AFC Crowds

[Jerome]

Crows kick off campaign to pack stadium
By Michelangelo Rucci
10aug04

FOR the first time in its 14-year history the Adelaide Football Club is asking where the Crows fans have gone.

In an unprecedented move, Adelaide today launches an advertising campaign imploring its fans – who already have bought tickets to AAMI Stadium matches – to fill their seats, or at least pass on their tickets to friends.
The first phase of the campaign to attract fans back begins on Page 4 of The Advertiser today.

Adelaide chief executive Steven Trigg last night announced the campaign was the first phase of a five-year program to ensure the 50,000-seat AAMI Stadium is filled when the Crows play at West Lakes.

It has been prompted by Adelaide's no-show rate at the stadium rising from 19 per cent last season to 23 per cent this year – that is, one in five ticketholders do not turn up at West Lakes.

"We've been in a very privileged position of having a sold-out stadium in all but one game in the past two years and in just a handful of matches in the past five years," Trigg said.

"But we, and the AFL, are concerned, very concerned that people are not showing up."

The Crows have not attracted more than 40,000 fans to AAMI Stadium since the disastrous loss to Carlton on June 6 which sealed coach Gary Ayres' demise.

In each of Adelaide's past four home games at least 10,000 Crows fans did not turn up, despite holding tickets. The 23 per cent no-show rate is the highest in the club's history. "The cynics would say why worry when we have the money in the bank from these sellouts but this problem runs much, much deeper," Trigg said.

"We want our product to be presented at its best and experienced at its best – that is with full houses.

"And most importantly, having 46,000 rather than 36,000 can make the difference of one or two goals to lift our team – that is a genuine, tangible advantage."

However, the campaign also has a commercial side with far-reaching implications to the SANFL which relies on catering and car park revenue from AFL games.

The 59,000 no-shows in the past five weeks have cost the SANFL at least $295,000. Poor attendances at Adelaide's next three home games could leave the SANFL under budget by more than $1 million.

 

[crowie]

I think people dont like giving out their season tickets so much because they only have the one pass for all the Crows home games in one year (I guess its a trust thing)

What if the AFC gave its season ticket holders a pass for every home game of the season then if the holder decided not to go they could either give their one game pass to someone or sell it on so they are not out of pocket and they wouldn't have to worry about getting it back.

I beleive this could dramitically change the no-show rates at the Crows home games.

What does everyone think?

 

[Mong]

Someone has probably already thought about it and worked out that it's not feasible but I'll say it anyway.

They could give members the chance to ring up or register it on a website that they won't be going. Their ticket can then be put up for re-sale. If it sells, they get a small amount ($5 maybe) back that can be deducted from the price of their membership in the following year. If it doesn't sell, they get nothing. If they don't renew their membership the following the year, they don't get the refund.


****

 

[Blue Red and Gold]

I reckon thats a great idea!

Everyone wins!

 

[Baldrick]

Crows kick off campaign to pack stadium
FOR the first time in its 14-year history the Adelaide Football Club is asking where the Crows fans have gone.

"But we, and the AFL, are concerned, very concerned that people are not showing up."

So they should be. People are voting with their feet. Some fans travel for hours in all weather to get to the game and expect to be rewarded with an entertaining contest. Sadly, when the expectation goes, motivation isn't far behind.

The Crows have not attracted more than 40,000 fans to AAMI Stadium since the disastrous loss to Carlton on June 6 which sealed coach Gary Ayres' demise.

In each of Adelaide's past four home games at least 10,000 Crows fans did not turn up, despite holding tickets. The 23 per cent no-show rate is the highest in the club's history. "The cynics would say why worry when we have the money in the bank from these sellouts but this problem runs much, much deeper," Trigg said.

People are fickle. They want something to be proud of even if it's a hard fought loss. They pay their dues and therefore support the club but if that support isn't reciprocated by team performances and/or satisfactory information eminating from the board then what do they expect.

"We want our product to be presented at its best and experienced at its best – that is with full houses.

All I can say is they can expect more of the same if Craig coaches next year.

 

[arrowman]

My thoughts:

1. Based on personal experience - I would miss about one game a year on average; that’s roughly 10%. Going to games is a priority for me, and I don’t have a lot of wedding, milestone birthdays etc in my family so I’d guess that over the whole population of Crows members a no-show rate of 15% or so would be almost inevitable.

2. I think the weather is a big factor. Look at the Bulldogs game (Smarty’s last). Crowd was a miserable 36,000 or so. Why? I believe it was because the weather forecast was for rain. I looked out my window and saw reasonably clear skies, and I went. I’ve been a member since 1997 and I reckon I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times the weather has been seriously foul during a Crows game. But a lot of people, I think, just listen to the weather forecast and make an early decision not to go if “rain” is mentioned. It’s about time people realised how unlikely it is to actually p|ss on you during a game.

3. crowie and **** are right about the “re-sell tickets” thing. They tried that for a few games a couple of years ago (you got $10 back on next year’s season ticket for every time it was re-sold by BASS), I guess it didn’t work. But you had to show up at a BASS office early in the week before the game. Leave your decision to the last day or so, and you couldn’t re-sell. As for lending your tickets to someone else, I don’t know a lot of people who would use my tickets at short notice, and there’s a limit to how much time I’m prepared to spend on the phone trying to find someone else to go. Certainly not handing my tickets to a stranger! The telephone or website idea is a good one.

4. I don’t think the crowds have been that foul this year, considering the state of the team. (OK, I think true supporters should go every week, regardless, as I do, but the reality is a lot of people will “not bother” if they don’t expect to see a good result) My guess would be with a decent re-sale process they might be able to claw the crowds up to 40,000 plus even in bad times, and 45-50,000 in the good. That should be the target. BUT the club has to realise that, as above, no matter how much they love the club, people aren’t going to jump through hoops and/or lend their tickets to strangers just to get the crowd numbers up.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

In an unprecedented move, Adelaide today launches an advertising campaign imploring its fans – who already have bought tickets to AAMI Stadium matches – to fill their seats, or at least pass on their tickets to friends.
The first phase of the campaign to attract fans back begins on Page 4 of The Advertiser today.

Our tickets are bar-coded so they would know who & who isn't turning up. Why don't they just then survey the regular non-shows rather than wasting money on advertising? Personally, I have been to every game this year. No doubt some of the no-shows is due to the game being shown on TV not long after the game starts - which is particularly a factor when the weather is (expected to be) bad.

 

[Mong]

Maybe instead putting adverts in the paper convincing people to go they should entice people to go by improving the product. They are obviously trying to have the best team we can and there always has to be some teams down the bottom but there are plenty of other areas that can be improved. Improving pre-match entertainment, improving stadium facilities, improving car parking and transport facilities.

The AFC also claim that TV coverage is too soon, currently showing on half hour delay. Maybe if they delayed coverage up to an hour, or an hour and a half, it would help.


****

 

[Still Crowing]

Someone has probably already thought about it and worked out that it's not feasible but I'll say it anyway.

They could give members the chance to ring up or register it on a website that they won't be going. Their ticket can then be put up for re-sale. If it sells, they get a small amount ($5 maybe) back that can be deducted from the price of their membership in the following year. If it doesn't sell, they get nothing. If they don't renew their membership the following the year, they don't get the refund.


****

This is how the NFL in the USA manages things, and they 'always' have packed stadiums. Depending on the stadium lease agreement, the individual franchises in the states get a proportion of the revenue from the 'concessions' (food & drink) at the ground, so you can see the rationale behind getting maximum numbers bums on seats. It also makes it much easier to sell advertising at the stadium. It should be a priority to do the same here. I emailed a similar proposal to the AFC/SANFL about 5 years ago after returning from the US.....heard exactly nothing.

 

[Portia]

100% reserve seating kills crowd.

Its nice for the guy undercover to decide they don't want to watch a game, but the schmuck out in the rain while undercover seats go unused is pretty likely to be disillusioned.

 

[Cap]

Maybe instead putting adverts in the paper convincing people to go they should entice people to go by improving the product. They are obviously trying to have the best team we can and there always has to be some teams down the bottom but there are plenty of other areas that can be improved. Improving pre-match entertainment, improving stadium facilities, improving car parking and transport facilities.

The AFC also claim that TV coverage is too soon, currently showing on half hour delay. Maybe if they delayed coverage up to an hour, or an hour and a half, it would help.


****

maybe if the crowd had more atmosphere it would encourage people to get along - we need a unoffical cheer squad that can make some decent amount of noise

also prematch football i'm sick of nothing before the game let someone play before hand

 

[Cove Cobra]

My thoughts:

1. Based on personal experience - I would miss about one game a year on average; that’s roughly 10%. Going to games is a priority for me, and I don’t have a lot of wedding, milestone birthdays etc in my family so I’d guess that over the whole population of Crows members a no-show rate of 15% or so would be almost inevitable.

2. I think the weather is a big factor. Look at the Bulldogs game (Smarty’s last). Crowd was a miserable 36,000 or so. Why? I believe it was because the weather forecast was for rain. I looked out my window and saw reasonably clear skies, and I went. I’ve been a member since 1997 and I reckon I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times the weather has been seriously foul during a Crows game. But a lot of people, I think, just listen to the weather forecast and make an early decision not to go if “rain” is mentioned. It’s about time people realised how unlikely it is to actually p|ss on you during a game.

3. crowie and **** are right about the “re-sell tickets” thing. They tried that for a few games a couple of years ago (you got $10 back on next year’s season ticket for every time it was re-sold by BASS), I guess it didn’t work. But you had to show up at a BASS office early in the week before the game. Leave your decision to the last day or so, and you couldn’t re-sell. As for lending your tickets to someone else, I don’t know a lot of people who would use my tickets at short notice, and there’s a limit to how much time I’m prepared to spend on the phone trying to find someone else to go. Certainly not handing my tickets to a stranger! The telephone or website idea is a good one.

4. I don’t think the crowds have been that foul this year, considering the state of the team. (OK, I think true supporters should go every week, regardless, as I do, but the reality is a lot of people will “not bother” if they don’t expect to see a good result) My guess would be with a decent re-sale process they might be able to claw the crowds up to 40,000 plus even in bad times, and 45-50,000 in the good. That should be the target. BUT the club has to realise that, as above, no matter how much they love the club, people aren’t going to jump through hoops and/or lend their tickets to strangers just to get the crowd numbers up.

Another quality post by Arrowman

Point 1. Agreed. The Club has the most amount of members in the league and
it is inevitable that a certain percentage will not show.

Point 2. Agreed also. The weather does play a factor at AAMI Stadium. Reducing the aluminium seats was a good idea but why not make it an indoor stadium? We have arguably the best turf in the land for the players to run on so why not? Keep the roof open during the week at times and close it for bad weather games etc.

Point 3. It is a dilemma, isn,t it?? What to do is anybody's idea? Here's an idea. If a member can't go to a game why not contact the club and ask to be put on a list whereby the people on the waiting list have first crack? The Club issues a ticket to that person on the waiting list at a discounted price (say $8 off) and issues a discount of $5 to the member the following year? Bums on seats that way and the club makes a booty by selling a ticket to a game twice.

Point 4. You just have to compare our figures with that of our cross-town rivals! You are right also that people will not give their tickets to strangers.

 

[Mong]

I know I was for re-selling the tickets above, but on second thoughts I really doubt that many tickets would be re-sold.

The vast majority of games are not quite sellouts or are sold out in the last day or so. Also look back to some recent showdowns - they haven't sold out. This suggests the demand for tickets is not much more than the supply at present and we aren't going to get 1000's more lining up for tickets. It might make a slight difference but nothing significant.

The more I think about it the more I think delaying TV coverage is the only way to significantly improve attendances.


****

 

[PrideOf]

I'm pleased that Triggy didn't go the usual Port line of: "TV is killing our crowds" and is appears to be trying to find out the source of the problem.

BTW ... A curtain raiser match wouldn't hurt either. It won't bring 10,000 people through the gate, but it would certainly help generate a better atmosphere than is currently there. It could be a SANFL game, it could be two top Amateur league sides, it could be two top country sides - anything to help recreate the old days of watching the twos in the buildup to the big game.

 

[Blue Red and Gold]

I said a couple of weeks ago that Triggy and the Crows have to be pro active in getting the people to consistantly turn up at the footy.
As I said previously on another thread I think live music would be the go, it works well at the Adelaide United games.
I would also love to see some sanfl footy there too.


You made a good point Prideof about the whole Port excuse stuff...personally I am sick of it, and Im glad Adelaide did not take the easy way out. As much as I hate to admit it, they are a good, sucessful club but they are losing credibility by their constant whinging and excuse making. I.E Mark Williams...im sick of it.

 

[arrowman]

Another quality post by Arrowman.

Then how come my Reputation still says “dog poo”?

Point 2. Agreed also. The weather does play a factor at AAMI Stadium…

But, my point is that the weather is nowhere near as big a factor (or shouldn’t be) as people think it is. People don’t go because they EXPECT it to rain, when 9 times out of ten the weather is just fine. I remember the Hawthorn game a few years back (Rehnny’s first v the Crows, if I recall) - The forecast was for foul weather, KG & Cornesy were talking all week about how the weather was going to be bad, my 73 year old mother defied advice from all her friends to come with me and the weather was just fine. But the crowd was well down.

…The vast majority of games are not quite sellouts or are sold out in the last day or so. Also look back to some recent showdowns - they haven't sold out. This suggests the demand for tickets is not much more than the supply at present…

A very good point. Focus probably needs to be on encouraging ticket holders to go, more than re-selling. Still, no reason not to try different angles.

The more I think about it the more I think delaying TV coverage is the only way to significantly improve attendances.

It certainly couldn’t hurt. I know when I can’t go the fact that the game is delayed only half an hour is a major consolation.

I'm pleased that Triggy didn't go the usual Port line of: "TV is killing our crowds" and is appears to be trying to find out the source of the problem...

Agreed. I just hope they actually ask/survey people (as suggested above) instead of speculating, or paying some marketing guru to make it up.

 

[Cove Cobra]

Then how come my Reputation still says “dog poo”? But, my point is that the weather is nowhere near as big a factor (or shouldn’t be) as people think it is. People don’t go because they EXPECT it to rain, when 9 times out of ten the weather is just fine. I remember the Hawthorn game a few years back (Rehnny’s first v the Crows, if I recall) - The forecast was for foul weather, KG & Cornesy were talking all week about how the weather was going to be bad, my 73 year old mother defied advice from all her friends to come with me and the weather was just fine. But the crowd was well down.

The die-hards will always turn out arrowman and I feel you already know that. Weather takes an important part in the 'undecided' on whether they will take the punt to go or not. Put a roof on and watch 'em come in droves mate!!

 

[arrowman]

Well, obviously that (roof) ain't gonna happen, but it wouldn't need to anyway if we could just get it into people's heads that it hardly ever rains on the Crows
(I wonder what the weather stats for Power games are like by comparison? )

 

[beckybiglands]

The few times I've not gone to Crows games I've offered my ticket to someone else, but because I'm a concession its always an ass because you've gotta pay to make it an adult one, bla, bla, bla...
I think roughly I've missed maybe 6 games in my 11 years as a silver member. 4 of those were because I had a cast on my wrist and it was raining, was is hospital, concerts or special family occassions. I don't care if it's raining or if we're gonna lose, I'll still go..
But I gotta admit that friggen bus business is starting to ******** me, $6!! And then after the game I get to stand around for 30 minutes waiting for it again grr

 

[Thierry Henry]

Port crowds have been consistantly ******** while the crows crowds have all of a sudden dropped when the start losing.

 

[Blue Red and Gold]

Port crowds have been consistantly ******** while the crows crowds have all of a sudden dropped when the start losing.

what?????

 

[brucetiki]

I've had my season tickets since 1997 and I've missed 4 games in those years, and my ticket has been re-used every time (twice by my sister whilst my dad still used his, once to relatives, and once to friends of my sisters, who complained to her the following Monday about the negativity of the supporters, perhaps a reason people decline to use 'borrowed' season tickets), and this has been with concession tickets.

Most recent game I missed was against Freo when I was on a youth camp (reason I've missed 2 of those games, once for a holiday, and once for a school competition).

I try to go to every game, and I never use the weather as an excuse, and anyone who does is nothing but a gutless wuss who isn't a real supporter anyway. I would love to see a full house every week, but there are too many gutless Crows supporters who use pathetic excuses such as the weather and the teams form not to turn up. These people should give up their season tickets so that people that want them and would go to every game can have them instead (they deserve it more).

Another thing that really irritates me is the people who leave before the end of the game, but that's another story.

 

[-WWJD-]

Our family own six Category 1 tickets. My Dad often can't go because he works shift work, my sister has just had a child and my younger sister has lost interest. We can't seem to give their tickets away let alone sell them.

 

[crowie]

Our family own six Category 1 tickets. My Dad often can't go because he works shift work, my sister has just had a child and my younger sister has lost interest. We can't seem to give their tickets away let alone sell them.

Well dont bloody renew them then, Ive been on the bloody waiting list for two years!

 

[-WWJD-]

Well dont bloody renew them then, Ive been on the bloody waiting list for two years!

There were Category 1 and 2 Members Tickets available at the start of the season with out having to be on the waiting list. Perhaps you should've picked up some then.

And just because my family couldn't get to every game this year, doesn't mean they don't want to go. And doesn't mean they're not going to go to every game next year when they'll be able to.