Australasia Attendances : 1995-1999

To say that RL in Australasia went through a tumultuous period is no exaggeration. For years there were people within RL who wanted to improve the product and make the game less Sydney focused. The NSW administrators of the game felt it was doing fine. When that dissatisfaction turned into a huge TV deal and a desire for change, the bad blood that existed guaranteed that an arrangement would never come to fruition.

A court decided that clubs could not break away to join the proposed Super League competition. So the existing 16 teams along with four new ones - North Queensland, Western Australia, South Queensland and Auckland - formed the 20 team ARL competition. A spiteful side of it was any player aligned with the new competition were not allowed to play in representative games, a disgraceful and divisive decision.

In 1995 Manly (Sydney) and Canberra easily led the league table and the final saw the Sydney Bulldogs defeat Manly. A Super League aligned side winning the final didn't sit well with ARL administrators. The best attended clubs were Brisbane and Auckland. Although five had averages over 20,000, the average was less than 14,000.

In 1996, the first round was hit by most SL clubs boycotting their games in protest at being forced to play in a competition they didn't want to be in. Some top players from 1995 finals winning Bulldogs side defected to ARL aligned clubs. Manly won the league again with Brisbane second. The poorly attended grand final was won by Manly over St George (Sydney). Brisbane was still had the best crowds but numbers were well down on 1995. NZ was the only other club over 20,000 and the average dropped to 11,500.

In 1997, a court ruled that the Super League was legal and two competitions were held in 1997, each with its own representative matches. As the UK and NZ were for SL, it meant only the Australian SL could have meaningful internationals. The ARL was isolated internationally. Adelaide and the Hunter Valley became new teams in SL with a record 22 professional clubs.

Combined crowd numbers were down to 11,000 on average with no team reaching 20,000. Brisbane dominated SL, while Manly and Newcastle shared the spoils for the ARL.

In 1998, a compromise was brokered and the NRL was born. A new side was created in Melbourne while the Hunter Valley, Perth and South Queensland lost out. This left a 20 team competition. Brisbane led the league from Newcastle, with the final showcased Brisbane dominance with a victory over the Bulldogs. Average attendance remained at 11,000 with Brisbane and Newcastle the only ones to break the 20k barrier.

For 1999, the Gold Coast and Adelaide lost their teams and St George (Sydney) merged with NSW club Illawarra. This meant 17 teams competed in the NRL competition. Sydney clubs Cronulla and Parramatta did best in the league but Melboune took out St George-Illawarra in the final. Attendances were now on the up, the average now 14,000. Brisbane and Newcastle the two over 20k.

The first in the series of 1990-94 can be seen by clicking here.
The next in the series for 2000-04 can be seen by clicking here.

NRL Attendances 1995-99
Rk	Club	Avg	1999	1998	1997	1996	1995
1	Brisbane	24350	22763	20073	19298	23712	35902
2	Newcastle	18824	20878	20293	14257	17475	21215
3	Nth Queensland	18343	16108	17034	17539	19366	21670
4	New Zealand	16402	11135	8858	15442	20126	26450
5	Paramatta	13937	23266	11359	15647	11113	8300
6	Sth Queensland	13683	-	-	7003	13016	21029
7	Manly	13506	17960	10513	11816	12519	14722
8	Melbourne	12809	12902	12716	-	-	-
9	Cronulla	12264	13974	11370	13558	10515	11901
10	Canberra	11926	12057	9826	11622	10440	15683
11	Sydney Easts	11792	13032	10251	9430	17060	9188
12	Adelaide	11401	-	7472	15330	-	-
13	North Sydney	10770	8566	11093	11713	10963	11514
14	Canterbury	10603	16954	8363	8815	7544	11341
15	St George	10223	13259	10394	7222	11167	9074
16	Perth	10143	-	-	8776	8262	13390
17	Illawarra	8593	-	-	8695	7434	9651
18	Penrith	8563	12495	9272	7673	5351	8022
19	Balmain	8301	9710	10576	10355	6094	6254
20	Western Sub	7856	8224	7301	8602	6964	8556
21	South Sydney	7429	13032	6085	5287	5031	7709
22	Gold Coast	7395	-	6599	8958	7240	6782
23	Hunter Valley	5413	-	-	5413	-	-
	Total Average	12247	13937	10935	10901	11458	13918
	Total	2680272	2843065	2624359	2420013	2452029	3061893
			8.3	8.4	-1.3	-19.9	37.2