Australasia NRL Attendances: 2019

The regular season has concluded and the attendance figures are in. The total is down 5.8% to just under 15,000. That is the second lowest average since 2004 (the worst was 2017). Not a major issue but a sign that something needs to be done to add more interest. Expansion is an obvious answer, 18 teams is possible in the near future.

Moving on, Brisbane was miles ahead at 29,500 but had its lowest average since 2004. However, Newcastle had its best average since 2012 and Paramatta's highest since 2014. Others of note was NZ falling 20% this year, Wests -22%, South Sydney -25% and St George -41%!  Canberra was up 25% and Parramatta 65%, a new stadium helping the latter along.

Something new was the Magic Weekend round, which was inspired by the successful UK event. 135,000 fans turned up to watch it but while I have included it in the total average, I haven't included that in the team averages. I feel it would distort the data. The teams are either shaded purple (NSW) or salmon (elsewhere).

	Rk	Team	2019
	1	Brisbane	29,521
	2	Newcastle	19,055
	3	Paramatta	18,396
	4	Sydney Roost	15,677
	5	Canberra	14,864
	6	Melbourne	14,741
	7	South Sydney	13,877
	8	New Zealand	13,831
	9	North Qld	13,658
	10	Wests	13,547
	11	Canterbury	12,880
	12	Penrith	12,474
	13	Cronulla	12,141
	14	Manly	11,267
	15	Gold Coast	11,085
	16	St George	9,813
		Average	14,946