Some positive crowd stats

[yellowcake]

How's this:

Excluding Rd 1 as a 'curious' aberration, I looked at the A-League average crowds over the two periods of 8 rounds, comparing Rd 2-9 and Rd 10-17. Overall, there was a 3.8% decrease from 10,741 to 10,335. BUT for Mariners home games in those rounds, the average has increased 18.8% from 6,746 to 8,109.

Also our record crowd on NYE finally got us into the top 50%, being the 30th largest A-League crowd of 68.

Getting there!

[brett]

Certainly here we endured the worst at the start and are now enjoying the increased awareness and interest. A strong finish to the season should see further inflated crowds against melbourne and in the finals.

It will probably be the same for a long time - a mediocre average (at the moment around 7k, up 1.5k since start of season) with a few massive crowds in the derbies dragging the average up. It's nice to have some highlights on the fixture list.

[DJ]

encouraging stats for sure - It's great to see the crowds slowly on the rise!

There's still plenty of work to do thou. Something which I think is great to see is the merchanside people are now wearing around the coast. When the season kicked off nobody except the core fans wore it, now I see kids and adults wearing it round the shops, people are slowly adopting the Mariners on the coast as their team.

[Bearinator]

As I have said before DJ, you have to crawl before you walk.

[razza]

well to get 7200 to the Kiwis and it was raining b4 kick off it great. Next year if we can keep top 4 form up i can see averages of 8-9 per game with 12 for derbies

[Sam]

Give it a few years and we win average 11 or 12k. Its going to be interesting to look at the club 10 or 20 years ago and I say i remember when there was only 7k at a game. the coast is adopting the team for sure, i see loads of mariners stuff around the place and its good. I think Rugby League is gonna be 2nd here in a few years....I cant wait for that day

[Mariner_Freak]

Well I had trouble convincing mates to get to a Mariners game with me when made our long anticipated debut and I can say that getting them to Sunday's game was a 30 second phone call

Like I, they are predominantly rugby league fans who have warmed to the Mariners and the round ball game.

Thankfully my passion for football was instilled long ago - better late than never for some. I believe a large majority of the fan base in the future will be the same as my Mariner converted mates

[Grunta]

ooh Phil Helmuth is a Mariners fan!

[Mariner_Freak]

grunta said:

ooh Phil Helmuth is a Mariners fan!

Thank god there are some who know the guy - I was thinking "Geez, I wonder if I will be asked if the guy in the avatar is me?' ;D

My favourite poker player got a run on the forum as I could not get a decent Mariners avatar

[Rubbernose]

So our home games overall so far this season;

Round 2: 5917 ...v Newcastle ... Sunday arvo (Rain)
Round 3: 5261 ...v New Zeal ... Saturday Arvo (Rain)
Round 6: 9313 ...v Melb Vict ... Friday night (Clear)
Round 8: 6494 ...v Pth Glory ... Sunday arvo (Heavy Rain)
Round 11: 10,529 ... v Sydney FC ... Saturday night (Clear)
Round 12: 5467 ... v Adelaide ... Sunday arvo (Clearing)
Round 14: 5194 ... v QLD Roar ... Friday night (Rain)
Round 16: 11,612 ... v Newcastle ... Saturday night (Clear)
Round 17: 7257 ... v New Zeal ... Sunday arvo (Showers)

So after exhaustive indepth analysis I've managed to determine that our crowds don't appear to like rain, especially rain on Saturday or Sunday afternoons.

However, we do appear to like clear Friday or Saturday nights.

[Farthing]

Rain has been our worst enemy in alot of these games with the crowds. I think alot of people who decide on the day look at the weather and they dont want to go. when i went into the ground i could see alot of people lining up buying tickets at the gates and that is just on the leagues club side, and thats for every game, i bet there would be just as many people over the other side buying last minute tickets as well.

If alot more of those games it would have been sunny alot of those people who decide on the day would have gone and we would have alot more people in the crowd than 6000 people. But it shows how the people of the central coast are finally realising what a good thing the mariners are. Despite the rain for most of the week and the rain before the game i still saw alot of people lining up for tickets at the gates. Lets hope that it is a Clear Friday night on the 27th and we could possibly get the biggest crowd of the year in your last home game before the finals and imagine what the crowds will be like when it comes time to play our home semi, provideing we get there first which we should. And as sam said it wont be long before Football becomes the number 1 sport on the coast, i dont think it will be next year, but maybe the year after or the year after that as buy then the A-League will have really taken off.

[Jimmydinho]

rain has also been our best friend, need i remind people that we play well in the rain.
well, except from last sunday, but we always drop our game against nz

[Sam]

Ive managed to get a few people to come to mariners games, some are eggball jocks and they really enjoyed it. I also managed to bring some guys and girls with no real interest in the game. I have faith that the crowds will come as most people who make the effort o go want to go again

[Farthing]

Sam i think doing what you do is good, bringing your mates over to the game. Most of them no matter what sport they follow 90% of them will come back and want to go again because going to the football is awesome. I know alot of people that are Rugby League players and they have come to a few games and they love it, they are actually starting to follow the A-league now. I think thats what alot of people would be doing as well, coming to one game and liking it so much they go back again and again and you can see it now with the crowds starting to build up and maybe next year we could get our average up to 10,000 per game if the weather is kind on us because the coast is finally getting behind this

[jollyroger]

An interesting stat from last sundays game is that we pulled 2000 more people to this fixture than the same one last september.

It will take time. Like Sam, i have introduced a number of people to the games. I know of several who are now regulars. Its a small contribution.

You have to wonder what our crowd might be if every die hard supporter who attends the mariners games bought one new person along for a game.

Perhaps this is a concept for the marinators to bolster their numbers. The goal is for each marinator to bring someone new along to the next game. The person who introduces the most gets beers purchased for them for the afternoon. I am sure that anybody new introduced to our games who sits in bay 16 will be a convert.

What do you think boys...... "The Bring a Buddy" game pomotion.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

it's better to see crowds rising steadily than having a bang-flop scenario - start with a crowd that's full to bursting and then wither away over time... quite frankly, i'm very impressed that our crowds have grown while the results have at times been only so-so. it's a real 'i went to the football to give it a go, it was excellent, i wanna go back - hey, do you wanna come too?' thing (if that makes any sense...)

[Sam]

I think the "Bring A Buddy" is a great idea. Just think if even half the crowd brought a friend (say about 4000 people did this) we would have a further 4000 in the ground. It seems so easy yet it would make a huge diffference.

[pipray]

I think word is spreading around the coast and it's great we are increasing crowds, if slowly. I agree the bring a friend is a great idea, the people i have talked into going haven't missed a game since, it's just a matter of getting them to their first game!

[DBoon21]

And now Perth with the smallest crowd for a match in Austraila 5033 (vs AUFC Rd 18). Though they got cursed by the rain as well.

[Jimmydinho]

we had 4500 didnt we?
for the 1st NZ match. that was with rain too.