home ground support

[irish]

hey folks i know tassie is a long way from the gabba but from where we stand the crowd support for the lions has fallen thru the floor !! once the support was huge and it was a tough play to play like in adelaide but ,now we hear more boos against the lions and greater support for the other team , whats going on up there ??????????

 

[Warwick]

What annoys me is the crowd makes a lot of noise just after the first siren to start the game, but as soon as the ball is bounced, everyone sits back in their seats and goes quiet.

You rarely hear the Lioooons Liooooons chant go around the ground any more.

But all games do sound very quiet on channel 7 compared to at the ground. They turn down their crowd microphones for some unexplained reason. Probably so we don't miss any of the Ox's inciteful special comments.

 

[konstas_87]

it's definately NOTHING compared to the Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiions Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiions chants of the glory days, thats for sure.

Our section was pretty good but across the whole ground Collingwood supporters showed us up IMO.

 

[OldLion]

...the Ox's inciteful special comments.

He is the Captain Obvious of commentators - when you're looking for some broader comments about tactics, trends, etc you get 'It looks like Brennan has an injury to his .." pause as Jared gets up holding his wrist ".. wrist". Jeezz!!! He seems overawed - we need ex-/ would-be coaches doing that job - not honest plodders. It's almost an audition.

 

[Dylan12]

I personally think the membership department has dropped the ball big time - if players of the calibre of Brown, Black, Brennan and the like can't get people through the turnstiles we are in trouble.

It is tough commenting when i am not a Queenslander and don't know the marketplace but having the lowest membership base in the AFL and factoring in past success and the exciting list we have is not good. One would imagine close to 15,000 people like myself would remain members regardless of our position.

I saw on another thread that VIdman commented that it is just not value for money anymore. Surely our so-called "marketing department," if they are good at what they do, which i suspect not, could implement starategies that will encourage people to retain and attract members and address concerns that Vidman and the like have.

Even North have close to 30,000 members and it is just not good enough at the Lions (our website indicates a fraction over 22,000) - there must be alot of fickle people up there or prices have gone through the roof to lose the amount of members we once had.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Attendance is more important that membership really.

Membership isn't really part of the Queensland sporting culture. The perception that you aren't a supporter if you dont have a membership doesn't really fly up here.

It was a more Pro-Lions crowd on Friday than it was last year when the Pies came up. Maybe some stump mic placements have given some people the wrong impression.

 

[Ceebee]

Attendance is more important that membership really.

Membership isn't really part of the Queensland sporting culture. The perception that you aren't a supporter if you dont have a membership doesn't really fly up here.

It was a more Pro-Lions crowd on Friday than it was last year when the Pies came up. Maybe some stump mic placements have given some people the wrong impression.

Seemed much better for us than last year.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Seemed much better for us than last year.

Definitely.

 

[LionKing]

As a decade long victorian member I have had to endure parochial opposition supporters abuse our players and our supporters at games here in Melbourne, and given our small support base here in Melbourne it has been difficult at times but we have held our own. Our support for the Lions here in Melbourne would always be drowned out by opposition supporters, which is natural given the home crowd support base here, but I would expect the same hostile reception for travelling teams at the Gabba.

Watching (& listening) to the coverage the other night the crowd support for the Lions seemed non-existent (especially the third quarter when the crowd needed to get involved to try and help fire up the players). I would have thought a game against the magpies would have been enough to excite the massives. A radio caller friday night (apart from saying what a great match it was) reckons the once cauldron like atmosphere and support for Lions at the Gabba is not the same anymore

 

[dlanod]

Attendance is more important that membership really.

Membership isn't really part of the Queensland sporting culture. The perception that you aren't a supporter if you dont have a membership doesn't really fly up here.

I think this is a key point that many people from the membership-oriented areas of Melbourne miss quite often. We don't have to share our stadium, we can generally get better sponsorship deals because we're in a currently monopolised market, so we can easily make do with 5-10k less members than a Melbourne club might need to survive. I'm not saying we shouldn't aim for more, but it isn't the end of the world if we "only" have 25-28k.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Watching (& listening) to the coverage the other night the crowd support for the Lions seemed non-existent (especially the third quarter when the crowd needed to get involved to try and help fire up the players).

All I can say is that at the game, we still had good support, and were louder than the Pies supporters.

Channel 7's use of crowd mics is terrible.

The little snippets here are a better indication of how the crowd sounded. 3AW seem to get their stump mics right.

 

[Bobby Beecroft]

Membership isn't really part of the Queensland sporting culture. The perception that you aren't a supporter if you dont have a membership doesn't really fly up here.

To back that up I heard Brian Waldron CEO of the Storm interviewed during the week. He stated that the Storm has the largest 'membership' in the NRL, which did suprise me. Can't remember the correct number but it was below 20,000.

 

[Dylan12]

To back that up I heard Brian Waldron CEO of the Storm interviewed during the week. He stated that the Storm has the largest 'membership' in the NRL, which did suprise me. Can't remember the correct number but it was below 20,000.

Obviously being a Melbournian, I have no idea what membership numbers are for the NRL, but i saw a game on TV yesterday at one of the bigger stadiums in Sydney and you would have thought it was a closed-session game as there was not a single spectator at either end of the ground or the length of the ground the opposite the camera. The ground must only have allowed spectators to sit in the stand the camera was located but you would have thought no-one was there.

From what i know the 3 Queensland teams, especially the Broncos based off attendance on Friday night, have good support but in Sydney the game looks dead. Anyway back to the Lions, interesting that 22,000 members would be considered healthy numbers, yet by AFL standards is well-below average, which we need to do alot of work with. I have no-doubt that many Australians love both sports, and Tv ratings support that, yet translating it to bumbs on seats is lacking.

I know TBD mentioned somewhere that Queenslanders are not known for buying memberships, but even last year we struggled getting 30,000 to our games so something is missing.

I would be interested to know for those Lions supporters who are not members if they are armchair members (even though i don't know much about it). Are these memberships counted in final numbers? (one would hope not)

 

[OldLion]

Thought that, as always , the Pie fans intimidate and seem to silence those around me. Having been used to this all my life, you've got to stand your ground and keep the support up .. and hey, it CAN be worthwhile. We got to serve it up to a number of drunken Pie potty mouths - these guys were pretty hideous - AND gave Joffa heaps .. where's Pikey when you need him !!

BTW there was a mobile phone no. to ring if you felt freaked out - a bogan hot line. What's with that ?

 

[EurekaKid]

I'm a Victorian Lions fan, I was up in Brisbane for the Collingwood game. I was sitting in the middle of what seemed to be two aisles of Collingwood fans. The Lions cheersquad was two aisle over and I didn't hear them once... I sat there face in my hands as Pies fans got loud during their third quarter run. Other games I've been to at the Gabba I always seem to choose the spot where all the away fans are... it's certainly no AAMI stadium in terms of fortress. At Lions games in Melbourne I know where to sit at the Dome to avoid home fans and at the MCG there is usually plenty of room to move around if you get stuck next to some annoying git. There was no escaping the feral element at the Gabba on Friday though

 

[irish]

i was at the gabba in 2002 against the crows and it made the hairs on your neck stand up the place shook every time voss stood up on the bench much less took the field ! from what i see and hear now its a sad case up there !!

dont know what can be done but if we want to make the gabba a fortress the club needs to take steps to fire up the crowd !! sounds and looks like a cricket match crowd on the telly

 

[charles202]

I think a big factor that needs to be kept in mind for Friday night was that we were going head to head with the Broncos/Cowboys game, that drew a lazy 50,000 + people.

We are still subject to a lot of swing attendances and will be for another decade at least, this will be one of the big problems that the AFL will face when it tries to launch a second team up here.

The games best player and 3 recent permierships v rugby (league and union) heartland and we are still not close to breaking even in that battle. We have been lucky that the Reds have been terrible the last few years or we could have been in much bigger trouble.

 

[brisbanelioness]

Yeah, I've noticed, over the last couple of seasons, how deathly quiet it seems around the ground when the Lions are in a slump during a match. It frustrates me no end - that's when we should be shouting out the loudest! When we started fighting back on Friday night, the roar from the crowd was electric and that was thrilling but it should be like that throughout the match. I scream my lungs out regardless of the score just to let the boys know that we're with them. I have to say though, the Collingwood supporters were really well behaved on Friday night, I thought, and that was a welcomed change.

On the membership front, we are suffering from the Broncos membership offers. Prices start at $165 (I think) and even though it's restricted viewing, apparently it isn't that bad and those membership deals have become really popular. I think one way to improve membership in QLD is by visiting schools and offering more AFL clinics. Most schools have rugby league/touch footy teams because everyone knows how to play those sports (let's face it, they're not complicated!). Those games have been well established in QLD for decades. A lot of teachers are female and may have played touch footy or soccer before, but not AFL. Even the male staff members prefer to coach league, union or soccer because they're not confident about coaching a school AFL team. Only the Boys' schools and a few of the bigger State schools seem to have AFL teams. That's been my teaching experience anyway. Auskick is a fantastic way to introduce the sport to littlies but something needs to be done about attracting the older kids and their parents in order to establish greater support for the Lions who represent AFL in QLD.

 

[OldLion]

I'm a Victorian Lions fan, I was up in Brisbane for the Collingwood game. I was sitting in the middle of what seemed to be two aisles of Collingwood fans. The Lions cheersquad was two aisle over and I didn't hear them once... I sat there face in my hands as Pies fans got loud during their third quarter run. Other games I've been to at the Gabba I always seem to choose the spot where all the away fans are... it's certainly no AAMI stadium in terms of fortress. At Lions games in Melbourne I know where to sit at the Dome to avoid home fans and at the MCG there is usually plenty of room to move around if you get stuck next to some annoying git. There was no escaping the feral element at the Gabba on Friday though

My first time at the Gabba and had a similar situation .. took me back to the good old days at Vic Park ( although I had anticipated something slightly different ) .. but hey - you can't let those guys get on top. It just really annoyed me that they were really crap supporters ( if they were ) and just used the occasion to abuse and bully. Was sitting next to a young 12yr Lions fan who was clearly serious about his team and knew the game .. and was getting angry / frustrated / overwhelmed by both the game situation ( fair enough ) and these absolute morons who clearly do not care for the code at all , and were using the occasion to act out their drunken misogynistic dysfunctions in a totally unrestrained way. Well we all hung tough .. fought fire with real passion .. and were rewarded. They went back to their miserable lives and we now own a lifelong memory. I did suggest to the kid ( and his shell shocked dad ) that he should come down to Melbourne and check out a game sometime - it'd be a buzz.

 

[irish]

come on lions fans fire up against the swannies, dont want to hear more support for the other team !!! yell your head off, go off , boo barry hall

lets get the home team advantage at the gabba back !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no more mr nice guy

 

[ZoBlitz]

come on lions fans fire up against the swannies, dont want to hear more support for the other team !!! yell your head off, go off , boo barry hall

lets get the home team advantage at the gabba back !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no more mr nice guy

I can't boo Barry Hall, he's in my fantasy team

 

[Vidman]

Attendance is more important that membership really.

Membership isn't really part of the Queensland sporting culture. The perception that you aren't a supporter if you dont have a membership doesn't really fly up here.

I think that sums it up. I'm not 100% on this, but aren't the Lions memberships much more expensive than the Melbourne clubs memberhsips?

 

[Lady Lawrence]

I think that sums it up. I'm not 100% on this, but aren't the Lions memberships much more expensive than the Melbourne clubs memberhsips?

I just did a comparison with Collingwood as one example.

For an equivalent package with Collingwood, ie entry to all melbourne games be it home or away (!!) 18 of them!! and has a reserved seat, social club entry, access to finals tickets and GF and voting rights it is $765 which is $42.50 per game.

Brisbane for premium seating which is the most expensive Brisbane membership package is $415 which is $37.73 per game.

So Brisbane is actually $4.77 per game cheaper.

 

[Homer Jnr]

Lets turn it around tomorrow night and give the young Swans a fearful reception.

Every decibel helps.

 

[dlanod]

I found the quotes from http://lions.com.au/tabid/5085/Default.aspx?newsid=57276 interesting...

Bradshaw believes the electric atmosphere during the fiercely-contested blockbuster may well have been a factor in his crowd-pleasing effort.

"I don’t think the other Collingwood player that handballed it to Goldsack realised I was there and I don’t think he heard me either - even though I was only a few metres away - the crowd was pretty loud."