Raise their game? You could barely move at the ground tonight.

And if it was played at kardinia park?

WSWs first trial game at Cook park was 4K. Just a point of reference.

Get with the times pal, its actually NORTH Slapdonia now.

You expect a club to get Kardinia Park sized attendances in a preseason match on a freezing Thursday night against a state league one side? With those expectations you will never be satisfied.

yeah some people are being a bit weird about the numbers. i thought the scarfs looked really nice do you reckon they sold many? 

that's a pretty good crowd

Is there a match report or highlights or anything ?  

Negative people wanting the club to fail to justify their negative feelings. 

Well according to a Herald Sun article one punter spent $1200 on merchandise. I personally thought the uptake on merchandise was pretty solid. Lots of green and black scarves and beanies floating around.

Easily over 3k there last night ground was packed all the way around. Georgies surprised me and had the likes of nigro, Stella playing. WU looked good for there first hit out. 

Playing NPL side Altona Magic same day, time and place next week. That should be a better test on field and a chance to see if the initial support is sustained. 

Agreed. The colour combination looks really nice. 

https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/western-united-make-winning-start-with-victory-in-maiden-clash?fbclid=IwAR0S0Dyni-o5QGIiwRNk6B3CczgTGBTjWgTr_M7PzvDjP0gsEz6OWg0eFmg

yep, very nice colour combo

Im saying if that attendance was at kardinia park everyone would be laughing at a 95% empty stadium. 

There’s photographs on line of the crowd that support a decent turnout so it looks like a solid start for WU. 

Black for summer?

You're right.  The stadium issue will be a challenge to overcome. Will fans in West Melbourne get attached to a team that plays in Geelong?  Will the Geelong fans follow them to Melbourne if/when they get their stadium built?

Not sure on the kit but what else could you do with it. Thanks for the post, good to see.

I wonder when/if the hype will die. I like the kit but let's see if the rest is equally good

That's the big question. It is easy for Geelong fans to travel to Tarneit as it's on the same train line and takes about 30 mins (assuming the extra station in Tarneit is complete in time). The other suburbs could be far more tricky. Ballarat to Tarneit is a good 1hr 15 drive and even longer by train as you would need to travel to Sunshine and then switch trains. Neither of those lines are fully electrified so services are not that frequent. If you are late and miss a train, it could result in missing an entire half of football. The big distances and lack of road and rail infrastructure will make it challenging for many people.  It will be the same for a bunch of other western suburbs as well. For example, it is quicker for a person living in Melton to catch a train to either Marvel or AAMI than it is to catch a train to Geelong or Tarneit. For many people living in the western suburbs it is actually more convenient to support MV or MC than it is to support WU.

Good crowd, increases the optimism a bit.

Ok, sure. But let’s judge competitive Hyundai A-League matches attendances at Kardinia Park based upon the attendances of competitive Hyundai A-League matches at Kardinia, and not midweek preseason friendlies against league one sides in winter.

The turnout last night is one of the most positive things to come from this club since it’s inception. Let’s hope they can turn this into some real momentum. Australian football will be much better off if so. 

Make that free-entry midweek preseason friendlies. It's really easy to get people to attend free events, getting them to pay is a different story.

They are off to a good start and hopefully they can build on this.  Looking at the pictures, they sold a fair chunk of merch as well.

if they can average 6 to 7k across those first few seasons, that's pretty good

I really want to see these guys do well, get their stadium construction underway and let the hype build and momentum gather. You know, a rare positive football story for this country for once! 

Averages are deceptive though. Take MC for example. If you exclude the derbies (MV outnumbers MC, even at MC home derbies), their average is similar to CCM. This will be the same at WU, with their averages boosted by bigger attendances at MV and MC derbies. That being said, 6-7k isn't actually enough for any HAL club. All clubs really need to be averaging 10k at a minimum. Hopefully the independent league can make some key changes over the next few years to get those numbers up.

agree. I don't consider 6-7k acceptable at all. for any team. 

As a supporter of pro/rel I think 6-7k is acceptable for certain teams. If Toowoomba can get promoted and survive off that then good on them. 

Unfortunately we don't have system that includes P&R and smaller clubs like Toowommba. If we did, then absolutely smaller average attendances would be acceptable. However we don't have that system. We have a closed system. We have 'big' clubs based in major cities. As a result, those average attendances need to be 10k at a minimum. That is very doable. Last season 8/10 clubs averaged over 8k. An extra 500-2000 tickets sold is not an impossible task.