Brumbies on cusp of record but seats still empty at GIO Stadium
Frustrated Brumbies chief executive Phil Thomson says the players are doing their part as the club desperately searches for ways to bring back Super Rugby crowds.
The Brumbies have won 10 straight games at Canberra Stadium – including their first two matches this season – but thousands of seats remain empty each week as disillusioned fans stay away from the struggling code.
Despite the impressive winning streak and some entertaining rugby, Canberra crowds are down 17 per cent this season after the opening two rounds averaged just 7267 fans.
Brumbies home crowds are down almost 15 per cent on their previous worst which was set just two years ago at 8391 per game.
It follows a trend across the country and the southern hemisphere competition with crowds also decreasing in South Africa and New Zealand.
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Thomson has introduced game-day initiatives for children, set up a new bar area, and even given away free beers this season, but it hasn’t worked.
It was thought a state of emergency in the ACT impacted the season-opener against the Queensland Reds but the crowd figure dropped further the following week against Melbourne Rebels.
The Brumbies host a third straight home game on Saturday against the Highlanders and Thomson hopes the double-header with Super W brings some back.
“It is quite frustrating because the team is doing everything they can, you can’t ask for more than winning all your home games,” Thomson told AAP.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8MPRROgn_A/
“We certainly would like more people and I think the team deserve to be playing in front of more people.”
The game was dragged through the mud in Australia last year when the Wallabies bombed at the World Cup as star Israel Folau went through a messy divorce with Rugby Australia.
It’s a tough scenario for Rugby Australia as it attempts to negotiate a new broadcast deal vital to covering the game’s costs.
Thomson conceded the national problems were affecting the spiralling crowd numbers in Canberra.
“That’s certainly got something to do with it,” he said.
Mark Robinson, the chief executive of New Zealand Rugby, has had his say on reports that South Africa are planning to join the Six Nations.https://t.co/jt8njNZI2o
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 10, 2020
“At the moment we seem to be focusing more on what’s happening off the field, which nine times out of 10 brings negative publicity to the game.
“People see another headline about rugby and it’s not positive so they think rugby’s not in a good space – ‘Why should I go and watch that’.
“For varying reasons people just aren’t connecting with the game. We feel we’re doing everything we can but there is that disconnect somewhere along the line.
“The product of rugby is not resonating as well as it has in the past.
“But I think it can certainly come back, all sports go through highs and lows.”
– AAP
The Brumbies have won two games to open their season and the side is feeling confident:
Comments on RugbyPass
I would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
10 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
81 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
81 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to commentsThis is might be the most generalised, entitled, patronising, out-of-pocket cultural indictment on a group of people you’ll ever see on what is supposedly a sports publication. I can only assume the author is weak like a woman or homosexual. I’m feeling an incredible range of emotions but I am not quite sure how to express them. I might go beat up a hockey player - assuming that’s okay with Duane and the boys? 🙂
10 Go to comments