The irony

7.5k city vs western 

I guess the weather has been miserable in Melbourne like everywhere else.

Disappointing  . ..

Yeah laugh it up jerk 

"Sporting Capital"

Damien De Bohun already had that idea

I thought Brisbane might try to win to boost crowds but the last 20 looked like they weren’t too interested.

I was.

That what the Lol indicated.

:)

A decent attendance given the weather. 

Round 1 Summary
MC vs WU - 7,501
BR vs MAC - 8,521
CCM vs NJ - postponed
SFC - MV - 21,840
NIX vs AU - 8,325
WSW vs PG - 8,984

Round Average: 11,034

How soft are Sydney fans? 31-32,000 tickets sold and 10,000 don’t show up because they’re scared of a bit of water.

You can probably say the same thing about WSW, although maybe they are adopting a “once bitten twice shy” attitude because they are a hard team to trust. We’re hearing they’re coming to Melbourne in big numbers this week… Lets see if that eventuates. Victory are giving free tickets to lapsed members this week to try and get them back, so we should get a decent number. 

Friday night was disappointing too.  The City home end didn’t look any bigger than the WU away end, when they were the home team.

For me that was the most disappointing. You have the reigning Premiers and Champions against each other, both teams are located in the same state (and currently share the same venue), yet every other matchup produced higher attendances. The weather wasn't ideal on the night, but it was nowhere near what Sydney experienced and they still managed 20k+. The weather conditions for the big blue were pretty bad and Aussies are pretty soft these days (especially after being locked in for 2 years) so that wasn't all that surprising. Again, another example of why the league should shift to winter. Torrential downpours are far more likely during this time of year and during the warmer months than they are during the colder months. The WSW crowd is kinda understandable at this point. They have not been competitive for 7 years now. If they turn those 3 points into some consistency, I reckon the fans will start to return, but that is a big IF. That performance was not good.

Gee ,  that' s   poor   for   an  opening    round ...

The elephant in the room is western United shouldn’t of been let in 

Cmon mate, it was a MC home game. You have to take the bulk of the responsibility when it's your home game. You guys have been around for over a decade. You are back to back premiers. You have 11k+ members. You have some fantastic players and play a good style of football. Melbourne has the highest population density in the country. 7.5k is an unacceptable result for first round home game. Every other club managed higher against interstate opposition.

It makes the need for them to move out to Dandenong and cultivate their own fanbase in the SE (where they would be literally the only club of any football code). They have no chance of competing with Victory for the general Melbourne market. Same with WU and their Wyndham plans obviously. Then Melbourne would have a decent geographical spread of clubs rather than having all three teams playing the in the same stadium, jostling over the same set of fans.

maybe you're just salty it took your team 12 years to win a toilet seat, while it took WU 3 years... and they did it without a home. 

It was your home game on friday night and i reckon the WU active matched the City active (thats how it looked on TV anyway). 

At least we didn’t lie about making our our stadium to get into the competition. Moving to Dandenong is a risk tho we could end up with even less as members won’t stay with us if we move. I’m pretty realistic tho I get being a part of cfg isn’t appealing to many people. Then when we got rid of Bruno I feel like that did damage because he was a club icon.


I want to see the club get more people in but it looks like it’ll only happen if we get a David villa which doesn’t seem to be on the club’s agenda. 

Who's lying? You should listen to the "Football From A to Z" podcast from around 6 months ago that had WU president Jason Sourasis on it. He conceded that the club made mistakes when it came publicly stating stadium timelines that turned out to be unrealistic. But things are on track and the stadium will be delivered. Only the bitters can dispute this now.

Melbourne Victory are going through something similar. After the disaster of the COE at Footscray Park, there have been rumours going around for a long time that a new site has been found. But this time around there will be no announcements until all approvals have been ticked off.

Moving to the SE will only work if City build that stadium in Dandenong. If CFG agree to fund half of it, you might get an agreement from the state govt to fund the other half (or improve the infrastructure around the area).

I think City are trying to grow organically instead of the sugar hit a big name marquee brings. But its not really working. I think they need a bit more flare on and off the pitch.  CFG are known worldwide for keeping things tight and under the radar… but they need to do the opposite in Australia.

Yes I’m probably the wrong target to pick on about my club because I’m not blind I don’t defend everything they do in fact I’m very critical. I also want victory and western to succeed (off the pitch) every club needs to aim for 10k they just do the atmosphere really picks up when you have people there 

Also can we talk about western playing 5:00 at Aami park? Not only is it a terrible timeslot but their favs from the west would take a while to get home 

Scheduling isn't great. However, it's not going to be a good look for MC if WU manage to pull more than 7.5k against an interstate opposition at 5pm on a Sunday.

I hope they do then city have a reason to get off their bum. Competition makes everyone fight harder 

I’ve stated this numerous times, but the traditional AFL states tend to prefer Saturday and the traditional NRL states tend to prefer Sunday.

I’d like the fixturing to portray this a little better. I know Sydney and Brisbane used to get decent crowds on Sunday games pre-pandemic. Eg. This week Jets v Glory should be on Sunday and WU v Sydney on Saturday (although this can't occur until WU move into Wyndham Stadium).

Victory fans hate Sundays with a passion. We much prefer Friday night over Sunday. We have 3 home games on Friday and 3 home games on Sunday this season. Last year we had 4 home games on Sunday and 1 on Friday. It really should be 5 or all 6 on Friday… But TV is why this won’t happen.

Got   to    get    that   TV   Ca$$$h ...

Realistically for this weekend, I feel like we’re looking at something like the below -

Brisbane v City - 8k
Jets v Glory - 8k
Victory v Wanderers - 20k
Nix CCM - 7k
Bulls v Adelaide - 4k
WU v Sydney - 4k

I get that there's a risk of alienating fans who would find it difficult to get to the ground. But at least the proposed stadium site is right next to the station, and Dandenong gets pretty frequent trains (every 10min, even on weekends).

And the reality is, after a decade in the city, City have not been able to grow their fanbase beyond the core 7-8000 fans they get to home games. It can't be easy to get new fans with three teams playing out of the same ground, one of whom has by far the largest and most vibrant fanbase. To attract new fans who wouldn't otherwise fall into Victory's field of gravity, some point of difference is necessary, and geographical location is the most obvious one (I mean, there's not being shitc*nts but it takes new fans a while to learn this). I think the risk is worth it in the current context, especially since there are no AFL teams who play in the south-east either.

I think thats pretty accurate. I'm hoping Victory will get 20,000, but its hard to predict. some bays are sold out, but some are offering seats in rows b and c. It will depends on how many GA members rock up.