Why didn't you go on Saturday?

[Celtic Blood]

There's been a lot of speculation in the Melbourne media as to why there was such a poor attendance at Saturday's match. The crowd of 19,127 was the lowest for an VFL/AFL finals match for 106 years. If you're a Swans member or supporter, particularly if you live in Sydney and you didnay go, I'm interested to know why.

[AnnieH]

The excuse that TWO members who normally go to every game was "it's too wet". Not good enough as far as I'm concerned. Thank god they paid for their tickets before the game. It was their loss by far!!

[swantastic]

There's been a lot of speculation in the Melbourne media as to why there was such a poor attendance at Saturday's match. The crowd of 19,127 was the lowest for an VFL/AFL finals match for 106 years. If you're a Swans member or supporter, particularly if you live in Sydney and you didnay go, I'm interested to know why.

Because their lazy no good band wagon supporters who didnt want to get wet and support their team.They were to busy drinking chardonnay and eating fish eggs at some over priced swanky Sydney resturant.At the very least they could have gone to a pub and watched it on TV.

[ROK Lobster]

I thought we would lose playing ordinary, ugly football and I didn't want to waste $300 and weekend enduring that.

[ash3]

Had a family 60th birthday party to go to, so was stuck in Melbourne for the weekend.

[ScottH]

I'm like Collingwood, I refuse to travel.

[Glenn]

Sitting in the concourse of the SCG during the torrential downpour vs the Weagles for a finals match, makes Saturday night look like a misty drizzle.

[Triple B]

Look, it's pretty simple.

Price.

I reckon just about every member who could attend, did attend. I doubt if there were too many like Annie's friends.

I'm sure there are some fans who just couldn't afford it. I pay $600'ish for a family membership + a couple of hundred for Premiership Club for the two adults (wife and I). For that I get 2 adults and 4 kids. Now that the youngest daughter is too old for juniors I still have family membership because I now bring the grandson and assorted nieces and nephews.

If I was to take the 4 kids on Saturday, It would have cost $250 to sit where we sat, almost half the price I pay for 11 games + caps + kid's stuff etc. etc.

I bought 6 extra seats for the West Coast game and 9 extra seats for the Geelong game for friends who wanted to attend a game.

There is no way known I could talk friends into paying $75 to come on Saturday night, it is just too expensive if you're not fully 'into it'.

The foul weather didn't help, whatever walk ups they were going to get wouldn't have eventuated.......but the bottom line is the price factor, pure and simple.

[Triple B]

Sitting in the concourse of the SCG during the torrential downpour vs the Weagles for a finals match, makes Saturday night look like a misty drizzle.

That game was at Telstra/ANZ/Stadium Australia.

[Glenn]

My bad was thinking Circa 96 in the final round..

Anyway here is another that thought it would be to cold (From the Herald Sun and taken from the Kangroos forum on BF)

Former North Melbourne tough man Glenn Archer was flabbergasted when he received a message from the club's No. 1 ticketholder, Test captain Ricky Ponting, on Saturday.

He sent Archer a message to say he would not be at Sydney's ANZ Stadium for North's clash against the Swans because it was too chilly.

Although Ponting was raised in the cold of Tasmania, he now lives in Sydney.

Speaking on Triple M, Archer said he hoped it wasn't too cold when Ponting went out to bat or Australia in England next year.

[swanage]

Look, it's pretty simple.

Price.

I reckon just about every member who could attend, did attend. I doubt if there were too many like Annie's friends.

I'm sure there are some fans who just couldn't afford it. I pay $600'ish for a family membership + a couple of hundred for Premiership Club for the two adults (wife and I). For that I get 2 adults and 4 kids. Now that the youngest daughter is too old for juniors I still have family membership because I now bring the grandson and assorted nieces and nephews.

If I was to take the 4 kids on Saturday, It would have cost $250 to sit where we sat, almost half the price I pay for 11 games + caps + kid's stuff etc. etc.

I bought 6 extra seats for the West Coast game and 9 extra seats for the Geelong game for friends who wanted to attend a game.

There is no way known I could talk friends into paying $75 to come on Saturday night, it is just too expensive if you're not fully 'into it'.

The foul weather didn't help, whatever walk ups they were going to get wouldn't have eventuated.......but the bottom line is the price factor, pure and simple.

This. The price. I have a fair few friends that "like" the Swans, but in the end I couldn't talk any of them into spending $60-75 to watch the game. So instead we watched it from a warm couch and had some beers. The weather didn't help, but if it was $20 for a budget seat I would have likely braved it.

You can bitch and whine about fair weather supporters, but alot of people here are used to spending $20-$30 for premium seats watching a RL game. I don't think the Sydney market is ready to be charged $60+ for good seats at a game of footy.

[Celtic Blood]

My bad was thinking Circa 96 in the final round..

Anyway here is another that thought it would be to cold (From the Herald Sun and taken from the Kangroos forum on BF)

Former North Melbourne tough man Glenn Archer was flabbergasted when he received a message from the club's No. 1 ticketholder, Test captain Ricky Ponting, on Saturday.

He sent Archer a message to say he would not be at Sydney's ANZ Stadium for North's clash against the Swans because it was too chilly.

Although Ponting was raised in the cold of Tasmania, he now lives in Sydney.

Speaking on Triple M, Archer said he hoped it wasn't too cold when Ponting went out to bat or Australia in England next year.

That's a cracker. And Ponting would've got free flights, free accomodation, free meals, free drinks, free tickets and a comfy chair in a box! Talk about fair weather follower!

[Primmy]

That game was at Telstra/ANZ/Stadium Australia.

Triple B, that reference was to the 1996 Rnd 22 game, in howling gale, sheeting rain, and anyone who was there belongs to the elite club that is the "I Was There The Night The Sydney Chant Went Up For The First Time, in Gale Force Rain, etc etc". We are proud very proud of this particular membership. We were also twelve years younger. Not SURE I could do it again. Whattha, yes I would.

[swantastic]

Look, it's pretty simple.

Price.

I reckon just about every member who could attend, did attend. I doubt if there were too many like Annie's friends.

I'm sure there are some fans who just couldn't afford it. I pay $600'ish for a family membership + a couple of hundred for Premiership Club for the two adults (wife and I). For that I get 2 adults and 4 kids. Now that the youngest daughter is too old for juniors I still have family membership because I now bring the grandson and assorted nieces and nephews.

If I was to take the 4 kids on Saturday, It would have cost $250 to sit where we sat, almost half the price I pay for 11 games + caps + kid's stuff etc. etc.

I bought 6 extra seats for the West Coast game and 9 extra seats for the Geelong game for friends who wanted to attend a game.

There is no way known I could talk friends into paying $75 to come on Saturday night, it is just too expensive if you're not fully 'into it'.

The foul weather didn't help, whatever walk ups they were going to get wouldn't have eventuated.......but the bottom line is the price factor, pure and simple.

I agree BBB it is pretty expensive.When i come up for games i get GA being a melbourne member in my package.I wanted to upgrade to an under cover seat(for me and my daughter...SCG) which cost more and was happy to pay.When the girl at the counter told me it would be about $70 each i flipped,because i thought all i had to do was pay the difference between GA and a reserved seat price.Thats all you have to do in melbourne is pay the difference.But oh no not in Sydney. ...Us as supporters keep theses stadiums going and they treat us like this.

[Mr Magoo]

Its not the underlying fan base that wasnt their on Saturday night, its the people who are interested when it is convenient and agree that price would have kept many of these people away , especially when people know it isnt going to sell out so they wait to see what its like on the night.

Faced with a night at home in front of the telelvision or a raining night with $60-75 for a ticket plus exorbinant prices for food and beverages (who else charges $6 for tooheys new except these venues) and a stadium with draconian rules like no passouts , many people simply would have made the easy decision to stay home.

Things are very tight in Sydney at the moment and people are hurting financially from the interest rate rises etc.

Having said that I am very glad I was there (as well as that feezing night against West Coast in 96).