Numbers up for NRL but crowds a concern

WITH rugby league preparing to negotiate the biggest television deal in the sport's history, memberships are rising, pay TV records are being broken and while slightly fewer people are going through the turnstiles, the crowds are relatively strong compared to those for rival sports.

The NRL is finalising its annual ''state of the game'' report and The Sun-Herald has obtained the preliminary findings.

As the league prepares to hand over control to an independent commission, the latest indicators show the sport remains in a strong position at the bargaining table. The finishing touches are being put on the report, which has been compiled up until the end of round 23.

Advertisement: Story continues below The key indicators include:

❏ Crowds are expected to finish down by about 1.5 per cent on last year's figures;

❏ Average ratings on Fox Sports are up 16.4 per cent, with league notching 63 of the most-watched programs on pay TV so far this year;

❏ Memberships are up 29 per cent, to a total of 171,811;

❏ An increase in the number of female volunteers of 10,000;

❏ A 13 per cent increase in the number of children playing weekend rugby league, to 143,000.

''The game is in a position of great strength,'' NRL chief executive David Gallop said. ''One of my pet hates is when people call the game resilient - the game is actually successful because the strategies around the closeness of the competition and the level of community engagement by our clubs and players are the correct strategies and the ones leading to the excellent results the game is experiencing.

''On Friday night we again saw games go down to the wire and the skill of our players is quite unbelievable. At the same time, the club's community programs have our players regarded as making a positive difference to people's lives beyond the footy field. All of that converts to the crowd numbers, the TV ratings and the merchandise sales, which are at all-time highs.''

While crowds are slightly down this season, league remains in relatively good shape compared to rival codes. Estimates show that A-League crowds are down 15 per cent, Super Rugby attendance has fallen 8 per cent and the AFL has suffered a 4 per cent drop in attendance.

Several suggestions have been made for league's downturn, including an unusually wet start to the year. By the mid-point of the competition, there were 24 wet-weather games, as compared to 15 in all of 2010. Another factor is that there have been fewer contenders in the race to the finals - at the start of this round there were 10, as opposed to 12 at the corresponding time last season.

But the totals could be comparable to last year's record highs, particularly if the fringe finals candidates stay in contention until the last round. If there is one area of concern, it's the Sydney clubs - six of the nine clubs are in the bottom nine for attendance.

Pay TV ratings have risen in every timeslot, with the 7:30pm Saturday night spot (25 per cent) experiencing the highest growth. Live free-to-air ratings are also up. The average audience on the first Friday night game in Sydney is 416,000 (up 1.8 per cent), while Brisbane is 270,000 (up 1.8 per cent). However, there have been drops in the Friday delayed games of 1.1 per cent.

While the figures are still being tabulated, the Sunday Channel Nine game viewership is up in Sydney but down in Brisbane.

Industry analysts rate this as a strong result given that ratings among commercial networks are slightly diluted following the addition of new channels such as GO! and Gem.

Other positive figures include 375,000 Facebook followers, the most of any code; a 43 per cent increase in Backyard League numbers; and a total of 1.25 million children who have taken part in an organised rugby league activity.

http://www.smh.com.au/