Crowd numbers...should we be worried?

[john_kowolski]

Geez, just under 8000? Where was everyone? I know HSC is over and the weather was average, but we normally pull OK crowds for Adelaide games. It was also sad to see that with all of the promotion of the 500,000 it never eventuated

I can't help but notice crowd numbers have been down this year, but haven't membership numbers risen???

I think promotion has been good, heard the ads on Sea FM, read the ads in the Express and even saw some motorbikes carrying trailer ads at Tuggerah yesterday talking about $49 family pass.

In the past we have struggled for crowds for the home games against Wellington, Perth and sometimes Qld, so do we need more marketing? I'm in favour of a 'superpass' which gives entry to two games for the price of about one and a half. If a higher discount was applied to families, maybe numbers would go up?

Also, maybe a 'part-time' member option next year might work, offering GA to half of the games at home, as selected by the club, against those we struggle to pull crowds to?

Just some thoughts..

 

[bjw]

It was predicted to rain/hail and thunder/lighting storm last night..

Families are going through tough times due to the economy at the moment..

 

[Gav...]

I know a few people who had to drop membership becuase they couldnt afford it, maybe a 4 game membersip or something will be a good ides. (i know it works well with the Sydney Swans)

Also there are alot of factors at the moment to remember, which could be why people arent turning out to see the games.

With the mariners now being 2nd and playing some good attacking football, we might see the crowd numbers go up. But i dont think we should be worrying too much at this stage, we gotta remember there is only 300,000 people on the central coast

 

[Gav...]

Looking at the average crowds and the population in the area.

Mariners - 1 in every 37.5  people on the central coast are coming
Sydney - 1 in every 333.3 people in sydney are turning up

I dont think we should be worried> sydney should be more worried than us

 

[marinermick]

Looking at the average crowds and the population in the area.

Mariners - 1 in every 200 people on the central coast are coming
Sydney - 1 in every 400 people in sydney are turning up

I dont think we should be worried> sydney should be more worried than us

300000/8000 = 1 in 37.5

5000000/15000 = 1 in 300 odd

don't know where you get your maths from harry

 

[Bladesman]

When you look at the current situation entertainment is one of the 1st thing that families cut back on so I don't think the crowds are too bad given the climate. 

Also I think the team also have too shoulder some blame, we seem to always put on awful performances at home when we do have a big crowd so 1st timers may be put off but in front of 8,000 when the weather is dodgey we are superb.

One other thing that has affected me this yeat is that I have taken a membership for me and my son for the 1st year this year but have found that has stopped me taking the rest of the family, friends, friends kids along with me like in previous seasons due to the fact that we can all sit together so compared to last seaon there where there would have be 20 -30 extra through the turnstile over 1st few games.

I would like to see a bit of flexibilty where I could change my seats when I wanted to take others along so we could all sit together.

 

[Gav...]

Looking at the average crowds and the population in the area.

Mariners - 1 in every 200 people on the central coast are coming
Sydney - 1 in every 400 people in sydney are turning up

I dont think we should be worried> sydney should be more worried than us

300000/8000 = 1 in 37.5

5000000/15000 = 1 in 300 odd

don't know where you get your maths from harry

My Mistake i dont like using calculators on the computer

 

[Jesus]

I think will have to see the average come seasons end. Was dissapointing last night, but i was fairly confident it was going to rain during the game.

I thought our last crowd was more concerning than this one.

On a positive was quite a bit of noise coming from the marinators last night.

 

[gull]

Another suggestion might be to make the memberships tranferrable again like V1.

I rarely miss a game but won't be able to make the next home game and I'm technically not supposed to give my card to anyone else (although what they don't know....).

We have had the same seats in the western stand since V1 and there are always empty seats where members & regulars can't make it. Even last year to the large crowd games.

Seems to me it would work on two fronts. Increased crowd numbers and getting new people to the game?

 

[Redline]

I didn't renew my membership this season as I've moved up to the Mid North Coast and wasn't sure how many games I'd be able to get to. I'm also no longer doing uni so the price obviously is substantially more then what I paid for last season PLUS with the new $190 for Bay 16 (can someone fill me in on that..is that JUST for the bay, or is that your membership, you just nominate the bay and it's a bit dearer then other memberships? I've not been on this site regularly in over 12 months).

If there was some sort of "Holiday Membership" to cover december/january games...that might help boost numbers as well.

 

[dru]

the new $190 for Bay 16 (can someone fill me in on that..is that JUST for the bay, or is that your membership, you just nominate the bay and it's a bit dearer then other memberships? I've not been on this site regularly in over 12 months).

For adult memberships bay and blue(GA) are/were both $190. It is nominated bay membership and includes a reserved seat.

 

[Redline]

Ah ok. THat gets rid of a lot of the emos and such that would sit down the front and talk on their phones and such.

 

[dru]

Country Hick they did also do an outrigger membership for people like you (living outside of a 75km radius of bluetongue stadium. $75 which included entry into three games (GA) plus membership pack/benfits

I would be interested to see where 75km radius is.

It was also a stipulation from FFA that supporters areas where reserved.

 

[Redline]

Oh really? THat's interesting to know. Still not sure I'd be _able_ to get to 3 games...I've only been able to make the opening game this season, and I missed the first 10 mins as it was.

But thanks for letting me know that Dru...I'll look at the draw and try to plan for 3 matches.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Ah ok. THat gets rid of a lot of the emos and such that would sit down the front and talk on their phones and such.

Not really, they were absent last night (thankfully) but they simply wait until KO and sidle across

 

[midfielder]

Yes we should be worried ...... weather was shit .......RW article did not help any either ........ but I can recall talking to one of the officials in Hal 2 , who said we need and average of 11, 000 to break even with budgets ..... we still have I think the smallest backers in money terms so money is important.

Not sure of the answer maybe a number of things coming together at the same time, the early start to the season during the Olympics then the AFL & NRL finals, the Depression / Recession on its way , Obrama, Telie  no having the football fever on Tuesday's, still on the weekend on local radio we hear of West Coast Eagle player who hurt his finger nail while swimming and nothing on the A-League in sports news broadcasts, I think in general the coverage in the Central Coast Advocate has been down on last year.

Having said all this under 8, 000 is a worry against a team that just played in the final of the Asia Cup and has been in the news for weeks.... what to do just keep coming bring friends ....ring local talk back .....the team to play with less belt the ball up field and play it out of the back .... a marquee signing remember JA despite everything we say of him increased our crowds hugely ....... 

Maybe to the CCL...... the new catering all you can eat and the room it takes up ....its OK once or twice but not every time and also went to CCL after the match last night to have a coffee and something to eat and the Farking coffee shop is closed and Fark its like 9:30 and no nibbles nothing other than beer and I was driving and had reached my limit at the match so left the club and the atmosphere that is their after a winning match...

 

[Sacko]

This week's crowd may have been impacted by the late change of dates, out of our 7 memberships 3 were unused last night.

 

[Mini In Bay 6]

Well lets look:

Round 2: 10,932 against Sydney - Derby, NRL/AFL noise all clubs suffer, New opening game record crowd.
Round 5: 9,010 against Meblourne - NRL/AFL Finals noise all clubs really suffer from. On par with the other three home matches we have had during Round 5.
Round 6: 8,016 Friday night match, same NRL/AFL Finals noise, against a dire Perth who we flogged 4-1.
Round 8: 9,011 against Welly. But was on a saturday night. Was an increase on the prior home match but against poor opposition was always going to struggle.
Round 9:  10,710 - Derby against newy, Friday night fixture and again a further increase on prior but should have got a few thousand more.
Round 11:  7,865 - Shit weather. I'd put our core crowd at 7K after this.  It was stroming up the top end of the coast, the clouds looked like death, any walkups or semi-interested would have stayed indoors.

I'm not worried yet. The crowds were trending up but that newy game should have got more arses on seats - and possibly would have if it was a saturday night fixture. On the upside we are heading into the better weather time and better crowds.

Our next match is against QLD on December 6 on a saturday night- looking at the history if we don't crack 13K for this match (If it rains though all bets are off) then i'd be concerned.  We then have a debry against sydney the next weekend which should get 15K (rain depending)and then next stop new years eve - which should sell out if we are going well (But historically it hasn't sold out yet and may never due to people wishing to do their own thing).

Just on NYE match, if we could stay in our seats after the match to watch the 9pm fireworks that would be awesome - and if they kept the bars open that would be sweet too.

 

[Paolo]

..... we still have I think the smallest backers in money terms so money is important.

correct me if im wrong.....but arn't we one of the most sponsored sports sides in Australia and one of the best backed in the league(well atleast best organised)

 

[clarence]

I don't think that last night was trully representative of what the Coast can offer in crowd size.

1) The match was a re schedule, and a number of people who had season tickets would have looked at the match calendar, looked at the free dates, and made other arrangements if something else was on offer.

2) Post HSC parties can't be overlooked. There's a decent amount of 16 - 21 yos supporting the Mariners. Maybe the parents would have gone, but the kids might have gone to some party. Fair enough.

3) Weather was looking menacing. But didn't really happen. If it had poured down with a thunderstorm at halftime, those that stayed home would have been justified.

4) The club, and it's media associates, really need to push a little harder for the air time and column space. There's too much chatter about off season RL/RU & even the cricket is getting more space than last year or two. That RL- WC caper is really taking up too much of this valuable media exposure for what it really is (IMHO not much more than a showcase event).

5) Bandwagon effect. The club has itself to blame for not so many bandwagoners this year. They had an opportunity to get into the minds of the people when they had a decent crowd vs. Wellington, and they played like retards. It was only the extra away fans for Newcastle that made the next match bigger. Anyone coming to a Mariners match this season would have walked away from the Wellington match saying, 'well they aren't like last year'.
At least the win at home vs. Adelaide will spread the word, but the team really starts needing to thrash some of the teams below us, show some dead set mongrel and the crowds will come in.