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A sunny afternoon Wests Tigers game in Campbelltown used to mean a packed house . . . . on Sunday, only 9715 turned up. With only four local games of NRL each year, standing room _should_ be at a premium. So what has happened to our city’s willingness to turn up and cheer? Scott Dougherty and Ben Chenoweth report.
WESTS TIGERS said the decision to take the only home game at their suburban grounds on a Sunday afternoon to Leumeah has cost them more than $100,000.
‘‘If we played at Leichhardt on a sunny Sunday we’d fill it,’’ a clearly frustrated chief executive Stephen Humphreys told the Advertiser after the match at a half-full Campbelltown Stadium.
‘‘It’s over a $100,000 turn- around for us in the decision to play here instead of there.’’
Mr Humphreys said a crowd of 13,000 would have been a pass mark — well short of the 20,000 capacity.
It’s only the second time since the Tigers 2005 premiership that a crowd of less than 10,000 have attended an NRL game at the ground.
The decision to grant Campbelltown the only Sunday game at a suburban venue this season had clearly backfired on the club.
‘‘We only had one Sunday afternoon game to take to a suburban venue this year and we decided to bring it to Campbelltown despite hours of protests from those who love Leichhardt,’’ Mr Humphreys said.
‘‘So to draw less than 10,000 on a sunny Sunday is really disappointing.’’
Many local fans say tickets are too expensive, something the club may look to address.
‘‘It’s difficult for us to put the game on for less than that, but that’s one of the things we’ll do a bit of research on,’’ he said.
Other fans, such as Councillor Paul Lake, said it’s the lack of variety of opposition teams that are brought to Campbelltown that fails to grab the attention of fans.
The Tigers have hosted Penrith five times the past six seasons and Canberra four out of the past five.
Yet they haven’t played St George Illawarra at the venue since 2002 and have yet to host South Sydney in the club’s 13-year history.
The disconnection between the Concord-based club and the Campbelltown community may be another reason for a poor crowd.
‘‘Obviously there’s a lot more things to do to endear ourselves to the local community,’’ Mr Humphreys said.
When asked if it would be commercially viable for small crowds to continue at Campbelltown, Mr Humphreys said the club was here for the long term and they needed to be better at encouraging fans to attend.
“We’re a long way behind what we budgeted to do for this game,” he said. "That will bring financial pressure on us.
"If there’s more of that, ultimately it has to have consequences.
“I don’t want that to be reported in a threatening way — it’s not about ‘we’re not going to play here any more’, it’s more about finding ways to ensure people come along to enjoy the footy.”
Mr Humphreys also said leading up to the local game, tickets to the Leichhardt game another week away were selling faster.
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I was at Campbelltown last Sunday and must admit I was surprised at the size of the crowd especially since the conditions for football were good. The cost of tickets may be an issue with many young families in the area having to decide on priorities regarding where their money is spent but there must be more to it than this. Humphreys mentioned researching the cost of the tickets but he needs to widen his net to see what other issues are involved.
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Cost of tickets and poor engagement with the area.
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It was definately a disappointing crowd. There are lots of factors why the crowd was rather low. Taking matches away will only hurt further attendances and the communities ‘feel’ to the club.
Posted using RoarFEED 2013
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Why would a Westie pay 120 bucks to take his kids to sit on the hill at Campbelltown??
esp against Penrith for the fifth time in 6 seasons?? If wasn’t against a rubbish team thats has been pretty rubbish for about a decade, against a team you’ve seen that many times at Ctown already that it feels like groundhog day when you go, and when you know that the CEO and Administration of your club are just using Ctown enough to cover there arses and take all the juniors… you’d think twice after a while. Esp when you’re watching Braith Anasta getting paid $4000 a week to suck in his gut for 80 mins (or less) a weekend before driving back to Coogee and his WAG Wife.
HUMPTY YOU SHOULD BE HAPPY YOU GOT 9000 IN THERE. If I invited you over to my house to eat boiled cabbage 4 times a year I wouldn’t show you the bill if you didn’t like the taste.
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If I invited you over to my house to eat boiled cabbage 4 times a year I wouldn’t show you the bill if you didn’t like the taste.
Impressive analogy.
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We need to have bigger crowds if we want to see more games at our traditional homes.
If this trend continues the club would be better off playing less at those two grounds and taking more guaranteed $$$.
The excuse of opposition speaks more to the attitude of the fanbase who didn’t attend then anything else. I would hate to be relying on our completely fickle supporter base as our only income stream, that is for sure
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‘‘We only had one Sunday afternoon game to take to a suburban venue this year and we decided to bring it to Campbelltown despite hours of protests from those who love Leichhardt,’’ Mr Humphreys said.
Who protested?
Who was asked?
My take on it……it sounds like he’s saying fans were consulted and given options before they sttled on a venue schedule.
The article infers those that reside in Cambo and surrounds only attend this venue, & didnt turn up on Sunday.
I know people that are from Parra, Dogs, Souths, Manly Penrith districts that were there.
Pointing the finger at a so called section of the fan base while patting another on the head only serves to prolong the division we still see 14 seasons on. -
‘‘If we played at Leichhardt on a sunny Sunday we’d fill it,’’ a clearly frustrated chief executive Stephen Humphreys told the Advertiser
Then why didn’t you?
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@Allan Towle:
It was definately a disappointing crowd. There are lots of factors why the crowd was rather low. Taking matches away will only hurt further attendances and the communities ‘feel’ to the club.
Posted using RoarFEED 2013
Im sure distance is one factor for many
Cambos twice the distance from my place compared to LO, but on a Sunday I get there in half the time. -
‘‘We only had one Sunday afternoon game to take to a suburban venue this year and we decided to bring it to Campbelltown despite hours of protests from those who love Leichhardt,’’ Mr Humphreys said.
Who protested?
Who was asked?
My take on it……it sounds like he’s saying fans were consulted and given options before they sttled on a venue schedule.
The article infers those that reside in Cambo and surrounds only attend this venue, & didnt turn up on Sunday.
I know people that are from Parra, Dogs, Souths, Manly Penrith districts that were there.
Pointing the finger at a so called section of the fan base while patting another on the head only serves to prolong the division we still see 14 seasons on.This is what i’ve been saying all along. How can we say we are one club yet continue to put the onus on each sides previous supporter base to get to games at their half’s home game. Shouldn’t it be WT’s fans responsibility everywhere to get to games? it’s been 13 yrs hasn’t it, we are suppose to be a club united aren’t we?
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@smeghead:
We need to have bigger crowds if we want to see more games at our traditional homes.
If this trend continues the club would be better off playing less at those two grounds and taking more guaranteed $$$.
The excuse of opposition speaks more to the attitude of the fanbase who didn’t attend then anything else. I would hate to be relying on our completely fickle supporter base as our only income stream, that is for sure
It is a downward spiral to becoming a club with no heart and spirit.
What is the product? It is Wests v Opposition #1-15. Each opposition generally plays at the same venue with only minimal rotation because we continue to take “big” games to the same venue to lock in the dollars. It then means force feeding the same low rating opposition teams at the same venue year after year. It becomes a homogeneous & boring product and as every season passes, consumers have less propensity to purchase the same product. We have not played Souths at Campbelltown since the inception of our club 13 years ago - that is an amazing fact.
Anyway, what is the solution? Of course, let’s take games away from Campbelltown and Leichhardt because crowds are low. A self fulfilling downward spiral to remove the soul and spirit upon which this club was built. Wests must improve the engagement.
Further, I think this quote is disgusting:
‘‘If we played at Leichhardt on a sunny Sunday we’d fill it,’’ a clearly frustrated chief executive Stephen Humphreys told the Advertiser after the match at a half-full Campbelltown Stadium.
Again, ostracising one half of the fan base. I have never seen him make blatant comments like that. Maybe with the change of voting rights on the board, he wants to get sacked.
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It unnerves me that this guy subscribes to the “Leichhardt Good” “Campbelltown Bad” myth. They are both fantastic venues. He is a Balmain boy and he just can’t help himself.
Bring back Steve Noyce. A decent man who has a good footy brain and understands matchday economics.
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@Gary Bakerloo:
@smeghead:
We need to have bigger crowds if we want to see more games at our traditional homes.
If this trend continues the club would be better off playing less at those two grounds and taking more guaranteed $$$.
The excuse of opposition speaks more to the attitude of the fanbase who didn’t attend then anything else. I would hate to be relying on our completely fickle supporter base as our only income stream, that is for sure
It is a downward spiral to becoming a club with no heart and spirit.
What is the product? It is Wests v Opposition #1-15. Each opposition generally plays at the same venue with only minimal rotation because we continue to take “big” games to the same venue to lock in the dollars. It then means force feeding the same low rating opposition teams at the same venue year after year. It becomes a homogeneous & boring product and as every season passes, consumers have less propensity to purchase the same product. We have not played Souths at Campbelltown since the inception of our club 13 years ago - that is an amazing fact.
Anyway, what is the solution? Of course, let’s take games away from Campbelltown and Leichhardt because crowds are low. A self fulfilling downward spiral to remove the soul and spirit upon which this club was built. Wests must improve the engagement.
Further, I think this quote is disgusting:
‘‘If we played at Leichhardt on a sunny Sunday we’d fill it,’’ a clearly frustrated chief executive Stephen Humphreys told the Advertiser after the match at a half-full Campbelltown Stadium.
Again, ostracising one half of the fan base. I have never seen him make blatant comments like that. Maybe with the change of voting rights on the board, he wants to get sacked.
I honestly believe football support is not about attending the games because you like the opposition or think it will be exciting. This is what we are missing.
More then any other factor I believe we are actually seeing the gap in support that came about because of the JV’s formation and it’s lack of initial success. Our next big surge of fans from our beginnings of success in 2005 are at least 3 years from the financial independence required for consistent support.
Until that time we are depending on the fan base of my generation and the one that followed. Those who go when the team is doing well or they like the prospects of a match-up because that is what they have always done and that is what bought each club to the point they were in 1999.
We have a few years of fickle crowds ahead of us and it isn’t about a demographic of Western Suburbs v inner City it is about a gaping hole in our fan base succession bought about by our birth.
That is my take and for mine it means our current fickle fans need to man up
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I live @ Bradbury which is a stones throw from Campbelltown Stadium, all my family & i have season tickets. The crowd last Sunday was shocking, no questions asked, the reason i think is several. The Balmain supporters dont seem to travel out to Campbelltown Stadium & i think the Wests side of the Merger think they are hard done by as they are putting in the majority of the money for little return, & then Humphries turns around & says silly things makes it worse. I love going to Leichhardt Oval as its a great ground to watch footy at & as someone said Campbelltown seems to get the dud games.
