BBL is a sugar hit not an actual competition comparisons are strange.

Its in competition with the A league for the attention of the finite number of sports fans in Australia.  The competitor you dis is frequently the competitor that proceeds to beat you stupid.  Of the things the FFA can do, reacting with a `its a plastic franchise competition, it doesn't matter`, would be easily the worst.

The BBL crowds are down thing was based on a comparison after 7 games.  Yo would need a bigger more representative chunk of the season to make a reliable claim like that.

Nevertheless the funniest. 

So that means I guess in your new competition none of the existing plastic teams can enter any new competition... 

I would reply, but I dont understand.  My competition? New competition? What are you talking about.

Anyone remember last time England were out here gallop declared cricket season over before Boxing Day? Lol I think that was the summer the bbl really took off as well.

@jatz

Non the less, BBL crowds are down along with HAL, NRL, Super Rugby. Only NBL and AFL seem to be bucking the trend with modest increases. Yes let’s see where the BBL crowds are by seasons end but that doesn’t detract from the fact, at this stage of the season, BBL crowds are down so CA won’t be too smug at the moment which is all I said.

And to your point, BBL competes with football for “Sports Fans” .... that’s straight out of Gallips thinking and part of today’s problem. Football should first compete for football fans, not sports fans, get that right and sports fans might follow but it matters less if they do because the core football support is there.

Right now Gallop and his persuit of “Sports Fans” is alienating football fans. Enough already with this “Sports Fans” shit.

“Sports Fans” are not our target market, it’s okay if they come but we should not set our agenda by them because they are fickle and will go to the tennis if Hennan is there or the World Darts is some fat Geordie bloke is there or the basketball if there’s a new ex-NBA signing or something else if there’s fireworks and a pool deck.

BBL gets big crowds because it’s the national sport and it plays to an existing large pool of cricket fans; football gets smaller crowds because it’s not the national sport and it plays to a vastly reduced pool of football fans. It’s not hard.

How much down are they? The crowds are huge every night so it would have to be minimal, the 2 Melbourne derby games are within the next 7 days, will probably get close to 120k combined, winless Melbourne stars had 37,000 last night, these are big time numbers.

Attendance is down a tick over 11% after 15 games but as you say some of the best attended games are yet to be played.

@ South Melb

BBL continues to get big numbers, and any comparison of HAL to BBL is not going to look good even if our crowds were up 11% and there’s down 11% ... the differential would still be huge.

But BBL crowds are down and that’s with some creative counting of attendance (which the HAL is also afflicted by). So football needs to concentrate on sorting its own sh*t out and not beat itself up over the size of BBL crowds.

The media are doing a huge beat up on the HAL over falling crowds but not analysing the BBL trends, that competition is sucking $7m/year out of Crickets coffers as a loss making venture, that’s causing friction within the cricket community who are impatient for the promised bumper tv deal (which may not come as the value of other forms of cricket is falling off as quickly as BBLs is riding). So all is not well with cricket either.

My point in mentioning the fall off in crowds at BBL is two-fold ... the first is not everything is rosy in BBL land so let’s not beat ourselves up too much, in its current guise the BBL is unsustainable whereas the HAL is not. And secondly, football and cricket are different beasts and don’t compare unless you want to belittle football.

I went to the Big Bash last night... all it did was confirm my feeling that we shouldn't compare ourselves to it.

Big Bash is the ultimate gimmick, it's like the McDonalds of sport - soulless, vacuous and so corporate focus-team produced I wanted to vomit. We are not going after the Big Bash crowd, that is pretty much the diehard AFL crowd who would never watch the wogball sokkah. It reaffirmed my position that the A-league should not be casualised and made "family-friendly", because the Big Bash has the family-friendly market all tied up and it's not great to watch. Will probably never return again.

My thoughts too @433

There is a lot of truth in this.

Correct they're the mcdonalds of sport..which is why they're killing it. Meanwhile we are red rooster or pizza hut. If you wanna go all fast food you might as well be the best at it. When we all bang on about this being the direction we have to avoid we are met with "its unique". Fans of our code are dying for something fresh and real,  yet we continue to dish up a stale product. We dont know if we are legit or bbl lite.

This is the bit I don't get and the problem I have with the FFA controlling how the marketing budget is spent and a one fits all approach.

Please forgive the generalisations below. WSW and to some extent the Jets appeal to a certain 'young male' demographic. That does  not mean that they don't attract families (my brother and his young family often make it to a WSW game). Perth Glory seem to appeal to the middle aged British ex-pats. The Mariners do try to be family-friendly. The point is that each club has a target demographic that they try to target. However, whatever marketing that happens is centralised and can be counter-productive to what the club is trying to do.

Let's give the clubs the money to do their own marketing. Marketing on Foxtel that targets les than 30% of an audience in a regional market is ludicrous. The same money spent on NBN by the Jets or the Mariners would get a much better result. NBN is reasonable football friendly. If they got a piece of the marketing pie from the two local clubs they would be likely to be even more supportive. 

@ patjennings/433

Agreed. If we can have a flat 5 year average in the range 12-13k with crap marketing that almost entirely misses the market, what could we have if we got it right?

There’s a fair bit of schadenfreude in this thread but the reality is if the “suits” take their heads out of their own backsides the answer is fairly simple and it’s not to be a mini-me version of BBL it’s to be a proper football competition with entertainment as a by-product.

18,055 SFC/Jets.

Decent 👍

Aye

What an league

It really was a reminder what a difference a good crowd and an exciting/quality game can make.

Great entertainment. Good fun having a few Newy fans down as well, some decent good natured banter, where I was sitting.

What an league indeed. 

How do we get the barmy arny to stick around?

Hold the Ashes for 5 months every year. 

The barmy army was there?

They will probably just come back anyway, the game was a lot more entertaining the most Premier League matches.

The flag was up the opposite end near the away bay yeah. Didn't look like too many were sitting there though, perhaps 20 or 30 tops. 

Don't think the pick up from the Barmy Army was that significant. It had more to do with a higher media presence in the lead up to the game, time of year and kids free marketing. Not fazed, same old story if the crowds slip below 10,000 it is the end if the league if it goes above 15,000 we are singing. League is still gaining traction in a crowded sporting enviroment stable attendances take time. The past 12 years alot has been achieved we just need to ensure we get our shit sorted and move forward for the good of the game.

I have a membership and that is the 3rd game I've been to all season. It is just the first time you felt that you might come up against a quality team and be in a meaningful contest for positions at the top and it didn't disappoint.

 A lot of other games I've just felt like it is easier to watch on TV.

@ Eldar

I’m a Roar member, were playing sh*t, we can even put a full team out as the guys keep dropping like flys, were not playing good football, were not playing attractive opponents, ... but I still go to every game.

Good for you. The point is, teams will have a core attendance and then the casual attendances will swing on variables such as opposition, quality of contest and hype surrounding the game.