Isaac
Years ago

"Australia’s sporting obsession is waning"

Sports marketing company the Gemba Group has statistical, decade-long evidence of dwindling fanaticism, consumption and participation in sport by Australians. Sport remains loved, but when attention is spread among all the codes shown on television and the internet, the emotion in each specific area has become less intense.

In 2007, Gemba's survey found 79 per cent of respondents were ­fanatical supporters of one certain sport in Australia. This year, it was 69 per cent.
Attendances at games are the best indicators of fanaticism. The NRL’s average crowd figure has dropped by nearly 2000 from last season. The AFL’s numbers are steady on last season but down by nearly 5000 over the past decade.
Super Rugby has nosedived from an average crowd of 21,233 a decade ago to 11,434 this season. Test and one-day cricket attendances have fallen. Substandard teams are more likely to be ­ignored when there’s so much other sport on the menu. The Wallabies’ crowd of 54,846 on Saturday night was the lowest for a Bledisloe Test at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium.

One of the few Australian competitions with turnstiles swinging more frequently is the NBL as a result of the greater access to coverage of American hoops. NBL crowds have nearly tripled in a decade.
Full article

The article talks about declining crowds for AFL, NRL and cricket, while noting that the NBL has grown strongly.

Obviously physical attendance at games is up against strong television coverage and online streaming. Costs to attend and deal with parking are issues too. Though the NBL is bucking the trend on that front - maybe just recovering ground lost with existing fans?

The article puts the NBL's improvement down to better access to the NBA, but I'd guess that access to NBA has worked against the NBL. Once upon a time you had to wait for the newspaper the next day just to read the scores whereas now you can pay for a livestream, following live stats for free, get almost immediate access to highlights and rumours, etc.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

The article puts the NBL's improvement down to better access to the NBA, but I'd guess that access to NBA has worked against the NBL. Once upon a time you had to wait for the newspaper the next day just to read the scores whereas now you can pay for a livestream, following live stats for free, get almost immediate access to highlights and rumours, etc.


I think there is value in promotion of a sport in general. I don't think a lack of access to NBA content increases interest in the local game.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Pro sports in the near future will reach a point where it starts taking in less revenue. We are presently in a time where rights values skyrocket each deal. Future generations have so much more entertainment options available and following a team will be too much of an attention/focus burden.

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SteveK2  
Years ago

Certainly the NBA has some impact in maintaining interest in the sport, particularly when the previous NBL admin dropped the ball. However, to claim that better access to the NBA is the main reason for a resurgence in NBL, that's open to debate.

The current NBL admin pushes hard to make the league more visible in MSM. There's better co-ordination between the league and various clubs in generating and maintaining fan interest, NBL TV is one such platform. Free access for one team of choice and the Telstra partnership were instrumental in luring the 'engaged' to pass through the turnstiles.

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PlaymakerMo  
Years ago

I wonder what basis they have for the explanation that greater NBA has positively influenced NBL crowds - probably nothing other than correlations.

"The article puts the NBL's improvement down to better access to the NBA, but I'd guess that access to NBA has worked against the NBL."

"I think there is value in promotion of a sport in general."

I imagine both are true. Most posters seem to agree that the league 'dropped the ball' for part of the 90's and the 00's. Historical data might suggest that the Larry Kestelman era (proactive promotion etc.) has initiated something of a return to the mean, almost irrespective of the NBA.

Grassroots participation in basketball has grown during the last two decades, has it not?

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Kingpodge  
Years ago

The article makes a lot of assumptions and strident declarations based on some broad correlations.....

Smells like a Gemba PR crafted into a story, pitching their services to the sports with 'diminishing' fan bases.

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Kingpodge  
Years ago

Note: Avocado consumption has increased while NRL attendance has decreased.

Thus, Avocados provide immunity to NRL.

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Haz  
Years ago

How did they get the crowd average of 8100 in 2017 and 6500 in 2016? These wouldn't have been season averages but rather yearly figures, correct? The average from last season was 6,500.

Nice to see the NBL buck the trend of some of the other higher profile leagues, however its climbing up from a very low point whereas other leagues are sliding down or remaining stagnant after a boom period.

As for the AFL, you could easily point their crowd drop to Gold Coast and GWS entering the league, plus more games in Canberra, Tasmania, Alice Springs etc.

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CT  
Years ago

Okay, so I didn't read it because it's behind a pay wall, but based on the write up above, what a load of nonsense. In the past decade living costs have risen sharply, household disposable income has dropped and employment patterns have changed. Sports attendance is falling because it's too damn expensive, too far and you have to be up too early in the morning. This is the same reason why the bloody wildcats have dominated the Nbl for the last decade: cashed up Fifo miners don't blink at the price of a night out at the basketball, the stadium's easy to get to via a few bars and you can get home easily afterwards and sleep off all the overpriced piss you've been chucking down your hole.

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paul  
Years ago

The AFL is close to setting an attendance record this year, no doubt helped by good weather and a very close season, so not sure about the article's other assertions.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/afl/afl-crowds-on-the-up-as-bombers-fans-return/news-story/88769c81107278e9400ae73fe44eb650

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SteveK2  
Years ago

Possible juxtaposition of the rising interest in the NBL due to NBA, I heard the Kyrie Irving trade news on ABC Radio this morning.

Its a substantial report as opposed to usual one liners on MSM where the presenter sadly mispronounced the name as Keree Irvine. He did brought up the issue of unprotected draft pick though which raised my eyebrows.

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Bear  
Years ago

When it comes to sporting obsession or fanaticism we tend to judge it by crowd numbers and there are many factors, some mentioned above, that come in as potential and very real causes for slight increases or decreases.

I am uncertain as to how this translates into a passion or intensity in the love of sport being analysed the way this company has done it.

I dare say the intensity of Collingwood, Richmond, Carlton and Essendon fans will sway the statistics one way or the other depending on how successful their teams are in the AFL.

Similarly, in the NRL should their old time rivals and historically large crowd drawing teams also get back into the finals. As for the ARL, well no Aussie teams are doing well, so of course crowds will not get so involved.

Other international sports are the same, tennis, cricket, soccer, motor racing etc... have all had a slight step back waiting for our next champions to emerge!

People love success, the NBL has seen a surge, lets hope it continues, but I think the Australian passion for sport is unchanged, we are just craving for more winners and less whingers!

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PeterJohn  
Years ago

"Grassroots participation in basketball has grown during the last two decades, has it not?"

In line with population growth. i.e., numbers have grown at the same rate as population has grown but no faster. Other physical recreation activities' participation rates have grown faster than population growth. However, those have mostly been in individual activities that are not organised sports and are driven by the middle to older aged adult population. e.g., activities like cycling, gym workouts, walking, running.

There's a discussion of basketball popularity between 1990s and today, which includes comparative participation stats: http://www.hoops.com.au/forum/40207-aussie-basketball-popularity-2016-v-early-90s/#p605852

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Wilson Sting  
Years ago

I think it has a bit to do with sports now being 100% professional with ridiculous salaries; there are less characters and personalities, the fans can't relate as well to the players. The players are just machines and though being spectacular at their sport, it's just like watching two robots battle sometimes.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Plus there is no passion from them anymore as win or lose they are getting paid a fixed salary (in most sports) and it isn't linked to performance. Athletes are also more interested in "cruising" to extend their careers rather than put it all out there on the court of field. You don't see blood and tears anymore.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Anon^ that has more to do with culture than passion, although the two are not mutually exclusive I guess.

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