2017 TV ratings and crowd figures

[p.Tah]

I think the crowd at Loftus v France is about 2/3 of that was predicted - there may be wider issues in the game.

They've lost interest in Super Rugby like us and they're sick of the Springboks losing.

 

[KOB1987]

Channel 9 NEWS tonight gave the Wallabies game 2 minutes in the bulletin, the whole focus was how poor the crowd in Melbourne was. Gotta love 9

I don't know if you noticed but they didn't even mention the game was in Melbourne. Considering it was a NSW broadcast those not in the know would have inferred the game was in Sydney.

 

[p.Tah]

^^^ no I didn't pick that up!

 

[RedsHappy]

Their sheer, unending support for league is frustrating when they always attempt to erode the positive aspects that come out of rugby.

Whatever, but aren't they nonetheless making a very valid point of reasonable observation: once a national sporting icon that drew large crowds most Test games, the Wallaby brand is now visibly fading away.

 

[RedsHappy]

29,313 for SA v France - whats going on there?

USA v Ireland Test the weekend just gone was I think around 23,000 btw.

 

[RedsHappy]

Saturday arvo of a long weekend.
Start of snow season.
And more importantly, not a shred of advertising or promotion of the game in town at all. If it wasn't for my GAGR and Rebels connections, I probably would have not known the fucking game was on. Shithouse by the ARU.

And lots of rugby people in Melbourne are frankly pissed at the ARU and refuse to support them at the moment.

Yes daz and the same is happening in Brisbane - there is just zero promotion and marketing for Tests, even BC ones. And this in a 'heartland'.

 

[Gnostic]

USA v Ireland Test the weekend just gone was I think around 23,000 btw.

A highly entertaining game as well. USA Rugby is developing well, their improvement in the set piece and other technical aspects is very noticeable. They were let down on more than a few occasions by execution in closing out some very good attack.

 

[RedsHappy]

Sorry mate, I do not spend a lot of time here.


Again, for the nth time, I am telling you all what I keep hearing from friends, neighbours, and other random people that I bump into here and there.


What happened in the past, what happens in other countries, or alternative universes, I am not interested in. I am simply talking about the game here in Australia, and reporting what I think is the general attitude towards it. Now. Today.


The really sad thing is that we are dropping support amongst the rugby community, as you all acknowledge. That is implicit in what you say about the crowds from the recent past.

We all thought that there would be a big blip after the Wallabies did so well in the last RWC, and after our women won gold in Rio. Nup.


Blaming it all on the ARU and their management is just deluded. Our opposition (NRL, AFL) have gone through arguably worse times, drugs, SuperLeague wars, domestic violence, racial abuse, etc etc.


Their support has held up relatively better. And of course, far better in comparative terms. They are rich, they can prepare for the future in terms of media and other infrastructure. We are poor, and at the mercy of pay tv and under siege from the rich unions in Europe who will continue to pillage our playing stocks.


For us to survive we have to start attracting people who do not like our game right now. I have simply been positing the reason for that, based on what non-supporters say to me. It all comes down to the bloody rules.


That is all I will ever say on this topic. You can all live in dreamworld, I wish you all the best of luck.

Thank you for replying.

I appreciate that your intensely held conviction derives from anecdotes from your immediate circle of friends and contacts.

I offered you evidence from a far broader base of incontestable factual data, all quite or very recent.

Your argument - 'the problem with rugby here is just the rules ' - could solely be validated by proper, wide-span survey research. A sample of (say) 10-20 mates and business contacts is most likely to promote confirmation bias and not verifiable conclusions.

You say above you spend little time here but you post your own central thesis above nearly daily, without concession or compromise to any other point of view or, more importantly, hard large-scale data that is demonstrably real.

My honest suspicion if that you seek to be proven right by mere assertion - in a self-referencing data loop - rather than be seen to be accurate to unbiassed.

Perhaps then the best conciliatory response I can offer you is this: when and if rugby collapses in Australia - and on its present trajectory it likely will in just a few years - without question you will be able to say 'it was all because of the rules' and you'll feel wholly vindicated. Perhaps yours will be the last ever post on GAGR as it finally closes its metaphorical doors.

Irrespective of whether or not you were ever right.

That's a kind of happiness, however limited.

 

[RedsHappy]

A highly entertaining game as well. USA Rugby is developing well, their improvement in the set piece and other technical aspects is very noticeable. They were let down on more than a few occasions by execution in closing out some very good attack.

Yes Gnostic. Rugby in the US is developing well.

The Yanks are clearly not as yet deterred by the code's litany of vastly complicated rules that some argue is the core reason for the decline of the code here.

Funny about that - these terrible complexities are not deterring the code's progress in a sporting market whose scale and depth vastly dwarfs anything we possess in Australia.

 

[The torpedo]

Yes daz and the same is happening in Brisbane - there is just zero promotion and marketing for Tests, even BC ones. And this in a 'heartland'.

This in particular gets my goat - how the fuck are you gonna achieve your objective to grow the game when you don't even tell anyone the game is on? Then you act all surprised when the stadium is half-filled because only a few diehards knew the game was on.

It's like they blew their marketing budget on buying the Chardonnay for the St Leonards wine cellar

EDIT: removed bad example

 

[swingpass]

(like how hard is it to ask the Rebels to chuck out a few posts on facebook promoting the game and doing a family day - e.g. kids are 1/2 price)

to be fair thats exactly what the Rebels did. the local rugby fans knew the game was on, but no one else in Melbourne did. there was minimal MSM coverage and no advertising as such.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

It's like they blew their marketing budget on buying the Chardonnay for the St Leonards wine cellar

Moore Park soon: I don't think there is a cellar. Is that an austerity drive?

 

[Mr Wobbly]

This in particular gets my goat - how the fuck are you gonna achieve your objective to grow the game when you don't even tell anyone the game is on? Then you act all surprised when the stadium is half-filled because only a few diehards knew the game was on (like how hard is it to ask the Rebels to chuck out a few posts on facebook promoting the game and doing a family day - e.g. kids are 1/2 price)

It's like they blew their marketing budget on buying the Chardonnay for the St Leonards wine cellar

https://www.facebook.com/melbournerebels/videos/1690960550944496/

 

[half]

There are three general levels of sport, those that play it for fun, those that are paid professionals, and those wanting to join the professional ranks.

Both the professional level and the play for fun rely on each other. The professional level need fans and new players coming through thus in need of the play for fun. Equally the play for fun need the professional level to promote and put forward their game.

We are faced with poor management at both ends. At the professional levels we appear to have a management team in place that relies on the skill of other management teams for their funding.

Our professional management team appear to have no plan “B” so if Super Rugby fails then the professional level has no real structure in place.

The effect at the play for fun level if Super Rugby falls over without adequate plans in place, has the potential to be !@$#!@## who knows but it’s difficult to imagine no effect.


The indecision and present management at the professional level by the ARU today has the potential to do untold damage to rugby. The castle should be stormed by who I don’t know. But a change in direction is needed.

 

[The torpedo]

to be fair thats exactly what the Rebels did. the local rugby fans knew the game was on, but no one else in Melbourne did. there was minimal MSM coverage and no advertising as such.

https://www.facebook.com/melbournerebels/videos/1690960550944496/

Bad example by me then

 

[Strewthcobber]

Finally got the Foxtel numbers after the long weekend.

Wallabies v Fiji - 94k
Crusaders v Lions - 89k
Warriors v Cavs - 88k

 

[half]

Finally got the Foxtel numbers after the long weekend.

Wallabies v Fiji - 94k
Crusaders v Lions - 89k
Warriors v Cavs - 88k

Thats quite decent

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Finally got the Foxtel numbers after the long weekend.

Wallabies v Fiji - 94k
Crusaders v Lions - 89k
Warriors v Cavs - 88k

Don't we need 10 as well

 

[KOB1987]

^^^^^

Aus v Fiji 125k on Ten

Hillariously bad for a main channel

Sent from my D5833 using Tapatalk

 

[Inside Shoulder]

But ok when you combine them.
That crusader v lions figure seems good.