SRP (Super Rugby Pacific) 2023 General Chat

[Marce]

What about this?

Freddie Burns: Fly-half concerned by ‘disappointing’ Super Rugby crowds

Playmaker Freddie Burns has talked about his time at the Highlanders in Super Rugby Pacific after joining from Leicester Tigers ahead of the 2023 season.

www.planetrugby.com

“I think it’s a good product, I think it’s an exciting product….(but) I have been disappointed with attendances,” he told Stuff.

“I know that the geography of the competition makes it harder. It’s not like in England where you can hop in the car and drive for a couple of hours and probably be at most Premiership grounds, but I guess that element [the lack of crowds] took me by surprise.

“I thought there’d be a few more in attendance in the stadiums.”

Burns believes a ‘Drive to Survive’ style documentary could help change the face of the sport going forward.

The Highlanders fly-half believes rugby needs to market itself better and will no doubt hope the upcoming Six Nations docuseries proves to be a hit.

 

[qwerty51]

Well he's playing in a country that thinks of Super Rugby as purely an All Black feeder comp and not a commercially professional product.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

He's also playing in front of Highlander game crowds

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Also worth noting that while attendances remain depressed viewership is above pre-Covid levels and wrt attendances I think it's the night games that are struggling in NZ (don't see enough Aus night games to judge what's going on there) whereas the Saturday evening & Sunday arvo ones seem to be drawing decent numbers on both sides of the ditch & of course the ones in Fiji have been controlled riots.

 

[zer0]

Because I'm a punishingly boring cnt, I have a quick and dirty look at the attendances per franchise, based on the 2023 SRP (Super Rugby Pacific) matches Wikipedia page. Brumbies would be the most accurate, but it still only covers ~2/3rd of their matches.

Not much you can reliably tell from 2-7 matches, but killed half an hour. Just need these bastards to mandate publishing attendance figures...

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^ excluding last week where ARSE looked half-full plus a bit (say 10K) I'd say the Crusaders home_median_attend would be 5K at best.

 

[zer0]

And just because I can now, 2022. Note, I dropped the Chiefs @ Blues and Highlanders @ Hurricanes matches because they were only allowed limited numbers for covid reasons. If anyone cares, they were meme numbers of 613 + 897, respectively. This also includes post-season.

Better sample of matches but, Waratahs aside, still not that great really.

 

[qwerty51]

Also crowd attendances are a bit of nothing anyway, we're talking about variances of 5k-25k and bringing in fuck all revenue in the scheme of things. TV ratings is the true metric although obviously a lot harder to accurately record, especially with streaming these days.

I don't know why this isn't brought up more but Stan being off-limits in pubs has been such a massive killer. You used to find at least one TV had the rugby on and sometimes all of them if it didn't clash with NRL/AFL but now if you don't have Stan you literally don't even know it exists - and I've heard just as much from people who used to watch.

 

[Doritos Day]

I don't know why this isn't brought up more but Stan being off-limits in pubs has been such a massive killer. You used to find at least one TV had the rugby on and sometimes all of them if it didn't clash with NRL/AFL but now if you don't have Stan you literally don't even know it exists - and I've heard just as much from people who used to watch.

Bro I couldn't agree more. Was in the city between the Swans and Tahs games last week and genuinely had no idea where I could watch the Super. As a person actively seeking it out. Forget the casual punter.

Don't even think about it in Melbourne; "yes we have Foxtel and the rugby"

Myself and the few fans I know just laugh and accept watching it off the phone. It's so bad.

 

[Dan54]

Also crowd attendances are a bit of nothing anyway, we're talking about variances of 5k-25k and bringing in fuck all revenue in the scheme of things. TV ratings is the true metric although obviously a lot harder to accurately record, especially with streaming these days.

I don't know why this isn't brought up more but Stan being off-limits in pubs has been such a massive killer. You used to find at least one TV had the rugby on and sometimes all of them if it didn't clash with NRL/AFL but now if you don't have Stan you literally don't even know it exists - and I've heard just as much from people who used to watch.

I would imagine that is one of biggest blocks for promoting the game, is lack of being able to watch it in pub. I knew quite a few mates would gather at a pub for big clashes, and you would end up with quite a few casual viewers gettine eyeballs on game at same time.

 

[Marce]

Because I'm a punishingly boring cnt, I have a quick and dirty look at the attendances per franchise, based on the 2023 SRP (Super Rugby Pacific) (Super Rugby Pacific) matches Wikipedia page. Brumbies would be the most accurate, but it still only covers ~2/3rd of their matches.

View attachment 16054

Not much you can reliably tell from 2-7 matches, but killed half an hour. Just need these bastards to mandate publishing attendance figures...

Interesting Tahs and Drua are pretty similar attendances but looks like Drua is massive cause they play in a small ground. Maybe playing in Leichhardt would give that sensation to the Tahs

The biggest concern are Reds and Hurricanes, both playing in big cities with rugby tradition and big stadiums.

 

[Marce]

I would imagine that is one of biggest blocks for promoting the game, is lack of being able to watch it in pub. I knew quite a few mates would gather at a pub for big clashes, and you would end up with quite a few casual viewers gettine eyeballs on game at same time.

Stan should make a master plan with some traditional pubs in key cities. Maybe near of rugby clubs and incentive it with promotions. I'm just thinking out loud

 

[MarkJ]

Didn’t Stan try to set up a deal with the Racing channel so it could be seen in more pubs, but V’landys (the horse racing guy), in his other job, helped put the kibosh on that?

 

[Adam84]

Didn’t Stan try to set up a deal with the Racing channel so it could be seen in more pubs, but V’landys (the horse racing guy) (the horse racing guy), in his other job, helped put the kibosh on that?

Yep.

And Foxtel have been signing exclusive broadcast contracts with pubs to lock out Paramount/Stan Sport

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

FIFA will waive their 28-day exclusive access period to Eden Park, FMG, Sky, ARSE or Forsyth Barr if the venue is needed for the Super Rugby Final (I assume/ would hope the same applies if it's in Aus):

Stuff

i.stuff.co.nz

 

[TheHaydog]

Spend the other night adding several attendance figures to the 2022 SRP (Super Rugby Pacific) Page, often through having to seek out end-of-season annual reports where the teams/stadiums hide most of their numbers. (Blues, Hurricanes, and Waratahs especially). Generally speaking, transparency around crowd numbers has diminished more and more over the years. 2013 was the last year where all numbers are listed for example. The hardest teams to find out about consistently are the Crusaders, Rebels, and Moana. One could easily speculate that either the attendance doesn't live up to expectations or are embarrassingly low. Keep in mind, the numbers whilst generally declining year on year are still higher than most overseas comps, although the gap is closing. NZ derbies generally are the most well-attended, although they are down on the 2016-17 numbers as well. My solution if feasible, would be to make a "kids go free" to every game, as well as more 2 PM Sat/Sun kickoffs.

 

[LeCheese]

Spend the other night adding several attendance figures to the 2022 SRP (Super Rugby Pacific) (Super Rugby Pacific) Page, often through having to seek out end-of-season annual reports where the teams/stadiums hide most of their numbers. (Blues, Hurricanes, and Waratahs especially). Generally speaking, transparency around crowd numbers has diminished more and more over the years. 2013 was the last year where all numbers are listed for example. The hardest teams to find out about consistently are the Crusaders, Rebels, and Moana. One could easily speculate that either the attendance doesn't live up to expectations or are embarrassingly low. Keep in mind, the numbers whilst generally declining year on year are still higher than most overseas comps, although the gap is closing. NZ derbies generally are the most well-attended, although they are down on the 2016-17 numbers as well. My solution if feasible, would be to make a "kids go free" to every game, as well as more 2 PM Sat/Sun kickoffs.

Great effort.

Not sure 2pm Saturday games would be a success at all, especially for getting kids/families to the game, due to school sport and club rugby.

 

[TheHaydog]

Great effort.

Not sure 2pm Saturday games would be a success at all, especially for getting kids/families to the game, due to school sport and club rugby.

Good point, overlooked that factor. Hence the 2 PM Sunday kickoff suggestion, although if it is subject to the same downfall as the Saturday games, it might not succeed.

 

[VassMan]

Seems silly to me that there is no Sunday game atm. There was earlier in the season.

 

[Wallaby Man]

Well done Force on the win last night.

Genuine question for the Force fans, are they happy that teams continually aren’t sending their best line up out West this year? Personally I’d be happy with the wins but I know there is a lot of chat about quality etc. in the comp causing decline in attendance and viewership. Be curious to know if it’s impacting their perception of their experience?