NRC Crowd Watch

[Wilson]

You can't say the concentration of 16 clubs into two teams is a meaningful level of competition when the tier above only has one team.

From a talent perspective it's like saying Australia A games or possibles vs probables games are the 2nd tier in rugby.

 

[Pfitzy]

Anyway back to crowd numbers: Thursday night at Brookie. Meant to be a bit of rain between now and then, so not much hope for the backs and maybe a few absentees from the northern beaches in terms of crowd?

Bloody long way to go for me depending on traffic. Still thinking about it

 

[Omar Comin']

Rugby League test matches are secondary to the demands of the NRL competition, the NRL is where the lucrative broadcast rights are sold and where the players make their money. Test rugby league has very little interest in it.

The State of Origin players make 50k per match. Not sure about Kangaroos, but it's not chumps change.

I assume you would rate Top 14 and the Heineken Cup (or whatever it is going to be called now) as the top tier of rugby in Europe?

 

[Omar Comin']

From a talent perspective it's like saying Australia A games or possibles vs probables games are the 2nd tier in rugby.

Do you guys not get that my point is how ridiculous it is to be obsessed with 'tiers?'

'Third tier' should be banned from all rugby commentators and officials lips.

 

[Omar Comin']

Anyway back to crowd numbers: Thursday night at Brookie. Meant to be a bit of rain between now and then, so not much hope for the backs and maybe a few absentees from the northern beaches in terms of crowd?

Bloody long way to go for me depending on traffic. Still thinking about it

Manly got some good crowds in the Shute Shield this year. Hopefully a lot of them show up for the Rays.

 

[Sully]

So after all that. What is the next level (not tier) down from NRL and what are their crowds like.

 

[Omar Comin']

So after all that. What is the next level (not tier) down from NRL and what are their crowds like.

NSW Cup and QLD Cup. Comparable to Shute Shield from what I've seen. They are comparable competitions as they run parallel to the NRL.

The NRC is not a comparable competition to the NSW Cup and QLD Cup.

 

[Sully]

Mate you're getting way to technical. we're not trying to compare them just see how many people go watch.

 

[TOCC]

fuck the tier conversation..don't get so wrapped up in the semantics of the term, people use '3rd tier' to identify this as a new competition and where it sits in relation to existing competitions..... In time, the terminology 'NRC' will take roots and will become the recognised acronym for talking about this competition.

I'm frankly offended that we are discussing State of Origin Match Payments in a thread about NRC Crowds.. Take that shit elsewhere...

 

[Omar Comin']

Mate you're getting way to technical. we're not trying to compare them just see how many people go watch.

Fair enough, but it's hard to say as crowds aren't really reported at those levels. Anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand I'd estimate.

One thing I'd love to see, maybe next season is a Sydney double header on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon featuring the 4 NSW teams. Put some other stuff around it - things for kids, a couple of bands and some 7's before and in between games, maybe a mini food festival. I reckon you could get a good crowd for something like that and it would generate publicity and interest.

You could do the same thing in Brisbane with the two QLD teams playing 2 others.

 

[Omar Comin']

fuck the tier conversation..don't get so wrapped up in the semantics of the term, people use '3rd tier' to identify this as a new competition and where it sits in relation to existing competitions... In time, the terminology 'NRC' will take roots and will become the recognised acronym for talking about this competition.

I know why people use it, but I think it negatively effects the perceptions of more general fans. I think if I was a casual fan and someone asked me to a third tier rugby match I'd say no unless I had a free ticket and the stadium was within walking distance of where I lived. A National Championship game on the other hand sounds like a much better match.

Sure, it's semantics, but words are important.

 

[TOCC]

I thought it was been marketed as the National Rugby Championship but i might be mistake, anyway i acknowledge your point and see merit in not underselling the competition by calling it the third tier. Fortunately the ARU have hired a new marketing agency only recently so there might be a change in this field..

 

[Dave Beat]

Manly got some good crowds in the Shute Shield this year. Hopefully a lot of them show up for the Rays.

So do I, you would have seen on the ABC games that it's the community - kids and families that got behind the Marlins and enjoyed the Saturday afternoon. I'll get to the games but wish there was more afternoon rugby.

 

[Braveheart81]

The State of Origin players make 50k per match. Not sure about Kangaroos, but it's not chumps change.

I assume you would rate Top 14 and the Heineken Cup (or whatever it is going to be called now) as the top tier of rugby in Europe?

Top 14 and Heineken Cup would be the second tier in Europe.

Test rugby is the top tier because that is what each country's union builds towards each year and the teams play somewhere between 12 and 15 games a year. They are teams in their own rights and they play enough games that the regular players involved earn the majority of their salary here. This is also the tier that keeps the rugby unions going economically.

Things are blurred somewhat in France because the Top 14 isn't as directly controlled by the FFR because of the wealthy owners in Top 14 who often see test rugby as being in conflict with what they're trying to do with their teams.

Do you guys not get that my point is how ridiculous it is to be obsessed with 'tiers?'

'Third tier' should be banned from all rugby commentators and officials lips.

I think you're overstating this. The third tier reference is predominantly confined to the inner sanctum of rugby fans who know what it is and aren't looking at that term in a negative light. They're the people that know that the aim behind this is to have a comparable competition to the ITM Cup and Currie Cup to help develop Australian rugby.

They've used the term a few times on Rugby HQ, but again, that is preaching to the core fans. Rugby HQ is watched by a subset of fans who lap up everything they can.

Third tier isn't really used in any of the marketing or descriptions of the competition aimed at the general rugby public.

 

[Brumby Runner]

One thing I'd love to see, maybe next season is a Sydney double header on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon featuring the 4 NSW teams. Put some other stuff around it - things for kids, a couple of bands and some 7's before and in between games, maybe a mini food festival. I reckon you could get a good crowd for something like that and it would generate publicity and interest.

You could do the same thing in Brisbane with the two QLD teams playing 2 others.

This could be a good thing, especially if it were held as the first round of the year. Certainly, you'd expect it to generate a lot of interest that would then hopefully continue for the rest of the comp.

 

[terry j]

One thing I'd love to see, maybe next season is a Sydney double header on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon featuring the 4 NSW teams. Put some other stuff around it - things for kids, a couple of bands and some 7's before and in between games, maybe a mini food festival. I reckon you could get a good crowd for something like that and it would generate publicity and interest.

Quite a good idea. I suggested a completely left field idea just like this for Super Rugby and wondered how it would go (stupid idea in that context) but I think this is a perfect idea in this context.

Market the hell out of it beforehand of course. See, something like that gives a reason to drive to syd from bathurst (say)

 

[Omar Comin']

They are teams in their own rights and they play enough games that the regular players involved earn the majority of their salary here. This is also the tier that keeps the rugby unions going economically.

Things are blurred somewhat in France because the Top 14 isn't as directly controlled by the FFR because of the wealthy owners in Top 14 who often see test rugby as being in conflict with what they're trying to do with their teams.

You can define tiers however you like. There's no absolute truth in these matters. I would personally define it by the level of competition. Not by where a player earns their money and spends most of their time competing. The Top 14 isn't at all controlled by the FFR and test players in the Top 14 earn the vast majority of their money from their club. So if you call NRL the top tier in league for these reasons then you'd also have to call Top 14 the top tier in French (and in some cases, European) rugby.

They've used the term a few times on Rugby HQ, but again, that is preaching to the core fans. Rugby HQ is watched by a subset of fans who lap up everything they can.

Third tier isn't really used in any of the marketing or descriptions of the competition aimed at the general rugby public.

I've heard it used a few times on general sports radio programs (by the likes of Adam Freier and Matt Burke) and it's been used many times in newspaper articles, online blogs etc. It's a very common term in rugby circles.

 

[Done that]

300 bullshit. Do you count your toes and come up with 4?

I think it would have been somewhere around 1000. The figure of 1500 is being claimed, which I doubt, unless you're counting volume, of which I provided enough for 500.

It was 700.

 

[TOCC]

This tier conversation has been done to death and is going nowhere, please let it go already....

 

[Wilson]

Saturday afternoon game at Ballymore this week, should be an even better crowd then round 1, with any luck it'll top 5000. Also going to be interesting to see how the first home game for the Rays and Spirit vs Rams in Adelaide go for a crowd.