HoldenV8
Years ago

NBL Attendance - Round 23

Round 23 of the NBL season and only four games this weekend and overall the games had some good attendances.

Hawks vs Kings - 3,616 @ WEC (60%)
36ers vs Breakers - 4,936 @ AA (62%)
Crocodiles vs Blaze - 3,969 @ TEC (75%)
Wildcats vs Taipans - 4,314 @ CS (96%)

For the Hawks this season it was a decent home crowd but it was the type of crowd they should really have been drawing to the WIN Ent Cent all season. Still, it was good to see the Hawks draw over 3,500, even if it was against 'local' rival Sydney which would have drawn ok anyway. If only the Hawks had a better team then maybe their attendances might be a lot better.

The rounds biggest crowd showed up to the Adelaide Arena on Saturday night to see the NZ Breakers clinch top spot on the ladder. Almost 5K is a pretty good crowd really, despite the fact that some people indicating they stayed away because the result was supposedly beyond doubt. Whatever happened to the old saying 'any team can beat any other team on any given day'? Good to see that most Adelaide fans will still come out and support the 36ers despite the lack of recent success.

While on the face of it the crowd for the Crocs v Blaze game was a good one at almost 4K (75% of the Townsville Ent Cents capacity), I would have thought that for 4 v 3 game this late in the season that they would have drawn at least 4,500 but it wasn't to be. Well done to those who turned up but where are the rest of the Crocs fans? I wonder if they'll suddenly show for playoff games should they make it?

Ok, this next one is a first for me this season. We have an ACTUAL CROWD FIGURE from a game in Perth. Up until now its been 'approx' crowds but here we have a crowd that seems to have been counted, not estimated based on ticket sales and I must say its good to see. Perth have once more posted a 4K+ crowd for the 13th straight time this season and on the game side of things it showed that the NBL top 4 is pretty much set and it would be (IMO) wrong if Cairns qualified now because I don't think they deserve to.

So there you have it, my take on Rd.23 of the NBL season. Nothing special this week really but it was good to see the bottom two teams pull good home crowds.

It has also been announced today by NZ Breakers General Manager Richard Clarke that the Breakers will in fact play all of their playoff games at the larger Vector Arena (capacity will be approximately 8,500 for the playoffs but that could rise if the demand is there). IMO its a pretty smart move to hold games at an arena that will be able to hold at least 4,000 more than their regular venue...and something earlier this season that I predicted might happen :p

http://www.nbl.com.au/news/article/2012/march/breakers-confirm-venue-dates-for-semi-finals/

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Anonymous
Years ago

Its good money wise, but u don't want to switch home court come play off time!! Just feel that they mite lose that advantage?? Not sure of witch teams played there? Kings was 1, when u got Perth or the blaze n crocs going in 1st time, think they should've just stayed at the nsec. Time will tell, just hope all games go to a game 3!

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Anonymous
Years ago

i think a big problem in Townsville is the CEO is happy with those numbers!

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HoldenV8
Years ago

How can anyone be happy with the crowds they are getting in Townsville? A 4 v 3 clash, and a Qld only game to boot and they still draw less than 4K (ok, they got close but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades). Not good.

The Breakers have played 3 games at Vector so far this season. They beat the Kings 76-59 in Rd.4 in front of 6,900 (or was it 6,300??). The Crocs arrived in Rd.8 and NZ won 88-74 in front of 4,571 and they again played the Kings in Rd.17 this time winning 93-64 in front of 7,979. All three games had attendances that could not have been achieved had they been played at the Events Centre.

Will they lose anything playing at Vector instead of the Events Centre? I doubt it. The Breakers are good enough, have already played there successfully and they'll have about 7-8K+ screaming Kiwi's cheering them on which will be a boost for them.

I wouldn't be surprised to see more than just 3 regular season games played there next year either. They could easily draw 6-7K to a game there against Perth or Sydney which will no doubt be better than a little more than half that at the Events Centre.

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Anonymous
Years ago

The Crocs I think have lost a lot of the die hards who supported the team since it's inception through natural attrition, moving town etc. They don't seem to have done a good enough job of attracting the next generation. There are still plenty of kids, families and b'ball fans at games but I think the average 18 to 35 in Townsville who doesn't play B'ball knows nothing about the Crocs and therefore don't attend games.
Need to work on the next generation with disposable income to view the Crocs as a viable entertainment option on weekends.

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Anonymous
Years ago

another great round of crowds, seems to average above 4000 pretty much every week now. league could only have dreamt about that a few years ago.

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HO
Years ago

Anon, that is ridiculous. The league dreams of averaging 5500 per game, not 4000. In no way are these "great" numbers.

Again, context... important venues supposedly with deep community reach, Townsville and Wollongong, are drawing poorly. Gold Coast is awful. Melbourne are squawking about record sell-outs when they should, given the basketball town Melbourne is, be selling out every game in a small venue.

According to Austadiums, crowds are up on average by 19 people per game this season from last, and that with big crowds at 2 Vector games drawing the average up.

4000 per game is a 10-15% increase on what has happened for most of the last decade - coming off a terrible low base and an era of shitty drawing teams like West Sydney/Spirit (920 people to one game) and Vic Giants playing at MSAC!

Yet, all the conditions exist for vastly better crowds compared to that era, no Wednesday games, more stable teams, better scheduling etc etc.

This is not negative, it's just the facts, and the facts are a very blurry message for the league when you consider the reasons crowds SHOULD be up and how poorly some markets are performing.

A-league crowds are up this year, but really only because Townsville aren't playing. I've commented on those "facts" here too.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Some good comments, but let's not forget that the NBL is still rebuilding after that shitty era where it was a lot worse. A 4000 average and growing (slowly) for the second year in a row is solid, and the league should continue to improve on that (wildcats at the arena next year will boost crowds further).

OK, 3 games were played at Vector, and the Kings and 36ers play in venues that hold over 7000. However, the Tigers, Breakers and Wildcats play in venues either smaller than the league average, or fractionally bigger than the average. Townsville, Cairns and Gold Coast play in 5000 seat capacity stadiums, and Wollongong is 6000. So basically, a 4000 average also means near capacity or good crowds for most teams, as they are limited by their smallish capacity.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Crowds are fantastic this year, look like being 5 - 10% up on last year. Really is impressive how things have steadily built the past few years and well done to those involved.

I am surprised, I thought with more weeknight and specially Sunday night games that they would have dropped off.

If Adelaide and Sydney can be more competitive and more games played at vector arena and perth arena there is real potential for more growth too.

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Anonymous
Years ago

HO,

The Razorbacks reportedly only got about 300 people to one game in their last season before the name change.

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HO
Years ago

Even I am struggling to believe that Anon, are you sure that was not a game featuring the Bankstown Bruins back in 1980 or something?

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Anonymous
Years ago

Nah, I'm pretty sure it was the supposed '900' game. It was mentioned a few times on various forums that that figure included non-attending season members or whatever and the real attendance was about 300.

Obviously they all juice up their attendances by including season ticket holders that don't turn up but yeah according to about 3-4 people that were diehard Razorbacks fans at the time they said 300 was the real attendance figure.

I know it officially counts as 900 though and yeah I remember the Victoria Giants only getting 900 to a game too, officially.

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Hoops

NBL Attendance - Round 23

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