But not in attendance though
Friday night at AAMI Park
Saturday night in Geelong with a few hundred RBB on tour.

I reckon they would get more than 7K. I predict they would average about 9K.

If the stadium worries you, they can play at AAMI.

I highly doubt it and they wouldn't play at AAMI.

Just for the record though I'm a fan of South Melbourne being included, but just not as a replacement.

Melbourne City get shit crowds for obvious reasons, however I'd rather they stay in and build on their crowds in future and if 7k is the worst average they'll get I'd still rather have them in. 

Round 5 predictions

Melbourne City v Central Coast - 7,100

Newcastle Jets v Perth Glory - 7,400

Western United v Western Sydney - 6,400

Melbourne Victory v Wellington - 15,900

Adelaide United v Brisbane Roar - 8,300

They have been trying to build for years now and all we see is stagnation.

Surely there comes a point where enough is enough for this white elephant.

BTW, I think there are worse stadiums than Bob Jane. At least Bob jane is more of a family and social venue so SMFC will be a bit different and I think that is part of their appeal.

I agree with most of those numbers there but think Adelaide should get just over 10K

City have their ten year anniversary game we’re wearing our original kit so hopefully we get a better crowd 

When are the next round of derbies again? Seems like these are the only matches that have any sort appeal these days.

Melbourne City are going to be alright. Joyce was an unmitigated disaster and it will take a winning side playing good football at least one season, probably two, to repair the damage.

I can see City winning the lot this season, and that would be change everything.  The club has been such a disappointment for such a long time. It will rake time to turn things around. 

Leave it to Melbourne city to win the league the year we have the lowest interest in the a league 

the crowds in Melbourne have been alarming. There has been a lot of complaints from Victory fans on social media about Marvel stadium this year. 3 games there in 4 weeks is shambolic fixturing. Maybe the fans are starting to vote with their feet? David Davutovic thinks its a big enough problem to write about. the crowd at AAMI Park this week might tell us a bit more...

Western United have been slightly disappointing, but it’s interesting to see that they are averaging more than City after 2 home games each. although admittedly City have probably played lower drawing opponents.

As for City, the fan disconnect continues. Even if they continue winning, I can't see it changing that much. 

In 4 rounds of football in Melbourne this season attendance is 6,661 greater than last season but in 2 extra home games.

Victory attendance after 4 rounds:-
2018-19  -   40,504  17,219  16,508   Total - 74,231  Average - 24,744
2019-20  -   33,523  17,231  20,865  Total - 71,619  Average - 23,873

City attendance after 4 rounds:-
2018-19  -  12,086  6,410   Total - 18,496  Average - 9,248
2019-20  -  7,399  6,440   Total - 13,839  Average - 6,920

Western United attendance after 4 rounds:-
2019-20 -  6,888  7,042   Total - 13,930  Average - 6,965

It's really too early to speculate as to what the addition of WU has had on the other two clubs in Melbourne and it normally takes about 8 or 9 rounds to get a good indication of how things are going each season but so far Victory are only down marginally but City are down 25% on last season.

When Heart/City was added to the competition Victory attendance dropped around 23% but overall attendance in Melbourne went up 20%.  While some of the swing was a result of team performance it will be interesting to compare this expansion and the earlier one on the Melbourne market.

If my memory services me correct, our second and third home game last season was at 7pm sunday against Perth and CCM respectively. 

So whats your answer... are you suggesting returning former NSL clubs where the average attendance was less than 4K, and that included Glory who averaged over 12K  I think... 

The answer is to make Hal work and yes changes need to be made... but I get the feeling you almost want to throw everything away and start something up again rather than work within to fix.... I can assure if Hal fails .... nothing in the foreseeable future will come close to where we are today...

 

On the City attendances above where we're 25% odd down last year, a couple of factors I'd say on our first game below with the latter very influential in bringing people through the gates.

Round 3, Sydney - 12,086 (Friday Night)
- 2 weeks following a derby win
- McDonalds family ticket offer in play

Melbourne City v Central Coast - 6,100
Newcastle Jets v Perth Glory - 7,000
Western United v Western Sydney - 5,300
Melbourne Victory v Wellington - 12,500
Adelaide United v Brisbane Roar - 7,800

If city hosted the grand final against an interstate team, would it be at AAMI or Etihad, and would either ground sell out?

AAMI surely and yes it would

City vs CCM- 8.5k
Jets vs Perth- 7k
WU vs WSW- 6.5k
Victory vs Nix- 15.5k
Adelaide vs Brisbane- 9k

Hard to argue with those figures.

These predictions are alarming. Especially so early into the season. 

Looking back a few years when City hosted the FFA Cup Final, the attendance was in the 18k range, so it is certainly possible.

I do feel that there is a fairly significant latent City fan base, but getting them interested enough to go to most matches is a challenge. I know that I haven’t been a member for 2 years now and only go to matches every 4th match or so on average, and others I know can be the same. 

Crowds down 0.57% according to sportsindustry

https://twitter.com/footyindustryau/status/1192024513677910016?s=21

https://twitter.com/footyindustryau/status/1192023331588866048?s=21

thsg link goes to the sokkha commentary, the first one links to NBL. 

Oops thanks

2019-20 A-league crowds are just down (0.57%) on the 1st 4 rounds of 2019 with 255,117 folks through the gates at an average of 12,756.

Is that down on average, or aggregate?

Just quoting a sports industry tweet directly, not sure.  It's still the same number of games per round, so won't both be down by the same percentage?  (god, my maths awful)

take your pick. Its either. Game numbers are the same.

This. % movement doesn’t matter since it’s the same base.