5k is a lofty goal, but might as well aim high. Working against the 36ers are the fact that it's a Friday and not Maher's singlet retirement. Working for the club are the fact that the fence-sitters will have seen the result from Saturday and seen a lot of positives to interest them.

I'll definitely be there this Friday night.

$5 interstate streaming I'll be cheering through the screen.

Approx 29,000 people so far for the first 9 games, which is approx 3200 and where it usually is this early in the season. Hopefully the even comp and close games will help it build.

I heard the clubs been giving out a lot of 2 for 1 tickets, so that might help push the numbers up.

I think a first round game is going to attract season ticket holders and other Sixers die hards...it'll take a couple of games (wins) to build momentum I think.

It's a shame there's no replay of the NZ game on TV or something - the quality of that game would go along way toward bringing in more people.

What about the GC Blaze, 1943, thats ridiculous, also apparently the season opener was lower,this is a reall worry for the gold coast. Though i am not suprised when you have the oweners family doing everything and claxton, none of them are business savvy. Crowds are worst than last season when they finished last.

The Joyce dramas and last season's results killed them. The further drop is likely a few season ticket holders giving up until they see improvement.

As Isaac said, it takes a while to win fans back. The Dragons didnt get back to 2007 crowds after their disastrous 2008.

But having said that, the soccer got 4000 on the weekend, and the AFL has had crowds as low as 5000 at the Gold Coast.

You can't compare a current non-AFL city to NBL attendances Paul. In fact you can't compare AFL to NBL on any level. Let's be realistic, the NBL attendances were poor on the weekend! Fewre teams, better talent (so you all say) and the crowds still didn't turn up. And what do you expect, no promotion for a league that almost didn't happen! It will take time for the average joe to realize that basketball has even started. That's just the reality of where basketball sits currently. I appreciate that you all love to look on the positive side but at some stage you'll need to accept that despite the change of a BA CEO, basketball will never get back to its glory days. There are just too many other options for people to spend their dough these days and with rising livings costs, etc, it won't happen in my lifetime. I love the sport but the best thing for basketball to do would be to go back to a amateur league played on weekends.

Making a simple point mj, that a number of sports are struggling to attract crowds on the Gold Coast. Sorry if that offends.

No question the Blaze need to improve that figure, but how much improvement is there if sports with much bigger budgets cant get a crowd?

mj, why go back to an amateur league if clubs can get 2-5k to a game the way they're going now?

interesting point reference joyce, but i dont think thats the case, they had bigger crowds at the end of the season when he was coaching. the problem is the management of the club and the owners/claxton trying to do everything. i agree the gc will fold.

I already explained what might've caused the drop from late last season to the start of this season.

Besides the last game of the season, the others leading up to that were around 2,000 - 2,700. The last game of the season was a Saturday. This one (first game of the season) was a Friday and just under 2,000. Given how many deserted the team during the Joyce season, it might take a while for them to start to come back.

Adel crowd was great considering long weekend in adel for a sat night game