Australasia Attendances : 2018

With the 2018 regular season over, how have the attendances gone in the NRL. Considering the organisation sits on its hands each year doing nothing other than maintain the status quo, surprisingly well. So let's look at six of the clubs.

Below is the attendance rank, the position on the points table, change on the points table from 2017. Please note that if a double header game was held, the attendance figure is split between the two teams 50/50.

1) Brisbane: The best attended club since 2000 inclusive, although managing a small drop. It is the Broncos lowest average since 2013. The last time it was below 30,000 was 2004.

2) Newcastle: The first time the Knights has been second since 2006 and enjoyed a 21.5% increase despite only finishing 11th. Perhaps the +5 position improvement helped.

3) South Sydney: A rollicking 55% gain in attendance was the best since 2014.

4) St George: A tidy 25% rise and a good position historically as it hasn't been in the top three from at least 1990, where my records start.

5) NZ Warriors (Auckland): A 40% increase was helped by the side moving up five places to 8th best performing side.

16) Manly: They were second to last in the league, falling 9 places. They also fell below 10,000, their lowest attendance since 2002, when the Northern Eagles debacle was going on.

It's not surprising that the two lowest attended clubs also took the two lowest positions in the league. What is noticeable is the minor premiers (league winners) were 10th in attendance numbers and dropped nearly 14%.

The grand total was up 3.3%, the highest total since 2014.

	Rk	Pos	Ch	Club	2018	2017	+/-
	1	6	-3	Brisbane	30,896	31,394	-1.6%
	2	11	+5	Newcastle	18,974	15,619	21.5%
	3	3	+9	South Sydney	16,914	10,903	55.1%
	4	7	+2	St George	16,606	13,241	25.4%
	5	8	+5	New Zealand	16,393	11,754	39.5%
	6	9	+5	Wests Tigers	16,224	13,546	19.9%
	7	2	-1	Melbourne	15,996	16,536	-3.3%
	8	13	-5	Nth Queensland	15,417	16,528	-6.7%
	9	5	+2	Penrith	14,197	12,922	9.9%
	10	1	+1	Sydney Rooster	13,274	15,387	-13.7%
	11	14	+1	Gold Coast	12,807	13,691	0.9%
	12	4	+1	Cronulla	12,683	12,615	0.5%
	13	12	-1	Canterbury	12,542	13,996	-10.4%
	14	10	-	Canberra	11,854	14,350	-17.4%
	15	16	-12	Paramatta	11,175	14,004	-20.2%
	16	15	-9	Manly	9,977	11,654	-14.4%
				Total	2,951,131	2,857,674	3.3%