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Firing up the Tah crowd

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Hawko

Tony Shaw (54)
I am so looking forward to this year's comp, I just can't wait. But there is one thing that just gets on my goat about the games at the SFS - that lots of the so-called supporters aren't real supporters. Last year in the game against the Hurricanes I took my seat and a bunch of business suits sat in front of me - 7 or 8 I reckon. One of them, before he sat down, opened his bag and pulled out a supporters jersey and put it on. The rest of them were dressed in every colour of the rainbow except light blue. Yes, you guessed it, the supporter in a jersey was a Hurricanes fan!

The Tahs management needs to get right onto this. The Reds management seems to have a great program in place to win back supporters, but they don't seem to need to fire them up. The Tahs management needs a whole marketing program to get the fans to act like fans - half the time you don't hear a peep from people unless someone is running in for a try.

So here's a few suggestions:

Get the game announcer to start a campaign to wear light blue clothing next time. This doesn't need to be politically correct - shame can be a great incentive. Doesn't have to be official gear, just the colours. Run half time competitions that are only open to people wearing sky blue.

Have people on the gates handing out cheap light blue plastic overshirts to anyone not wearing colours. Include a number in each one. At half time, draw a number and announce it. The person in the crowd who has that number has to hold up the number to signal and be wearing the jacket to win. The prize is a full set of Waratah clothing.

Get rid of kids playing at half time. The only people this enthuses is their mums and dads and its a lousy way to boost attendance numbers. It just sucks the oxygen out of the stadium. You need entertainment that fires people up, gets the blood circulating. Props in 100 metre races, rugby ball catching comps, scrums comps with only wingers as participants.

Tah man needs to be more prominent - abseiling from a helicopter, chasing a fake horse with a lassoo and tying it up when we play the Brumbies, jousting with a man in armour and putting him to the sword when we play the Crusaders, playing matador to a fake bull and downing him, chasing a shark with a big net around the oval, locking up Rebels in a cage, fun things that add to the pre-game excitement.

Reserve a bay of seats at the northern end of the stadium for a special supporters crew. Offer incentives to people to become part of the supporters crew (cheap season tickets and gift jersey and cap) and equip them with drums, chants and cheer leaders. Get WJ or some similar Tah nutter to lead. Then have a general mike to pick up on the supporters and put it through the PA while the game is on to encourage the rest of the stadium to get fired up too. People doubting the value of this should recall the "Wendell's a w......" chant in Brisbane 2006? Wendell liked it and it didn't put him off but it added immeasureably to the atmosphere at the game.

Get a ground announcer who is a real fan and and outgoing personality. Have him fire up the crowd pre-game and during the stoppages. Light hearted banter with opposition supporters, reminding them of their losses to date; geeing up the crowd with appropriate chants like "we want another one" straight after a try or "stay onside sivun" when we play the saders; that sort of thing. Doesn't have to be like the saffer announcer who called us pig-rooters, we Tahs are more refined (well most of us anyway). Have him interview old Waratahs pre-game but choose outrageous ones who are able to recall great previous games when we smashed whoever we are playing this week. Maybe interview Brock every week on what we need to do to win this week. That would add colour and life to the game experience.

Home games at OUR HOUSE, if its still called that, need to be an excitement experience for those attending and a real support to our team. My memory is that early super games had more atmosphere than the last few years, though that could I guess just be nostalgia.

So, Tah fans. Lets open up the forum to suggestions how to wake up the supporter base. What do you think?

PS. I know we are going to get suggestions from Reddy and other northern supporters about why the Reds don't need such a campaign at their stadium. Suggest you post these on the Reds thread.
 

#1 Tah

Chilla Wilson (44)
But aren't Sydney sports fans supposed to be a fairly fickle bunch to begin with?

unfortunately we are, and i was thinking about this today, that ticket prices need to be lowered so that the working class can come to games too, it doesnt just have to be the middle class.

Firing up the Tah crowd...

Thats going into an email straight to the Tahs' marketing dept.
 

liquor box

Greg Davis (50)
I think the type of game played has a bit to do with it, I dont think any promoting the Reds did would have been succesful if it wasn't for the type of game they played last season (almost last year!). I think lowering prices is a good start.

I would keep the junior games as I think this is a good way to keep kids in the sport.

I think family tickets should include food and drinks in the price and should be reasonable.
 

Scarfman

Knitter of the Scarf
SFS on a Friday night is full of CBD worker ****s. What can you do? Raffle some Masterchef gear?
 

Lee Grant

John Eales (66)
Staff member
There's some good ideas in there Hawko and another would be for the Tahs to play some exciting rugby. That would drag a few folks in.

But you're right about the Sydney rugby crowd. I've said this a few times: the Sydney crowd is the most vanilla rugby crowd I've ever seen and I have been to a few grounds. There's more passion at schools matches.

The only time it rocks is when there is a Kiwi team playing the Tahs and their lot gets charged up. I don't go there to hear the crowds and God knows: I do my bit with a couple of red wines in me; but it's a pity that our crowd is so disinterested. They are often uninterested as well.

But aren't Sydney sports fans supposed to be a fairly fickle bunch to begin with?

You should go to a Swans game - and the Dragons v Roosters league game on Anzac day was full of passion. The average Sydney sports fan doesn't 'get' rugby union and has a short attention span. They like their sports to be easy to understand and rugby is technical.

A generalisation, I know.
 

Bruce Ross

Ken Catchpole (46)
What about a radically different approach?

Start with dropping the entry prices so that for the big games you have a full stadium.

Instead of watching two sets of 23 players plus 50 hangers on strolling about the field for half an hour before the game, put on a decent preliminary game that ends 15 minutes before the main game.

"Get the game announcer" to shut the fuck up.

No half time "entertainment that fires people up, gets the blood circulating. Props in 100 metre races, rugby ball catching comps, scrums comps with only wingers as participants." And in particular no blaring commentary about this sort of nonsense. There are still people who go to the game to watch rugby; who don't need to be "entertained" and deafened with stupidity; but like to use the ten minutes between the halves to talk to other people who have a serious interest in rugby about what they have just seen.

For God's sake don't have stupid Tah Man "abseiling from a helicopter, chasing a fake horse with a lassoo and tying it up when we play the Brumbies, jousting with a man in armour and putting him to the sword when we play the Crusaders, playing matador to a fake bull and downing him, chasing a shark with a big net around the oval, locking up Rebels in a cage, fun things that add to the pre-game excitement."

On the other hand, if you want to keep old curmudgeons like me away from games, by all means:

"Offer incentives to people to become part of the supporters crew (cheap season tickets and gift jersey and cap) and equip them with drums, chants and cheer leaders. Get WJ or some similar Tah nutter to lead. Then have a general mike to pick up on the supporters and put it through the PA while the game is on to encourage the rest of the stadium to get fired up too. People doubting the value of this should recall the "Wendell's a w......" chant in Brisbane 2006? Wendell liked it and it didn't put him off but it added immeasureably to the atmosphere at the game.

"Get a ground announcer who is a real fan and and outgoing personality. Have him fire up the crowd pre-game and during the stoppages. Light hearted banter with opposition supporters, reminding them of their losses to date; geeing up the crowd with appropriate chants like "we want another one" straight after a try or "stay onside sivun" when we play the saders; that sort of thing."

No bloody wonder the crowd basically consists of people who went to the right schools and thus don't turn a hair at paying outrageous ticket prices; who use the game as an opportunity to meet up with their ex-school mates before they go on to pay equally outrageous prices for drinks at night clubs frequented by fellow knob polishers; and who never actually watch the game but occasionally look up to glance at the big screen after a try has been scored.

Have a Happy New Year, folks.
 

Done that

Ron Walden (29)
Some nice ideas , but more importantly , how about engendering a feeling that if you follow the Waratahs , & you go out to watch them , there's a better than even money chance that you are going to see them win , especially when they are playing the Kiwis & Saffas.

In other words , develop a winning mentality amongst the supporters by winning matches.

Or is that too obvious?
 

Hawko

Tony Shaw (54)
Some nice ideas , but more importantly , how about engendering a feeling that if you follow the Waratahs , & you go out to watch them , there's a better than even money chance that you are going to see them win , especially when they are playing the Kiwis & Saffas.

In other words , develop a winning mentality amongst the supporters by winning matches.

Or is that too obvious?

Done that, we've done that. The Tahs are the most successful Australian franchise of the last seven years, twice finalists, missed the semi's twice.
 

Scarfman

Knitter of the Scarf
Big Tah Man fan, right here. He was the reason my kids first got into the Waratahs. And abseling off the roof of the SFS? Jumping out of a helicopter? C'mon! What's not to go crazy about?

Oddly enough, cheerleaders haven't been discussed. Me and Bruce Ross don't like them, but I suspect everyone else does. My problem is that they distract me from the rugby. If I want to watch half-naked girls dance about, I have the internet.
 

Stands

Jimmy Flynn (14)
Expanding on Bruce's thoughts, what about giving us more footy to watch on the night? Starting at 6:00pm and ending at 11:00.

1st game: 1st grade Colts match of the round
2nd game: 1st Grade match of the round
3rd game: Super 15 game

No warmups on the field, half time (10 minutes) and in between game time (10 minutes) is to get refreshments etc.
The crowd will be entertained by quality footy and therefore no need for Tah man etc.

Maybe some extra revenue for Colts and Grade teams and the exposure wouldn't hurt.
 

qwerty51

Stirling Mortlock (74)
The last great atmosphere I remember at the SFS was against the Sharks in the semi in 2008. It was so loud that Bismarck had trouble hearing the calls and subsequently kept delaying the line-out which only further added to the hostile atmosphere. I remember when there was a line-out right in front of us and the whole crowd gave him shit, haven't had anything similar since.

I don't understand why venues don't lower their prices if they aren't even close to selling out games every week.
 

Bruce Ross

Ken Catchpole (46)
What about a radically different approach?

This is exactly why you can hear a pin drop during the games

I have spent time pondering your comment, #1. Surely the fact that I am now suggesting "a radically different approach" cannot be the reason why "you can hear a pin drop during ... games" which have already been played.

The lack of crowd noise is primarily due to a half empty stadium and a significant number of patrons who have no real interest in watching 80 minutes of rugby, together with an emerging insidious but pervasive culture where people now have to be directed when to get excited and when to get involved.

Go back a few decades where there was no hoopla and American style razzamataz, and importantly no instant replays, and there was certainly no lack of spectator excitement or involvement.

Fill the empty seats with ordinary punters; give them more rugby to watch; back off on the half time races between people wearing blow-up suits or at least let them make goats of themselves in silence; and you might start to see and hear people getting involved. But if they start to get too carried away they'll probably be evicted by the ground control nazis.
 
H

Hartman

Guest
We can speculate all we want about potential initiatives but the bottom line is that the actual Waratahs brand need to get onto their marketing department and have them do some research - that's what they went to uni for. Apparently.
 
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