I think 20 000 spectators  in Sydney to celebrate Aus finishing 11th in the Qatar WC is appalling!

When Gallop was CEO of Football Aus he used to compliantly  accept  20 000 crowds for Sydney as reasonable, yet  used to moan when Canberra drew 20 000 crowds and Perth had 23 000 plus crowds.

Obviously Sydney with a massive population of 5 million, are complacent  about the Socceroos these days, and prefer  watching big name European club  teams playing friendlies.

I'm not sure if Hindmarsh has a capacity bigger than the  20 000? I'd surmise much smaller population centres  Perth, Melbourne ( on Tuesday), Gosford , Canberra, Newcastle and Brisbane would easily exceed 20 000 spectators  to celebrate Aus  finishing 11th in Qatar - particularly against high  quality Ecuador.

A bit  frustrating for all the members of this forum residing in Sydney who attended the game against Ecuador.

JON took Socceroo crowds from near zero to fill stadiums... he was constantly in the media bagging on about the games same as he did when he was at rugby.... no CEO since has done this.... JJ needs to get out and do some door stops....

I am afraid that people want competitive matches for their money these days.

Friendly matches are generally poorly attended in this day and age. And Ecuador are hardly a big draw.

Hindmarsh stadium has a capacity of 16500 and I doubt it would sell out.

It was a friendly also socceroos are invisible in the media 

Won't get 30k for a friendly unless it's France or maybe Italy or Brazil because it's a 'friendly.'

Most of my football mates here in Sydney didn't even know it was on. The international break and some A-League call-ups were the only things that tipped them off that there was A game sometime.

I don't think it was disappointing for a friendly.
The WC feels like ages ago, were nearly a quarter of the way through 2023!
People get disappointed because they have unrealistic expectations, but after 19 years of "new football", we are where we are.  This is it.  There's no massive economic boom lurking around the corner.  There's no meteoric rise on the horizon that will see an overflow of TV ratings and attendances.
Speaking of which, the NRL is currently going through boom times four rounds into their season.  Expanded to 17 teams, and are currently experiencing record TV ratings and attendances.
Remember Fox?   Each round the NRL has games pushing the high 300,000s on Fox Sports (and that's not even counting streaming).
The Socceroos could not even crack 200,000 on FTA on a main commercial channel!
No point moaning about it, this is our reality.  Just enjoy the games - apparently this is a new golden generation. NST is around the corner (but not an NSD).

D2 I don't know what you expect - I think apart from the % of invested football followers it shows we are Not a Football nation more than anything else due to the 2 main codes and the countries DNA.
No matter the fair result we did at the WC we hardly have a major one of 3 "household" star names (barring Mooy imo who wasn't playing) so to speak for the "casual" types to be inspired get ticks And Mid mentions re JJ, tbh its the FA's media machine under JJ who should have made alot more noise in the media left right centre months before for as some post people weren't aware though all my football mates knew and attended.
I don't see Ecuador as a minnow per say but the general pub wouldn't grasp it at all unless as mentioned we played one of the powers.

bettega yer some good points - the trouble bringing up NRLgayfl they have their best players in the game every week for starters, the marketing $$$ machine and their top flight running farfarfar better than ours.
There's no comparo sadly, we have been a mis guided minnow for decades - agree just get on with it, enjoy what your into re our game.



 

It was very disappointing indeed, I just saw some of the NRL and AFL crowds on the weekend and completely dwarfing the Socceroos crowd on Friday night, no excuses especially when the Sydney Swans drew 37K yesterday and the NRL Brisbane derby got a full house on Friday night too.

Our national deserves the respect it deserves, the questions is does the public care? This is a exciting new team, its not like they are a team full of journeymen and so there plenty to forward too so the question is why?

How many countries have their rival codes get bigger crowds than a national football team which competed in the world's biggest sporting event last year? 

The media and footy codes are in bed together and both help each other, the same goes with govt. because if they don't support them they risk going against public support.
PR anyone?

The struggles football has in this country it's real, no wonder it's hard for the game to get what it needs especially in funding!

Guys, not questioning your points but it was a meaningless friendly...... 20k to a game that wasn't even marketed to football people and relied on word of mouth advertising isnt THAT bad.  I wouldnt have even known it was on if not for this forum.

It like they have idiots for PR who can't find media worthy angles....There are so many angles for example a headline after the u20s game that should get pumped out through their PR teams for news 

35,000 people just turned up to watch teenagers play for Australia 

Etc etc....

I was at the gym early last Friday and those horrid morning shows were on. They cut to a promo for every sport except football

It was their first game since their World Cup heroics and their first home game since last year against Japan.

Its not like they play at home on a regular basis too, my point is they deserve a bit of recognition and respect for their feats and how they inspired the nation and for only 20K to turn up whilst the public are happy to spend more time and money watching their AFL/NRL team is quite frankly disappointing.

This is the same as the A-League, the A-League is a good standard, not best in the world, but it's a decent standard & the Socceroos are playing some lovely football & playing a nation (while not the biggest footballing country in the world) is now consistently in the top 4 in Latin America. Plus as mentioned by many here we have many some very exciting new young players coming thru.
Yes the media & the eggball codes are in bed with each other other, but where is the Football media PR people to push this game.

exactly right....... Don't blame the bandwagonners that jump on the Soceroos once every 4 years for not turning up if they arent even made aware of it.

Channel ten hasn't really done much to promote the players either 

20k is Ok. It's a meaningless friendly and Ecuador aren't a big drawcard. Also none of the Socceroos are household names , so no one like Cahill or Kewell to piggyback off.

All in all 20k is about right. 

That is what politics and greed over the years has done to 'Soccer' in this country, it gets dwarfed by rival codes. A fractured pyramid and federations (pre covid era) having unhealthy amounts of influence over the establishent. This sporting code clearly out muscles every other sporting code with regards to politics metrics though.
The FA/APL must keep grinding away as we get further away from the more recent 'covid era' and with the new initiatives which should already have been implemented afew years ago, a new dawn might come into existence for Football.

Sydney fans are lucky they can pick and choose their events. There will be far more fans in Melbourne tomorrow night because these events are as rare as hens teeth and we don’t have that luxury.

At least the tickets are cheap. 
$10 for a kid / $15 for concession / $20 for an adult
That's cheaper than an AL game and nearly as cheap as a NPL game.

++++++++++++++999999999999999999

talking for a larger crowd, the FA had enough notice regards to the International breaks, WTF they schedule the game on a Friday night and not the Saturday beggers belief.
Friday sucks due to end of week/traffic/rushing to get to the venue on time and all the other excuse's, I was at a trial game for eg as we're many others around the city I reckon warming up for April 1 (no not april fools) koff, at least was keeping an eye on the mobile multi tasking haha - Saturday night would have got a better crowd I'd guess.

Sure I expect more down there being a Tuesday, obviously couldn't have it later in the week due to gayfl fixtures taking up the grounds.
Enjoy F T B I'm looking forward watching it on the box at home.

There are 15,000 seats at Hindmarsh. Not sure if they still sell standing tickets.

The Suncorp game was most anticipated game probably of the season if you look at the other NRL games its 15-20k max unless its a rival game.

The swans will always pull in big numbers but if you compare them to Giants its a different story they average about 8-10k. 

Not really a quality opposition in the eyes of "average soccer joe knowledge guy"

They should market these games for other states during NRL especially this early in the season. Could of easily played it on Friday night in Perth(smaller flight for the guys too) bit later on TV over here (after the league/arl games) and you probably fill more of the stadium too.

Don't think anyone at Channel 10 even knows who any of the players even ARE mate...... 

I'm not disappointed with the crowd size as it still looked good on TV. Having said that it could have and should have been much better.

I think those that pin pointed to the lack of PR are bang on.

If our savior JJ doesn't get his act together, even on basics soon, out the door he goes.

On a positive note, I continue to be impressed with the Socceroos and how they're building under Arnold. Next few years will be interesting and looking forward to it.

None of the excuses wash.  It comes down to the incompetence of the FA.

I would have thought there would be more responses like yours, Barca.

A recent 11th at  a WC indicates this may be the best Socceroo team we've had. And, we've got a lot of new young talent emerging.

Another poster labelled this Socceroo team the Achievement Generation. I tend to agree. 

Can't believe Sydney are pulling 37 000 for AFL, when it isn't even a major sport in NSW?   

From raising lack of football media coverage as an issue in Aus, after reading many of the comments, I was led to believe I was just out of step with contemporary media. A lot of other posters follow the Socceroos through FB.

I subscribe to the notion that so many of us in the regions are so starved of Socceroos football, many would turn up to watch them, friendly or competitive game.

I also wonder how many comments thus far  have been made from Sydney residents who didn't attend?