Get The Crowds Back to the Rugby!

Israel Folau wrestles an Argie in front of a pathetic crowd at Gold Coast last night

It is a bit like chronic pain syndrome - the pain is clear and evident yet it is part of every day life that it seems now pointless to find a cure for it.

Crowds at the rugby are lower than they have been historically. Yes, the stadia nowadays no longer have terracing as they did say 25 years ago meaning that ground capacity has decreased for the sake of spectator safety and comfort, but even so, it is quite clear to see the empty seats and stands at even our most high profile rugby matches.

In New Zealand, All Blacks tests continue to fill grounds - Napier's McLean Park sold out obviously boosted by the novelty of hosting the All Blacks for only the 2nd time in its history, but the crowd at last night's game against the Springboks in Wellington will probably be the best that Westpac Stadium will get this year.

Count the empty seats at Westpac Stadium

Super Rugby games are doing ok although much more could be done to get average crowd numbers up. However, crowds for ITM Cup games are at a critical level particularly in Auckland and Wellington, although in the provinces, the crowd attendance figures could be better - the crowd at McLean Park for the first shield defence against Otago was in my opinion, much lower than I expected given the excitement following Hawkes Bay's success of taking the shield from Counties Manukau. The temporary stand erected for the All Blacks test probably could have been taken down after the test with only a handful of people seated there for Sunday afternoon's shield defence.

At least, the situation is not as bad as it is across the Tasman. The Wallabies only got 11,000 for their Rugby Championship match against Argentina on the Gold Coast. Earlier in the season, the Wallabies played France to a 6-0 win in front of a small crowd of 27,189 at the 56,347 capacity Etihad Stadium in Melbourne - probably a worse result for organizers given that the Etihad is much bigger than Robina Park on the Gold Coast, and given that Melbourne is the 2nd largest market in Australia. The crowd was also pretty pitiful for the Wallabies' game against South Africa at Patersons Stadium in Perth.

If it weren't for rugby's renaissance in its heartland of Sydney on the back of the Waratahs' success, Australian rugby would be in pretty dire straits - in a season where the Wallabies have shown signs of regeneration with their young side.

While professionalism and TV money has been a huge positive for rugby, the element of choice has meant that today's generation of rugby fans would probably pick sitting at a pub or in their lounge watching the rugby on Sky on a damp, cold winter's day, when 20 years ago, supporting your province meant your only option was going to the ground.

Scheduling to cater for TV appears to not be a good thing for getting crowds to games - Spanish football authorities are currently scheduling La Liga games for TV purposes and outside Madrid and Barcelona, crowd numbers have definitely taken a hit especially when games are scheduled late at night.

It has been mentioned many times by this blogger that rugby could take the lead of the NFL and consider regional TV blackouts to get crowds back to games - indeed, this has become an incentive for NFL teams to promote and sell their games so that they avoid their game being blacked out in their home market and thus lose TV revenue. However, this is impractical given the way that Sky and Fox TV are shown nationally rather than regionally.

Perhaps, the other solution is to make gate prices cheaper - the rugby unions have said that TV revenue is their main income earner and gate tickets are secondary to that income, so they can afford to slash prices. At the same time, they might look at Twenty20 and improve the entertainment package. After all, sport is now a form of entertainment and families look for more than just the sport nowadays for a night out.

As for the Wallabies, perhaps there needs to be a bit more of a positive spin by the rugby union towards the national side - for so long, a negative air has lingered over the green and gold which has over time, eroded its fan base and let them go to rugby league, AFL and even soccer. Now that Ewen McKenzie is doing the goods with the Wallabies, the ARU needs to take this opportunity and get the crowds back to test matches.

On the other hand, the national union could pose an ultimatum and host all tests in Sydney or Brisbane for a few years until the other cities can prove that they can get good crowds for the tests.

While we love seeing Australia lose, we do need a strong, competitive rival in the Wallabies and seeing the pitiful crowds for test rugby is not good for the game.