Serious Crowd Question

[Smokin]

I wonder if my League friends can help me out here.

Im not trying to start trouble - but why does the NRL (or clubs?) give out Free tickets to games, like they do?

Can somebody please tell me a bit more - ie how often is this done? How many tickets? Reasons for doing so?

The reason I ask this as I think it would do more harm than good. I assume they are trying to attract new folk to games, however fans are then going to expect free entry, or in their minds after getting in free, later will scoff even more at the admission prices.

What are your general admission prices roughly?

I know that the Gold Coast team gave away many freebies on the Coast - and I read an article in the Bulletin a couple years ago that suggest that act alone was the beginning of the end for the club. I thought it was only done there as the club was dying. I was suprised to say the least that it is done in Sydney.

Mentally - it does not give the fans a sense of surity about the game or code. Sorta conceeds there is a real problem there.

I was just after the reasons for this action. I have found a couple articles on this on the net, league head quarters or some site and it seemed not everyone thought much of it.

Can anyone explain why its done?

 

[Dr Zaius]

Originally posted by Smokin
I wonder if my League friends can help me out here.

Im not trying to start trouble - but why does the NRL (or clubs?) give out Free tickets to games, like they do?

Can somebody please tell me a bit more - ie how often is this done? How many tickets? Reasons for doing so?

The reason I ask this as I think it would do more harm than good. I assume they are trying to attract new folk to games, however fans are then going to expect free entry, or in their minds after getting in free, later will scoff even more at the admission prices.

What are your general admission prices roughly?

I know that the Gold Coast team gave away many freebies on the Coast - and I read an article in the Bulletin a couple years ago that suggest that act alone was the beginning of the end for the club. I thought it was only done there as the club was dying. I was suprised to say the least that it is done in Sydney.

Mentally - it does not give the fans a sense of surity about the game or code. Sorta conceeds there is a real problem there.

I was just after the reasons for this action. I have found a couple articles on this on the net, league head quarters or some site and it seemed not everyone thought much of it.

Can anyone explain why its done?

I can't tell you why it is done, but I would appreciate it if you could tell me where it is done.

I have been paying for tickets for many years now and from what you are saying I have been missing out!

Actually I did receive free tickets to a charity shield match (pre season game) about six or seven years ago but I dont think this is what you are getting at.

I heard that free tickets where given out to school kids a few weeks ago for the match on the central coast, however this is all I know of this matter - just rumours.

If you know a way to get free tix to the rest of St Georges matches there is $50 in it for you.

by the way tickets prices are about $10 for concessions and $16 for adults (SFS), suburban grounds may be cheaper. Last time I was at the G it cost me $12 to get in.

The G beats any Sydney ground for price, food quality and cost, amenities (both quality and quantity). Maybe that is another reason for smaller crowds however I doubt it.

On the crowds issue, I think you get more noise/passion from 15,000 league fans than 25,000 Swans fans or 37,000 rugby fans ( I went to the Wellington/Waratahs match).

There are too many families at the Swans and too many people who dont know the rules at the rugby.

 

[Smokin]

Dunno about the tickets logistics - thats why I asked.

It was discussed on a league board which was posted on another thread - the Executioner on that thread said that normally those figures are not added to game attendences, but sometimes they are.

I have no idea how common it is.

I know that for Gold Coast games they used to say on the Radio - Sea and Gold FM, but I never took much notice to tell you the truth.

 

[Player]

Didn't the Rabbitohs give away 30,000 free tickets to one game about four or five years ago.

I'm not entirely sure of the team but from memory only 10,000 people turned up to watch.

 

[Briedis]

The Roosters always give away tickets to each game.

Souths were notorious for it.

It is done simply to boost crowd number at games and has bencome a lot more common since Super League and the extra TV conerage league now has.

Not sure about any other grounds but it cost $18 to get into Brookie for General Admission.

At the last Brookie game against the Roosters alot of people were let in for free simply becuase the game was about about to start and the queues were huge outside. The official crowd was 12,500 that day, but it was more likely closer to 15,000. So there was quite a few freebies that day as well.

 

[The Executioner]

A few used to give them away when the Super League stuff was going on to make their comp look better and because fans lost interest with all the politics and crap that went on .
When clubs were trying to meet the NRL criteria certain clubs gave away tickets but these were not taken into account when it came to gate takings as they were free.
When out of town struggling clubs like North Queensland come to Sydney they don't draw big crowds and the games are all on T.V. and some people see these games as a mismatch so they stay at home.
I doubt clubs give away bulk free tickets these days.They can't afford to.

 

[Latrobe]

The NRL people always muck around with the crowd numbers.

 

[Ms.Storm]

Smokin

Good to see you making a sensible post, but I still detect an undertone in it to drag rugby league down...perhaps I have read too much of your stuff....however, I am happy to apologise, if that is not the case.

Re free tickets for league games...Storm do not believe in this policy because they feel that people get used to the idea...and it becomes part of the norm...they do however, give away a few doubles during the week as prizes on the stations that promote their games..e.g. 3aw and probably NovaFM...it would only be a minimum no. of tickets.

I wasn't aware the Roosters gave away tickets to their games...it may be a similar set up to Storm where they give some to the radio station that promotes their games????

I also know that the afl quite often give away tickets to some games as well...3aw quite often have some as prizes...so the afl do it too Smokin!

Storm entry to Olympic Park for general admission is $17.50 and you can upgrade for another $5 to $12 to sit in the stands, depending on best viewing position...so its a little more expensive than going to the afl.

Are you interested in going to a game Smokin

 

[sainter]

Smokin,

I'm not sure if that's any different to Channel 7 giving away free tickets to all the Colonial Stadium games each weekend. They announce a specific place in Melbourne where the cars are giving away the free tickets during the news bulletin just before sport.

And working at the MCG you might be surprised to see the amount of freebies that are given away. From Auskick passes to tickets given away by sponsors they are quite high in number.

By the way I think the Melbourne Storm membership is good value. I pay $88 for a concession general membership which basically gives me entry to all 13 home games in the standing room areas.

 

[Ms.Storm]

Smokin.......

Just received an email from NovaFM where they offered as prizes to some competition...tickets to afl games at the MCG...so there you go!

 

[Smokin]

I knew that AFL gave away some tix, as all sports do, but I always thought it was in a minory, ie 3-4-500 hundred so a week.

I was shocked when I found out that at a League game 12,000 odd rocked up, with only 4,000 paying. Thats a huge difference. Obviously thats more than simply a few radio promotions.

I have spoken to a couple guys I know up north and they say that some clubs do give heaps away - ie a huge, often majority of the actual crowd number.

I posted here to see exactly what the story was - obviously it seems different clubs have different methods to promote themselves, ie the storm and south sydney.

The reason I posted is that it reminded me of a case study I did at Uni when I was there - Kellogs at one stage nearly went broek (cereal division) in the US, and after tones was spent into research they found that they gave away too many specials, promotions etc and in the consumers mind, it devalued the prodct.

What that meant was that in periods that Kellogs pulled the specials, sales capitulated real bad. Basically, nobody wanted to pay full price due to becoming to accustomed to the cheaper price, ie buy one get one free.

I dont think it is healthy for any product or sport where about or more than half of the consumers (crowd) are not paying. Surely to god in the longrun these people will not feel comfortable paying full price.

Do I want to go to a Storm game? ha...Ive given the sport a go, Ive been to a few games in Syd, a Broncos game and a SOO game - it does nothing for me so I will pass.

 

[Ms.Storm]

Smokin

If you are brought up on afl, it really takes some adjusting to get into rugby and rugby league...
I can quite understand why so many afl people can't get into rugby and league, because they go/watch the games expecting a similar product to afl...whereas the 2 codes are so completely different.
I won;t go into the differences, as there are too many...and the one that stood out for me more than anything was the scoring factor....expecting rugby or league to be similar to afl with the quickness of scoring or field play.

It took me simply ages to get into league and I mean a few years, and if it wasn't for the persistence of a league friend of mine, I probably would have only just watched the NRL grandfinal every year.

I found the more and more I watched the games, the more I grew to love the sport and finally when Storm came to town, I was really hooked and in fact, now enjoy both codes of rugby more than afl...which may be hard for afl people to understand, but that's the way it is.

Don;t give up on rugby (both codes), its worth the effort and it really helps when you can detach yourself from afl when watching rugby league or union.!!

 

[Smokin]

Re: Smokin

Originally posted by Ms.Storm
the one that stood out for me more than anything was the scoring factor....expecting rugby or league to be similar to afl with the quickness of scoring or field play.

hmm - soccer is one my favourite sports.

Its not that.

 

[Briedis]

Originally posted by Smokin
I knew that AFL gave away some tix, as all sports do, but I always thought it was in a minory, ie 3-4-500 hundred so a week.

I was shocked when I found out that at a League game 12,000 odd rocked up, with only 4,000 paying. Thats a huge difference. Obviously thats more than simply a few radio promotions.

Whoa, that sounds like a relic from the Super league battles.

I was talking to Ian Thompson (Malny CEO) last week and I asked him about crowd figures and he was saying that he would prefer to play at Brookvale for the very reason that they can get a crowd of 12,000+ at Brookie with very few free tickets, but at Gosford they have to give away heaps of free tickets just to get a crowd of 5000. He says it is OK because they still buy food, drinks and merchandise.

They are making a huge loss at Gosford at the moment and he really wants to pull out of there ASAP.