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Expansion Canberra

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Johnny Bananas said:
This is a poor mentality to have. It's been noted that a large part of the Swans' success in attracting crowds has come by converting rugby union fans.
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Canberra also doesn't seem to prescribe to code wars as much as the rest of the country.

While there's a pattern of union fans prettily easily going to AFL, about 70-80% of NRL fans I know in Canberra also have an AFL team. They're not the "GayFL" NRL fans encountered in other markets
 
Canberra Pear said:
Canberra also doesn't seem to prescribe to code wars as much as the rest of the country.

While there's a pattern of union fans prettily easily going to AFL, about 70-80% of NRL fans I know in Canberra also have an AFL team. They're not the "GayFL" NRL fans encountered in other markets
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Interesting. Very much the opposite to Queensland then. It's amazing our game has made the inroads it has here given the hostility, though I'd say even Queensland is changing, at least in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. A mate of mine who is a mad Broncos fan has started watching the Lions whenever the Broncos are mediocre, something I wouldn't have expected back when we were younger.
 
Johnny Bananas said:
This is a poor mentality to have. It's been noted that a large part of the Swans' success in attracting crowds has come by converting rugby union fans.
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I'm not sure this exactly disproves my point. A large portion of RU loving fans in Sydney also have never been converted, it's just that there's far more of them. Hundreds of thousands that have only converted into a few thousand rusted on Swans fans.
 

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threenewpadlocks said:
I'm not sure this exactly disproves my point. A large portion of RU loving fans in Sydney also have never been converted, it's just that there's far more of them. Hundreds of thousands that have only converted into a few thousand rusted on Swans fans.
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You don't know how many out of how many though, you're only guessing at the numbers. Canberra will need fewer fans of other sports to be converted seeing as they will have a smaller stadium than the SCG. And assuming that they'll never be converted is accepting defeat before the game even begins.
 
threenewpadlocks said:
I'm not sure this exactly disproves my point. A large portion of RU loving fans in Sydney also have never been converted, it's just that there's far more of them. Hundreds of thousands that have only converted into a few thousand rusted on Swans fans.
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1. Union has been a smaller sport in Sydney since WW1. So there weren't hundreds of thousands of Union fans in Sydney to begin with, and suggesting there was/is is being hyperbolic in the extreme.

2. The AFL and NRL have carved up Union's traditional fanbase in Sydney. It's simply a fact that a good majority of that wealthy Eastern Suburbs and Northern Beaches fanbase that Union used to corner 30-40 years ago is now dominated by the Swans and a handful of NRL clubs. However, imo, that's likely more a result of the ARU's incompetence leaving a gap in the market for it's competitors to fill more than anything else.

3. You don't need to 'convert' them, just get a large enough percentage interested enough to support your team financially (i.e. buy your product) as well, which the Swans have done very successfully in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. The AFL is already doing that relatively successfully in Canberra without even having a local team here as well.

The goal isn't, or rather shouldn't be, to conquer regions in the name of the AFL. That's a losing a battle and a waste of resources. What the AFL's goal should be is to carve out niches large enough to sustain itself in as many places as possible at the highest level possible, thus growing the sport as large as possible.
 

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