All these games during weekdays would definitely send averages down which is normal.

Figures quoted above posts look pretty satisfactory given the public's dislike for mid week games.

When this vocation period is over a jump in figures is imminent.

And last season was nothing to write home about haha sub 10k average incoming .

7,213 Perth v Adelaide.

After 15 rounds average attendance is down 4.6% compared to the same stage last season.

A-League website:  Jets v Mariners 9,466.

#WELvSYD 8,961
We get another step closer to a sub 10k average.

Well, be sure to announce the VNPL crowd figures and TV ratings so I can prophesise its impending doom.

Its not up to me to be watching the A league. My season starts in a few weeks. Though i watch a few games on tv.

As for clearing 5k. We consistently did that well before Melbourne became a mega city of almost 5 million.

Possible, also possible attendance figures are inflated regularly. It's one of those things, that it's too much of a pain to disprove accurately. 

??? The paper could have just taken a sample rather than count them all. LOL

And multis

I remember watching something somewhere a few years back at uni, AFL has people trying to physically count people at their seats

No, because if they are inflated than it's just hilarious.

Very difficult to prove down to a precise number, but larger discrepancies can be uncovered fairly easily. A couple of years ago one of the papers (not sure which one) sent a bunch of people to an NRL game and had them count people coming in and going out. Wouldn't take a lot of people to undertake the task, just a few people at each gate with a counter, clicking when people enter and leave. The MC/WSW game last night only had 5K reported in attendance. Wouldn't take many people to count 5k people coming and going. It's not an exact science, however the numbers should be fairly close to what is announced by the club. If the official count is vastly different (20%-30%) from the independent count, then a conclusion could be made that some form of inflation is occurring.

Lot's of people on here seem to be able to do just that from sitting at home watching, this forum is full of flat-earthers and conspiracy nuts

I dont see how inflated figures can be proven, or even speculated about, unless somebody has the remarkable ability to count thousands of individuals scattered across the stadium from a single seat, or various camera shots on a TV set

It seems to be a common thing across all codes to inflate attendance figures. I'm guessing it's to keep sponsors onside. It's not uncommon for clubs to justify inflated attendance numbers by including staff, media and other officials (eg: police, medics, etc) as part of the count. Then there are also un-ticketed people in the corporate boxes and other corporate areas. Technically all of these people are 'in attendance', so that validates the count. The figures seem to be rarely just the tickets scanned at the gate.

So the question I must ask is if crowd figures are inflated then why are you using said figures as an indication of a downward trend? 

Shouldn't we just end the thread here?

wanna bet?

so wellington vs sydney 8k would be amazing 

derby nsw 7k would be a good result 

perth vs adelaide 8k is the pass mark for me 

Back in the early 90s the SANFL (as owner and manager of Football Park) deflated the Adelaide Crows attendances. We had a family friend working there. They once shaved a massive 6k off an attendance against Collingwood in 1992 (the first time they played there in the AFL). Had to get the number below the ground's capacity.

Things have probably changed now. Those GWS figures seem  rubbery.

GWS does

On a podcast a while ago (possibly daily football show, can't remember) GOR did an interview. He was in typical GOR mode - affable aussie punter on charm offensive and slipping in his excuses under the radar. He basically argued that a portion of the decline in attendances was actually a decline in reported attendances only. That being, that from one season to the next, the manner of reporting changed. Previously, the attendance figure was inflated by including non attending members in the totals. He "changed" the process so that only people through the gate were counted - therefore it showed an overnight decline in reported numbers. All together it sounded like a total load of crap - I never remember the Wanderers posting 18k+ averages for instance. But what I took from it was a part admission that FFA has at certain points inflated the figures.

Irrespective of what figures are published, the actual numbers exist somewhere, and for a pretty important reason. If you're selling sponsorship, you need to be truthful with what you're selling to the sponsors.

When I was studying statistics eons ago I had a really good lecturer who gave me some sage advice. He had experience working in India on demographic statistics. He told me the simple thing is learning the mathematics behind it. The hard thing in practise is figuring out how much of the stats are bs.

If you consider the size of the audiences the a-league attendance is very respectable and it was a very entertaining contest at that.

I am just providing an alternative to the doom and gloom on here, South Melbourne would have been stoked with 5k at any time in their history. If you guys don't want to watch the a-league then fucking don't.

I dont think the afl inflates its figures.

So the bbl had double the attendance and probably a million tv viewers and you just shrug this off? Lol.

Attendances are on track to dip below last season..ffa went all out with the early derbies this yr.

Waz, this is bad.

We've gone from our numbers are correct to "yeah, we all fluff our figures"? Sheesh...

Crowds and membership are up. 5k seems about right for City on a Tuesday night, on the same night only 10k turned up to the BBL match between a Sydney team and a Melbourne team in Sydney.  

All leagues seem to inflate figures, the Big Bash figures at the Gabba have been in the low teens but reported in the high twenties. It seems we Aussie’s can’t handle the truth.

There’s one way for teams to “legitimately” inflate crowd figures and that’s to not report the actual attendance but instead to report ticket sales, which includes memberships as well.

This is not unusual, the EPL has a controversy a couple of years back when it was clear the reported attendance didn’t match reality - the explanation was half the clubs reported attendance as ticket sales not walk ups, and always had and always will.

I prefer actual attendance as the measure of health, manipulated figures only paper over the cracks when you’re in strife but it’s a practice not confined to the HAL, I’d be pretty confident all codes do it

I have been suspicious for a very long time that the HAL inflate the figures.

What they can’t hide is the massive drop in interest over the last 4 years. TV ratings down and crowds down.

It’s good...

I got one have zero sympathy, because the FFA regime has destroyed the sport and divided the community.

Lol!