Rugby TV Ratings 2016

[wamberal]

Mate,


Have a look at the short history of the Newcastle Wildfires. That was an epic failure, and a salient reminder of the ability of vested local interests to destroy anything worthwhile.


There was, and probably still is, a huge split in the Hunter rugby community, between Maitland and the rest. Those buggers could not agree what the correct time. I was living in Newcastle for a while, went to a few Wildfires games with about 80 other spectators. Then we bought a house in Wamberal and drove back there to see the last game the Wildfires played, in 1999. They beat Eastwood, who went on to win their first first grade premiership that year.


How on earth can you be so sure that the local clubs would have agreed to your idea?

 

[Train Without a Station]

half I think you are correct in stating the Shute Shield was stronger in 1995, but really overrating it's strength.

Sure the 1995 Grand Final supposedly drew 25,000 people. But the only information I can find on it is an old program being sold on ebay. For all we know that crowd figure is inflated as there is no confirmation of the ground.

And sure 1 game a week was on ABC. But how much were they paying for that? $25M would have been a big hike considering they weren't paying anything to broadcast it, and as far as I know, have never paid for rights to broadcast sport instead focusing on broadcasting sport with less commercial appeal.

Meanwhile I know everything about the 1995 ARL Grand Final including that 41,127 people attended it.

In fact I can find the attendance for every single finals match. The only one less than 25,000 were the 14,000 that attended the Newcastle vs North Semi Final at Parramatta. Apparently there was 128M total viewers for the season.

The fact is if the Shute Shield was that popular, there'd be more information to be found about it.

 

[half]

TWAS & Wam

To a limited degree I agree with everything you posted.

That said I agree because of who we had in charge at almost every level of the game.

The egos and self interest was putting it mildly intense, often internally driven, certainty disestablishing to attempts to normalise and develop concepts.

What causes this or what caused this was the same reason from the 60's we have been retreating to a smaller base. Its hard to believe that in the 50's and early 60's rugby was the winter sport chosen by NSW state schools. Sorry I am digressing we have always lacked leadership capable of not demanding change but commanding change with an ability to put their case and get broad based support.

The issue has been our best leaders sorta toed the party line in the national team was what was important.

I would have given my right arm for in this time a Jackson from the AFL or a Quale from the ARL. Both drove through incredible change in their competitions and dragged many those that opposed them thu as well.

But its all 20 plus years ago and we will never know. WE are nowhere as strong today as we were in 1995, and the competition has gone from strength to strength.

I put it to you if we continue to slide as we have over the next lets say 15 years and others continue to grow, were will this leave us.

 

[Slim 293]

That '95 Shute Shield GF also featured a recently introduced Canberra team that had quite a bit of buzz around them as they were essentially a precursor to the Brumbies..........

 

[Braveheart81]

The egos and self interest was putting it mildly intense, often internally driven, certainty disestablishing to attempts to normalise and develop concepts.

What causes this or what caused this was the same reason from the 60's we have been retreating to a smaller base. Its hard to believe that in the 50's and early 60's rugby was the winter sport chosen by NSW state schools. Sorry I am digressing we have always lacked leadership capable of not demanding change but commanding change with an ability to put their case and get broad based support.

The issue has been our best leaders sorta toed the party line in the national team was what was important.

It was an amateur game which meant central control was difficult and relatively non-existent.

The biggest competitive advantage they had at that point was that the game was amateur and they didn't have to pay the players.

When the game went professional they suddenly had to pay the players and didn't have a long history of professional sporting management that other codes had built up over a long period of time.

Power was spread over a lot of people (certainly the clubs were more powerful then) and no one was willing to give it up for the greater good.

No one ever had the power to dictate how the clubs should evolve for the greater good of Australian rugby and those clubs were never going to push forward with any idea that would see them changed from what they had always been.

 

[half]

BH

Fully agree with everything you just posted.

What I find incredibly sad is a lot has not changed, even today we have issues with many being jealous of the NRC, other annoyed at its scheduling and so on.

Perhaps I expect to much, however I find our leadership overall to be reactionary rather than visionary and by being reactionary they fix the wheel with the biggest squeal. Often leaving other issues not looked at.

I still think the NCR was rushed and more people would be onboard if an extra 12 months of planning and discussion and negotiating had taken place.

I find our systems are more like a spaghetti meal all over the place often with no connecting ends. Having said all this I think Pulver is at least trying and IMO is the best CEO we have had in a while.

Unsure and my gut tells me to leave what is not working and we have four years to prepare.

 

[Braveheart81]

I still think the NCR was rushed and more people would be onboard if an extra 12 months of planning and discussion and negotiating had taken place.

The NRC is in its third year and is improving across the board in terms of the amount that is broadcast, the quality and the general interest from the rugby public.

I don't think it would be in a better place now if they'd started it in 2015 instead of 2014.

 

[wamberal]

BTW on the subject of building up local support for new franchises, the scuttlebutt was that the Central Coast Mariners gave 10,000 free tickets away to every home game for the first couple of seasons, just to build up interest (which of course relies on atmosphere).

We were living at Wambie during the ARC's short life. I was a member of the Crowne Plaza Hotel Health Club, and one of the other members was a big-wig with the Terrigal Trojans. The local rugby community sold out the official lunch to launch the Rays' season. We went to most of the home games, the attendances were maybe just in the four figures.

When we went to the first game at Bluetongue, we left home early because I expected a big crowd. I was pondering buying advance tickets, but decided to take pot luck. When we walked into the ground, it was like the Simpson bloody Desert.

 

[wamberal]

The NRC is in its third year and is improving across the board in terms of the amount that is broadcast, the quality and the general interest from the rugby public.

I don't think it would be in a better place now if they'd started it in 2015 instead of 2014.

Absolutely right, the only important thing is time. Time to build up a bit of tradition. At the moment the teams still look like what they are: artificial, made-up, and patched together. Representing virtually nobody. Virtually no affiliation to anything.



The first season was pathetic, all the team uniforms were virtually the same colour. At least they have sorted that out. Now for further learning and development to take place, and for people to build up some attachment to one or another franchise.


As the song says: "You can't hurry love". The original version by "The Supremes", of course. None of that Phil Collins bilge.

 

[half]

Ok I know when an argument is lost.

I don't share but hope I am wrong your feelings towards the NRC.

In many ways my wants and recent posting in many ways are closer than they look. My want is in four years a competition capable of taking over from Super Rugby.

Is that the NRC plus some Super Rugby sides.

Also it all happened over 20 years ago, and nothing we say can change what happened. My concern is we don't learn from past mistakes and blindly go down a Super Rugby path.

 

[wamberal]

The sad thing is that the vast bulk of the population just do not care what we do.


We were supposed to get a big kick from playing in the RWC final. We were supposed to get a big kick from our Women's team winning Gold.


We are getting a big kick, all right. Up the clacker.

 

[TOCC]

Wallabies test matches against England earlier this year were some of the highest rating in years and definitely a flow on effect from the RWC success, the rugby union fan base is there, but a 0-3 series against England in what was at times an embarrassing performance left many uninterested, compounded with the Bledisloe flogging and poor performances at super rugby level and it's not surprising that many people are turning off.

 

[Slim 293]

Personally, I have not been bothered to sit down and watch a Wallabies game live since the last Bledisloe.........

The only rugby I've been watching is the NRC...........

And I'm now in two minds whether to watch the Bok test, or Netflix?

I have however been thoroughly enjoying the AFL, and ecstatic that my Doggies won today.

 

[Dalai Ninja]

Personally, I have not been bothered to sit down and watch a Wallabies game live since the last Bledisloe...

It used to be that fair-weather fans were those who wouldn't turn up at a game when things weren't going well. Now, it's people who can't be arsed to turn over from Netflix while a game us on.

 

[Strewthcobber]

77k diehards tuned in on Ten this morning.

 

[half]

77k diehards tuned in on Ten this morning.

That has to be the lowest number for a SA V Aust test.

I am almost to scared to look at the AFL and todays NRL ratings.

 

[p.Tah]

That has to be the lowest number for a SA V Aust test.

I am almost to scared to look at the AFL and todays NRL ratings.

You do realise what time the game was on don't you?

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

You do realise what time the game was on don't you?

If he doesn't it means he wasn't one of us.

 

[half]

You do realise what time the game was on don't you?

yer i do and so what 77k.

however you maybe right i am being overly critical.

but maybe i am right and it reflects or is sign of a continual decline which we are not allowed to discuss. everything is ok the ncr is surging along with massive interest and water cooler talk across Australia.

everything is fine there are no issues and no problems.

 

[p.Tah]

Let me guess 'half' is your middle name.
First name 'glass', last name 'empty'?