Giants Attendances in Canberra: Is it worth the Government Investment?
With the disappointing attendance at the first ever ANZAC day AFL clash in Canberra the attendances seem to be on the decline for the Giants games in Manuka Oval as of late. In looking at the figures over the time that the Giants have been playing games in Canberra the crowds have averaged around the 8,000-9000 mark which is around the same with their average attendance at there actual home ground in Sydney.
As table 1 shows the attendances on average for the Giants have in fact been on the decline ever so slightly despite the fact that the team in performances has improved their finish from 18th and last in the first two seasons to finishing 16th and so far this season going into the round 5 of the 2015 season they are sitting 2nd on the table having only lost one game thus far which was to the Sydney Swans. You would think that this improvement would be enough to draw some fans to come and watch the games however this does not seem to be the case.
There are other issues at play as well which has to do with the Canberra climate. The crowds that turn up to games in Canberra seem to like doing so when the conditions are nice and the sun is shining as was shown in the ANZAC Day game. The conditions on Saturday for the clash were less then perfect with rain always threatening with big black clouds hang over the ground but thankfully the heavens did not open up. However the threat of rain and the lack of cover for the spectators clearly impacted on the attendance with only just under 7,000 people showing up.
Table 2 shows the attendance numbers for the 11 regular season games that Greater Western Sydney have played in Canberra since 2012 and reveals there are two games that stand out as the most attended matches. The first came in 2013 which was an early season match against St Kilda that attracted a crowd of 11,092 that holds the record for GWS in Canberra and the North Melbourne Kangaroos which attracted 10,211 people. This is because before the Giants came to Canberra there was talk about moving the Kangaroos to Canberra and they played regular season games in Canberra during 2002-2006. Both of these games were played in great conditions for football. However the strange thing with this data is that games that are likely to be close such as those with the likes of Gold Coast have never grabbed the attention of the Canberra public despite the fact that two out of the three times they have played the Gold Coast at Manuka the Giants have won.
For this to be worth the investment from the $26 million dollar that the ACT Government are putting towards the Giants the crowd numbers are going to have to improve.
Statistics obtained from AFL Tables
John Hynes
Jul 25, 2015 at 10:09 pmYou are drawing a long bow with this analysis. You have to take into account that the Giants arrival in Canberra gave people a long term commitment to the area after many blow ins but the novelty wore off and was replaced with a team that was not AFL standard early on. Most of the early matches were against teams in the lower part of the ladder themselves. Todays match was played against a team with gravitas, most of which was earned years ago, but still is associated with Geelong. Otherwise it has been Melbourne, StKilda, Gold Coast and Western Bulldogs as the opponents. What would the Brumbies pr Raiders draw if the only played teams in the bottom half of the ladder? As the team improves and the matches actually carry the weight of finals opportunities, the crowds will increase as evidenced today with 14,500 people in attendance at a match where a win would have gone a long way to ensuring a finals appearance. If the ACT government wants to get bang for buck, things such as parking and effective public transport need to be looked at as right now the area is struggling to cope. Winning is what supplements the 7 or 8 thousand faithful with a full house and at least until the end of the government investment period, that is what GWS will increasingly do.