It's only a month +/- a few days before the start of the season, so I figured I'd get this thread going again. As you might recall, last season was a dismal year with the lowest average attendance in A-League history and the North Queensland Fury joining the New Zealand Knights in oblivion. One hopes that the only way is up for A-League and the league has made a number of changes, including avoiding the Grand Finales for NRL and AFL. I've made a modification to how the rankings are determined to start using the ranking system used in the MLS attendance thread. Instead of giving each season a number ranking for each data point and then giving it an average rank based on that, each season's data point is given a number between 0 and 100 where 0 is the best number for that data point and 100 is the worst. Just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about here is the final numbers for the previous season using the old way of determing the rankings: Code: [B]Season Average Change Median Change %<7k %>16k [/B] 2005/06 10955.0 - 10939.0 - 20.24% 11.90% 2006/07 12936.8 18.1% 11511.0 5.2% 17.86% 23.81% 2007/08 14596.0 12.8% 12772.0 11.0% 3.57% 33.33% 2008/09 12180.9 -16.5% 10613.0 -16.9% 14.29% 20.24% 2009/10 9827.8 -19.3% 8200.0 -22.7% 32.59% 12.59% 2010/11 8400.1 -14.5% 7212.0 -12.0% 45.45% 7.27% [B]Season Avg Rank Med Rank <7k Rank <16k Rank Avg Rank [/B] 2005/06 4 3 4 5 4 2006/07 2 2 3 2 2.25 2007/08 1 1 1 1 1 2008/09 3 4 2 3 3 2009/10 5 5 5 4 4.75 2010/11 6 6 6 6 6 With the new system, the numbers look like this: Code: [B]Season Average Median %<7k %>16k AvgPts MedPts <7kPts >16kPts AAAQ AAAQRnk[/B] 2005/06 10955 10939 20.24% 11.90% 59 33 40 82 214 4 2006/07 12937 11511 17.86% 23.81% 27 23 34 37 120 2 2007/08 14596 12772 3.57% 33.33% 0 0 0 0 0 1 2008/09 12181 10613 14.29% 20.24% 39 39 26 50 154 3 2009/10 9828 8200 32.59% 12.59% 77 82 69 80 308 5 2010/11 8400 7212 45.45% 7.27% 100 100 100 100 400 6 None of the seasons changed their rankings, but it does at least show the relative differences between each season a little better.
Just getting the Victory's and Sydney's numbers back to where they were a few seasons ago would be amazing. Beckham's signing was the turning point for MLS, hopefully Kewell's and Emerton's signing will have a similar effect with A-League.
One week down and so far the results are positive, at least in regards to comparison to last year. However, that is largely thanks to the Melbourne/Sydney match pulling in 40k. Not much can be made on the analysis front due to the small number of games, but as far as opening weekends go, the attendance was good, but everything else leaves much to be desired. Next week we'll find out how big a draw Kewell and Emmerton are away and home, respectively. Code: Team AVG Newcastle 12467 Melbourne 40351 Brisbane 13467 Gold Coast 4113 Perth 9452 Total 79850 Avg 15970 Code: Season Average Median %<7k %>16k AvgPts MedPts <7kPts >16kPts AAAQ AAAQRnk 2005/06 14999 13160 0.00% 33.33% 19 63 0 71 154 4 2006/07 14564 15781 0.00% 33.33% 27 18 0 71 117 3 2007/08 14598 16828 0.00% 66.67% 27 0 0 0 27 1 2008/09 14270 16022 0.00% 66.67% 33 14 0 0 47 2 2009/10 13631 13847 20.00% 40.00% 45 52 100 57 254 5 2010/11 10810 11050 20.00% 20.00% 100 100 100 100 400 7 2011/12 15970 12467 20.00% 20.00% 0 75 100 100 275 6 Round 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 Grand 1 17552 15741 14554 13331 13631 10810 15970 14412 2 11181 14584 16994 9670 12130 9045 12138 3 7921 5897 10135 13585 9153 10512 9557 4 11651 15024 14828 12870 8674 6624 11307 5 12031 8832 12291 9502 8361 6571 9434 6 8366 12658 15131 11281 12008 10018 11477 7 12087 9928 12442 12001 10084 4801 9817 8 10516 14910 10077 9818 6198 8745 9805 9 12175 14260 15352 14736 12529 10465 13118 10 10400 9824 18308 12294 12238 7359 11431 11 9299 12580 11149 10145 6891 8868 9705 12 10143 15235 16371 11396 9746 8478 11452 13 13204 9640 10709 7522 7250 8641 9322 14 7276 14960 15611 8233 9632 6764 9994 15 10860 10528 14521 13957 8048 7965 10552 16 9751 20003 14415 9901 10034 5936 11000 17 11746 11681 13884 15627 7981 6854 10701 18 10146 11643 17112 17379 6170 8351 11229 19 9602 11941 13884 11006 11359 7635 10679 20 9523 15546 21171 14505 10687 10645 13344 21 14627 16259 17581 17044 9870 9643 13676 22 7097 8994 8203 23 11990 7890 9754 24 10591 11624 11193 25 9487 7791 8498 26 10875 4953 7230 27 12637 14122 13379 Grand 10955 12937 14596 12181 9828 8400 15970 10997
Don't think we will see another 40k crowd until finals but Victorians are band wagoners and will attend if the Victory look like winning. I wonder how much of an impact on crowds has starting the season a fortnight after the AFL/NRL season has had.
Adelaide v Victory game has being sold out by all reports. Yes, it's only Hindmarsh but nonetheless a very good result. Adelaide really should think of the possibilty of moving big games against the Victory to the Adelaide Oval.
But wouldn't you rather have a packed 16,500 at Hindmarsh, rather than 25,000 spread out over the Oval?
The oval only holds about 33,000 and a crowd of 25k + look suprisingly good at the ground. I don't know if your watch AFL- I watch and follow pretty much every sport I can - but the Port Adelaide v Melbourne game at the Adelaide Oval had a very achievable crowd and looked great. Adelaide United could make those crowds at the Oval against the Victory.
It's near impossible to tell, unfortunately. That 40k number in Melbourne is going to completely destroy any attempts at comparison. The Brisbane game was about 3100 over their first game last year, Gold Coast was down 2200, Newcastle was up 3700, and Melbourne about 13,000. Is that due to not starting the season until after the Grand Finals? Improved advertising? Kewell and Emerton joining the league? Their opponents? Who knows. All that being said, if the numbers continue to be up in the next month or so, I'm sure the press will be giving the delay a lot of the credit.
Well second highest opening average ever (at least on the chart). with out the big game the average is 9,875 for the other 4 games, that by it self is higher that the total average the past 2 seasons, that is good at least early on.
That's true, but that 40k game is really, really skewing the numbers. As you note, without the 40k game, the average is sub 10k, which is pretty dismal for an opening week. It will be interesting to see what the Kewell/Emerton effect is throughout the league. So far the Kewell effect is looking quite nice.
Well, I hope everyone likes the late start to the A-League season, because it is hard to argue that this year isn't a step above last season at this point and I'm sure the late start, plus Kewell and Emerton, will get a fair amount of credit for that. If it weren't for a distinct lack of +16k games, this season would be ranked in 4th. Of course, not everything is rainbows and unicorns. The Heart have taken a 35% hit compared to their first game last year, so I'm guessing the Victory's Kewell bump has resulted in the Heart's divot. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the season works out as the impact of the 40k Victory match is lessened and teams start to have their second game of the season. Code: Adelaide 14753 Central Coast 10374 Sydney FC 15789 Wellington 7623 Heart 7229 Total 55768 Average 11154 Code: Season Average Median %<7k %>16k AvgPts MedPts <7kPts >16kPts AAAQ AAAQRnk 2005/06 15176 12137 0% 33% 0 38 0 0 38 2 2006/07 12390 11543 17% 33% 53 49 67 0 168 5 2007/08 13583 14327 0% 33% 30 0 0 0 30 1 2008/09 12189 10724 0% 33% 57 63 0 0 119 3 2009/10 12881 11936 10% 30% 43 42 40 14 140 4 2010/11 9890 8607 25% 17% 100 100 100 71 371 7 2011/12 13562 11421 10% 10% 31 51 40 100 221 6 Code: Round 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 Grand 1 17552 15741 14554 13331 13631 10810 15970 14412 2 11181 14584 16994 9670 12130 9045 11154 11979 3 7921 5897 10135 13585 9153 10512 9557 4 11651 15024 14828 12870 8674 6624 11307 5 12031 8832 12291 9502 8361 6571 9434 6 8366 12658 15131 11281 12008 10018 11477 7 12087 9928 12442 12001 10084 4801 9817 8 10516 14910 10077 9818 6198 8745 9805 9 12175 14260 15352 14736 12529 10465 13118 10 10400 9824 18308 12294 12238 7359 11431 11 9299 12580 11149 10145 6891 8868 9705 12 10143 15235 16371 11396 9746 8478 11452 13 13204 9640 10709 7522 7250 8641 9322 14 7276 14960 15611 8233 9632 6764 9994 15 10860 10528 14521 13957 8048 7965 10552 16 9751 20003 14415 9901 10034 5936 11000 17 11746 11681 13884 15627 7981 6854 10701 18 10146 11643 17112 17379 6170 8351 11229 19 9602 11941 13884 11006 11359 7635 10679 20 9523 15546 21171 14505 10687 10645 13344 21 14627 16259 17581 17044 9870 9643 13676 22 7097 8994 8203 23 11990 7890 9754 24 10591 11624 11193 25 9487 7791 8498 26 10875 4953 7230 27 12637 14122 13379 Grand 10955 12937 14596 12181 9828 8400 13562 10998
Neither are the Victory. But we'll see what it looks like in the 2nd game. A 35% drop is pretty severe for a "new car smell" dropoff, IMHO.
Kardinia Park would be the 'best' of all the oval stadiums in Australia. Still not ideal but it wouldn't be too horrible. A Geelong team would almost certainly get a good stadium deal as well.
I dunno.. There just might be something to this Melbourne rivalry. Another very good week by the hosting teams. Another 40k Victory attendance, but even outside of that there was only one club below 12k, which is phenomenal, IMHO. The AAQ numbers also bear this out. Sure the above 16k% isn't that great, but I'm starting to think that the number might be too high. The impressive number is the median which is #2 in A-League history, so even with the two 40k numbers, this season is not doing too shabby. Code: Brisbane 13425 Adelaide 12054 Victory 39309 Perth 8299 Newcastle 14421 Total 87508 Average 17502 Code: Season Average Median %<7k %>16k AvgPts MedPts <7kPts >16kPts AAAQ AAAQRnk 2005/06 13746 11113 11% 33% 24 57 50 0 131 2 2006/07 14454 8785 11% 33% 10 100 50 0 160 5 2007/08 15000 14233 0% 33% 0 0 0 0 0 1 2008/09 12733 10932 11% 33% 43 61 50 0 154 3 2009/10 11638 10024 13% 20% 64 77 60 60 261 6 2010/11 9747 9118 22% 11% 100 94 100 100 394 7 2011/12 14875 12467 7% 13% 2 32 30 90 155 4 Code: Round 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 Grand 1 17552 15741 14554 13331 13631 10810 15970 14412 2 11181 14584 16994 9670 12130 9045 11154 11979 3 7921 5897 10135 13585 9153 10512 17502 10838 4 11651 15024 14828 12870 8674 6624 11307 5 12031 8832 12291 9502 8361 6571 9434 6 8366 12658 15131 11281 12008 10018 11477 7 12087 9928 12442 12001 10084 4801 9817 8 10516 14910 10077 9818 6198 8745 9805 9 12175 14260 15352 14736 12529 10465 13118 10 10400 9824 18308 12294 12238 7359 11431 11 9299 12580 11149 10145 6891 8868 9705 12 10143 15235 16371 11396 9746 8478 11452 13 13204 9640 10709 7522 7250 8641 9322 14 7276 14960 15611 8233 9632 6764 9994 15 10860 10528 14521 13957 8048 7965 10552 16 9751 20003 14415 9901 10034 5936 11000 17 11746 11681 13884 15627 7981 6854 10701 18 10146 11643 17112 17379 6170 8351 11229 19 9602 11941 13884 11006 11359 7635 10679 20 9523 15546 21171 14505 10687 10645 13344 21 14627 16259 17581 17044 9870 9643 13676 22 7097 8994 8203 23 11990 7890 9754 24 10591 11624 11193 25 9487 7791 8498 26 10875 4953 7230 27 12637 14122 13379 Grand 10955 12937 14596 12181 9828 8400 14875 11048
Huh. I did all the prep work, but forgot to post the results for this week. But there hasn't been a game yet, so it still counts! As awesome as last week was for the numbers, this week sucked giant kangaroo balls. Why is Gold Coast still in the league? Seriously, their owner is a steaming pile of poo and the league would be better without him. Sadly, he keeps coming back. Oh well, not like the rest of the league did that well. Only one team was able to pull in over 10k and the fans of that team went home with a gigantic smile on their face. 7-1.. Wow... That's a beat down and a half. Code: Brisbane 11762 Central Coast 6883 Heart 5666 Gold Coast 2974 Wellington 9369 Total 36654 Average 7331 Code: Season Average Median %<7k %>16k AvgPts MedPts <7kPts >16kPts AAAQ AAAQRnk 2005/06 12479 11020 15% 23% 25 29 43 34 130 3 2006/07 12339 8052 23% 23% 27 100 64 34 225 5 2007/08 13709 12231 0% 23% 0 0 0 34 34 1 2008/09 13166 11732 8% 31% 11 12 21 0 44 2 2009/10 11101 10024 19% 14% 52 53 53 72 230 6 2010/11 8712 8300 36% 8% 100 94 100 100 394 7 2011/12 12989 11068 20% 10% 14 28 56 91 189 4 Round 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 Grand 1 17552 15741 14554 13331 13631 10810 15970 14412 2 11181 14584 16994 9670 12130 9045 11154 11979 3 7921 5897 10135 13585 9153 10512 17502 10838 4 11651 15024 14828 12870 8674 6624 7331 10666 5 12031 8832 12291 9502 8361 6571 9434 6 8366 12658 15131 11281 12008 10018 11477 7 12087 9928 12442 12001 10084 4801 9817 8 10516 14910 10077 9818 6198 8745 9805 9 12175 14260 15352 14736 12529 10465 13118 10 10400 9824 18308 12294 12238 7359 11431 11 9299 12580 11149 10145 6891 8868 9705 12 10143 15235 16371 11396 9746 8478 11452 13 13204 9640 10709 7522 7250 8641 9322 14 7276 14960 15611 8233 9632 6764 9994 15 10860 10528 14521 13957 8048 7965 10552 16 9751 20003 14415 9901 10034 5936 11000 17 11746 11681 13884 15627 7981 6854 10701 18 10146 11643 17112 17379 6170 8351 11229 19 9602 11941 13884 11006 11359 7635 10679 20 9523 15546 21171 14505 10687 10645 13344 21 14627 16259 17581 17044 9870 9643 13676 22 7097 8994 8203 23 11990 7890 9754 24 10591 11624 11193 25 9487 7791 8498 26 10875 4953 7230 27 12637 14122 13379 Grand 10955 12937 14596 12181 9828 8400 12989 11019