Last season's total home and away attendance for the League was down 39k on the season before.  The Sydney clubs on their own contributed a loss of 44k (-12%) to the final result.  It will be interesting to track the response this season.  Will Sydney FC attendances follow the Wanderers pattern of a loss each season they were in "temporary" home venues?  What will be the response of Wanderers' fans to their new stadium over the whole season?

The wanderers alone will make up that shortfall

This season had the same amount of marketing as last season

There are two theories of everything on this forum: P/R and marketing

Those in the P/R camp are believers that having our biggest clubs reach their uncapped potential complemented by smaller clubs for player development and numbers will introduce the change required both on and off the field

Those in the marketing camp believe the only thing stopping the A League from reaching unimaginable heights is for the average Australian to realise it exists

Here's a test for you: See how many people with a casual interest in football you can convince that Australia currently doesn't have a national league and we should start one

A league players are too comfortable. Protected by the union and a lack of Australian players that can come in and take their place if they underperform. The incentive to work hard and improve is not strong enough as there are no consequences for failure. Babbel noted this right away when he arrived in Australia. He said that in Germany, if a player has more than one ordinary game out of four his career is over. There is always next year in the A league, and I am not talking about the lack of P/R. Players that were utter failures at one club are usually able to get a run at another club the following year. Babbel also said that most A league players are not even upset when they lose a match. Perhaps this was just the 2018 wanderers squad. But if your career was under threat due to a couple of bad performances, a loss certainly would be more distressing. I think only 2 things are needed to improve the quality of play: weaken the influence of the union, and bring in a competitive 2nd division. I don't think P/R is essential right away, but easy movement of players between the divisions is. Maybe year round transfer or loan of players across divisions. Strong performing players in division 2 would be putting immediate pressure on players in division 1. Plenty of football fans have given the A league a go, and i think it is the lack of quality rather than the lack of marketing that stopped them from sticking with the league.

You raise some good points and I tend to agree, a lot of our players are getting essentially a free ride considering their application/skills.

I get what you're saying, but that opening crowd at wankfest was beyond pitiful for mine. Derbies aside, I’m tipping they won’t reach that again. Even if they start winning they'll probably push towards a 14,000-15,000 average. if they play like they have over the past couple of years, they'll be back towards sub 10,000 as is the nature of their fair weathered fan base. seeing the numbers in the RBB is what alarmed me the most last week. it was half full at most, and even then it was spread pretty thinly. 

One huge mistake the FFA made with the fixturing, was not having Victory play there early. everyone I have spoken to have said WSW away is the away trip they are targeting this year (aside from Adelaide). its a shame we have to wait til Easter.   

Its only pitiful if you fell for the idea that the wanderers would be averaging 20k+ if not for the capacity issues at the old parra/playing a shitty homebush stadiums.

17k is a little underwhelming but it's actually their highest non-derby crowd bar finals. 

I think you can also add the finals series into this as teams have a 60% chance of making finals and often at tail end of the season with the finals set there is no reason to play and games can become boring as top teams start planning for finals and bottom teams have no consequences for poor performance.

You crack me up too.

Melbourne Victory v Western Sydney = 19,000
Western United v Perth Glory = 8,500
Central Coast v Newcastle = 9,000
Melbourne City v Adelaide = 7,500
Sydney FC v Wellington = 12,000

victory vs wsw 22k (friday night should hopefully get a good crowd)
wu vs perth 6k (nobody knows i think anything more than 5k is good with 10k would be great)
ccm vs newcastle 10k (newcastle first game and ccm looking good they got 8k last year anything more than 10k is good) 
city vs adelaide 10k (we are looking really good 8-10k would be good) 
sydney vs wellington 12k 

victory vs wsw- 23k
wufc vs Perth- 6.5k
f3 derby- 10k
City vs Adelaide- 8.5k
Sydney vs wellington- 11k

Interesting.

We may be headed for another record low as the rot and decline continues.

I think it will end up relatively stable compared to last season.

The highs of season 3 are long gone, never to be repeated.

wasn't there talk of capping membership numbers at the old stadium and WSW gloating they will be rivalling Victory once the new stadium opens? Thats how I remember it. 

There were natural limits with the stadium size and membership numbers but this will be a real test and measure of our fan base.

From the evidence we have, on every measure, they have been miles and miles behind the Victory, a situation which will remain for a while yet.

The membership numbers were very impressive but I've always argued that they were heavily influenced by the FOMO factor in relation to the derby in the first few seasons.  

The membership number was capped at Pirtek Stadium but our memberships were high because of the desire to guarantee seats for derbies and home finals.

Lots of people say lots of things but the reality is quite different.  Wanderers have been lucky to get a 30k stadium when there has not been any indication so far of needing that capacity.  Sizing stadiums on the basis of maximum expected attendance is a waste of money unless the average attendance is also high.

I don't understand how anyone can fail to understand that WSW crowds are of zero concern. 

Yes Melbourne Victory has the best fan base, however it isn't the end of the world if WSW have the second highest membership, and average attendance ffs.

WSW came 2nd last, 2nd, 6th, 7th, 8th in the last 4 seasons. Apart from 1 of those years that's pretty fucking shocking, and last 3 years in a row we've had shit seasons. 

We got 17k against CCM in the rain and you have people complaining. 

Agreed, absolute clowns.

disagree.

opening games of the season
official launch of the new home
wsw is back
time to make a statement

barely half full

Parramatta Eels officially opened the stadium, played there for 3 quarters of a season, then we played our first game there against Leeds United.

Now that everyone has pretty much seen the stadium you'd have to have rocks in your head if you still think this game should be treated like the opening game of the stadium. 

I remember the days we'd get 16k at Parramatta and people would whinge why there wasn't 20k people there. They failed to understand not everyone with a membership or ticket has to show up.

Next derby we might get 27k and those same people will whinge yet again that we got a shit crowd. The game not only needs to be sold out, but there has to be zero no shows, otherwise it's a shit crowd.

Melbourne Victory v Western Sydney - 14,000
Western United v Perth Glory - 4500
Central Coast v Newcastle - 7500
Melbourne City v Adelaide - 7000
Sydney FC v Nix - 9000

It better bloody sell out given the measly away allocation Wanderers have allowed us.

What have you guys been allocated, and what's the difference compared to the old Parramatta Stadium?

Highest WSW non derby crowd. 

The same apparently. The Sydney forum thread on it is full of people saying they've had to buy GA. Bit disappointing as it'll take away from the atmosphere.

I think from memory at Parramatta it was 1k, but I could be wrong. 

For the away game at Kogorah ( hopefully it remains there ) I'd be okay with us only being allocated only 1k. 

If Sydney FC fans don't sell out only then should it open up for us to purchase more tickets and increase the away end. 

Yep.