Isaac, do you think an alternate venue would have an impact on the crowd? Boondall is less than 20kms north of Brisbane. I woud think that anyone who was interested in going would not have been detracted by the change of venue. It would have concerned me more from the player's point of view that they are not as familiar with that venue.

EC - could be transport issues on a weeknight.

The Brisbane Convention Centre is right in the heart of gthe city (for the uninitiated) and easy for people to get to after work.

To put it in Adelaide terms, they moved the game from the CDB to somewhere around the Salisbury or Reynella area...I think that would have a big impact.

watching the game looked as is boy george is finally loosing patience with smith , well before the tech as well, shaking his head almost every time smith made a shot and you could see the steam rising everytime smith opened his mouth,

the serve after the technical was gold to hear on fox

Yogee, exactly.

EC, it wouldn't impact die-hards but could change things for others. Not saying that it would've meant a 2,000 person difference in attendance, but that it was a healthy crowd for Brisbane given that they weren't playing at their usual spot.

For others who haven't been to a game in Brisbane (it's the only city outside of Adelaide I've seen NBL), the venue is very well located - walking distance from the CBD if you don't mind a stroll and convenient to restaurants and more for after the game.

Paper today says that that was the largest home crowd to any Bullets game in 11 years. If so, I don't think the venue change caused any problems.

EC - The venue change stopped me going to the game. I may look at tickets to the Grand Final series but Boondal is a pain in the arse to get to for me.

In saying that it appears the correct decision was made and the crowd has supported it!

It is all relative Isaac, Boondall is within walking distance from the CBD, only a little further.....

Ha - nice call Sturty.....

If I start walking now I should be there by tip off on GF night!

Most of the people going to Brisbane games are Brisbane residents and most would drive. For those who can't drive, the train departs from the city every 30 minutes and takes about 40 minutes to Boondall Station. The station is 550 metres from the Entertainment Centre (5 minute walk). I've looked at the timetables because I am making the trip for the finals. Yogee, as for the difference in drive between the city and Salisbury or Reynella, I do this distance every day to and from work.

Correction to above, Central Station to Boondall is 24 minutes.

My point remains: EC, it wouldn't impact die-hards but could change things for others.

Take ABA for example - I am a lot more likely to go to a game at Pasadena or Wayville than I am one at Starplex or Hillcrest or Morphett Vale.

I would be more likely to attend a Lightning game at Wayville, but not necessarily so at the Dome (I follow the Lightning, but not to the same extent as with the 36ers).

Isaac I agree on all your above points except for the fact that we are talking about finals NBL not ABA or Lightning. Just the general attendance figures of these two groups tells you that people are not going to go out of their way for it. The reason for changing the venue to Boondall was to accommodate larger numbers. The increase in numbers in Tuesday's first semi suggests that more people want to go and therefore it was a good move. If Brisbane make the grand final and it does seem likely, there will even more people wanting to attend. Why not? its the cream on the cake of the regular season.

EC

To help Isaac and others make their point try this hypothetical.


Maybe 10,000 people want to go to a Brisbane game. Of that 10,000 only 3,500 can fit into the Convention Centre so 6,500 simply miss out.

Brisbane move to Boondall and of the 10,000 interested only 5,388 go because the other 4,612 decide it's too far to travel.

Just because they got more people to that game I don't think its accurate to suggest the location of the game had no affect on the possible crowd size.

That being said I would think Brisbane would be better off playing in front of 5,000+ at Boondall then 3,500 in the city.

Consistency and accessibility are the issues I'm trying to get across.

EC, ABA, WNBL, NBL - irrelevant - I'm saying that the location of the venue can impact crowds. Getting a crowd of that size to a harder-to-get-to and different venue is a decent achievement.

Clark, I look at it differently. Boondall has a capacity of 10,000 but nowhere did I see an indication that this many people wanted to go. However the number attended at Boondall is greater than the capacity of the Convention Centre. This means people were not turned away.