Email sent to Channel 7 Perth

[tragic]

"Friendlies"!???

In that case, I think you've made a lot of friends here, Weebie!

[Weebie]

That happened around 15-25 odd years ago, I know because I am part of that. The new immigration is mostly coming from Asia. Did you watch the Subi test by any chance, you sure as hell could spot the gold in that crowd.

Wrong....I assume you don't work in the Engineering industry

Look for next seasons Super 14 for there to be a large spike in interest. The Wallabies have been playing rubbish rugby the last few years and with a few strong performances like on the weekend the interest will be rekindled and there is no reason it can go back to the level of interest, and even more so, that was current back in the late 90's, early 2000's.

Interest can only go so far with Foxtel Coverage

As for AFL's growth, it is still essentially in the same areas that it was 100 or so years ago, as much as the newspapers try to talk it up, it has still not really moved significantly.

Its talked up in the WA tabloids yes

Soccer in Australia will only grow with the Socceroos keep winning and the Wallabies keep losing, as those are the two major international teams. The Socceroos team is aging and some of their stars won't be around for 2010 if they qualify. The Wallabies on the other hand have a young squad with a brilliant coach and look to win some major games in the future.

The Socceroos have some big matches coming up but they to are confined to PAYTV. Having said that I have been told that on TV the A-league rates very high

A League doesn't even get a mention in Perth most of the time and the crowds are shocking. Any interest in soccer in Perth has NOTHING to do with the A League, as the crowds are worse then the NSL days. The interest has to do with the Socceroos success plus a larger influx of ENGLISH in recent times. You don't believe it? I only have two friends who aren't English.

No offence but who cares what a bunch of People from Perth think...really i know the eastern states don't

Your information is not only wrong, your argument for and against conflicts.

Not that wrong

[BLR]

I am not willing to be blindsided by 2 wins it matches that are essentially friendlies (sorry rugby tradionalists) but all test matches are basically friendlies all in anticipation towards to the world cup.

You've been up North too long, the Bledisloe isn't a nothing match, beating the All Blacks is the pinnacle of world rugby and having the Bledisloe encompasses what it is to be the cream of the crop. NH rugby and ESPECIALLY soccer has nothing that compares to the Bledisloe in feeling.(mid world cup years)

[PerthGirl]

I've just read on the ARU site that the game on Saturday was the most viewed program on pay TV this year and the game was the most watched Rugby game ever on Fox. Shows that rugby is not quite dead Weebie, sweetheart!

[welshrugbyfan]

This current situation reminds me of Wales just a few months ago performing at wrong times when clearly England or France hardly took the sixnations seriously.

Why don't you tell us the Force is a shit team so you can piss off can even more people on our site, people put messages on here that sometimes I disagree with but it makes for good friendly banter. Comments you have made however seem way off the mark, the one above is just plain stupid. Performing at wrong times??? We just had a new Coaching team start with them, it's amazing what fresh ideas can do to a team just ask the Wallabies. Kiwi coaches, you gotta love em.

England were taking it very serious until they lost on home soil to pretty much the Ospreys. France could have won the six nations if they had beaten Wales in the last game so I doubt they weren't taking that game serious either.

Good luck in your future attempts to promote soccer on a Western Force rugby fan site.

[TOCC]

20% up from last year in a world cup year....thats great how about put that figuare against something more useful such as hmmm when the game turned pro and see how it stacks up how about the fact that 1.44million people watched the Bledisloe on Sat night as opposed to 1million in 2002

Its been well reported that the ARU are having problems with sponsorship and its relationship with sponsors for the last couple of years.its also being well reported that Sonnybill was going to stay with the Bulldogs, like i said earlier, Bundy Run are looking at stepping away but another is already there to fill the shoes

I wouldn't justify the ARC as anything else other than a massive stuff up you will just look silly.
il agree that it was run way to exspensivley, but in terms of playing development, the competition was anything but a stuff up

The NZ match is 3pm free to air its already been documented in another part of this form why its free to air.haha, but it still contradicts your argument that FTA is shrinking now doesnt it

I am not willing to be blindsided by 2 wins it matches that are essentially friendlies (sorry rugby tradionalists) but all test matches are basically friendlies all in anticipation towards to the world cup. This current situation reminds me of Wales just a few months ago performing at wrong times when clearly England or France hardly took the sixnations seriously.
6nations is hardly the same as the tri-nations, if your trying to tell me that any of the 3nations teams are picking anything less then what they think is the best team then you have serious rocks in your head

the day we have a new coach...Great!!! but we are still the team that bungled out of the QF stage less than a year ago which is f**king pathetic!
so they lost in the QF, get over it, they have also won two RWC's in the past as well

you cant argue with the facts, rugby in australia is improving, 2007 was a bad year but thats in the past and you dont even need the facts to prove it, people are talking about rugby again and more people are wearing there wallaby jerseys again

I dont really understand what your arument is, rugby in australia has more then doubled participation numbers since 1996, average crowds to S14 games are more then 30% up in comparison to 1996.

The Bledisloe Cup match was the highest ratings pay tv program for the year, its not like it was even the deciding match, it was the first one and the wallabies were expected to lose.

I dont know what crazy stories you are being fed over there in England, but reality speaks for itself.

[jargan83]

I would just like to point out that i am writing this while I have my Perth Glory jersey on, so hold back on the muppet calls

You muppet!

Are you trying to tell me that the Rugby World Cup is bigger than Euro 2008???? Please everyone knows that 3rd biggest sporting even garbage is crap. Even so with small stadiums and a timezone that only diehards from Europe and Africa will watch 2011 world cup in NZ certainly won't be the 3rd largest event in the world

Euro 2008 and may have been big in Europe, but it wasn't even televised here, unless you had access to Setanta sports, which most people don't have. I couldn't even tell you who won it. (Who did win it by the way??)

The A-League is the future...2 new teams just been announced and and ever increasing fanbase. Compare that with the failed APC Rugby which is the laughing stock to soccerfans.

Which will further dilute the competition, thus affecting the spetacle. The salery cap wil still force our best talent overseas, which is good for the national side, but a bad thing for the A-League. The A-League cannot be taken seriously untill crowds are 20,00 plus everywhere and the best talent is staying in Australia

Ease up on the muppet comments!!

Every local rugby club in WA is recording higher numbers of junior and senior members every year. The jumps aren't small either, just have a look at how many junior teams are now in the comp as well as the expanding senior comp which is also spreading into the country areas and you will see this for yourself.

My local cricket club has also picked up in junior memberships and we have had 3 teams, with leftovers for the first time in years. I dare say it has to with the encouragement towards children to get off their asses and actually go play some sport and turn into little fatties.

Junior Football is however alive and well, i belive it has the largest player base into the country, in front of every sport in every state, at least that was the last report/statistics i saw.

The Glory have their fan base and did go through a puple patch for a while but what once was is gone.

In fact the Perth Glory's crowds were slightly up last year on previous years. Perth is a renown city for "being on the bandwagon" and only supporting while a team is winning. West Coast can't even drag 38,000 people to a game lately, and Fremantle are struggling as well. The Perth Glory were shafted from the start of the A-League but i won't go into that.

In Fact Force crowds were down this year, which was pretty disappointing. I know the stadium played a part in this, but whether it was due to results not going the way of the Force as well is unknown in only their 3rd season

They are only recording jumps because of migration from South Africans and New Zealand familys.

That totally explains my mates who are through and through West Australians (i'm from Sydney) who think AFL is shithouse and love Rugby.

It also doesn't explain some of my mate at the Cricket Club who had no idea what Rugby was untill the Force came along (through and through AFL nuts) and now they are always asking me questions about the game, they went to their first couple of games this year.

AFL will continue to spend hundreds of millions dollars on development of the game and still get no return While rig the competition so that Sydney and Brisbane continue to perform well as no one will give a sh*t if they are at the bottom of the ladder.

6 AFL clubs are only surviving because the AFL gives them $1 million a year, they have token markets in Sydney and Brisbane that largely don't care about them. Go to Sydney and NSW where it is still very much Rugby, both League and Union

This is a better indication of how the game is right now.
Attendances are down significantly.
Sponsorship is dropping with bundaberg reportly wanting to pull out.
The ARC debarcle which was not a trial it was a massive stuff up which basically proved that a out of Super 14 competition was not viable in this country.
TV coverage is all but finished on free to air. even Channel Seven have not been showing up to Wallaby press conferences with the ARU Showpiece event confined to late night telecasts in most states.

Yes i am in London but did get to see one season of Force matches which was entertaing and great to watch...but it was also a case of spot the Aussie most of the time.

Tocc has answered these so i won;t bother reapeating him, but i agree with him

As for AFL's growth, it is still essentially in the same areas that it was 100 or so years ago, as much as the newspapers try to talk it up, it has still not really moved significantly.

Funnily enough AFL was the only sport to have a downturn in Junior participation and Senoir particpation.

Soccer in Australia will only grow with the Socceroos keep winning and the Wallabies keep losing, as those are the two major international teams. The Socceroos team is aging and some of their stars won't be around for 2010 if they qualify. The Wallabies on the other hand have a young squad with a brilliant coach and look to win some major games in the future.

A League doesn't even get a mention in Perth most of the time and the crowds are shocking. Any interest in soccer in Perth has NOTHING to do with the A League, as the crowds are worse then the NSL days. The interest has to do with the Socceroos success plus a larger influx of ENGLISH in recent times. You don't believe it? I only have two friends who aren't English.

Soccer will always be growing in Australia, the route through Asia ensues that we play more games, therefore more people are going through the gates, tell the 75,000 people that turned up a month ago for a dead rubber that Soccer is crap.

A-League gets a mention in Perth, just not a very big one thats for sure, i believe Soccer/Football was mover to the summer timeslot originaly to avoid competition with the likes of Rugby Union, Rugby League and AFL. I know several Asian Leagues are currently in competition now if not all. I'm definately not English, neither are any of my mates. I can't put up with their whinging, i can see why you hang around with them BLT. But having said that, like i said above, Soccer will never be taken seriously, at least domesticly untill they are reguarly pulling 20K plus crowds, and we stop the flow of our best players overseas, which the Perth Glory and most of the other clubs DON'T do

Only been 2 world cup finals and over 40 test matches.

Theres no such thing as a Test match in Football/Soccer. Theres Friendly's, in which the whole team can be substituted at half time, and the only time international football is taken seriously is World Cup qualifying or the actual World Cup tournament.

Its been well reported that the ARU are having problems with sponsorship and its relationship with sponsors for the last couple of years.

I havent read those reports. Last time i read something ragarding ARU sponsorship i heard that Vodafone were willing to step up again and 2 other unnamed companies as well. But that didnt matter becasue QANTAS re-signed for another 4 years i think?? You tiried that arguement 2 or 3 posts ago as well, so obviously you are a bit thick

I wouldn't justify the ARC as anything else other than a massive stuff up you will just look silly.

The ARC failed becasue certain influential elements in the game here in Australia, more to the point NSW such as the powerfull Sydney clubs. It was never given a chance to succeed

I am not willing to be blindsided by 2 wins it matches that are essentially friendlies (sorry rugby tradionalists) but all test matches are basically friendlies all in anticipation towards to the world cup. This current situation reminds me of Wales just a few months ago performing at wrong times when clearly England or France hardly took the sixnations seriously.
the day we have a new coach...Great!!! but we are still the team that bungled out of the QF stage less than a year ago which is f**king pathetic!

France could have won the 6 nations had they beaten Wales in the last game?? England are just crap and have been since they won the world cup. I don't care about their problems.

Obviously you are a bandwagon supporter like i mentioned above. There for great times, but when your team is struggling or starting out you bag them out. I wear my heart on my sleeve and I am over the RWC debarcle. I suggest you do the same.


[COLOR="Blue"]I don;t know why you seem so determined to discredit a game that you claimed to support or have previously supported. You have no idea as to the status of the Australian sporting landscape and i also question your abilty to write a coherrant sentance that succesfully argues your point as you have contradicted yourself several times. I may enjoy both games, and have argued for both games but I don't see the point of shooting down Rugby on a Rugby forums website. Further more if you love the round ball game so much i sugeest you go find a round ball website. Every game has it's problems mate, but i belive that Aussie Rugby is on the up again after a few years in the doldrums. I left several arguements alone because my fellow Rugby supporters answered them for me.


I also apologise if none of this makes sense, it did in my head, but i'm sure it makes more sense then Weebies feeble arguments

[Weebie]

Also by Danny Weilder:

Australia v France rated an historic low of 260,000 last weekend. Outrated by guess what Stuart Little 2. Channel Seven also havent shown up to the last 2 media announcements of Wallaby squad

[Weebie]

Why Homebush doesn't feel like home
Greg Growden | June 30, 2008

IF THE Australian Rugby Union believed the first Test against France would convince Sydneysiders to again head out in droves to Homebush Bay, they would have been bitterly disappointed.

It was just another forgettable international that lacked edge at a venue many rugby diehards don't want to go to.

And with it was yet another poor crowd figure that can only concern those at the ARU, who for good reason have thrown it around that they are at the mercy of that gorilla in the room wearing an AFL jersey.

Well they will be worried if attendances continue to plummet in Sydney for any international other than the Bledisloe Cup. The statistics don't lie: Sydney crowds for the next-best Tests have in recent years dropped by 15,000-20,000. These are not the figures those in the ARU pushing for more Sydney Tests want to see.
Attendances for Tests against South Africa have slumped from 77,048 in 2000 to 51,174 last year, while internationals against Wales have experienced a drop from 63,688 in 2003 to 40,827 last year.

It was only marginally better on Saturday night, but the 48,899 crowd figure was dismally short of the 64,703 in attendance for France's previous Sydney match in 2002.

The reasons are many, including the Wallabies' recent inability to provide value for money. But the ANZ Stadium venue - and what happens on many Test nights - also is a major problem.

Many rugby fans mention their aversion towards the Olympic venue. They say the seats are too far away from the action, it is a pain in the neck to get to, parking is inconvenient, it is near impossible to get a taxi out of the joint and there is little to no atmosphere.

Also not helping is that often on Test nights important railway lines are out of action, making it more of a torture getting to and from the venue. On Saturday night, the North Shore line was once again closed for upgrading work.


Then there's what occurs on the night. It is all so flat. The general tone is on show when something supposedly exciting happens, such as a try being scored. One would expect this moment to be greeted with gladiatorial themes. Instead, Katrina and the Waves's Walking on Sunshine blared out of the loudspeakers. What next, "Andy Pandy's coming to play"?

This is as irritating as the fingers down the chalkboard rendition of Waltzing Matilda just before every Test kick-off. No wonder the Wallabies played like hungover swaggies in the first half.
Please ARU, enough is enough!

Compare this to Tests, both interstate and overseas. Go to an international at Twickenham, Millennium Stadium, Lansdowne Road, Carisbrook, Loftus Versfeld, Newlands, Stade Velodrome in Marseille, Ellis Park, and it is an occasion. It is impossible not to get caught up in the fervour.

Go to a Test in Brisbane, and with everyone on top of the action, the occasion is always gripping. Maybe not quite so in Perth or Melbourne, but like Brisbane, you can get to the venue quickly, and get out just as swiftly. ANZ Stadium cannot boast any of that.

The ARU is stuck through contractual obligations with the Olympic stadium until 2011, but it won't stop them thinking about moving their next-best Tests to a more suitable venue, to a place where seats are at a priority and you don't need a high powered telescope to see the game.

The Sydney Football Stadium is not perfect, because of the exorbitant car parking prices and the traffic snarls around Moore Park but we hear it may soon be expanded to hold between 50,000 and 55,000, making it even more alluring to the ARU.

And the SFS does have one big factor in its favour. Atmosphere.

[Weebie]

I would just like to point out that i am writing this while I have my Perth Glory jersey on, so hold back on the muppet calls



Euro 2008 and may have been big in Europe, but it wasn't even televised here, unless you had access to Setanta sports, which most people don't have. I couldn't even tell you who won it. (Who did win it by the way??)

I think you will find SBS did about half the games and having said that I was under the impression that only a handful of RWC games were televised by 10. But back on topic its terms of Interest..TV Audiences and money its pretty difficult to even compare the RWC to the Euros lets be honest.


Which will further dilute the competition, thus affecting the spetacle. The salery cap wil still force our best talent overseas, which is good for the national side, but a bad thing for the A-League. The A-League cannot be taken seriously untill crowds are 20,00 plus everywhere and the best talent is staying in Australia

True...But i am pretty sure the A lot of teams get around 20 000 i know perth doesn't

My local cricket club has also picked up in junior memberships and we have had 3 teams, with leftovers for the first time in years. I dare say it has to with the encouragement towards children to get off their asses and actually go play some sport and turn into little fatties.

Junior Football is however alive and well, i belive it has the largest player base into the country, in front of every sport in every state, at least that was the last report/statistics i saw.

Like i said previously ARU and AFL have small fees and play santa giving out lots of goodies to get kids to play. Soccer slams parents with huge fees and has to turn kids away

In fact the Perth Glory's crowds were slightly up last year on previous years. Perth is a renown city for "being on the bandwagon" and only supporting while a team is winning. West Coast can't even drag 38,000 people to a game lately, and Fremantle are struggling as well. The Perth Glory were shafted from the start of the A-League but i won't go into that.

In Fact Force crowds were down this year, which was pretty disappointing. I know the stadium played a part in this, but whether it was due to results not going the way of the Force as well is unknown in only their 3rd season



That totally explains my mates who are through and through West Australians (i'm from Sydney) who think AFL is shithouse and love Rugby.

It also doesn't explain some of my mate at the Cricket Club who had no idea what Rugby was untill the Force came along (through and through AFL nuts) and now they are always asking me questions about the game, they went to their first couple of games this year.

I remember when the Dockers and Eagles were getting sh*t crowds I was late into High School sometimes the dockers would only get 15000 and the eagles maybe 25000.
Perth is a bandwagon state


6 AFL clubs are only surviving because the AFL gives them $1 million a year, they have token markets in Sydney and Brisbane that largely don't care about them. Go to Sydney and NSW where it is still very much Rugby, both League and Union

Yes but with a Big TV deal they can fund this

Tocc has answered these so i won;t bother reapeating him, but i agree with him



Funnily enough AFL was the only sport to have a downturn in Junior participation and Senoir particpation.

I think you will find Rugby and Union to be in the same boat the majority of the time.

Soccer will always be growing in Australia, the route through Asia ensues that we play more games, therefore more people are going through the gates, tell the 75,000 people that turned up a month ago for a dead rubber that Soccer is crap.

A-League gets a mention in Perth, just not a very big one thats for sure, i believe Soccer/Football was mover to the summer timeslot originaly to avoid competition with the likes of Rugby Union, Rugby League and AFL. I know several Asian Leagues are currently in competition now if not all. I'm definately not English, neither are any of my mates. I can't put up with their whinging, i can see why you hang around with them BLT. But having said that, like i said above, Soccer will never be taken seriously, at least domesticly untill they are reguarly pulling 20K plus crowds, and we stop the flow of our best players overseas, which the Perth Glory and most of the other clubs DON'T do



Theres no such thing as a Test match in Football/Soccer. Theres Friendly's, in which the whole team can be substituted at half time, and the only time international football is taken seriously is World Cup qualifying or the actual World Cup tournament.



I havent read those reports. Last time i read something ragarding ARU sponsorship i heard that Vodafone were willing to step up again and 2 other unnamed companies as well. But that didnt matter becasue QANTAS re-signed for another 4 years i think?? You tiried that arguement 2 or 3 posts ago as well, so obviously you are a bit thick

There were reports last year of having poor sponsorship relationships...O'Neill commented on it a few times i remember.

The ARC failed becasue certain influential elements in the game here in Australia, more to the point NSW such as the powerfull Sydney clubs. It was never given a chance to succeed

The ARC was modelled on the Currie Cup and NPC and was potentially one of the biggest sporting failures ever.....

France could have won the 6 nations had they beaten Wales in the last game?? England are just crap and have been since they won the world cup. I don't care about their problems.

I was at the match They needed to win by 17 points and gave some kids a run....Great for a so called decider


Obviously you are a bandwagon supporter like i mentioned above. There for great times, but when your team is struggling or starting out you bag them out. I wear my heart on my sleeve and I am over the RWC debarcle. I suggest you do the same.

Yes I still have my force membership and spend thousands watching the wallabies overseas yes I am a bandwagoner...grow up tool! I am not saying I am more of supporter than anyone its just I am not a bandwagoner.


[COLOR="Blue"]I don;t know why you seem so determined to discredit a game that you claimed to support or have previously supported. You have no idea as to the status of the Australian sporting landscape and i also question your abilty to write a coherrant sentance that succesfully argues your point as you have contradicted yourself several times. I may enjoy both games, and have argued for both games but I don't see the point of shooting down Rugby on a Rugby forums website. Further more if you love the round ball game so much i sugeest you go find a round ball website. Every game has it's problems mate, but i belive that Aussie Rugby is on the up again after a few years in the doldrums. I left several arguements alone because my fellow Rugby supporters answered them for me.


I also apologise if none of this makes sense, it did in my head, but i'm sure it makes more sense then Weebies feeble arguments

I not trying to discredit the game i just feel that the game is a lot worse than it seems. We have won 2 games and everyone seems to be on the bandwagon of everything is alright when its not. With regards to Deans Anyone would of Beaten South Africa in Perth and New Zealand was a good victory but New Zealand have been poor for the last year a lot of teams I think its got a lot to do with their backline defence.

I know its off topic but these are my gripes with the game.

The Trinations draw is just w!nk!!! it has no integrity and teams that play the week before are severely disadvantaged. The Boks were losers before they went onto the pitch at Subi.
Free to air coverage has been abysmal since 2004 and Interest has severely dropped also don't tell me ratings are on the increase....It will be interesting to see if channel seven renew the TV Deal.
Watching Test matches has become a joke so many bullsh*t sides are fielded it including last year with South Africa.

[jargan83]

I not trying to discredit the game i just feel that the game is a lot worse than it seems. We have won 2 games and everyone seems to be on the bandwagon of everything is alright when its not. With regards to Deans Anyone would of Beaten South Africa in Perth and New Zealand was a good victory but New Zealand have been poor for the last year a lot of teams I think its got a lot to do with their backline defence.

I know its off topic but these are my gripes with the game.

The Trinations draw is just w!nk!!! it has no integrity and teams that play the week before are severely disadvantaged. The Boks were losers before they went onto the pitch at Subi.
Free to air coverage has been abysmal since 2004 and Interest has severely dropped also don't tell me ratings are on the increase....It will be interesting to see if channel seven renew the TV Deal.
Watching Test matches has become a joke so many bullsh*t sides are fielded it including last year with South Africa.

Has the northern summer fried your brain or are you just plain stupid (judging by the lack of constant head over 35 degrees i know which one my moneys on)?? South Africa lost because they didnt take advantage of their scoring opportunities. Based on your arguement shouldn't Australia have lost on saturday? We played the week before and still we won.

The game went LIVE into Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne which is the AFL capital of the world (only because no one else gives a shit). It's delay into Perth is complicated and I have been given an indication through a friend of a friend of a friend that a previous theory of mine in another thread is pretty close to the mark.Free to air coverage has always been abysmal with the commentators plugging different TV shows through the call etc

In regards to the drop in ratings of course C7 would expierience a drop in ratings when Foxsports started showing them. This is more because of 7's incompetance then anything else.

Last year when the saffers sent a weakened side everyone was pissed off, but they almost beat us. That descision could be vindicated when they won the World Cup. The fact they were desperate to get their 5 or 6 best players back from Europe to play in the tri-nations definately looks like they don't care about the tournament.

Back your arguements with credible statistics then I might think you are more then the village idiot
Posted via Mobile Device

[blueandblack]

... Channel Seven also havent shown up to the last 2 media announcements of Wallaby squad

That says exactly what we are saying about Ch 7. Ch 7 (at least in Perth) don't care about rugby. We, TWFers, do.

[.X.]

Has anyone sent an emal to Channel 7 lately?

[force addict]

i'm certainly tempted. will do tonight

[Flamethrower]

Why Homebush doesn't feel like home
Greg Growden | June 30, 2008

Quoting Growden does not help your cause on this site.

Unless you're trying to pull the piss.