General Cleary wants more crowd support

[warriors4life_old]

From sportal.com.au

by: Aaron Lawton
Sportal

Despite stringing four consecutive wins together, the New Zealand Warriors are still struggling to pull crowds to their home fixtures at Ericsson Stadium in Auckland.

On Saturday night 8723 punters turned up to watch the side trounce the Penrith Panthers 28-22, a figure up from the 6240 that witnessed its round 15 win over the Knights at home.

However, despite a marginal improvement in crowd attendance, the Warriors' crowd numbers are still at the bottom end of statistics for the NRL this year.

Big League magazine's round 17 issue has the Warriors as the club with the lowest crowd attendance in the competition.

The Warriors sit just below the Melbourne Storm with an average crowd of 8534, while the Brisbane Broncos at the other end of the spectrum regularly pull crowds on average of 28,722.

Speaking after his side's win over the Panthers, Warriors head coach Ivan Cleary said he didn't know why people were not fronting to watch his side perform.

"Maybe it's a bit too comfy watching it at home on tv, I don't know," he said.

The Warriors head to Sydney this week to take on the Canterbury Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon before returning home to play the Paramatta Eels in round 19.

Cleary admitted he would like to see more Warriors fans make the journey to Ericsson Stadium for what is shaping into a crucial match for his side's play-offs chances.

"I'd love it if more people came out to support the boys because they're working really hard and they are playing well," said Cleary.

"All we can do is try and play the best that we can."

"I'm certainly enjoying watching the games."

 

[warriors4life_old]

Surprising that Melbourne are 2nd lowest in crowd support when it is their team clear at the top of the table...

 

[Skinny_Ravs82]

*cries* want to move back to Auckland!! Damn it!! And guys next weekend's match is important. Our exiting fullback and our new one will be going against each other!!

 

[sebastian_old]

Geez i feel like hoping on a plane when i read stuff like that. Hopefully my dream will come true & i can move to NZ before i retire. The crowd did go up by 2000 which is pretty good & this salary cap drama has had a disatarous effect on crowd attendences i'm sure. I'd realisticly expecting at least 9-10,000 for the eels game but the guys deserve a 15,000 NZ crowd. If we beat the doggies we might get 12,500, it'll really make people take notice. You don't win 5 in a row without people noticing.

 

[Wiki_old]

Surprising that Melbourne are 2nd lowest in crowd support when it is their team clear at the top of the table...

The place is dominated by AFL.

It is amazing. I went to a game of AFL over there and Telstra Dome was packed out. Then I heard the Storm played and they got around 8000.

The place is sport crazy but they haven't take to league. They need to do some heavy promotional work.

 

[Wiki_old]

Geez i feel like hoping on a plane when i read stuff like that. Hopefully my dream will come true & i can move to NZ before i retire. The crowd did go up by 2000 which is pretty good & this salary cap drama has had a disatarous effect on crowd attendences i'm sure. I'd realisticly expecting at least 9-10,000 for the eels game but the guys deserve a 15,000 NZ crowd. If we beat the doggies we might get 12,500, it'll really make people take notice. You don't win 5 in a row without people noticing.

Cullen Sports need to raise the profile of rugby league and now is the best time to do it because:

a) People are over-exposed to rugby because there is just too much on at the moment. Interest levels are dropping - just look at the crowd numbers.
b) Warriors are doing well for a change.

Again, there needs to be some promotional work done to get them back. The population is there, they just need some work in convicing them that this outfit will provide them with some entertainment.

 

[AmeriKiwi_old]

Geez i feel like hoping on a plane when i read stuff like that. Hopefully my dream will come true & i can move to NZ before i retire. The crowd did go up by 2000 which is pretty good & this salary cap drama has had a disatarous effect on crowd attendences i'm sure. I'd realisticly expecting at least 9-10,000 for the eels game but the guys deserve a 15,000 NZ crowd. If we beat the doggies we might get 12,500, it'll really make people take notice. You don't win 5 in a row without people noticing.

Unfortunately, it`ll take more than winning 4-5 games for people to take notice of just how well the Warriors are playing lately... they need to keep winning more often than they lose and people will gradually start returning to Ericsson.

 

[warriors4life_old]

I think part of it is the media coverage, I don't think I've seen an ad on TV this year telling people to get down to Ericsson for the game. There needs to be more coverage in the papers, TV and radio and more coverage on the Warriors in general, and I think that will encourage more people to get along to the games.

 

[Jesbass_old]

Surprising that Melbourne are 2nd lowest in crowd support when it is their team clear at the top of the table...

The place is dominated by AFL.

It is amazing. I went to a game of AFL over there and Telstra Dome was packed out. Then I heard the Storm played and they got around 8000.

The place is sport crazy but they haven't take to league. They need to do some heavy promotional work.

Four words: State Of Origin III.

 

[Wiki_old]

Four words: State Of Origin III.

You know what, I'm quite interested as to why they have taken to Origin and not to NRL.

Melbourne loves its sport and I wonder why they haven't taken to their own franchise.

I was actually quite surprised when I heard it was a sellout so quickly. But good on them.

Now if the Storm is kicking ass and they can fille Telstra Dome ...why can't they get more than 8,000 to their home games?

 

[warriors_ballboy_CEO_old]

The warriors have given out free tickets to the warriors game against the eels 2 for the price of 1

https://www.trademe.co.nz/Sports/Event-tickets/auction-61734360.htm

 

[Skinny_Ravs82]

Surprising that Melbourne are 2nd lowest in crowd support when it is their team clear at the top of the table...

The place is dominated by AFL.

It is amazing. I went to a game of AFL over there and Telstra Dome was packed out. Then I heard the Storm played and they got around 8000.

The place is sport crazy but they haven't take to league. They need to do some heavy promotional work.

Four words: State Of Origin III.

State of Origin as we all know is something of a totally different level. Its like a game all alone. There is different feeling to it then just a regular game.

 

[KeepingTheFaith_old]

The Victorians take to State of Origin for the same reasons they take to a Bledisloe Cup match. Victorians recognise and love a huge event. Week to week Storm matches aren't huge events. Victorians are very fickle in that regard.

 

[Skinny_Ravs82]

The Victorians take to State of Origin for the same reasons they take to a Bledisloe Cup match. Victorians recognise and love a huge event. Week to week Storm matches aren't huge events. Victorians are very fickle in that regard.

Absolutely! I need to teach them some manners! lol

 

[D Generation X_old]

We do need more crowd support like the bulldogs at telestra stadium

 

[Jesbass_old]

Surprising that Melbourne are 2nd lowest in crowd support when it is their team clear at the top of the table...

The place is dominated by AFL.

It is amazing. I went to a game of AFL over there and Telstra Dome was packed out. Then I heard the Storm played and they got around 8000.

The place is sport crazy but they haven't take to league. They need to do some heavy promotional work.

Four words: State Of Origin III.

State of Origin as we all know is something of a totally different level. Its like a game all alone. There is different feeling to it then just a regular game.

While I don't disagree with you, Skins, it is still rugby league, and it was still in Victoria. If nothing else, it would have caught the attention of a few Victorians who wouldn't normally see rugby league.

 

[warriors4life_old]

Yeah, the tickets sold out pretty quickly in Melbourne, though a lot of fans would be travelling there from either NSW or Queensland though.