Lowest Crowd in A-League History

Aus Stadiums reported 2043 people. The actual numbers is less than 350 people.

https://www.austadiums.com/sport/comp/a-league/crowds

The actual crowd as you will (I counted them), was less than 350 from all the images I could gather. The main stand is in view at half time, according to stadium planning this would need to have 1 person in every second seat for the crowd numbers to actually be 2043 people, instead they are absolutely dead empty. Every single stand was seen on camera, and there is no way, they had anywhere near those numbers.

Images for reference.

https://imgur.com/TN9dMqn
https://imgur.com/IBbwNai
https://imgur.com/Jrb28pr
https://imgur.com/a1gZEND
https://imgur.com/v1fkow3
https://imgur.com/u76lkMu
https://imgur.com/xUhm5If

I actually counted significantly less than 350, but added 50 on at the end after being extremely generous during the count, to account for people going to the bathroom, going to get food, people in booths etc. The number I hit was actually around 270, that's 270 whilst always assuming any black dots were people, which could be bags, or something else entirely. It's possible the crowd was around 250 if everyone was watching the game and not buying food and getting a drink and some of the stuff I counted, wasn't actually people during my snap shots. Absolutely abysmal.

The question needs to be raised as to why Aus Stadiums would misinform about crowd figures, or who is reporting them to Aus Stadiums. There is no way, there is 1700 people missing in these images. It's absolutely mental they think people would believe that.

If they're not careful they'll be at some Saudi clubs level soon 

Maybe even as low as some NPL clubs..... hahahahahahaahah

Saudis league got a lot more crowd than A league. Average attendance is one of the highest in Asia. You can check the list. You mean compare to K- league? Korea League yes very low attendance.

Yeah two teams get all the crowds. The rest nobody. They had 133 at a game the other week 

Not 2 teams. The top 5-6 teams.  What about A league..how many teams?  If you think Saudi Pro league got pathetic crowd what would you call Qatar, UAE, A league & K league?

J league/Saudi Pro league/Indian Premier league/Chinese super league/ Indonesia league/Iranian League

Read what I originally wrote. 

I have read.   You said 2 teams with pathetic crowd in Saudi league   > that's fault 

You said 133 people turned up in a game in Saudi league last week >  that doesnt mean much cuz most Asian league are like that.  You should use K league (Not Saudi league) . Saudi Pro league has far  more attendance than our A league (and not just 2 teams like you said).  You shouldn't compare our league to Saudi League. 
The perfect example is A league is becoming K league is the concern. 

You don't have to argue , I did follow Asian football. I even follow Malaysia , Thai and Indonesia league for God sake. You don't know shit about Asian football more than me. And I'm not an Aussie. I'm telling you the fact not arguing.

OMFG, I said 'they'll be at the level of some saudi teams soon'

if you want to have a cry and can't even comprehend that very, very simple sentence, well that's on you. 

I dont really care about asia, saudi or any of it...maybe spend some time on your english rather than crying to me about a light-hearted omment

Yeah I know you don't care about Asia (that's obvious) thats why you don't know shit about Asia football.  I'm laughing at you trying to be a smart ass talking Asian football but don't know shit about football in Asia.

I refer to you about how you go on talking about how low crowd in Saudi league and seems like you got obsessed with Saudi league with low crowd (by watching some YouTubers). I told you to compare to K league which has a similar crowd to A league. Then you still keep talking shit about Saudi league lolz. What a dumb c_nt!! Lolzzz

Hey you don't worry about my English buddy cuz  most ppl who follows soccer in Oz are not real Aussies. Most Aussies are watching cricket and AFL. I wouldn't be worrying about my English mate Im making good money & having a good life here.   Instead of worrying about English if I were you I would be worry about your low knowledge about asian football. Such a dumb  C_nt!  Lolz

Keep enjoying your life and making good money buddy but claiming everyone on here isnt a "real Aussie" is pure bullshit... Keep the racism to yourself please. 

That's not bullshit. I said MOST didn't say ALL
I said most soccer fans in Australia got European background.  Just like USA (European & Mexican) , Canada, NZ.There are some articles even talk about these 3 countries. 

Many people I know here (soccer fans) they all have or from European  background (or other parts of the world).  But again I said most , not all. This is not a football nation.  But it's a multi cultural society dominated by other sports.  That's the fact.  

It's like people who likes soccer in the Phillipines, mostly grow up aboard.  If you born & raised in the Philippines  mostly you won't care about soccer. 

Me and my family & friends we have a big soccer community here , so we know the difference. People here don't care about soccer. They call it a pussy sport here.

And you know what funny.  Many  women here who follows the Matildas, & WSL but they don't watch men soccer at all. Many of them  can't name anyone in the Socceroos squad other than Tim Cahill.  

Having a European background DOES NOT mean you are not an Aussie.... Only 2% of the population is originally from here ALL the rest of us are immigrants.

Have a bit of a dig around to find info on the Australian British Football Associations of each state in the late 1800s, early 1900s .... 

Crowds were awful this week, average will be just above 5k even with the made up figures. 

I think living costs are having a huge impact on crowds.
Also how boring is the majority of a league games.
Go to your average a league game and it feels so un important.
If you have 3 kids like me it costs at least $200 to attend a game with parking, tickets and food/drink. 
Add the cost of living and attending the game with the experience you get, its just not worth the money

Here's another one coming up with extraneous excuses. Of course, no other country in the world is struggling with cost of living issues. Have you been watching any o/s football?

Yes but the product is just rubbish.
You don't get what you pay for.
Sitting in empty stands thinking my money could have been better used.
Kids asking is the game over yet? $200 could be better allocated to something the whole family can enjoy.
Kids saying im bored and im actually thinking the same thing LOL

It pains me to say this, but I think the standard has dropped significantly this season. There is no money and everyone is playing younger squads. That has to have some impact on crowds. 

When the only money to be made is in value-adding to the squad, that's the way it's gonna be by the looks

'Marquees' haven't paid for themselves
Gimmicks haven't increased crowds
Without Pro/Rel there's little more to play for than a slice of the M1 on a plinth
TV can't find reason to pay for something few are watching

and you can play as many "For Sale" teenagers as you like, you can't get relegated

Ok, so this is the only upside for me, seeing younger players. 

The league itself is shit, we are all playing in staduims way too big for the teams and competition.
It's depressing sitting in empty stadiums, that's my point.
The best games are the FFA Cup games at local grounds with small stadiums where 5,000 makes games feel important and exciting to be at.
Play in stadiums that are full are the way to go... If wanderers have to find somewhere that is only 15,000 seats, so be it. This goes for all teams

There is no one on this forum who can deny that, week in week out,  there's only only one or two teams per round that can put together more than half a game of quality football.That is the reason for the lack of crowds. I think most of you on here look at the highlights and assume that's what it was like for the whole game. Punters on the outside can see there's been no improvement in the simple aspects of ( what should be expected) at this "supposed" elite level.

Got any solutions Anthony?

The game was Western United in Ballarat. That's why the crowd was small. A team no one follows or cares about in a regional town that doesn't support the code. It's more embarassing than the cow bells and attempted atmosphere at a Macarthur game. If pro-rel comes in the stronger teams will replace them and the competition will be better for it imo. 

This sums it up to a tee.
Remember us in Canberra being given Adelaide v Central Coast games, that no one cared about

4100 at a preseason in Coffs. Roar vs Jets.

https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/8358020/young-gun-scores-a-double-as-jets-strike-late-to-beat-brisbane/

So regional cities can work.

Ballarat isn't the right city for it. 

I'm not saying it is. I'm saying people will go to put the kybosh on anyone saying they shouldn't take matches regionally.

Pretty sure Coffs had 6000 at a league fixture last year. (Or the year before.)

Give Coffs a team. Better than WU or Macarthur.

Nonsense, WU are just garbage to watch, boring players, boring squad, boring coach and a bad place to watch football against a team from another country. 250 people is what they have been pulling all season and will probably continue to pull at Tarneit.

If it were City as an alternative I doubt it'd be much better in Ballarat. WU are garbage and as a club have no soul but that just makes it even more stupid to send them to a city like Ballarat. 

Long term strategy? Victory owned the aleague men's market around Melbourne and perhaps throughout Victoria. Heart/City came on the scene and attempted to pick up the disillusioned and annoyed around Melbourne. For WU to pick up general followers to provide some credibility/visibility the odd regional visit might gain just a little bit of favouritism "if I was forced to pick a side...".

Look at the Wollongong Firebirds when Nix chose not to play out of NZ during covid. It is not an identical comparison since Wollongong has had a strong football history but it shows that a team that makes the effort to go places can garner a little bit of fondness if nothing else.

WU need all the fondness they can get as they try to grow.

how does a new club grow in a very parochial afl and burnt MV/MH market, a good number of NPL Clubs and countless association Clubs let alone no home ground and right now a basket case of a comp hardly getting any air time let alone melb media.
City have got crickets with titles of late and have struggled gaining much support, even MCG quotes how hard it is to support that Club.
Sports Clubs shouldn't or can be forced down peoples throats to support as you know, its a passion htf can you turn people around to luv it.
Newbies is your only hope to the future, they should arrange having new baby born WU kits handed out in every maternity ward in their region and offer free rego once at 7yrs old - oh do they have any U7 on Jnr teams ???

Commence building the privately owned stadium they promised 5 years ago would be a good starting point.

I thought they were playing in their own ground now? At least the training pitch. Who wants to go to AAMI park for a third team playing average football that hasn’t carved an identity? I thought these guys running the club are businessmen? That is some limited insight into what is required to build a football club 

Training pitch, yes, their own ground, no. Training pitch is 100% council owned and run. Same situation as your average NPL club.  It's also not ready yet and they are yet to play a game there. Their original selling point was having the only club owned stadium in the A-League, which at the time they are quoted as saying it was shovel ready. They are yet to start building it.

It shows entirely what the backbone of AL is - a model/business that struggles to transition into a community sport compared to a typical business per say.
Its like a Hungry Jacks making use of the maccas kitchen for a period of time or pizza hut order taken through a dominos outlet.
Identity is hard to establish half baked.

Hhahahah brilliant analogy bud... made me laugh at how accurate it is. 

true about one main point, its a gayfl town more than anything else.....

Though having done alot of travels to regional areas and having friends here there they have always been starved of city slicker clubs or events and back in the day despite many not being fans of xyz it was an excuse for a night out something different, many would travel to Syd nrl weekends like they would melb for afl weekends - todays modern world young people prefer going somewhere else indoors playing their own games or online with some bs or a gathering elsewhere I suppose......
WU at least has that victorian dna despite them being newbies were AL Champs just in 22, as if that wasn't known a little with a pop of 117k and how many Jnr football clubs there would be, was there a Ute Muster on the weekend instead.....
I can understand not giving a toss entirely re the nix but there is always the usual rivarly between the countries but I suppose they dgaf about that as well.
It sure is puzzling to say the least.

As for the future and IF we ever see AL absorbed with NST of visa versa I truly hope not but it sure would instill some rippa bitter rivalries past vs the future type of thing as long as its fair regards to budgets same for all as one point.

P/R NST below would be a great start to see just hope alot of others think the same to support itwhenever it may commence.

Shepparton (home of the Kuol boys) is a gayfl town as you so call it too mate but go back and look at the crowd GVS got against APIA in the round of 32 Australia cup this year, On a Wednesday night too....

People dont wanna go see a travelling franchise circus it seems, who wold have thought eh?

Is it though? Used to run a pretty big regional football league encompassing Riverina in NSW as of about 10 years ago.

I'm not actually from there, I just know that Griffith teams used to join that competition pre NPL/GV Suns days because of the higher quality

If you mean is it an AFL town, well the local VFL league is a fairly strong comp and a few of the larger clubs have certainly "developed" a few AFL stars over the years from what I understand... 

From a football perspective South go up to GVS (or have done for the past few years) for preseason camp in the offseason and thier facilities and youth setup are reportadly very impressive.

Yer good point about ACup - I just thought these places would get out for the heck of it but seems not.depending what.

Agreed. The standard this season has been poor. 

What is your football background?

What specific football match based  performance  criteria do you use to analyse AL games?

How has the game changed since the start of the A League?

I don't find the games boring at all not sure where that is coming from. Most of the games are exciting especially watching the young players.

What's boring is the presentation there's no characters no narrative the games just happen and that's it. Clubs haven't made any effort to connect with communities.

Oh just to be more specific Paramount is boring only Teo is worth listening to the others are dull. No midweek show and they took away A league access nobody cares about the players so there's no reason to follow the teams.

Even me I'm a hardcore fan but why do I care about young UGA nabbout etc they all played for other teams they aren't players I can be proud to represent my club because they played for the rivals.

The AL, when it was averaging 12k to its games, wanted its fans to fuck off so it could get better ones.

Here they are.

Nothing else to it.

lol this 

I also do not find the games boring or of a low standard for the most part.

The top 6 at the moment all play entertaining football with Macarthur playing better football than they have been previously in my opinion. Still a bit defensive for my liking but with more entertaining attacking play. Quality football all the same with teams like the Roar putting a good half of quality football up, dropping away, then coming back again in the last 20 or so minutes. Nature of high intensity football really.

Melbourne City and Mariners I always find entertaining. They are both battling the loss of players as they regain cohesion, but I think you are mad if you consider their play boring or lacking skill.

Newcastle has some great players but lacks cohesion across the group - so you see some quite brilliant individual bits one after another without yet hitting their best as a team.

Glory also can struggle to tie it all together but show plenty of quality throughout the whole of games.

Nobody cares about SFC so they can play great football and still be horrible to watch ;).

And bringing up the rear is Western United, who also can play great football but just don't seem to bring it all out at the same time.

There are few games that I call boring each week and would happily watch most with interest. I do watch as many as I can and the quality and entertainment is there if you like watching skilful play, close games, and football. There is plenty of quality on show for most of the games - but you rarely get 90+ minutes of true quality in any games anywhere - that is the nature of ebb and flow sport.

I think there are at least a few people on the forum who can deny that there are only one or two teams that can put together more than half a game of quality football.

Perhaps what you are thinking is that the quality is so bad because every week only half of the teams manage to win at best...?

Far from boring at Allianz.

At no point, so far this season ,have i thought about not going, despite Sydney being shite this season.

Some of my best times have been when Sydney were utter rank under Vitislav.

Gotta agree with Sutho here... Playing beautiful football is great but watching your club battle through a garbage spell of form can be just as rewarding....

For me I did paid monthly for Paramount to watch the A League so I have contributed in some ways.

To me
Problems are

Some players I have absolutely no idea how they are in the A-League.

https://newcastlejetsfc.com.au/squads?team=MEN&season=2022/2023

Look at the Jets squad, how on earth does Hoffman still have an A-League contract, every time he gets put in Centerback they bleed goals. They area around Newcastle has players in the NPL better than this guy and he just lives in the squad and never gets dropped. There are tons of players like this, under the radar, never get called out, should have been canned years ago still stealing wages from youth prospects.

I disagree with your comment about the pitches, no one else is using them right now. Also this is Australia, there is no world in which we get pitches no one else is allowed to use.

haha this is amazing - how is Hoffman still in the league? Honestly thought he retired like 5 years ago. 

I just saw Corey Brown was back in the league the other week - just makes no sense. 

Jack Clisby, Jack Hingert, Jacob Tratt, Steven Lustica etc

Corey Brown is under contract to the Roar and we are desperate for a left fullback due to injuries to every other experienced left fullback. Of course he is going to get a run (until injured) and if he was anywhere near as good as he was last time he played he would deserve his place.

Jack Hingert is still our best right fullback - you write him off because of age maybe, but he is a quality player still. We play well with him on the right and we play less without him.

Clisby I thought got a decent amount of praise just a couple of weeks ago for his quality of deadball delivery (maybe I misremember because I don't like him at all).

If they play well they deserve a place. If they play like Hoffman they are a joke - except where they lift the players around them to perform far greater than they do without. Maybe Hoffman is one of those - although I personally don't like him or rate him.

To me, your list of ridicule was not a good one. But I agree with your point on principle anyway.

agree and thats the main problem here not having you know what let alone a NST finally starting up.
Yer Clisby got raps by some for he made some good cross's from the flank couple of weeks ago.
Well bugger me every single back should have that down packed right when your at pro levels.
He was ordinary at CMM many times yet same clubs take him on, PG twice And WSW twice.
As mentioned how many potential seasoned or up comers could they pluck from NPL that could promise so much but the donkey clubs keep recycling sub standard known players.
Frustrating.

RIMB I find such polar opposites regards to AL standards from your pov to others.
Its amazing how different we all see it.
Ill give it to you - I watched 60mins of your WSW game, I was impressed by your 1st half display, some fair one touch and support for the ball.
Trouble is most of these teams standards really fall away in 2nd halfs.
I don't get why pro's drop off the planet so much and can't sustain most of 90mins but for losing rhythem in possesion that happens in most leagues.
Ok some games are in heat - well thats another issue right, when its played.
Its ludricous this outpost.

A lot comes down to what we look for during a game.

I look for the moments of beautiful play, the individual touches that hide the effort it has taken to get there, the combinations and one touch passing to get through the opposition, the visioned defenders who close danger down before it happens, the skilful and gutsy challenges that get the ball.

When I see them happening all throughout games by both teams I know that I am seeing more of the good stuff this season than I usually see across most teams.

A lot of teams that have a great first half are dropping away in the second half this season and I put some of that on it being early in the season (they should be hitting their straps from Round 6 by my personal expectations though) and the intensity of the play both attacking and defending. I do not expect to see 90 minutes of full on brilliance and I do not need to see that - as long as the quality from both individuals and teams keeps showing up consistently through the 90 I am seeing good football.

My good luck that I find all those moments in a game worth watching for and seeing.