Crowd

[PendlesIsAStar]

Perhaps the AFL should wait until the local footy season finishes in SA before they play a final over here. Maybe that way people won't look for excuses not to go - except perhaps the weather would be too hot and it would impact on South Australians wanting to go fishing.

Fair dinkum, nothing pleases anybody over here. I take my hat off to the fans that do go, to those bleating, bitching fans that would rather go to an under 11's soccer game, or go to the show that goes for 9, YES 9 days or knit a scarf - shut up, I don't want to hear how you are not going to the footy.

I miss the days I could see my team every week, but I went today and it was priceless. Nothing beats finals AFL footy, from the sun shining, the ground surface looking immaculate to the spine tingling end to the national anthem to the action itself.

I ask you - where would you rather be?

 

[bus24]

I ask you - where would you rather be?

Having someone hurl all over your shoes, paying 20 bucks for having the opportunity of a lifetime to throw balls into a ****ing red bucket, spending 150 bucks on candy showbags, that you could pick up for a grand total of about 5 bucks in the shops, and throwing up all night after eating a dodgy dagwood dog that some carney ****wit spat in.

Obviously.

No excuses. That WAS PATHETIC.

 

[-CG-]

For the crowd that was there today, 37,000 odd, they were pretty loud! Shame nothing much got happening at 3 qtr time to fire the boys up.

 

[Macca19]

Well, the Sydney crowd is the lowest finals crowd in almost 90 years. 19,000. And the plonker that runs this league wants a second team in Sydney? And both Crows and Ports finals crowds are almost routinely bagged on a yearly basis? pfftt.

 

[walshy93]

I hope we get 40 k atleast.

Less would be embarressing.

I think that if we had it tonight.. it wouldnt matter since the Royal Show opened tonight..

Well...

 

[Port01]

The only places that have decent finals crowds in recent times are the MCG (50k freebies up for grabs), and Subi, which I'm always impressed by the way they draw in Perth.

Don't kid yourselves, 38k or thereabouts is a decent turnout. Its about half last nights 'terrific' turnout, which probably had 30k people on MCC or AFL memberships.

 

[bus24]

Well, the Sydney crowd is the lowest finals crowd in almost 90 years. 19,000. And the plonker that runs this league wants a second team in Sydney? And both Crows and Ports finals crowds are almost routinely bagged on a yearly basis? pfftt.

Not sure why they decided to have possibly the most uninteresting finals matchup of all time, on a Saturday night, at an 80k stadium, what, 20k out of the city?

I mean, I couldn't have possibly cared less about an elimination final. Ever.

Cheaper by the Dozen wasn't a bad alternative.

I actually can not believe they're gunning for a second Sydney team. Once the Swans drop off the pace, the bandwagoners will jump off and go watch whatever thugby team they follow.

 

[brucetiki]

I was disappointed with this afternoon's crowd...until I saw Sydney's crowd!

Having said that, it was more than what Hawthorn pulled against us last year.

 

[PAFC04]

The attendance was pathetic because this is a FINALS bloody game.

But i think I know why it was so, perhaps there were some supporters thinking that they would win it easy and rather save thier cash for the game in Melbourne next week.....

Or was it because those who burnt their money by actually buying tickets expected to play Geelong this week.....

 

[King Elvis]

AAMI is a shitheap.

 

[SydCrow]

AAMI is a shitheap.

Yes, but it's our shitheap

yours actually, I live in Sydney

 

[PCORF]

No it doesn't.

Everytime there is a Saturday Arvo game, we have a rubbish turn-out.

The AFL knows this, and continues to schedule our games there, so it's their own stupid fault.

I totally agree with you.

 

[gaelictiogar]

The only places that have decent finals crowds in recent times are the MCG (50k freebies up for grabs), and Subi, which I'm always impressed by the way they draw in Perth.

Don't kid yourselves, 38k or thereabouts is a decent turnout. Its about half last nights 'terrific' turnout, which probably had 30k people on MCC or AFL memberships.

Been watching the RL book of serviceable excuses have we?

It was a poor turnout mate. At home in finals against what is almost unarguably currently the biggest club in Aussie sport and you don't hit at least 40,000.

There may be a million reasons but its poor mate. Should have been 50,000.

 

[PendlesIsAStar]

A few points.

* Yes 38 thousand is a pretty good crowd - but doesn't Adelaide have nearly 50,000 paid up members? Not only that but probably 2 out of 3 people who live here would also "follow" the Crows.

* People in SA are very frustrated with the AFL because they are constantly fed a diet of media rubbish served up by "SA icons" KG Cunningham, Graham Cornes, Stephen Rowe, Andrew Jarman, Michaelangelo Rucci and Chris McDermott who are always whinging about the state of the game and how it's not as good as it used to be. If you hear the same message often enough you start to believe it.

* The second point would explain the higher than average turn out for SANFL which is great for them and cash strapped South Aussies who still like to drink, smoke and gamble find that $10 entry for a game (even though it's the 2nd's) is better than the ridiculous prices Port and Adelaide "sting" their own with. For example, me being a non member of Port paid $36 to see Port vs Collingwood - amazing given a general entry ticket into the MCG is about $20.

* Sydney has always been followed by the classic fair weather, boutique crowd. Sydney themselves needs to work out how to get a decent following - perhaps Demetriou was right when he said people wouldn't find a team that averages 10 goals a game to be very attractive. The AFL shouldn't do any more to "help" Sydney - it has for 20 years by pouring millions into them. I think the AFL will seriously reconsider their decision to put a team into Western Sydney and go the Tassie option.

* Maybe the footy going public are in their own way telling Rann and Foley (and KG and Cornes for that matter) that a stadium in the city is what they really want. In saying that I'm very impressed with the facilities in the new Northern Stand but the rest of the ground is archaic - especially that crap electronic scoreboard and it's a prick to get into and out of. Why would you not have a light rail extansion near a major sporting stadium?

* The AFL is still (according to me anyway) the best game in the world, despite the crap spewed by the aforementioned "experts". More people watch it than ever, the skills are the best ever seen (get a video of a game in the 80's to confirm this) and nobody can tell me the exploits of Dale Thomas, Andrew McLoed, Daniel Motlop, Buddy Franklin, Gary Ablett etc aren't worth watching. The AFL is alright people of SA.

Just some points to ponder, correct me if I'm wrong. Cheers.

 

[PendlesIsAStar]

I totally agree with you.

So when were SANFL games played before the AFL came in? Was it every Friday and Saturday night or Saturdau arvo?

Just a crap excuse that one.

 

[kirky]

So when were SANFL games played before the AFL came in? Was it every Friday and Saturday night or Saturdau arvo?

Just a crap excuse that one.

Yes, before the AFL it was Saturday arvo but then we did join the AFL and until recently our home games were always Fri night, Sat night, Sunday arvo or twilight. So the fans got use to those timeslots. Then lo and behold we got back to Sat arvo about 15 years later.

About 20% of the Crows membership base are country members and the country play local footy on Sat arvo. And for this weekend its their preliminary finals etc. That explains why the crowd on Saturday was sub 40,000

 

[PendlesIsAStar]

Yes, before the AFL it was Saturday arvo but then we did join the AFL and until recently our home games were always Fri night, Sat night, Sunday arvo or twilight. So the fans got use to those timeslots. Then lo and behold we got back to Sat arvo about 15 years later.

About 20% of the Crows membership base are country members and the country play local footy on Sat arvo. And for this weekend its their preliminary finals etc. That explains why the crowd on Saturday was sub 40,000

I'm still staggered that a country prelim final is more enticing than an AFL final. Then again, I am a Victorian living in SA - there's a lot of things that confuse me.

 

[Bosley]

It doesn't matter now. The poverty stricken crowd in Sydney last nite makes our crowd yesterday look downright excellent!!!

Even Wallsy was trying to reel off some excuses in the last quarter of the telecast - bad weather, economic situation, fickle fans thought they would lose.

The AFL are gonna be in major damage control over that crowd with another team set to come in from Sydney! HA HA!!!!

 

[Bosley]

Been watching the RL book of serviceable excuses have we?

It was a poor turnout mate. At home in finals against what is almost unarguably currently the biggest club in Aussie sport and you don't hit at least 40,000.

There may be a million reasons but its poor mate. Should have been 50,000.

It was a disappointing crowd but when your team makes the finals more often than once every 10-15 years (yes I'm talking bout yellow and black) the fans tend to get a bit ho-hum about the first couple of weeks of finals unfortunately.

 

[Anthonyo]

Think it is a good crowd considering that the MCG and Telstra Dome are extremely well served by trains and trams and AAMI is not.

I have to endure Victorians bragging that they support AFL and saying how many fans turnup for games.

Well, if the AFL had a stadium at, say, Glen Waverley, that would be a better comparison but not a good comparison as Glen Waverley is the demograpghic centre of Melbourne. But hey, they had a stadium there and it was sold because it did not get the crowds.

Why isn't the Adelaide Oval used for Crows games? Then one could get a yummy pie floater after the game.

I feel sad today but understand that we weren't consistently good enough to win. I'm going to now barrack for Sydney.
Bring on 2009.
All the best to everyone for their summer break.
Anthony

 

[gaelictiogar]

It was a disappointing crowd but when your team makes the finals more often than once every 10-15 years (yes I'm talking bout yellow and black) the fans tend to get a bit ho-hum about the first couple of weeks of finals unfortunately.

My comment had nothing to do with Richmond. We all know what would happen attendance wise if Richmond were in finals so that is beside the point. All I was saying is that at home to the biggest club in the game in finals 37,000 was small. No more or less than that.

 

[Mego Red]

Just some points to ponder, correct me if I'm wrong. Cheers.

I pretty much agree with everything you're saying.

And considering that fact that I'm now agreeing with a Collingwood supporter, I am now going to find a very tall building that I can jump out of.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

A few points.


* Sydney has always been followed by the classic fair weather, boutique crowd. Sydney themselves needs to work out how to get a decent following - perhaps Demetriou was right when he said people wouldn't find a team that averages 10 goals a game to be very attractive. The AFL shouldn't do any more to "help" Sydney - it has for 20 years by pouring millions into them. I think the AFL will seriously reconsider their decision to put a team into Western Sydney and go the Tassie option.

Just some points to ponder, correct me if I'm wrong. Cheers.

Agree with your other points but I'll comment on the Sydney game seeing as I went last night. It is crap that Sydney fans are just fair weather supporters.

The weather is a reason but its a poor excuse to why 20,000 other people didn't go. The reasons are a lot deeper which the AFL has to address.

In 2004 the elimination final v WCE that drew 40,282 at the Stadium, which was played in a lot worse conditions than last night's game. The weather was crappy all day as well back then. That was the game where it was so bad that lighting started late in the 2nd quarter along with torrential rain and the Auskick kids played for about 8 minutes before the AFL officials woke up that it was just too dangerous with all the lighting and that if it struck some of the kids could have been killed.

Last night there was very little rain after 5pm and during the game. Remember the Sydney vs West Coast rivalry was built up between 2005 and 2007. This has very little to do with the Kangaroos being the opponent. The issues are a lot deeper than the Kangaroos or the weather.

I have been to plenty of games were there has been 25,000 to 30,000 people in the pouring rain at the SCG. Case in point is this game where it is the wettest I have ever experienced 30 years of watching footy. Remember Sydney's annual rainfall averages 1220 mms vs Melbourne's 770 mms vs Adelaide's 580 mms.

Adelaide
SF Sydney 4.3 7.5 10.7 14.10 94 3.1 4.4 5.6 10.7 67 W S.C.G. 37498 12-Sep-1998

As I wrote on the main board I think that people have woken up that 5v8 and 6v7 is almost meaningless. Since the current final 8 system started in 2000, only two sides (of the 32 teams that finished 5 to 8 between 2000 and 2007) that didn't finish top 4 have made it to the preliminary final and that's where their run has stopped. They have over priced these week 1 tickets.

How many Rd 22 games have more meaning, ie a win gets your side a top 4 finish and maybe a home final in the top 4 and that costs you $20, compared to an elimination final which costs you up to $75.

I paid $60 and was in line with the goal posts at the end that the goal umpire stuffed up. I was 35 rows back so I was elevated and had a reasonable view and was under cover but I can't believe those poor bastards 20 to 30 rows in front of me paid the same amount, got wet and had a lot worse view. The only reason I was prepared to pay so much was I had only been to 2 swans game, one involving port, only 1 port game this year at Footy Park, a mate organised the tickets and we were a group of ten, and I wasn't going to any other finals games so I needed a footy fix especially after the Olympics. But if I had gone to more swans and port games this year, I wouldn't have paid that much for an elimination final not involving port.

If the AFL offered 22,000 tickets at every finals venue for $13 booking fee like they do with their AFL members in the AFL members reserve and about $10 like they do for 23,000 MCC members, I have no doubts that every final anywhere in Australia would have at least 45,000 fans attend.

The crowd in Sydney was a good wake up call for the AFL. I have said for a couple years on several footy forums that any new team in Sydney will need to be subsidised at least $6mil per year and maybe up to $10mil per year for at least 10 years.

Are the 16 clubs going to wake up and let the AFL give a $60mil to $100mil subsidy to such a club over it's first decade?? The extra TV revenues wont match that subsidy.

 

[KingsCrow]

Genuine LOL!

King amongst men mate!

ps. go the Pies tomorrow!

haha dont know if your taking the piss. But it did help ease the pain.



Good win by the Pies today, about time Port made the SANFL finals. Norwood Vs Port should be a beauty.

 

[Scott Van Persett]

I'm still staggered that a country prelim final is more enticing than an AFL final. Then again, I am a Victorian living in SA - there's a lot of things that confuse me.

You obviously have no idea about community spirit and how country people band together to support each other in good times and bad