More talk on Campbelltown's first crowd of 2013

[slammerman]

http://www.macarthuradvertiser.com.au/story/1390270/campbelltown-tigers-crowd-a-let-down/?cs=1437

Campbelltown's Tigers crowd a let-down
By Scott Dougherty

THE two main reasons given to the Advertiser from Campbelltonians on why only 9715 people were at the Wests Tigers v Penrith Panthers match on a sunny Sunday afternoon were: ticket prices were too expensive and they had a lack of connection with the club.

The Wests Tigers say they will take all comments on board and work on ways to get the masses to better support the local club.

"Wests Tigers fans didn't respond to that game like we'd hoped and it's good for us to understand the obstacles people faced in getting to the game," chief executive Stephen Humphreys told the Advertiser yesterday.

"We take the feedback very seriously and thank the people who took their time to do it.

"For us it's about recognising it was a poor crowd and learn some lessons about why."

Humphreys wanted to emphasise any poor crowd was a whole club problem, not a blight on south-west Sydney supporters or inner-west supporters.

"There were a lot of Macarthur fans at Leichhardt on Friday night — I spoke to a lot of them," Humphreys said.

"It's a Wests Tigers issue, it's not about a region of fans or who you previously supported [before the merger].

"It's not about pointing the finger at one district or another."

As for ticket prices, he said families might not have known about the family fun day packages available, with family tickets costing only $50 for the game.

"We take that on board and will look at addressing getting our information out to more people," he said. "We did have radio, print and digital media advertising for that game."

The Advertiser Facebook page and website got more than 100 comments from locals giving their views.

Humphreys said the re-signing of Robbie Farah sets up the club for a strong future on and off the field.

"He carries the responsibilities associated with captaining the club really well and his re-signing was a tonic for the club," he said.

"He was superb for us on Friday and his contract is thoroughly deserved."

 

[Black_n_White]

Thats alot better from the club…. even I will give props to Humpty for possibly finally figuring it out.

 

[IronTiger]

Club can't be blamed if people don't do their research, i.e about the $50 family tickets. I knew about it and wasn't looking. I think sometimes its a convienient excuse. You either want to go or you don't, which is perfectly fine but please don't blame anyone else for your desisons or if you have'nt bothered taking the effort to do things properly.

 

[Juro]

A well written article. Good to see Humphreys making the right noises. Now the club needs to back it up with action.

 

[Abraham]

I hear the excuse about 'not identifying with the club' alot.

What exactly does this mean?

I don't live in either the Macarthur or the Inner West, so I dont see players signing posters at the local shops, I never had Tigers players coming to my school, and there was never anything Tiger's related in the local newspapers. But i have still bloody well supported the club all my life!

These sorts of activities might be aimed at getting new people interested in the club, i accept that. But the Magpies have been in the area since the 1980's and the Wests Tigers for the past 13 years. Thats more than enough time for locals to grow an afinity with the club **if they choose to**.

Campbelltown is unique in that the population is not as established as other areas of Sydney, and many new people move into the area while still supporting other clubs. I just think thats the reality, and will be the reality for many years to come, until the area matures and the younger generations with no links to other areas/clubs become the dominant demographic.

The other solution (which happens to be my personal favourite), is for the side to consistently win games this year and create a buzz in the community that will naturally draw people to games !

 

[LaT]

Nice to see our CEO reading the forum.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

At least our record there in recent times is nothing to whinge about

 

[Gary_Bakerloo]

Time to reconnect. Go back to 6 & 6.

Our identity is then clear. We are an inner west and outer west club. We are not an inner west, inner city & outer west club.

Give fans a club to be identified with.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

A great way to connect would be to set up camp and train there in the weeks leading up to games there, likewise with Leichhardt. How long has it been since they have trained at either venue?

 

[hammertime]

Honestly, I don't think there is any excuse. Lower crowds means Wests Tigers won't have enough rationale to invest into the region.

Cambo based supporters need to realize that if they support the club, the club will support the region. The Wests Tigers are trying hard, through time and money to connect. It just doesn't seem to be working.

 

[Gary_Bakerloo]

Cambo based supporters need to realize that if they support the club, the club will support the region. The Wests Tigers are trying hard, through time and money to connect. It just doesn't seem to be working.

What a load of rubbish. The ground averaged 16,000 in 2011, so in the space of 12 months time, all of a sudden nothing is working?

 

[hammertime]

Cambo based supporters need to realize that if they support the club, the club will support the region. The Wests Tigers are trying hard, through time and money to connect. It just doesn't seem to be working.

What a load of rubbish. The ground averaged 16,000 in 2011, so in the space of 12 months time, all of a sudden nothing is working?

Tell me why then?

It's because of all this negativity. It only grows every time people protest or don't turn up to support the club, especially when it's obvious they are making a specific effort with that side of the JV. Especially when they don't at least curb their endless whinging.

Tell me what you would like the club to do more? Because the club has never done anything to connect with me besides my passion for them since I was 5 years old. I buy membership & jerseys every year. I don't care that they don't try to 'connect' with me.

I don't really know what is going on out there. But if it's a protest move, Cambo supporters are hurting their cause, not helping it.

 

[Gary_Bakerloo]

I don't think fans are protesting. It is just fatigue of getting only 3 or 4 games per year and the opposition is generally the same (Canberra, Penrith, Gold Coast etc).

Feature games like St. George-Ill, Souths, Canterbury etc always taken to the SFS.

Manly is playing at Campbelltown this season for the first time since 1998\. Why should the area have to wait over 15 years to watch a traditional rival?

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Cambo based supporters need to realize that if they support the club, the club will support the region. The Wests Tigers are trying hard, through time and money to connect. It just doesn't seem to be working.

What a load of rubbish. The ground averaged 16,000 in 2011, so in the space of 12 months time, all of a sudden nothing is working?

Tell me why then?

It's because of all this negativity. It only grows every time people protest or don't turn up to support the club, especially when it's obvious they are making a specific effort with that side of the JV. Especially when they don't at least curb their endless whinging.

Tell me what you would like the club to do more? Because the club has never done anything to connect with me besides my passion for them since I was 5 years old. I buy membership & jerseys every year. I don't care that they don't try to 'connect' with me.

**I don't really know what is going on out there. But if it's a protest move, Cambo supporters are hurting their cause, not helping it.**

Here we go again, dividing the supporter base. Did you read the part where Humpty said he spoke to a number of people from the area who were at Leichhardt the other night? maybe, just maybe the problem isn't the Cambo people but the people outside of Cambo who constantly complain that its too far. There have been several people complain on here about that very thing justifying that argument. If you want to point the finger, point the finger at everyone not one section

 

[Staks]

There are two reasons for the poor crowd:

1) Cost per ticket. Leichhardt's success has mean't that prices have increased at the traditional grounds. The club is trying to make every cent it can from the big crowds at Leichhardt. Over the past 4 years price of a GA ticket has increased from $18 to $25 and now to $30\. The bandwagon will pay this for a game at the old girl.

2) Most so called Wests Tigers fans (around 90%) are fickle bandwagoners who pick and choose which ground to travel to based on who they previously supported before the joint venture and/or the current success of the team.

Cheers
:sign:

 

[system]

Shit crowd for Round 2.

But there is a reason crowds are assessed on season averages

 

[Fade_To_Black]

There are two reasons for the poor crowd:

1) Cost per ticket. Leichhardt's success has mean't that prices have increased at the traditional grounds. The club is trying to make every cent it can from the big crowds at Leichhardt. Over the past 4 years price of a GA ticket has increased from $18 to $25 and now to $30\. The bandwagon will pay this for a game at the old girl.

2) Most so called Wests Tigers fans (around 90%) are fickle bandwagoners who pick and choose which ground to travel to based on who they previously supported before the joint venture and/or the current success of the team.

Cheers
:sign:

Totally agree with all that. A lot of people go to places and events these days simply because it is the "cool place to be" (ie Leichhardt games, Big Day Out, Melbourne Cup etc). Casual hangers-on will just follow the masses.

 

[innsaneink]

There are two reasons for the poor crowd:

1) Cost per ticket. Leichhardt's success has mean't that prices have increased at the traditional grounds. The club is trying to make every cent it can from the big crowds at Leichhardt. Over the past 4 years price of a GA ticket has increased from $18 to $25 and now to $30\. The bandwagon will pay this for a game at the old girl.

2) Most so called Wests Tigers fans (around 90%) are fickle bandwagoners who pick and choose which ground to travel to based on who they previously supported before the joint venture and/or the current success of the team.

Cheers
:sign:

The fickle ones are those online who bag out crowds of games they havent even attended themselves.

You know who you are.


 

[Demonborger]

ANZ/SFS is the future. All games vs Souths, Dogs, Parra, St George and Roosters will probably be there. Maybe Manly games too. That's 5 or 6 games. Memberships will probably include away games at those venues too. The centralised Melbourne model. The state government is following this stadium management strategy. The venues are centralised within the entire city (SFS not so much, ANZ yes). A 8k core + 8k core of another big Sydney team + a few more thousand bandwagoners and some neutrals could see us push towards a 20k+ leaguewide crowd average. That's want the NRL wants. Big stadiums get economies of scale too which reduces costs there.

Connections aren't what they were.
People have more access than ever, they can see every team play (pay tv sub is generally similar to ticket costs for families and will remain so). So people can pick a team on anything jersey, favourite player, success. This is true for everything, think of all the kids who "follow" and EPL team, they don't pick it because they live there, they chose it on whatever appeals to them.

Some people like more substantial connections to a team. Locality, peer pressure and family are probably the big three. Some kids go for the team their parents go for. Some kids go for the team their friends go for. Some kids support the local team.

House prices are a ponzi scheme. So if people want affordable they have to go to the city fringe. Hence the population growth in Macarthur, cheaper housing and more room for new housing stock. Like all migration it is very rare for people to become new people, adopt new likes and dislikes, new values and culture - so its rare to see a change of team supported. Particularly when they moved within the same metro area.

Then we have pricing which has to cover fixed cost, hence the high ticket prices, at both grounds. I guess memberships are good because it gives the clubs guaranteed funding for each game and allows them to get an idea of what items they need and the costs involved.

I doubt we'd ever see a 6/6 split again. We'd stay at 4/4/4 or maybe go back to 3/3/6 with the 4/6 maybe changing after the SFS deal runs out to ANZ, if the deal is good and the club wants.

Build up memberships, promote value for families. We're in an age were becoming insula won't help grow the support. But many people still want a connection or a reason. Macarthur an't be converted to 100% Wests Tigers fans but the ones there should be encouraged by the club.

I think maybe Wests Tigers could target a bigger presence in junior league and do more school stuff. Maybe even get all the secondary schools and primary schools together and run some inter school comps with the NRL tag rules. Market with participation and health/teamwork. Play at a centralised venues and have the NRL squad down there interacting.
Might convert some kids to become Wests Tigers fans, might even generate new fans. Would need to be participation based and not too physical so that it isn't just for the sporty boys.

Could do the same for inner west. League as a whole should be pushing a low contact version, kinda like touch/oztag by tactically more like proper league (kicking).

Just a side issue but anyone else think jnr footie is too focused upon being the production line of the future and the fun/activity/participation/recreational side has been ignored/neglected? Soccer by default picks up the reacreation/fun vibe and AFL is trying to manufacture it in jnr aussie rules too.

 

[wtfl1981]

Interesting response club considering its now 13 years into the JV. Having to 'reconnect' with the area. 13 years ago WT played there first games against broncos at a packed Campbelltown and now WT have lost a their stronghold on the people and fanbase. 4 NRL games a year in a massive growth area. The shire is blessed with 12 NRL games a year and 24 games at Parramatta and Penrith and the South West are given a paltry 4 games.

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