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Melbourne Heart and Melbourne City attendances


Jimmy
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Updated OP with today's mediocre crowd of 6,357.

2012-2013:

Total attendance (No. of games): 17,364 (2)

Average: 8,682

Change form 2011-12: +2,208

Highest two attendances:

Round 2 vs. WEL (11,007)

Round 4 vs. CCM (6,357)

Lowest two attendances:

N/A

N/A

Edited by Jimmy
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Poor turnout today. Beatiful day and we could only get 6300. This calls for a marque signing. Gee how the board has got it all wrong during the off seaon. If they believe community engagement is going to help them get to the target of 9K member they are dreaming. People want to see quality football and you get that with quality signings and a marque. FFS.

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Poor turnout today. Beatiful day and we could only get 6300. This calls for a marque signing. Gee how the board has got it all wrong during the off seaon. If they believe community engagement is going to help them get to the target of 9K member they are dreaming. People want to see quality football and you get that with quality signings and a marque. FFS.

So with no marquee and after a derby win, we get 11k, then two weeks later after two poor performances we get 6k and you're blaming the fact that we don't have a marquee player?

Melbourne is not a marquee driven market. That's Sydney, they want the "current big thing". Melbourne responds to results. If we win the next four games straight and the scum continue to lose, our crowds will go back up.

Simply put, we win consistently and show ourselves to be a side that regularly wins and the crowds will come. Outside of ADP and maybe Dwight Yorke, no marquee has successfully increased home gates.

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kingawesomeness there were quite a few oakleigh supporters on the day we got 11k. Today was a true reflection of our supporter base. The club needs to go in a different direction. community engagment doesnt cut it. full stop. A lot of soccer followers i know are waiting for HESKEY and Delpierro to come to AAMI park. Thats says it all.
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If these average 6k attendances continue, i doubt heart will be Financially viable. Attendance needs to average around 8-9k for a club to be profitable, if something dosen't change heart will fold. They should make it no.1 priority to get as many people to the games as possible. I barley see any advertising for heart games, which is something victory do alot and look at the numbers they get to their games.

The only way this is gonna be fixed is if they start advertising heavily or actually start winning every game, which is something that is not gonna happen. The other option is to base themselves in a particular area in melbourne like the south-east or the west (etc). In my opinion this has worked wonders for Western sydney as alot of people are very patriotic about their areas in which they live. This would bring a whole new crowd to the games and bring on a whole new passion for the club, something that heart has been lacking this season. Even people who are intrested in the game are likely to follow victory because lets be honest why would you go to a heart game with 6k attendance and little to no atmosphere when you can go to a Victory game which has 20k attendance filled with atmosphere.

Something needs to be done because the way heart are going i honestly can't see them continuing in this competition past this season if nothing is changed in the club. My predictions; Heart fo fold in season 13-14, South melbourne to take Hearts licencse or no more licencses given out to melbounre.

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Topic has been discussed at length but i think the current model needs more time. If we re-brand to say "South-East Heart", "Monash Heart", "East Melbourne Heart" we could tap in to supporters from Dandenong, Oakleigh, etc but it could just be a knee-jerk reaction after three years of existence. At the end of the day Melbourne sport lovers are not that patriotic about their area as NSW supporters are. AFL fans pretty much pick and choose their club which has got nothing to do where they live (people living in the west choosing to support Hawthorn, St Kilda, etc) which has got to do with the fact that 9 teams share 2 stadiums.

AAMI park is a perfect football stadium and its based in Melbourne so in the meantime, "Melbourne Heart" will have to do.

The only way to increase crowds will be a) consistent, entertaining football at home and B) marquee signing for next season (Brech, totti, etc)

Edited by Heart>Victory
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Don't believe FFA will let Heart fold. Nor do I believe the syndicate will turn in the licence. So many factors involved in being an A-League club. FFA requires a minimum standard of facilities, so it's just not a matter of picking up the bags and moving to a new home - where precisely do you suggest, because there's no stadium that meets the requirements?

Yes, we're struggling at the moment, but let's not just give up.

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A lot of people come to watch Heart games because AAMI is such a great stadium and central and easy to get to.

May gain a few supporters if moved to the East, but would also lose plenty. Can't really see myself convincing non soccer people to come check out a game in Dandenong.

Winning is the most important thing by far to increase members and attendances. Victory were getting 8k crowds last year when they were losing. It's unfortunate, and were unlucky being the second team, but have to deal with it.

Also if Heart ever folds, I am giving up on Australian soccer forever. My NSL team also folded and I could never go through it a third time. Even reading this thread is making me depressed haha.

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I thought HEart was established to be for the North and Northwest parts of Melbourne? Thats why they are based at latrobe uni. It was also so they could be seen as the anti-elite, working people blah blah club against the 'elite' of Melbourne victory, blue blood etc

They need to get Heart more in the media too. All I hear about is fucking Victory, I dont know about anyone else but I listen to sports today on 3aw and if they ever mention A-league its victory. Im going to start ringing them up to talk Heart. Even on the Age website today the 'weekly wrap' All about fucking victory again

Edited by Dylan
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Topic has been discussed at length but i think the current model needs more time. If we re-brand to say "South-East Heart", "Monash Heart", "East Melbourne Heart" we could tap in to supporters from Dandenong, Oakleigh, etc but it could just be a knee-jerk reaction after three years of existence. At the end of the day Melbourne sport lovers are not that patriotic about their area as NSW supporters are. AFL fans pretty much pick and choose their club which has got nothing to do where they live (people living in the west choosing to support Hawthorn, St Kilda, etc) which has got to do with the fact that 9 teams share 2 stadiums.

AAMI park is a perfect football stadium and its based in Melbourne so in the meantime, "Melbourne Heart" will have to do.

The only way to increase crowds will be a) consistent, entertaining football at home and B) marquee signing for next season (Brech, totti, etc)

AFL is completely diffferent to Football though when it comes to support. AFL teams have been around for ages so they have had time to create a foundation for their club, plus most of the clubs are inner city suburbs and alot of the population lives in the outer suburbs so it is not too much of a big deal to pick a football team. I'm not saying they should move from AAMI park it is a great facility. Just saying they should consider a name change because they are not taping into the right crowd. Instead of tapping into growth areas of football in melbourne they are just trying to sway victory fans to heart with a different name and colour. To me that dosen't make sense.

The marquee card will not work, no one in melbourne really cares for a marquee just look at Harry Kewell at victory. One of Australias most renowned players in footballing history. He had minimal impact crowd wise. The only difference between heart and Victory is colour... I mean fuck people aren't gonna make a decision to passionately support a club based on colour. They need something to be passionate about.

The only way to get around this is to actually win every home match until the end of the season. Which lets face it isn't going to happen. This needs to be brought up with the club.

I thought HEart was established to be for the North and Northwest parts of Melbourne? Thats why they are based at latrobe uni. It was also so they could be seen as the anti-elite, working people blah blah club against the 'elite' of Melbourne victory, blue blood etc

No heart was established as a team for "all" of melbourne and as a "community" based team... They are also based at latrobe uni because it has good facilities nothing to do with geographical location. If anything i would see Victory as more of the working people club because of the adoption of the southern cross flag.

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No heart was established as a team for "all" of melbourne and as a "community" based team... They are also based at latrobe uni because it has good facilities nothing to do with geographical location. If anything i would see Victory as more of the working people club because of the adoption of the southern cross flag.

I am positive I read it somewhere. Ill see if I can find the article. They wanted to be based in the north because Victory was seen as the south eastern southern parts of Melbourne, but like I said ill see what I can find

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I am positive I read it somewhere. Ill see if I can find the article. They wanted to be based in the north because Victory was seen as the south eastern southern parts of Melbourne, but like I said ill see what I can find

Sounds like an interesting read, though if they wanted Heart to be a northern based team you would think they would associate the club somehow with the northern areas of melbourne.. Instead of just Writing one article about and expecting the word to get around that Heart are a North/ North-western football team.

Edited by Tokyospliff
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I think it might be a bit early to be worrying about the club folding, but yes I do agree that something needs to be done sooner rather than later. It seems we have roughly 4 to 5k people willing to regularly show up regardless of what ever shit is dished up to them, which I find to be pretty comforting (and surprising tbh), but I dont know for how much longer. People's patience seems to be being really tested. I personally know I will come back each week regardless of what happens, but I worry it wont be long before people start saying "its a lovely day today, I would much rather go to the beach than sit in a 3/4 empty stadium and watch Heart lose in the most boring way again".

We are not moving. We are not changing our name to "greater north western Heart". We are not buying an international marquee. We are not covering the city in advertisements. None of these things are going to happen and to be honest if they did, I doubt it would do us any good anyway.

The club needs to deliver on what was promised. A successful team that play exciting football built on youth development and players who nobody was willing to give a chance. That is the only way we are going to attract more people.

How this is going to happen? Fuck knows! Thats for the club to work out.

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I think it might be a bit early to be worrying about the club folding, but yes I do agree that something needs to be done sooner rather than later. It seems we have roughly 4 to 5k people willing to regularly show up regardless of what ever shit is dished up to them, which I find to be pretty comforting (and surprising tbh), but I dont know for how much longer. People's patience seems to be being really tested. I personally know I will come back each week regardless of what happens, but I worry it wont be long before people start saying "its a lovely day today, I would much rather go to the beach than sit in a 3/4 empty stadium and watch Heart lose in the most boring way again".

We are not moving. We are not changing our name to "greater north western Heart". We are not buying an international marquee. We are not covering the city in advertisements. None of these things are going to happen and to be honest if they did, I doubt it would do us any good anyway.

The club needs to deliver on what was promised. A successful team that play exciting football built on youth development and players who nobody was willing to give a chance. That is the only way we are going to attract more people.

How this is going to happen? Fuck knows! Thats for the club to work out.

Playing exciting Football Still to me isn't going to attract the crowds. It might lead to a more consistent attendance but still will not increase Fans. I can honestly see the crowds getting down to 3k-4k If heart do not win in west sydney. I wouldn't want heart to move, or buy an international marquee. More effort needs to be put into marketing. Heart were only just able to break even this year through the sales of Balbalj and other youths to european clubs and looking at the current team i doubt Sales of youth players are gonna keep heart afloat next season.

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Excluding derbies we've won 4 of our last 22 games at AAMI. Including wins against a pretty hopeless Fury side and the GCU youth team. And we've scored 31 goals in 30 games at AAMI overall.* We've seen how our crowds can boost after just one or two positive performances/results. Our completely dire home form is killing us.

*according to ultimate aleague

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Excluding derbies we've won 4 of our last 22 games at AAMI. Including wins against a pretty hopeless Fury side and the GCU youth team. And we've scored 31 goals in 30 games at AAMI overall.* We've seen how our crowds can boost after just one or two positive performances/results. Our completely dire home form is killing us.

*according to ultimate aleague

fuck didnt think it was that bad...why bother to see an average of one goal scored by your team and an 18% chance of winning

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Playing exciting Football Still to me isn't going to attract the crowds. It might lead to a more consistent attendance but still will not increase Fans. I can honestly see the crowds getting down to 3k-4k If heart do not win in west sydney. I wouldn't want heart to move, or buy an international marquee. More effort needs to be put into marketing. Heart were only just able to break even this year through the sales of Balbalj and other youths to european clubs and looking at the current team i doubt Sales of youth players are gonna keep heart afloat next season.

I see what you are saying, but the problem is that we dont really have any money for advertising. Not on that scale anyway. Exciting football will initially draw consistent crowds but I believe in time will grow.

Besides, what are we going to advertise anyway? "come down and watch us play! Its oh so much fun!"- product does not match up to expectations set by advertisement- consumer is dissatisfied with product- consumer goes to work on Monday and mercilessly rubbishes it to anyone that will listen.

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In total we've played 30 matches at AAMI. 15 in Season 1, 13 in Season 2, and 2 in Season 3.

Our overall record is Won 8, Drawn 12, Lost 10.

You can dig deeper into the numbers if you wish, but the reality is in the numbers. We simply do not do enough at home to entice people to come to matches. Even the members stay away (look at the empty rows of seats).

As I said elsewhere, given our home record I'm surprised we can even draw 6,300 when we're playing a team that's beaten us in five of the seven encounters between the clubs. Actually, our smallish number of fans is pretty loyal to the club when there is only a 1 in 4 chance of seeing the team win.

Edited by jw1739
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Hmm think about it, what is really the difference between victory and heart.. other then one team is red and the other is blue. Why would the General public would want to go to a heart game to see a team loose and little to no atmosphere (no offence). When they could go to a victory game which has some sort of atmosphere and watch them loose. Both teams are shite so its gonna be quite obvious that they are gonna rather go to a victory match. Also heart have no real rivals other then victory. So there is no real boost from rivalry matches like victory have with sydney and adelaide. Rivalry with other clubs also builds passion for the club..

I reckon Heart will have a lifespan of about 2-3 year if nothing changes or they don't establish some sort of difference between victory and themselves. The whole plan by the ffa in my opinion, was when Heart was introduced was to Half victorys fan base into two because it was such a large fan base.. Which has completely failed.

Heart could also raise attendance by giving special prices on alcohol within AAMI park, for example having 2$ tequila shots or 10$ jugs of beer. Now that would definately get a crowd of more then 20K. We can only hope that they resort to this.

Edited by Xannax
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The whole plan by the ffa in my opinion, was when Heart was introduced was to Half victorys fan base into two because it was such a large fan base.. Which has completely failed.

I think this is absolutely ridiculous. Makes no sense at all

Melbourne can sustain a second team which is why Heart are here. The problem is it can only work if done properly. On paper all the boxes were ticked but it is not being implemented by the club. If we get this right we will be huge. If not... well, I would rather not think about it

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I think this is absolutely ridiculous. Makes no sense at all

Melbourne can sustain a second team which is why Heart are here. The problem is it can only work if done properly. On paper all the boxes were ticked but it is not being implemented by the club. If we get this right we will be huge. If not... well, I would rather not think about it

Im not saying that Melbourne can't sustain a second team, im saying heart have gone about it completely the wrong way. Wether we like it or not we're Victorys younger brother, instead of constantly being in victorys shadow, heart when it came into the a-league should of made itself clearly different to victory.

What im trying to say with that statement is that Heart have had a chance to bring on a whole new base of supporters. Instead they tried to appeal to borderline Victory supporter to swap sides to heart. Im not saying all heart supporters were all borderline victory supporters but the club did make sure they targeted this crowd and put this crowd as a priority before others.

Even hearts youth policy which was supposed to be hearts big factor which seperated it from victory is slowly disappearing. Victory on average have a younger squad then we do. The only thing we have over them is wins in the derby and winning derbys dosen't build clubs. Winning championships builds clubs. Failing to make finals this year would certainly put the club on the wrong path.

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I think you and I are on the same page about everything except one thing.

I think Heart did come into the league with the idea of being completely different and reaching a new audience but it has not worked out the way they planned. As a result there is very little money left in the kitty so they need to go to plan b. I have not worked out what plan b is yet. I just hope there is one...

* and please keep in mind a youth policy does not mean we always sign and play kids. It means that we find and develop youth. This will take time to bear fruit, so please dont say that our older squad is a sign of a failed youth policy because this is completely missing the mark.

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I think you and I are on the same page about everything except one thing.

I think Heart did come into the league with the idea of being completely different and reaching a new audience but it has not worked out the way they planned. As a result there is very little money left in the kitty so they need to go to plan b. I have not worked out what plan b is yet. I just hope there is one...

* and please keep in mind a youth policy does not mean we always sign and play kids. It means that we find and develop youth. This will take time to bear fruit, so please dont say that our older squad is a sign of a failed youth policy because this is completely missing the mark.

lol plan b. The best plan b they probably have is buy up an international marquee. I just hope heart will be around long enough to bear the fruit of this youth policy then. If heart fail. Im just going to follow VPL.

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I think Heart did come into the league with the idea of being completely different and reaching a new audience but it has not worked out the way they planned. As a result there is very little money left in the kitty so they need to go to plan b. I have not worked out what plan b is yet. I just hope there is one...

AFAIK FFA research showed that there were sufficient football fans in Melbourne who had not engaged with MV or the A-League and that therefore a second club could be successful. Could be, not would be. That was the basis on which invitations were made for applications for an A-League licence. It so happened that the successful syndicate headed up by Peter Sidwell had a vision for something a little bit different from just an A-League team. The intent was to break even in Season 3, and the last I heard was that this would be achieved.

Differences, allegedly over the performance of JvS, led to Mirabella exiting the syndicate, and two others joining.

I have read several times where Sidwell has repeated the commitment to the long-term future of the Heart and to building a sustainable A-league club. I do not know why we continue to question that.

The derby got 40k.

Surely at least 10k were there for Heart? So that should be the goal for attendances ASAP.

The goals for 2012-13 were a membership of 9,000 and an average attendance of 12,000.

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I have read several times where Sidwell has repeated the commitment to the long-term future of the Heart and to building a sustainable A-league club. I do not know why we continue to question that.

I am not questioning his commitment. I am just saying that what was planned to have happened by now is not happening and I think something is going to give if things dont change soon. We managed to break even (as planned) which is great- although we did have to sweat over a few bounced cheques to get there. But what about this season and next and the one after that. Do we plan on selling young upcoming stars every transfer window? If we are where are these future stars? And if we cant sell players to make up the gap, what then? We cant rely on selling diamonds in the rough every season

Edited by KSK_47
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I am not questioning his commitment. I am just saying that what was planned to have happened by now is not happening and I think something is going to give if things dont change soon. We managed to break even (as planned) which is great- although we did have to sweat over a few bounced cheques to get there. But what about this season and next and the one after that. Do we plan on selling young upcoming stars every transfer window? If we are where are these future stars? And if we cant sell players to make up the gap, what then? We cant rely on selling diamonds in the rough every season

This. Someone really needs to bring up these concerns with the club, because i feel as though no one is really doing anything. They are just using the same old a-league club formula and hoping these problems will sort them selves out.

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HEART brainstrust is waiting for money to flow from the next media deal - that's why we're sitting on our hands. Sidwell and crew don't want to burn their money and they've tried to create a sustainable club. Good. Even though SM & Co. told us at the fan forum that they didn't believe that a marquee player is worth the expense, that's pretty much rubbish and the only reason for saying that was 1) we don't have the money, and 2) we don't have the money. But if the FFA were to help fund a marquee player we should go for it.

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