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

[Gigantor]

Interesting that the Opening NRL match Parramatta V Melbourne Storm tonight could only pull 17,000 considering the massive blanket coverage the NRL gets in the Sydney media!

17,000 is a bloody good crowd for the NRL! (albeit about 20% of what we'd expect to see in the opening game of the AFL season)

 

[Bjo187]

I'd be more surprised if that match got over 20,000.
Unlike footy you gain nothing from being at the ground compared to watching on TV because the action is all in one camera shot. Plus it rains constantly in Sydney so the culture revolves around watching the game at the Leagues club playing pokies rather than going to the game.

This is partly true, but more an entrenched excuse from the Sydney media to explain a lack of care or interest in their product, that they ram down everybody's throat 24/7.

Even the A league and NBL would get bigger crowds if they got the saturation media coverage afforded to the NRL.

 

[RedV3x]

Even the A league and NBL would get bigger crowds if they got the saturation media coverage afforded to the NRL.

Or the AFLfor that matter in the northern markets.

 

[pOleK]

Official Crowd for last nights game was 17,301.

Was watching the lions praccy match and flicked it over on half time. Behind the goals at each end, the top level was practically empty. In mid-season this is probably an excellent crowd, but it being the season opener, surely they would've been expecting 20k at least

 

[Our Game]

Oh dear!
The NRL match only rated 61,000 in prime time on Ch 9 in Melbourne even with the Storm playing and I wonder how long Ch 9 would put up with such poor results on the main channel in Melbourne?
The 5 capitals figure was only 455,000 as well.

NRL not as popular as the rabid Sydney media would have us believe!

 

[Our Game]

The most over advertised and promoted sport in the country by a mile.

Yep imagine is any Melbourne club got only 17k to an opening match say against GWS the cries of the game is dying etc would be massive!

 

[Our Game]

I'd be more surprised if that match got over 20,000.
Unlike footy you gain nothing from being at the ground compared to watching on TV because the action is all in one camera shot. Plus it rains constantly in Sydney so the culture revolves around watching the game at the Leagues club playing pokies rather than going to the game.

Sorry but crowds and memberships mean MONEY (hundreds of millions in fact) to the AFL and the clubs which the NRL misses out on massively so don't say maximising crowds doesn't matter!
People sitting on their arse on the couch at home contribute very little to the game.

 

[Gigantor]

Oh dear!
The NRL match only rated 61,000 in prime time on Ch 9 in Melbourne even with the Storm playing and I wonder how long Ch 9 would put up with such poor results on the main channel in Melbourne?
The 5 capitals figure was only 455,000 as well.

NRL not as popular as the rabid Sydney media would have us believe!

In the middle of Winter, in competition with the AFL, 61k is probably quite good, but at this time of year, when there is literally nothing else on, it's probably slightly below expectation.
Still, I wouldn't describe it as disastrous either, I mean the national A-League FTA numbers are often half that.
NRL FTA numbers are often underwhelming.
Their huge strength remains STV numbers, with Sydney and Brisbane representing the bulk of subscribers (premium subscribers at that).

 

[Bjo187]

In the middle of Winter, in competition with the AFL, 61k is probably quite good, but at this time of year, when there is literally nothing else on, it's probably slightly below expectation.
Still, I wouldn't describe it as disastrous either, I mean the national A-League FTA numbers are often half that.
NRL FTA numbers are often underwhelming.
Their huge strength remains STV numbers, with Sydney and Brisbane representing the bulk of subscribers (premium subscribers at that).

That's 60k into Melbourne though where they promoted the hell out of the game, it had no competition and was on the main channel. Plus it looks like a close game.

With the crowd, Parra v Melbourne would be equivalent of say Carlton v Sydney as a season opener. So yeah shithouse crowd.

 

[RedV3x]

Still, I wouldn't describe it as disastrous either, I mean the national A-League FTA numbers are often half that.

I don't think that is very comforting at all.

 

[Our Game]

The 61,000 on CH9 for the NRL was equal 17th show in Melbourne on Thursday night and CH 9 and more so their advertisers would not be happy with that figure in prime time.

 

[The_Wookie]

 

[Rob]

The 61,000 on CH9 for the NRL was equal 17th show in Melbourne on Thursday night and CH 9 and more so their advertisers would not be happy with that figure in prime time.

On a multi that's actually a pretty good number, but yeah on a main channel it sucks ass for a Thursday night.

 

[The_Wookie]

 

[The_Wookie]

 

[Our Game]

I'm glad the RL urgers are happy with the 2023 opening round total of 147,735.

Obviously they are quite happy to run a very poor second to the AFL juggernaut when it comes to crowds and memberships.
It will take only two AFL opening round matches to get much more than 147,735 and will easily double the NRL total!

 

[The_Wookie]

I'm glad the RL urgers are happy with the 2023 opening round total of 147,735.

Obviously they are quite happy to run a very poor second to the AFL juggernaut when it comes to crowds and memberships.
It will take only two AFL opening round matches to get much more than 147,735 and will easily double the NRL total!

Christ this is tiresome.

The AFL is an outlier in Australian Sport. Rugby league is doing better for itself, and slowly but surely coming to the same point the AFL is. Rome isnt built in a day.

 

[martyparty]

Christ this is tiresome.

The AFL is an outlier in Australian Sport. Rugby league is doing better for itself, and slowly but surely coming to the same point the AFL is. Rome isnt built in a day.

Rome certainly wasn’t built on an RDO…

 

[Gigantor]

Pretty good numbers for the NRL.
If they end up putting a team in Perth, they might become a genuine national rival to the AFL.

 

[The_Wookie]

March 2nd-5th Weekend Crowds and Ratings - NRL, ALM, NBL Grand Finals, Super Rugby - Sports Industry AU

A-league Men Week 18 of the 2022-23 Aleague Mens season was attended by 46,542 at an average of 7,757 per game. (30.62% of capacity) The 2022-23 ALM season has been attended by 839,400 at an average of 7,428 per game (30.44% capacity) ALM Season Ave (with WU/MAC inc) ->7,428 Home ave (-WU,-Mac...

www.footyindustry.com

 

[Bjo187]

I'm glad the RL urgers are happy with the 2023 opening round total of 147,735.

Obviously they are quite happy to run a very poor second to the AFL juggernaut when it comes to crowds and memberships.
It will take only two AFL opening round matches to get much more than 147,735 and will easily double the NRL total!

Decent for a bush league comp.

 

[The_Wookie]

 

[Prince Imperial]

The NRL's subscription ratings have exploded with cheap Kayo.

I used to think that the AFL's emphasis on Free to Air rather than Pay led to higher aggregate ratings but I think its the reverse now.

More NRL fans now have access to all eight weekly games and having spent the money on a Foxtel/Kayo subscription they are more inclined to watch them.

The last Roy Morgan surveys (from 2019-20) showed that more than 1.5m Australians watched AFL matches than NRL matches but I reckon NRL fans are just watching more of theirs than what ours are of ours.

The shorter game time helps but the key reason I consider is that all of the NRL fans are heavily incentivised to buy the subscription services to see their own team each week with a large number of their team's matches exclusive to Foxtel/Kayo. A possible exception to that are Broncos fans who get a lot of games on FTA.

In contrast, the bulk of the fans of 8 of the 18 AFL clubs enjoy all their team's matches in their home market on FTA (albeit a small number on delay) and would be far less likely to be subscribers.

 

[The Educator]

The NRL's subscription ratings have exploded with cheap Kayo.

I used to think that the AFL's emphasis on Free to Air rather than Pay led to higher aggregate ratings but I think its the reverse now.

More NRL fans now have access to all eight weekly games and having spent the money on a Foxtel/Kayo subscription they are more inclined to watch them.

The last Roy Morgan surveys (from 2019-20) showed that more than 1.5m Australians watched AFL matches than NRL matches but I reckon NRL fans are just watching more of theirs than what ours are of ours.

The shorter game time helps but the key reason I consider is that all of the NRL fans are heavily incentivised to buy the subscription services to see their own team each week with a large number of their team's matches exclusive to Foxtel/Kayo. A possible exception to that are Broncos fans who get a lot of games on FTA.

In contrast, the bulk of the fans of 8 of the 18 AFL clubs enjoy all their team's matches in their home market on FTA (albeit a small number on delay) and would be far less likely to be subscribers.

It's overwhelmingly the shorter game time. A greater share of NRL fans would have a fox / kayo subscription but there would still be more fans primarily getting foxtel / kayo for AFL than for NRL. You would expect AFL and NRL fans with kayo would, on average, watch a similar amount of game time each weekend skewed towards prime time.

Even with the longer game time the AFL more often than not gets higher averages on Thursdays and Fridays and certainly finals. The average ratings obviously take a massive hit when you have games starting at 1 to 130 on Saturdays and Sundays and there are 8 3 hour games in total on those days (when there's no Thursdays night games)

What I just discovered is that the NRL has shifted its 2pm Sunday game to 6pm....presumably part of the new TV deal. The fixture is now even more heavily calibrated to foxtel's benefit. Not going to help much with the TV money though

 

[The_Wookie]

It's overwhelmingly the shorter game time.

This was more or less proven in the 2020 season.