Hoops

NBL Crowd attendances up 7% this season

Interesting the talk about cricket being down, but if you look average is down but total attendance and viewers is up. Volume is important to sponsors, as are repeat viewers (hence why Fox is so important to the NBL) so there is good and bad in terms of return on investment.

The NBL just seems to get very similar TV numbers year on year. Not sure what can be done. I think playing all the home teams games on FTA in their city is a must to build more regular audiences, but how do you make that happen?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-10/too-much-sport-ratings-attendance-cricket-football-basketball/10792710

Basketball only sport improving, surviving without tv deal. Cricket in the doldrums after going from free to air.
Talks about streaming but doesn’t actually tell you how many people watching stream.

“7% is a good result given the self sabotage of the scheduling.

Imagine if someone competent was running the league.”

I’m guessing you’re talking about Sat arvo games, with fewer Sat night games.

Another way of looking at that is to consider the whole dynamic. NBL / LK must have known they were risking game attendances falling, but thought it was worth the risk to get greater exposure will th the fta deal on 9GO.

TV audience is up this season. Check
Crowd figures at games are up this season. Check.

Looks like a win win for the league. Sponsors, advertisers and (long term) broadcast partners will look on this favourably for future seasons, as long as the trajectory of those numbers keeps its trend upwards.

For the crowd numbers and corporate support for individual teams, perhaps the NBL could help them more with local marketing (especially for regional teams) but the franchises themselves need to work with their local business communities to make NBL games events they want to be seen to be involved with.

I'm guessing this 7% increase is mostly due to Sydney?

Fake news!

Same fool said Jarrod McVeigh left the Swans to play for Adelaide also!

Last week in Sydney was the most Hawks fan I'd seen make the trip up the Princes Highway in years too I'd say.

If the kings didn't play at the equivalent of siberia the crowds would be much higher.

“AngusH
A few minutes ago

It seems to me that both Hawks and (inexplicably) Cairns have been getting bigger crowds this year based solely on how their arenas look on TV, which is great.”

I’d agree since Christmas, Angus, but I think the Hawks crowds looked poor early in the season.

Those 2 venues probably need to sell out games more often and average a higher percentage of seats sold, simply because they are smaller venues. Could Cairns and Illawarra try to sell sponsors or upmarket packages including catering, to value add and improve their profit margins? I’ve been to Gold Coast Suns games with those sorts of packages. Made for a nice experience.

It seems to me that both Hawks and (inexplicably) Cairns have been getting bigger crowds this year based solely on how their arenas look on TV, which is great.

Decent increase on the surface, but I'd rather see some team-by-team percentages rather than league overall to really know what's going on.

I feel like they would have hoped it would be a bit higher.

When you think about it though it's also pretty good considering the fuxturing.

Been some smaller perth crowds during midday games. Throw into that a fair few teams have played Thursday/Monday games which aren't exactly ideal for some fans. As well as a lack of Saturday night games which would have been popular for attendance.

Great to hear numbers are up. Don't know about TV ratings, but I have my doubts with TV ratings anyhow.

Crowd attendances in any sport need to be good and I think there is a fine line between revenue and support. A packed stadium with home town supporters gives the home team an edge of game day and from a spectator perspective a packed stadium gives a sense of excitement.

Obviously a higher ticket price means more revenue for the teams, but places a downward pressure on numbers.

A sell-out each and every game suggests you need a bigger stadium. I would say if average attendance is say +80% of the stadium capacity then you're probably around the mark.