Play Nice 2022 Non AFL Crowds/Ratings/Finance/Development thread

[MelbourneGWS]

Interesting article in the ABC today that analyses the Aleague crowds after the World Cup

Did A-League Men attendances benefit from the Socceroos' Qatar World Cup bump?

Tens of thousands gathered in public to watch the Socceroos' run in Qatar. But did Australia's top domestic league capitalise on the interest?

www.abc.net.au

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

My (entirely subjective) impression is the incredible achievements of the Socceroos at the WC have had next to no positive flow-on to soccer’s profile in Australia.

We all get excited for a couple of weeks as the Socceroos again exceed all expectations, and then we just go back to work.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Broadcast soccer is never going to be an attractive sport for sponsors in Australia when the nature of play of its two main rivals, the AFL and the NRL, offers advertisers far more frequent ad breaks.

Let’s get real- who is going to try to flog their product on a platform that can’t guarantee one single ad break during play?

For whatever historical reasons, soccer in Australia is up against two rivals it doesn’t have to contend with in any other nation, two rivals that (AFL in particular) through a quirk of evolution are able to offer a far more attractive sponsorship vehicle.

 

[RedV3x]

For whatever historical reasons, soccer in Australia is up against two rivals it doesn’t have to contend with in any other nation, two rivals that (AFL in particular) through a quirk of evolution are able to offer a far more attractive sponsorship vehicle.

It also has to contend with other high profile sports.

 

[weewilly]

Broadcast soccer is never going to be an attractive sport for sponsors in Australia when the nature of play of its two main rivals, the AFL and the NRL, offers advertisers far more frequent ad breaks.

Let’s get real- who is going to try to flog their product on a platform that can’t guarantee one single ad break during play?

For whatever historical reasons, soccer in Australia is up against two rivals it doesn’t have to contend with in any other nation, two rivals that (AFL in particular) through a quirk of evolution are able to offer a far more attractive sponsorship vehicle.

Soccer has the same problems in the USA/Canada for the same reasons as they have in Australia!

 

[weewilly]

It also has to contend with other high profile sports.

But,But it is the all powerful beautiful World Game that shits on every game invented!

 

[weewilly]

"In fact, in the seven rounds of the ALM held since Australia were knocked out in Qatar by eventual winners Argentina, the league has recorded some of its worst average match attendances so far this season — and some of the lowest overall in its history."ABC Report.

So the WC had a negative impact!

 

[Rob]

"In fact, in the seven rounds of the ALM held since Australia were knocked out in Qatar by eventual winners Argentina, the league has recorded some of its worst average match attendances so far this season — and some of the lowest overall in its history."ABC Report.

So the WC had a negative impact!

That might actually be true. As the old saying goes, nothing hurts a bad product more than good promotion. The World Cup in itself is a great promotion for the game. And the A-League - in comparison to the World Cup - is a bad product.

The idea that people that watch the world cup will suddenly jump on the A-League is as ridiculous as suggesting people that watch the swimming at the Olympics will then go and watch local meets.

 

[RedV3x]

"In fact, in the seven rounds of the ALM held since Australia were knocked out in Qatar by eventual winners Argentina, the league has recorded some of its worst average match attendances so far this season — and some of the lowest overall in its history."ABC Report.

So the WC had a negative impact!

We could say it's the "S.O.O. effect" where domestic competition suffers at the hands of the elite event.

 

[HavUEvaSeenTheRain]

When only 6 out of 100 people can be bothered waking up early to watch the Socceroos final game I can’t see why we would think we are going to see some sort of major cultural shift pretty much overnight

 

[BobbyMorri]

When only 6 out of 100 people can be bothered waking up early to watch the Socceroos final game I can’t see why we would think we are going to see some sort of major cultural shift pretty much overnight

Sport is not that popular. Not in the grand scheme of things

Using TV Ratings, 3/4 of the population can't be bothered watching the AFL Grand Final

 

[Gigantor]

That might actually be true. As the old saying goes, nothing hurts a bad product more than good promotion. The World Cup in itself is a great promotion for the game. And the A-League - in comparison to the World Cup - is a bad product.

The idea that people that watch the world cup will suddenly jump on the A-League is as ridiculous as suggesting people that watch the swimming at the Olympics will then go and watch local meets.

This point gets underlined via examples across many sports:
- 80,000 turn up to the Boxing Day test, but 200 might turn up to the same ground for a Sheffield Shield game (if you're lucky)
- 80,000 might turn up for rugby league SOO, but then 7,000 turn up for an NRL game at the same ground
- millions tune in to watch the socceroos, then 621 might tune in for a pissant A-League game

 

[HavUEvaSeenTheRain]

Sport is not that popular. Not in the grand scheme of things

Using TV Ratings, 3/4 of the population can't be bothered watching the AFL Grand Final

It’s true

 

[jatz14]

"In fact, in the seven rounds of the ALM held since Australia were knocked out in Qatar by eventual winners Argentina, the league has recorded some of its worst average match attendances so far this season — and some of the lowest overall in its history."ABC Report.

So the WC had a negative impact!

I don't think it had a negative impact, just not much of a positive one. Plenty of other factors at play.

The MV debacle, the GF debacle, and crowds and viewers tend to drop at this time of year anyway.

Whatever miniscule effect WCs have on the code is dwarfed by local effects.

On SM-X200 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[RedV3x]

Sport is not that popular. Not in the grand scheme of things

So the soccer W.C is irrelevant,

 

[jatz14]

So the soccer W.C is irrelevant,

Its not irrelevant to that portion of the population that is into sport. It isnt just all that relevant in getting people to invest time and energy in football at lower leagues.

An exception would be if you were young kid in a country without a tradition in organised pro sports. If your a young kid in an African country watching the WC on TV, I can well imagine it provides extra motivation to play, but in a country with a long tradition in organised sports like Australia, Family and Friends and the sports they watch and play have a WAAY bigger impact than seeing a sport on TV once every 4 years.

 

[The_Wookie]

This point gets underlined via examples across many sports:
- 80,000 turn up to the Boxing Day test, but 200 might turn up to the same ground for a Sheffield Shield game (if you're lucky)
- 80,000 might turn up for rugby league SOO, but then 7,000 turn up for an NRL game at the same ground
- millions tune in to watch the socceroos, then 621 might tune in for a pissant A-League game

This is where we get the term "theatre attendees" - they are there for the event - not for meaningful ongoing support. Best example of this is the Olympics. everyone wants to go and attend when they are on, but 3/5s of bugger all go otherwise.

 

[weewilly]

I note with interest the shocking crowd at Hobart last night for the International Pakistan v Australia ODi match - it would have been lucky to be 500 so much for PR of Womens cricket being popular!

 

[Bjo187]

I note with interest the shocking crowd at Hobart last night for the International Pakistan v Australia ODi match - it would have been lucky to be 500 so much for PR of Womens cricket being popular!

But ch7 put it on the main channel nationwide, yet can't put AFL games on the main channel up in Sydney or Brisbane.

 

[The_Wookie]

"In fact, in the seven rounds of the ALM held since Australia were knocked out in Qatar by eventual winners Argentina, the league has recorded some of its worst average match attendances so far this season — and some of the lowest overall in its history."ABC Report.

So the WC had a negative impact!

I mean nuking Victorys crowds wont have helped.

 

[jatz14]

I note with interest the shocking crowd at Hobart last night for the International Pakistan v Australia ODi match - it would have been lucky to be 500 so much for PR of Womens cricket being popular!

Apart from a couple of high profile leagues, 500 spectators is about par for most sports in a place like Hobart, and to be fair, Australia has just nuked Pakistan all summer, it is going to be a cakewalk, every game.

 

[weewilly]

The Womens Open Tennis final last night easily beat the BBL in Perth on FTA and Fox combined.

AO 851,000 only shown on Ch 9 FTA and the BBL on both FTA on Ch 7 and Foxtel 521,000 combined

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Hi folks, I was wondering if it might be interesting/amusing to post our thoughts on how to improve other sports.

I've got just a handful of pretty boring suggestions.

But I don't see why we can't have amusing ones as well, so long as we're mindful of the mods' stipulation at the top of this thread that we remain at all times respectful, and not engage in slanging matches and code wars.

For mine:

Soccer - make it a LITTLE bit easier to score goals. (How? I'd suggest making the goal a little bigger all round). Make the scoring difficulty on a par with, say, ice hockey, where you customarily have very low scores but they are still usually decisive, and hence there is little incentive to stage for frees.

Rugby League - do away with the scrum. If someone can make a coherent case for why they still do them, I'd be happy to hear it, but to me, given the scrum feeder is allowed to pretty much give it to their own team, they are just a complete joke, a meaningless ritual on a par with prayers before parliament.

Tennis - do away with the serving let. Why does it exist? If the serve doesn't go in cleanly, tough t***ies.

 

[Rob]

Soccer - make it a LITTLE bit easier to score goals. (How? I'd suggest making the goal a little bigger all round). Make the scoring difficulty on a par with, say, ice hockey, where you customarily have very low scores but they are still usually decisive, and hence there is little incentive to stage for frees.

I'm someone that's watched a fair bit of soccer over my life, but i'm by no means an expert. I haven't played it more than social league, and my kids haven't played it either. So take my question with that in mind.

Why does the offside rule exist?

Every person with a soccer background i've asked only ever provides a vague answer something along the lines of "well if it wasn't there, the defending team would just push everyone back and it would just end up looking like pinball between defenses". To which my question is then "well if that's so effective, why can't they do that now given the offside rule only imposes restrictions on attacking players"? Usually the response to that is the person just shakes their head and walks away.
Presumably there's a reason why it was introduced, wiki just talks about being unfair for a player to park himself in the box. But there has to be more to it than that. What would the game look like without it?

 

[Aussie in exile]

I'm someone that's watched a fair bit of soccer over my life, but i'm by no means an expert. I haven't played it more than social league, and my kids haven't played it either. So take my question with that in mind.

Why does the offside rule exist?

Every person with a soccer background i've asked only ever provides a vague answer something along the lines of "well if it wasn't there, the defending team would just push everyone back and it would just end up looking like pinball between defenses". To which my question is then "well if that's so effective, why can't they do that now given the offside rule only imposes restrictions on attacking players"? Usually the response to that is the person just shakes their head and walks away.
Presumably there's a reason why it was introduced, wiki just talks about being unfair for a player to park himself in the box. But there has to be more to it than that. What would the game look like without it?

Lets agree that the offside rule in soccer is stupid and even soccer struggle with it