Australasia Attendances : 1990-2017

This is the final in a series tracking attendances in what is now the NRL, the professional RL competition Down Under. It sums up the five blogs on the subject. You can start at the beginning (1990-94)  by clicking here. I have also added 2015-17, which covers slightly under three years, so the total figure at the bottom of that column is not a direct comparison with all the earlier periods. The average is comparable though.

The averages were in the 12,000's at the beginning and ended in the 15,000's so that is progress. There has been a tapering off but because of the lack of anything progressive for far too long, the negative effects of that are emerging. I'm surprised it isn't worse because I'm bored stiff with the NRL and now follow the Northern Hemisphere Super League pro competition with much more interest (you can read that assessment by clicking here).

The interesting part was in the 1995-99 period where teams popped up and then were closed down during the turmoil that went on. Western Suburbs and Balmain in Sydney merged and eventually became the Wests Tigers. Because both sides were similar in size, I haven't made one the ongoing team and the other the merged one. When Illawarra joined with St George, I have made St George the ongoing club. The rest were just shut down, not a decision I agreed with.

So things have gone quite well but the cracks are appearing. If you are not progressive in today's world, there are plenty of other things to arrest people's attention. Sport has to entertain more than ever, to offer a quality product and adapt to the constant changes of modern society. These attendance figures should alert the NRL to a trend that isn't as positive as it should be.

Updated to the end of the 2017 season.

Rk	Club / Years	15-17	10-14	05-09	00-04	95-99	90-94
1	Brisbane	32,913	33,014	32,484	22,815	24,350	28,953
2	Nth Queensland	16,483	14,264	19,157	14,438	18,343	-
3	Canterbury	16,233	20,840	18,045	16,140	10,603	12,089
4	Newcastle	15,322	18,414	18,166	18,108	18,824	19,104
5	Melbourne	15,296	14,477	11,183	10,838	12,809	-
6	Paramatta	14,176	15,373	14,330	13,621	13,937	12,185
7	South Sydney	13,964	18,225	14,091	11,898	7,429	10,846
8	New Zealand	13,587	15,660	12,417	13,555	16,402	-
9	Wests Tigers	13,545	15,904	17,792	13,781	-	-
10	St George	13,508	15,773	13,787	13,537	10,223	11,795
11	Sydney Rooster	13,425	15,595	13,840	14,741	11,792	9,642
12	Cronulla	13,039	12,332	12,757	12,959	12,264	9,666
13	Gold Coast	12,582	15,435	20,762	-	7,395	7,980
14	Penrith	12,448	11,638	12,762	15,005	8,563	10,664
15	Canberra	12,055	11,302	11,669	11,325	11,926	14,239
16	Manly	11,561	14,307	14,741	10,832	13,506	13,755
-	Sth Queensland	-	-	-	-	13,683	-
-	Adelaide	-	-	-	-	11,401	-
-	North Sydney	-	-	-	-	10,770	7,980
-	Perth	-	-	-	-	10,143	-
-	Illawarra	-	-	-	-	8,593	12,039
-	Balmain	-	-	-	-	8,301	8,387
-	Hunter Valley	-	-	-	-	5,413	-
-	Western Sub	-	-	-	-	-	8,790
	Total Average	15,041	16,259	15,895	13,969	12,247	12,671
	Total	2882815	3503742	2974867	2525512	2680272	2230146