I have noticed that there seems to be a large concentration of people on the non camera wing for the non near sold out games. you can see that in all the brisbane games when they have that camera from the top corner.

Also so far, I think its fair to say Canberra and Brisbane have been carried by the ex pat communities.

Comparing to normal Jerks games, there was definitely more than 15k at Hunter tonight.

It's always hard to tell when they don't show the reverse angle. Aust V Kuwait for example didn't look like there where 10 seats free from what I saw of replays. At the stadium however there were empty seats lining the journalism zone, and in the far zone - camera side.

The vastly superior western grandstand was oddly sparse as compared to the eastern side - of which is the opposite of what a regular Jets game looks like.

I'd say it may have been closer to 16-17k than 20k.

Was watching the Japan game tonight. With all the stringent requirements of the AFC for host stadiums, its a suprise to me that they will accept a stadium grass hills for spectators to stand on (not fully seated). With an large TV audience around Asia and beyond, its a little embarassing I think. Has there ever been any world cup finals or Asian cup stadiums of this nature?
I'm not having a go at Newcastle or anything by the way, happy the games are hosted there. Just a comment on the stadium. What do you guys think?

Reality is and its sad to say. Our current stadiums are no where near, not even close to an actual football stadium. I'll be buggered and I don't know so don't quote me, if we even have 1 purpose made stadium for football (soccer).

All the way up until this tournament, I was of the belief they were going to bring in temporary seating to cover the hills. I must have dreamed this, because obviously it didn't come true.

If we won the WC bid, Hunter Stadium would have been finished off, top&bottom, around all sides and put the capacity to 40k+.

Pretty sure Hindmarsh is the only football specific stadium in the country.

While other codes can play at it, I feel like AAMI Park was done pretty well as a football stadium.

What is wrong with Suncorp as a football stadium - it's near perfect. That A-League games don't usually draw crowds worthy of it takes nothing away from this.

This has been the case for pretty much all games. The camera facing side has the majority of the crowd, which has been a good move by the LOC. Its why the Newy looked so huge. The other reasons for this has been that much of the side the camera isn't pointing at has large chunks reserved for media, etc., plus now we have those nice big dugouts, there are chunks of premium seats left vacant directly behind them too. Regardless, its a good move! :)

Yeah I agree but it seems to be a bit more to it than this. All the Cat1 tix are on that side + both active supporters bays and I don't think people are buying nearly as many as them as compared to Cat2&3 tix...

Wasn't Suncorp voted best football stadium last year, with AAMI second, followed by Hindmarsh?

The main reason why the camera faces that way is due to the setting sun, still works out well though.

Now all we need is AAMI to be expanded. Even to only 40k would be fkn awesome.

Edited by griffindinho: 13/1/2015 12:30:47 PM

Totally agree.

At one stage it had the best playing surface. I'm not sure whether that is the case ATM?

The players rate Nix stadium highly and the CCM supposedly have the best current playing surface. Hindmarsh and Glory's stadia look good.

SFC, Brisbane and Jets stadia look shocking for football at times.

Players really like the surface of stadia in Tassie - the AFL stadium in Launceston, Kingston and North Hobart.

I'm pretty sure AFL have made a deal with the Vic Govt that no stadium other than the Etihad and MCG can have a capacity above 30k or something

Isnt that Sydney re ANZ?

A condition of building the Docklands Stadium, with private money, was that there couldn't be an inner city rival stadium with 40k+ (or something like that) built within 25 years or something. But that was stadium owners, not the AFL.

ANZ has a similar deal, but dunno when that expires.

Edited by footballer: 13/1/2015 02:02:34 PM

Murray Shaw ‏@MurrayShaw1 2m2 minutes ago
As suggested earlier, the crowd in Newcastle for yesterday's match between Japan and Palestine has been revised to 17,147. Well done Newy!

Japan vs Palestine game has been revised to 17147. Top effort that!

just checked tickets for tonight's game only top tier left at ANZ \:d/

I still question the 17k figure at Hunter Stadium. It seemed more to me, and I go there every single week to watch the Jerks play. I know of a lot of Jerks fans who had their tickets ripped as opposed to scanned, so I would not be surprised if a lot of tickets have been unaccounted for.

While asian cup should have just been held in newy.

newcastle only pulled a strong crowd since its pretty much their only attendable group game, since their only other game is played simultaneous with a socceroos game.

they should pull strongly for the semi and 3rd place play-off though.

I don't like Suncorp. Small stadiums are the best (like Marconi Stadium for instance).

Newcastle's crowd shocked me, well done Newy.

What tournament can we really use to compare with this one. When u consider all the factors (sports participation, size, number of competitors etc.) the only tournament I can think of is the rugby league world cup which averaged 16k.

Do we think anything above this would be a success?

Avg. crowds for the past 4 afc asian cups.

2011 - 12668
2007 - 22632
2004 - 31877
2000 - 10634

please note these figures are taken from Wikipedia so I can't confirm them as absolute.

50,276.