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The Australian Championship 🇦🇺🏆

Monoethnic Social Club said:
You posted that you viewed the tournament as a "one off" and I was wondering why? If you expect them to grow and question whether they are capable of doing so or not, then its pretty promising (at least from my point of view) that crowds where almost double/triple what most are getting for regular NPL as recently as a few month ago.
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Should have worded it different. What I meant to say is that it is a new comp so I anticipated higher crowds than usual to start of with before naturally tapering of a little bit, similar to when the A league started, or the Big bash for example.

Some view Souths 6k crowd as dissapointing (some were saying 10k beforehand), but I think 6k is great.

Some view Sydney Uniteds crowd of 2k great, I think its extremely dissapointed, expected at least double.

If the clubs can build on these figures, great, but its naturally expected the crowds will be slightly lower than the opening round, as it is with most sports etc.
 
biggiemic said:
Should have worded it different. What I meant to say is that it is a new comp so I anticipated higher crowds than usual to start of with before naturally tapering of a little bit, similar to when the A league started, or the Big bash for example.

Some view Souths 6k crowd as dissapointing (some were saying 10k beforehand), but I think 6k is great.

Some view Sydney Uniteds crowd of 2k great, I think its extremely dissapointed, expected at least double.

If the clubs can build on these figures, great, but its naturally expected the crowds will be slightly lower than the opening round, as it is with more sports etc.
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My bad then I misunderstood your comment... all good and a tend to agree. I was one of the ones disappointed at a sub 10k crowd for South.. mostly because I thought the 9 thousand odd neutral Victorian football fans that watched the Australia Cup final would show South more love..... :(

Upon reflection though Ive gotta say 7k for a second tier competition/club is pretty bloody good.. Preston strong and even Bergers, South Hobart, Syd United all decent numbers, with the smaller regional NPL clubs doing above 1K also a fantastic effort..

Im not sure I agree that the crowd will drop off, can only judge the atmosphere on Friday night but there will be plenty back to experience more of the same, expecting 4k+ on Sunday for South just on "return business" alone. Hopefully the weather helps the Sydney teams.

2K at a massive club like Sydney Croatia may seem low to you , but success breeds success, crowds bring crowds... All I really wanted to see from this (my insufferable one eyed love for Hellas aside) is substantial increase in set up/crowds/interest/coverage to what these clubs get in the NPL .... I think, after one round we can safely say that is occurring?
 
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I think the expectations need to be reset here.

Getting 2-3K to a second tier competition is a pretty good effort. These teams have been out of the spotlight for the better part of two decades.

For instance, if we get a crowd of 2-3K against Moreton City, that's a damn good crowd figure. To get big crowds, you'd need a South v Preston or South v Heidelberg to start getting close to anything like 7-8K.
 
SMFC1959 said:
I think the expectations need to be reset here.

Getting 2-3K to a second tier competition is a pretty good effort. These teams have been out of the spotlight for the better part of two decades.

For instance, if we get a crowd of 2-3K against Moreton City, that's a damn good crowd figure. To get big crowds, you'd need a South v Preston or South v Heidelberg to start getting close to anything like 7-8K.
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I wouldn’t have thought it would hugely different to something like the Scottish championship for example.
I’d imagine it would be made up of high invaluable proud historic football clubs who also would be getting a few thousand to games
 
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SMFC1959 said:
I think the expectations need to be reset here.

Getting 2-3K to a second tier competition is a pretty good effort. These teams have been out of the spotlight for the better part of two decades.

For instance, if we get a crowd of 2-3K against Moreton City, that's a damn good crowd figure. To get big crowds, you'd need a South v Preston or South v Heidelberg to start getting close to anything like 7-8K.
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I completely agree with you on each point.

My problem is, people say 2/3k for a second tier is "a pretty good effort" and whip up excuses such as weather etc, but when A-league teams get 5k the same people say its literally the end of the world and a disgrace.
 
Glenardo said:


Good initiative from the club here, again, clearly putting in a level of effort that previously wouldn’t have been seen at npl level
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LUV it Glenardo !
Some rippa players of old, surely Harper couldn't last 5mins haha
Too caught up Saturday - do you reckon this pre game will be on the coverage ?
 
biggiemic said:
I completely agree with you on each point.

My problem is, people say 2/3k for a second tier is "a pretty good effort" and whip up excuses such as weather etc, but when A-league teams get 5k the same people say its literally the end of the world and a disgrace.
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the fact of the matter is because its talked up so much over the years - despite the drop in broadcast $ it still has odddles more than semi pros and the fact its a Pro comp.
Its chalk and cheese financially and Media wise.
So yer small crowds at semi pro games - 20yrs lacking anything much I seriously don't know how anyone behind the Pro league puff the chest out over semi pro smaller crowds.
As Mono mentions and rightfully so - the numbers are better than the norm NPL comp games, thats a plus mark from the get go.
People could have gone WGAF but its looking promising, small steps mate small steps as long as it above winter numbers its Improvement drawing extras in.
 
Glenardo said:
Doubt it, maybe i missed it but I didn’t see much pre game coverage from the last weekends matches
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we might be lucky G, says 12.30 - half hour before your koff.
Fingers crossed and good luck mate - seems this Sth Hobart punch above their weight - you need "finish" in this game.
 
biggiemic said:
I completely agree with you on each point.

My problem is, people say 2/3k for a second tier is "a pretty good effort" and whip up excuses such as weather etc, but when A-league teams get 5k the same people say its literally the end of the world and a disgrace.
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Not to harp on it etc coz again, I have no problem with the a league. I support Australian soccer at all levels, I like going to games at all levels, national team, a league, championship, npl. I’ve said it many times, I have no problem the a league clubs for the most part and I think there was a demand for the founding of Melb victory, Sydney fc, wanderers etc

The problem Is when you start lowering your standards to accept teams like western and MacArthur who no one ever asked for at the expense of historical traditional clubs who were actively excluded for not being able to meet certain standards. Im sure many of the people on this forum of a certain age will remember when the league started 1 of the criteria was being able to achieve average crowds of around 10k.

Again, Sydney fc, wanderers, victory..great, they clearly add something to the landscape of Australian club soccer, but clubs like western and MacArthur don’t justify the exclusion of the traditional clubs. That’s the difference. Again, I’ve probably attended more a league games than most of the younger self styled “ultras” since the leagues inception
 
LFC said:
we might be lucky G, says 12.30 - half hour before your koff.
Fingers crossed and good luck mate - seems this Sth Hobart punch above their weight - you need "finish" in this game.
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Yea you’d think this would have to be a must win. Frustratingly it’s gonna be very hard for me to make a Saturday midday kick off as much as id like to,
will do my best
 
Pasquali said:
How many fans would victory get if they were out of national football for two decades?
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On the flip side, did any of these NSL clubs average what Victory have averaged in the top tier?

I assume the answer is no.

We just need to be realistic rather than turn on each other for no reason.
 
Zelen Fc said:
I don’t know what the obsession with crowds is so relevant in this country go to any second division club in the world they would be on par with our crowds maybe even less
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The same can be said about the A-league, both A league and Championship crowds are good.
 
Glenardo said:
Not to harp on it etc coz again, I have no problem with the a league. I support Australian soccer at all levels, I like going to games at all levels, national team, a league, championship, npl. I’ve said it many times, I have no problem the a league clubs for the most part and I think there was a demand for the founding of Melb victory, Sydney fc, wanderers etc

The problem Is when you start lowering your standards to accept teams like western and MacArthur who no one ever asked for at the expense of historical traditional clubs who were actively excluded for not being able to meet certain standards. Im sure many of the people on this forum of a certain age will remember when the league started 1 of the criteria was being able to achieve average crowds of around 10k.

Again, Sydney fc, wanderers, victory..great, they clearly add something to the landscape of Australian club soccer, but clubs like western and MacArthur don’t justify the exclusion of the traditional clubs. That’s the difference. Again, I’ve probably attended more a league games than most of the younger self styled “ultras” since the leagues inception
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Correct, and who made these decisions to add those two horrendous clubs.

If we were to add say South Melbourne and Marconi to the Aleague, im sure the majority of fans of Aleague teams would be happy to have them clubs included, or wouldn't not care to have them in etc.

What were the crowd attendances of Macarthur and Western United, 3/4k average? You could take the alternate view point and say this is pretty good for clubs that literally have no history?
 
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