Expansion Lowest finals crowd since WW1...

[Rotayjay]

If you don't mind me asking, since when is the quality and purity of a competition defined by how many people watch it?

I believe that concessions of the level handed to GWS and Gold Coast should never have been handed out, and the low crowds are the cherry on top demonstrating that millions of supporters' teams are being unfairly advantaged to please a handful, and to make cash from broadcasting.

The expansion to Western Sydney and GC symbolises the bastardisation of our passion into a Frankenstein designed to screw us out of our money and make Channel 7/Murdoch/Gillon rich.

 

[FootyJunkie]

GWS are not popular enough to play at home in prime time.... GWS have only played Spotless in prime time a handful of times since they started, and got low crowds when their opponent wasn't the Swans... twilight start is more suitable for them and I thought the final was going to be scheduled in twilight, but the AFL wanted to give them prime time, not ready yet

 

[RupieDupie]

Check out the average NRL crowds, and Super Rugby and the GWS Giants look bigger than Tina Arena

 

[longsuffreosupp]

A day game probably would've helped the attendance, but broadcast $$$ > attendance $$$.

 

[Roysforever]

**** you guys. The umpires were in your teams pocket all game that day.

You've missed the opportunity to proclaim the umpire was Crapp that day.

 

[King Brown]

On a planet where they also bring in other revenue streams such as broadcast rights.

What proportion of the broadcast rights do you think GWS games account for?

 

[The_Wookie]

I believe that concessions of the level handed to GWS and Gold Coast should never have been handed out, and the low crowds are the cherry on top demonstrating that millions of supporters' teams are being unfairly advantaged to please a handful, and to make cash from broadcasting.

The expansion to Western Sydney and GC symbolises the bastardisation of our passion into a Frankenstein designed to screw us out of our money and make Channel 7/Murdoch/Gillon rich.

its funny because a number of Victorian clubs believed similar things ahead of expansion in 1986.

 

[Sentinel]

I have a a handful of friends who are GWS members this year for the sole reason that they would get a Grand Final ticket should the Giants make it, which was expected at the beginning of the season. I wonder if an issue for the Giants is differentiating 'real' supporters from those buying memberships for those advantages, or even just for support of a start up club (eg supporters of other clubs buying a membership). We've seen it before when North and other clubs were in financial trouble - benevolent fans of other teams donating memberships for the good of the competition. It's not a negative point for the Giants and where the money comes from doesn't affect their membership revenue generated, but if a significant % of members for the year are for non club supporters then its a relevant point for future growth because you'd expect that to drop off. Whether that is significant or not though, I have no idea - perhaps its a very small number.

Long term I'm almost certain they will succeed, but early days you can't make too many conclusions from things like membership numbers or crowd figures because they're so volatile, but they do need strong backing from the AFL to work - if they were perpetually an 18th place side with no hope of a rise, they can kiss a significant % of their membership base goodbye.

 

[evo]

No one in Western Sydney GAF about footy.

People in NSW rarely attend anything.

What did people expect?

Makes me wonder wonder why the AFL are plowing in 100s of millions.

 

[RupieDupie]

Move their games around the country like the Spring show. Make it coincide with the Henty Field Days. Some of the punters could watch a game and then go home in a brand new Massey Ferguson, maybe take the fcuker to Manangatang, and enter it into a tractor pull. Then pull a root at the Rainbow B&S after doing 100 shots in 100 minutes. Get amongst it!

 

[Scotland]

Makes me wonder wonder why the AFL are plowing in 100s of millions.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-08-18/afl-on-the-verge-of-signing-new-tv-deal

A game in N$W and Queen$land every week for the whole $ea$on.

 

[TiggerMan22]

Pathetic

 

[Sleutheren]

**** you guys. The umpires were in your teams pocket all game that day.

This checks out. Player's shorts actually had pockets back then.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[Brunswick Trap King]

I believe that concessions of the level handed to GWS and Gold Coast should never have been handed out, and the low crowds are the cherry on top demonstrating that millions of supporters' teams are being unfairly advantaged to please a handful, and to make cash from broadcasting.

The expansion to Western Sydney and GC symbolises the bastardisation of our passion into a Frankenstein designed to screw us out of our money and make Channel 7/Murdoch/Gillon rich.

I'm pretty sure the increase in TV rights helps prop up the other struggling AFL clubs such as Brisbane, North Melb, Bulldogs, Melbourne etc (not taking a pot shot at those clubs).

 

[Dam Wall Busted]

Would be great to know how many freebies were handed out as well. Pathetic support considering the Women's Australia/Brazil soccer game in Penrith got over 15k.

 

[melbournemartin]

Should have been played in Geelong.

 

[Jables]

Am I the only one who finds comparisons to the NRL irrelevant? I've seen the excuse a few times, but who cares how the NRL go? It isn't a relevant sporting competition, no matter how the Sydney media try to make it a code war because the NRL is just a sad joke and they feel threatened by a whole two AFL teams.

However it must be put in context, this is not your average expansion club. It's brand spanking new, and the second club in a city where the game needs to grow but has no real support. This is not Fremantle or Port where they would naturally have established bases, and I think we all remember when Port where covering their stadiums in tarp, so we should give them maybe more than 5 years before we start bitching about their crowds. I'd rather they didn't exist frankly, but they do and probably should.

 

[FootyJunkie]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-08-18/afl-on-the-verge-of-signing-new-tv-deal

A game in N$W and Queen$land every week for the whole $ea$on.

Except for Canberra and China games

 

[Teen Wolf]

If they are trying to build a supporter base why are they playing games at Manuka oval ..wouldnt playing every possible game at home be the idea

Are you saying the Giants would have more than 21,000 members (their current tally) if they scrapped their Canberra connection? Sounds like a rather counter-intuitive, fact-free assertion.

On top of that, their home ground isn't available for AFL matches during and around Easter.

 

[shotgun_blues]

Dunno, maybe they're struggling to capture the the public's imagination?

Not a good colour combo and what's a Giant? Who can identify with a Giant? Giants don't exist except in Jack The Giant Slayer. A movie. Should've been given a traditional looking Guernsey, simple colour combination and a traditional fooball sounding nickname. These things locals could identify with AFL. It's almost like the AFL shied away from their own history here. At the very least they need a simpler traditional AFL looking Guernsey IMO. What Freo done to the ugly anchor jumper looks a million times better now.

Also IMO, given too many consessions and advantages too, they cheapen the value of success and perhaps people don't want to support a club whos success hasn't been earnt. People can read. They aren't stupid and don't like to be treated like fools. This successful period they are currently in is hardly a surprise and everyone knew it was coming as they know the competition is rigged to make Sydney sides successful. It's becomes not like watching a game of football anymore, nor a fair contest, but a scripted movie instead.

All those would hardly capture your imagination as a local I'd expect. Time will tell.

 

[BIRDBRAIN]

Dunno, maybe they're struggling to capture the the public's imagination?

Not a good colour combo and what's a Giant? Who can identify with a Giant? Giants don't exist except in Jack The Giant Slayer. A movie. Should've been given a traditional looking Guernsey, simple colour combination and a traditional fooball sounding nickname. These things locals could identify with AFL. It's almost like the AFL shied away from their own history here. At the very least they need a simpler traditional AFL looking Guernsey IMO. What Freo done to the ugly anchor jumper looks a million times better now.

Also IMO, given too many consessions and advantages too, they cheapen the value of success and perhaps people don't want to support a club whos success hasn't been earnt. People can read. They aren't stupid and don't like to be treated like fools. This successful period they are currently in is hardly a surprise and everyone knew it was coming as they know the competition is rigged to make Sydney sides successful. It's becomes not like watching a game of football anymore, nor a fair contest, but a scripted movie instead.

All those would hardly capture your imagination as a local I'd expect. Time will tell.

100% agree with everything in this post. They are not a football club, they didn't come about because there was a groundswell of local support desperate for a team and desperate to watch football played at it's highest level. It is a fake AFL-funded team, which the AFL have gifted enough concessions to ensure they win a few fake flags. This entity is nothing but a sick AFL social engineering project.

I'm not sure success will breed anything in Western Sydney either. If anything, handing out fake flags to the likes of The GWS will make the AFL out to be a rigged, joke of a competition, which it is. The flags are going to be the bait on the AFL's hook and the people of Western Sydney are the big gullible fish with their big gullible mortgages, are they dumb enough to take the bait?

 

[Rich]

Look if it were 17-18K it'd be fine/expected. Like it's AFL in Western Sydney so it's never going to be huge unless Derby...but it's finals time. So it should be a fair crowd but obviously compared to the traditional states still small - which is okay.

But what was alarming was that this was 1K LOWER than the same matchup between these teams at the same venue literally a month ago. Sure there was NRL and Matildas in Western Sydney today too. But like I said, it's finals and no excuse for going lower than the regular season matchup.

That was the largest Spotless crowd for a non derby game. The crowd for that game was inflated by the Aus v NZ rugby game on at ANZ immediately afterwards.

 

[StringyDog]

Pretty expected result given there were only about 10-11k gws support at last years prelim, just didnt have the travelling fans this time to make up the numbers

 

[The_Wookie]

100% agree with everything in this post. They are not a football club, they didn't come about because there was a groundswell of local support desperate for a team and desperate to watch football played at it's highest level. It is a fake AFL-funded team, which the AFL have gifted enough concessions to ensure they win a few fake flags. This entity is nothing but a sick AFL social engineering project.

No team since 1925 has been admitted to the league on a "groundswell of local support". In fact Id say that no team was ever admitted to the VFL/AFL on that basis.

West Coast were a fake team by your definition, funded by the WAFL. Adelaide were fake too, funded by the SANFL. Brisbane were nothing, funded privately. The Swans had sold to private owners. Fremantle didnt exist prior to conception, and Ports entry was popular only with Port. all these teams received concesssions, some better and some worse than others.

GWS and Gold Coast were created for the same reason that West Coast and Adelaide were. The AFL saw an opportinuty to move into the market and make some money.

 

[The_Wookie]

100% agree with everything in this post. They are not a football club, they didn't come about because there was a groundswell of local support desperate for a team and desperate to watch football played at it's highest level. It is a fake AFL-funded team, which the AFL have gifted enough concessions to ensure they win a few fake flags. This entity is nothing but a sick AFL social engineering project.

No team since 1925 has been admitted to the league on a "groundswell of local support". In fact Id say that no team was ever admitted to the VFL/AFL on that basis.

West Coast were a fake team by your definition, funded by the WAFL. Adelaide were fake too, funded by the SANFL. Brisbane were nothing, funded privately. The Swans had sold to private owners. Fremantle didnt exist prior to conception, and Ports entry was popular only with Port. all these teams received concesssions, some better and some worse than others.

GWS and Gold Coast were created for the same reason that West Coast and Adelaide were. The AFL saw an opportinuty to move into the market and make some money.