another way to look at it is Facebook followers by population

Cairns 16924 12.1%
Illawarra 16590 8.2%
Perth 115911 6.9%
Auckland 90000 6.5%
Adelaide 41210 3.4%
Melbourne 58000 1.5%
Brisbane 25532 1.3%
Sydney 46977 1.2%

Again Cairns and Illawarra at the top of the list. The order to the above attendance is pretty similar.

Big ups to Cairns and Illawarra, a lot more work to do for Brisbane and Sydney, 1% is really low.

Good topic. FB likes can be a good indication of how well a club engages with fans, but there would be a small number of people that like a number of clubs. Im a Perth fan, but I also like Melboure and Sydney on FB so those FB likes can be skewed a bit. Plus its very easy to like any team. No effort is required, unlike attending the game.

Sydney had 7200 at their last game on Sunday which I thought was bloody unbelievable considering how bad they've been (again). I have no idea whats going on in Sydney anymore. In years past they wouldn't have gotten more than 4000 for a game like that. They still cant win games (or assemble a good roster) but they seem to have their off court game working for them. Maybe Sydney dont care about winning as much as we think they do? Will be interesting to see if they can keep getting over 6000 regularly despite the losing.

Illawarra may have a good percentage of people attending in relation to their population, but I think they should be getting more than 2700, even if they have improved. They have historically always had the lowest crowds and their 'battler' persona doesnt really work for me, when they made the GF last year ahead of Melbourne and Sydney. They should be getting bigger crowds given their on court success recently.

Brisbane are and probably always wil be the leagues toughest market to gain support. They just struggle for support. NZ are the most fickle supporters - and they need to ditch the North Shore.

Wildcats having 5 home games so far (at an 8% increase on last seasons average) might be skewing the stats..

Total NBL crowds this season = 184,327
Wildcats crowds this season = 67,914

So slighter more than 1 in 3 people that have been at NBL game have been at a game at Perth Arena.

Melbourne vs Dandenong WNBL game attracted 3,157 last night. A great crowd.

The Hawks have priced a few ex-members and casual fans out. There were significant hikes in the "Silver" (second worst) ticket categories, and the back three rows (Bronze) are nearly always full.

No surprizes there, Brisbane never wanted a team,it was forced on them.

Not sure I am buying the propaganda either just yet. Perth crowds are up, which surprises me considering they were big anyway, and I think Melbourne's are up too.

But what's happening elsewhere? Because that's what matters IMO if we are really talking health of the whole league. I'd much rather see increases in places like Wollongong & Brisbane than the teams who already have the biggest crowds.

Its definately skewed because of the amount of home games Perth have played. Crowd averages will always go up when Perth play at home (and now Melbourne too).

But im glad the NBL have put out a press release promoting this fact. You can guarantee all other sports would do the same thing if they could say they had an 8% increase in the first few weeks of a new season.

This has also been boosted by good crowds in Adelaide, Sydney and Cairns too, and thats probably more encouraging.

Melbourne is averaging more than 8000 after their first three home games, which is a brilliant figure so far.

I think the NBL would be very happy with turnouts in Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney. Brisbane obviously a work in progress.

I think almost any amount will sound small when you show it by percentage of population. The NBL is doing just fine with crowds though, in my estimation, and that will only grow as the season progresses.

I think the NBL would be very happy with turnouts in Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney. Brisbane obviously a work in progress.

Through the majority of last decade the league-wide average crowd was in the 3000s. Last season it was something like 6400 and it's on track for a similar figure this year.

Crowds are certainly not the worry now, it's trying to find a way to steadily build that TV audience. Hopefully they'll make some good inroads internationally, because it will be very hard work getting significant improvements here.

Sydney have played 3 home games. The first one gave all members 2 free tickets each to bring friends, and last Sunday was free for all kids wearing their junior jerseys, and $15 for adults accompanying them. I wouldn't say the crowds are very good at all, not paid attendance anyway.

I could cop the losing if they were a fun team to watch, but there is almost nobody that gets the crowd into it in this years squad.

I wonder if there is a correlation between Facebook fans and TV viewers ... don't have those stats but would be cool to see them

Speaking as Brisbane member (if not quite a fan, displaced Taipans tragic) there are some clearly issues in market, suitability of arena, member base, pricing and so on.

2640 however is pretty sad, particularly given that it was a Friday night game with literally no sporting competition that night (Roar played Sunday). The membership base is around 1000 or so from most accounts but the price hike pre-season seems to have cut numbers. However the empty seats were strikingly obvious and seemed more numerous than they were at any point last year.

The arena issue is always going to limit the Bullets until the mooted Brisbane Live project gets up. Playing at the Convention Centre (high rent, low capacity) limits their ability to vary ticket prices, or so management states.

The alternative is the Entertainment Centre, where they're playing four games this year but the extra capacity is countered by the location, outdated facilities, parking costs and traffic pre and post game. Tickets are slightly cheaper to these games, with promos a plenty, but it isn't realistic to play every game there, especially if corporate support is a priority.

It isn't a case of on court success equals bums on seats, the Lions still averaged over 16 000 this year whilst being awful and having been so for the better part of a decade.

I don't envy the Brisbane front office having to negotiate the quagmire of SEQ sport.

It's funny, any year in any sport when crowd figures are released someone is calling BS!

Brisbane also has the worst social media presence out of all the teams, no incentives to become a member and 0 media presence and promotion. Kind of what you'd expect really.

While Sydney may be loosing on the court, they are making it up in their in-game entertainment, games are a lot more enjoyable the last few seasons compared to earlier in the decade.