A-League 2013/14 Crowd Thread

[TigersBoy]

After 5 long months, it returns...

Welcome everyone to the 2013/14 edition of the Crowd Thread!

It's been a while!

With just over 7 days left until the new A-League season is upon us, we turn the page to a new chapter of footballing analysis. To all followers from previous years, it's a pleasure to have you back. For those of you who are just dipping their toes into the beauty of statistics and number-following - join us!

As you all know - this thread will follow the ebb and flow of attendances over 27 weekends across countless venues, spanning two countries. At the conclusion of each week the fixtures and their corresponding crowd figures will be posted, along with Season Averages for each club (as well as the league overall)

Here is where we left off at the end of 12/13 regular season:

Melbourne: 23,089 (13)
Sydney: 18,629 (13)
Brisbane: 13,416 (13)
Newcastle: 13,388 (13)
Western Sydney: 12,485 (14)
Adelaide: 10,332 (13)
Central Coast: 9,920 (13)
Perth: 8,643 (14)
Heart: 8,568 (13)
Wellington: 7,170 (13)

2012/13 Total: 1,661,362
2012/13 Average: 12,306



Which club will prosper off the park for the new season? How will Sydney fair in its honeymoon period after a record breaking year in 12/13? Could Melbourne break its 28K average barrier it set in 06/07 with arguably the best squad in the league? Can neighbours Heart finally lift their attendances into the lofty heights of 5-figure territory with the signing of Harry Kewell? Can the Wanderers build on their hugely successful debut?

All this and more will be revealed in the coming months.

To recap here is the list of Season Averages over the past 8 seasons of the A-League. With the 12/13 year sitting pretty in third, it will take a great effort to top it.

07-08: 14,610
06-07: 12,911
12-13: 12,306
08-09: 12,180
05-06: 10,956
11-12: 10,478
09-10: 9,793
10-11: 8,429


Round One is fast approaching. Here is the first line up of games..

Now is the time to make your predictions and speculate on the season ahead.

R1
Sydney v Newcastle - SFS
Central Coast v Western Sydney - Gosford
Melbourne v Heart - Docklands
Wellington v Brisbane - Westpac Stadium
Adelaide v Perth - Hindmarsh

Some very tasty games in there indeed. For reference, in 2012/13 the opening round attracted over 93,500 people. An average of 18,700 per game and the highest for an opening weekend! Could this be topped?

 

[polo9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism

 

[mojito]

Surprised we averaged over 10k (even if it was just over)

 

[____]

Melbourne v Victory will obviously get the biggest crowd of the first weekend, should be the best game as well.

Sydney v Newcastle will make history by being the first live FTA A-League game, will be interesting to see how many turn up for that.

The thing I'm most excited about is having one A-League game on FTA every week, also very happy that my team has a lot of FTA games as well.

 

[Crows_United_FC]

Surprised we averaged over 10k (even if it was just over)

This. We had overall bad crowds all season. Hopefully this year, we can get good crowds. New coach, new players, new tactics, new attitude!!

 

[fake tyrone]

awesome thread

 

[Ze Boy]

MV unlikely to break that record as things stand imo.

We'd need to get really bumper crowds for our docklands games but right now we only draw against Morwell and Sydney.

Maybe if we win the first derby and we're playing really well we'll draw well against Adelaide & Brisbane other than that the theater goers don't care much about the likes of Wellington.

At AAMI it's we'd need to go close to selling out every game as we only draw 27k at max there.

So no unless AAMI gets upgraded or we go back to playing all of our games at docklands we're not likely breaking attendance records anytime soon.

Besides I can see the current Admin Vs Supporters issues spilling over which won't be a good look since the media will be looking for any excuse to bad mouth everything and anything to do with the game, the club and for that matter league seems to be unaware of the fact that it's already won the battle there so they don't need to get paranoid about what the hun or channel 7/9/10 might say.

 

[Dan Cooper]

I have little doubt the crowds for the coming season will be the highest so far.

The Friday night game coverage on SBS and the Thursday night soccer show should also further promote the game and importantly the personalities in it. Hopefully encouraging more people on-board.

 

[Crows_United_FC]

My Crowd Predictions:

Sydney v Newcastle - 35k
CCM v West Sydney - 20k (Sold out)
Victory v Heart - 50k
Adelaide v Perth - 13k
Wellington v Brisbane - 10k

 

[Jatz]

The A league moved the Victory v Wanderers game in Melbourne to a Tuesday night later in the season which will have a massive impact on that specific crowd. There had been 1000+ Wanderers supporters that were set to travel down that will now be unable to do so. Bit of a shame as that fixture is seen as the one 'road trip' game to go to for the season.

I expect our number to rise pretty well this season. We have sold out our membership and already have 600 people on next season's wait list for membership as well.

 

[Crows_United_FC]

The A league moved the Victory v Wanderers game in Melbourne to a Tuesday night later in the season which will have a massive impact on that specific crowd. There had been 1000+ Wanderers supporters that were set to travel down that will now be unable to do so. Bit of a shame as that fixture is seen as the one 'road trip' game to go to for the season.

I expect our number to rise pretty well this season. We have sold out our membership and already have 600 people on next season's wait list for membership as well.

What's the reason for them to change the date of the fixture??

 

[polo9]

My Crowd Predictions:

Sydney v Newcastle - 35k
CCM v West Sydney - 20k (Sold out)
Victory v Heart - 50k
Adelaide v Perth - 13k
Wellington v Brisbane - 10k

sydney v newcastle will not be 35k

 

[polo9]

What's the reason for them to change the date of the fixture??

bruce springsteen is playing at aami park the same day (or weekend) so is unavailable

 

[Crows_United_FC]

sydney v newcastle will not be 35k

I think it's possible. Friday night, first game of the season and also the Del Piero factor!

 

[polo9]

I think it's possible. Friday night, first game of the season and also the Del Piero factor!

anyone who has wanted to see del piero has already seen him (unless you live in adelaide)

 

[Jatz]

bruce springsteen is playing at aami park the same day (or weekend) so is unavailable

Yeah this I think. Surely they could reschedule to a different date knowing it would be a big fixture though. People had already booked flights and hotels etc.

 

[polo9]

Yeah this I think. Surely they could reschedule to a different date knowing it would be a big fixture though. People had already booked flights and hotels etc.

already have, its on a tuesday.

not that bothered though, dont really care for the RBB and their w***er fans

 

[Jatz]

already have, its on a tuesday.

not that bothered though, dont really care for the RBB and their ****** fans

Meant to another weekend.

Why the hate? Wasn't because we upstaged you in our first season was it?

 

[giggler99]

Should add this here too, The ABC putting it all in to perspective.

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-11/new-a-league-season-brings-security-crackdown/5017874

 

[polo9]

Meant to another weekend.

Why the hate? Wasn't because we upstaged you in our first season was it?

mate when you have your own club trying to kill you off the pitch its not that hard to have someone upstage you

you lot will be the bench mark (off the field) this season and for the rest of the a-league til it folds in 2015 due to too much jizz from foxsports and sbs for the R(we never light flares yet promote it on our fb page)BB

 

[polo9]

I think it's possible. Friday night, first game of the season and also the Del Piero factor!

lol

 

[Jatz]

mate when you have your own club trying to kill you off the pitch its not that hard to have someone upstage you

you lot will be the bench mark (off the field) this season and for the rest of the a-league til it folds in 2015 due to too much jizz from foxsports and sbs for the R(we never light flares yet promote it on our fb page)BB

Sounds like an excuse to me.

You're right, we are the benchmark. You have more numbers and yet we dwarf you for atmosphere at the game. Why don't you worry about your riots in Adelaide. Like your fans are perfect

 

[giggler99]

Meant to another weekend.

Why the hate? Wasn't because we upstaged you in our first season was it?

You guys are great loved the Atmosphere at AAMi when you come down, I was in the South End there was great banter and awesome chanting. Can't wait for it again.

In response to the match on the 15th of Feb being rescheduled. It was pushed forward rather then back due to both teams potentially participating in the ACL well in the case of WSW defiantly.

The match is on Tuesday the 14th only three weeks after we play you guys at AAMI the first time.
Still should get a big crowd being school holidays and most people will still be on holidays too.

Through I suspect most WSW fans won't attend both so close to each other plus being a weekday.

 

[polo9]

Sounds like an excuse to me.

You're right, we are the benchmark. You have more numbers and yet we dwarf you for atmosphere at the game. Why don't you worry about your riots in Adelaide. Like your fans are perfect

you didn't dwarf us last season l0lz

please just **** yourself with an official National Roads and Motorists' Association Insurance Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club dildo

 

[Jatz]

you didn't dwarf us last season l0lz

please just **** yourself with an official National Roads and Motorists' Association Insurance Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club dildo

Everyone is talking about us. Nobody cares about you. The fact you wrote 'l0lz' is testament enough that it isn't worth discussing with you.

How very clever of you