We’re
only four weeks into the NRL season, yet there have been murmurs since the
first kick-off that crowds are looking poorer.
The NRL
scrapped the regular Monday night fixture from the 2017 schedule in lieu of a
weekly Thursday night game instead. This has been met with a lukewarm response
at best, while some changes to kick-off times on Friday night have also taken
place, which have had quite a dramatic impact on attendances.
In 2016,
the Monday night games had averaged 13,522 fans – a sharp rise on the two years
prior. In 2014 the Monday fixtures were at their lowest, drawing just 11,606
people to each game on average.
That rose again in 2015 to 12,212.
In 2017,
the Thursday night games have reeled in 12,952 per game so far, already a
noticeable drop.
Friday
nights now have two games live on TV, with one starting at 6pm and the second
at 8pm, while the Thursday game kicks off at 8pm, as opposed to the 7pm
kick-off time of the Monday night games from last year. The attendances for
Friday night games is well down this year, too, averaging less than 20,000 for
the first time since 2008 and at its lowest average since 2001.
If
viewing audience or crowd numbers were a reason for scrapping the Monday night
games, why then replace it with a later game on a Thursday night?
The
problem is that the people making decisions about the schedule aren’t the sort
of people they are hoping to attract to the stadiums and TVs to watch the
games. The vast majority of people who attend and watch have jobs Monday to
Friday from 8am until 5pm.
Doesn’t
matter if you are in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Auckland, Newcastle,
Canberra, Tarcutta, Barcaldine or Waipu, if you finish at 5pm, you will be in
for a mad rush to get home and in front of the idiot box in time for kick-off,
while still having to feed yourself and prepare yourself for the next day at
work.
It’s
immensely harder if you decide to attend the game, with the final siren
sounding close to 10pm, the challenge of attending games on a weeknight when
you have to go to work the next day becomes one that most people opt against.
And
that’s only the struggle for single people. It becomes more and more
complicated the more people who are added to the mix, especially if some of
those are schoolkids or toddlers. Simply put, games on at night from Monday to
Thursday are doomed to struggle.
From
1908-40 no premiership games were played on a Friday. From 1941-87, 29 games
were played on Fridays sporadically every few seasons, with 15 of those played
on ANZAC Day.
The
switch from attending games to watching them on TV had an immense impact on how
people consume the sport. It made it infinitely easier for vastly more people
to watch more games, yet despite this there is still some ignorance by the NRL
regarding the lives people have away from the game.
The NRL
has plenty of issues to deal with here. They’ve seemingly decided that they
don’t want to restrict themselves to just three days a week of football,
despite the fact it would improve turnaround times – benefitting players and
clubs wholly.
They also
need to find a way to get games on earlier for fans, especially those in New
Zealand who don’t want to stay up until midnight to watch a game end, yet at
the same time not start games too early in Australia because people won’t be
able to get to venues or a television in time.
So
perhaps a simpler option is to have no games on from Monday to Thursday, one
game on Friday at 7pm, four games on Saturday with kick off times at 1pm, 3pm,
5pm and 7pm, with three games on Sunday starting at 1pm, 3pm and 5pm.
****This article appeared on Commentary Box Sports website on March 28, 2017****
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