is scraping the barrel low for NRL.

Couple of wins away from 20k crowds! That’s almost a 100% uplift on yesterday!

A club their size and magnitude should be meeting the NRL average of 20k as a bare minimum. Excusing them performing at almost as low as 50% of the NRL avg because of form and Thursday night is being very generous in my opinion.

Plus it would of looked awful at Commbank Stadium as the seats stand out like an eyesore even when you get 20,000 plus at the ground.

[Sports Prophet]

4 minutes ago, EggFace said:

Plus it would of looked awful at Commbank Stadium as the seats stand out like an eyesore even when you get 20,000 plus at the ground.

Yeah I have definitely noticed that. Sometimes when announcing say 23k, it looks like it’s half full.

[EggFace]

5 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

Yeah I have definitely noticed that. Sometimes when announcing say 23k, it looks like it’s half full.

Thats one thing about Sydney I can't stand as they seemed to talk up/throw up stadiums like confetti e.g. Concord, SFS, Homebush, Commbank.

Edited May 9 by EggFace

[Snowys Backside]

6 hours ago, Archie Gordon said:

Are we going to crack an aggregate 20k for 4 CCSFs this weekend? 

Sat is a sell out.

Still around 4k tickets available for Sundays game with 13k Sold (About 50/50) each team.