It is no secret that the Waratahs are struggling to attract crowds. It was exposed on Saturday when the match against the Lions drew only 14,130, a record low. Average attendances are falling, as is community interest. And I think it will get worse next season.
Sad to say, this is all comes down to the players. But not in the way that you might think.
Sports teams thrive on unpredictability. People love seeing the new, the interesting and the unknown. That is why the cross-code conversion is almost the ultimate sports story: it takes an established personality and thrusts them into an arena with which they are unfamiliar. Will they sink or swim? Tune in on Saturday night to find out. And boy, do the punters tune in.
Same goes for a new team. The Rebels’ first game was the all-time highest rating Super Rugby game in Australia. Like with the code-crossers, people didn’t tune in to watch a game of rugby, but rather to see how the new boys went in the big league. Same went for the Brisbane v. Gold Coast game a few weeks ago in the AFL. Or when Souths came back to the NRL. It was something that transcended sport, and as a result it racked up big numbers.
The Reds this year are in the same ball park. They have the excitement factor of being a genuine title chance for the first time in 15 years. They have the element of the unknown in the mercurial abilities of Cooper, Ioane, Genia and Samo. Unsurprisingly, the biggest watercooler moments of the year have all been provided by the Reds. You know, the plays that made the ‘how about that?’ segment at the end of the nightly sport report — Cooper’s in-goal kick, Digby’s turtle, Cooper’s acrobatics.
Which brings me back to the Waratahs. Unfortunately, if you were to write a list of descriptors for how their team looks this year (and even more so next year, without Beale), the three words you would never think to write are new, interesting or unknown. This has very little to do with rugby ability, because the Tahs have heaps. But have a look at the likely 2012 backline- McKibbin, Barnes, Turner, Carter, Horne, Mitchell, AAC. Yes, it is a very good backline. But is it new? Unknown? Interesting? Of course not. No offence to any of those players, but they never get my blood pumping like Quade or Digby do. The forward pack is much the same.
And this is the root of the low crowd attendances. Forget about the playing style or table position. The Waratahs players have become old news. While squad stability may be a great thing in delivering on-field results, rugby is like a TV sitcom: if you serve up the same characters and storylines week after week, interest is going to drop. Especially if those characters aren’t much chop in the first place. Tom Carter is no Cosmo Kramer. Don’t get me wrong, Drew and Ryan and Tom and Dean are probably all great guys and fantastic rugby players. But in this day and age you can’t have a team full of them.
In my eyes there are three things that could fix this for season 2012:
1. Convert a Leaguie. As much as you can argue about the success of Tuqiri/Sailor/Rogers from an on-field perspective, there is no doubt that crowds have never been bigger than when those guys were playing. Someone like Greg Inglis or Justin Hodges could do the same. Sure it’s a risk, but one that is worth taking.
2. Bring in a high-profile foreigner. Let’s actually use our foreign marquee signing on someone who has genuine marquee appeal. Yes, it is hard and will cost money, but someone like Sebastien Chabal or Brian O’Driscoll would have the crowds flocking and people talking. This wouldn’t attract the widespread interest that a code-cross would, but you also don’t have to worry about the new signing learning how to play the game.
3. Unearth a prodigious youngster. This probably isn’t going to happen though, because there isn’t one kicking around at the moment. But a Kurtley Beale II would do wonders for the interest in the Tahs.
I don’t expect any of these events to happen. But something needs to. As much as each of these three options may have negative ramifications for team stability and performance, the stakes here are much higher than a few spots on the table. The Waratahs are a very real chance of sinking into the Sydney sporting abyss.
They need someone who can stop people talking about the uninspiring playing style. They need, for want of a better term, an excitement machine.
