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Melbourne Heart and Melbourne City attendances


Jimmy
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There is an arab saying that goes.. "Success have a thousand fathers while failure is an orphan", so having the attendances and fanbase Heart got now is actually a huge credit to the fans themselves.
Heart fans should in no way sell themselves short, I´m 100% sure that City executives have spent considerable time looking at the Heart fanbase since the takeover.

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Give it time. A big win in the derby would be huge for this club. 

 

I've got 11 coming with me. Three of them are coming to their first game. Three of them are coming to their first non-JA games. 

A win in that match and I reckon 5-6 of them will become regulars. 

 

I'd imagine its a similar situation for a good number of others too, so the best is yet to come. 

A few of the Leeds fans who have been in exile since 2004 are getting around the Heart as well.

 

This is only the beginning. 

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According to The Ultimate A-league the attendance at the Derby was 25,546 (should have been higher) taking our total attendance to 116,152 for an average per match of 10,559.

The Christmas Derby was 26,491. This one 25,546 and I noticed about 500 seats at the top behind the northern goal were blocked off for some reason. But basically we seem to be running these home derbies now at about 90% stadium capacity.  Obviously there will be people who cannot attend, for various reasons, but a shortfall of 10% looks too high to me.

 

I can't help but think that the GA ticketing issue is contributing to the shortfall. Something for the administration to look at.

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I tend to disagree because you are always going to have members that cant attend a game for a specific reason. If they reserve a block for the GA members and 30% don't turn up, then you have 1000-3000 empty seats in the home end going to waste. The GA ticketing issue is improving attendances, perhaps not member relations though. 

 

I'd love to see the stats for average attendances of members in the crowd at a home game, both derby and non-derby and see what proportion of the member base is at each game. Methinks it would be a lot lower than you'd think ie for and 8,000 crowd, I reckon 4,000 (50%) would be members etc. 

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It's a good debate. I presume that the club could find out the stats if there's a way of checking which barcodes were used on entry? I think we've seen some figures on this before - that it's quite a high percentage of members who don't attend any particular match?

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Games under 6000 people.

 

Season 1 - 7

 

Season 2 - 6

 

Season 3 - 4

 

Season 4 - 2

 

Important that this number doesn't get any higher this year I'd suggest.

That is amazing (given the dross we had to endure for the first half of the season).  

 

 

Agreed, though I do remember one game late in Aloisi's reign (or it may have actually been the drought-breaker against Newcastle), where I thought 'They're taking the piss here' with the announced crowd of 5000-odd.

 

Worth remembering that of the 11 home games we've had so far, one was a regional fixture, two have been derbies and three have been against the Sydney teams (unlikely to have any issues with drawing there). Still, any supporter that has shown up to every game at AAMI this year (or close enough) deserves a pat on the back.

 

Interesting to see how the home numbers go for the remainder, particularly the final three games that clash with AFL. We've actually been looked after pretty well, as far as attending games goes (whether by coincidence or design), as I don't think our remaining home games directly clash with any AFL games in Melbourne (there's games on the same day as the Wellington and West Sydney games, but they're on at different times and you could attend both, if you wanted to, e.g. go to the Carlton v Melbourne game at the MCG on April 12 at 1:45, and have plenty of time for a drink or something to eat before getting over to AAMI for the 5:30 game against the Wanderers). And it will also be interesting to see if we start to get a real upward turn in our home attendances, given that we are playing like the best team in the competition and we genuinely have something on the line.

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I tend to disagree because you are always going to have members that cant attend a game for a specific reason. If they reserve a block for the GA members and 30% don't turn up, then you have 1000-3000 empty seats in the home end going to waste. The GA ticketing issue is improving attendances, perhaps not member relations though. 

 

I'd love to see the stats for average attendances of members in the crowd at a home game, both derby and non-derby and see what proportion of the member base is at each game. Methinks it would be a lot lower than you'd think ie for and 8,000 crowd, I reckon 4,000 (50%) would be members etc. 

 

A buy-back scheme would be pointless for most fixtures, but maybe the club could look at it for derbies? Essentially, if you know you won't be attending, they can sell your GA spot (or reserved seat) and you get a rebate. Or, better yet, a rebate on next year's membership.

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Look, the current system is the most viable and common sense way of doing it. The overall crowd was lower because less Victory supporters turned up. The Heart GA section was probably the fullest it's ever been.

Edited by Sash
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You could actively see the borders between Cat A and B up on both sides of second tier. Don't think the game sold out tbh.

 

I like that the system results in higher attendances.

 

I don't like that I have to get rorted by ticket mobs for reserving a seat because I'm a GA member. I don't like that it invites mongs to purchase seats at our end once theirs is sold out etc.

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A clash with formula one grand prix puts the brakes on Heart crowd

 

March 4, 2014

 

Michael Lynch

 

Any chance Melbourne Heart might have of capitalising on its barnstorming run by drawing a big crowd to its next home match has been stymied by Football Federation Australia scheduling that pits the club against one of the biggest sports events of the year - the formula one grand prix in Melbourne.

 

Heart has won its past five games on the spin and had a gate of close to 26,000 for its home derby against Melbourne Victory on Saturday night, which it won 4-0.

 

The derby clashes are, however, far and away Heart's biggest gate and with a crowd of more than 26,000 for its other home game against Victory just before Christmas, the club's average gate has been lifted to 11,000. But given its push for the finals and tremendous form it would have hoped to have built its following for the next home game against Wellington Phoenix on March 16.

 

Or it would if the FFA had moved the game. But it was reluctant to do so, and the match will kick off at 4pm that day - just an hour before Australia's F1 race starts.

 

''We saw that potential clash when the fixtures came out and asked them to move it, but they said it wasn't possible,'' a Heart spokesman said.

 

''It originally had a 5pm kick-off, which was the same time as the race started. We wanted them to at least make it a 3pm start, which would have given people the chance to go to Albert Park after the game, but they moved it forward only by an hour.''

 

It's a frustration for the club as it looks to continue its unlikely charge to the finals, especially as the FFA scheduled Adelaide United to play last Thursday night at Hindmarsh against Wellington Phoenix rather than clash with the Clipsal 500 V8 Supercar race that took place in the city at the weekend.

 

■ Heart will go into Saturday's game against Newcastle - an impressive 2-0 winner over Western Sydney Wanderers on Sunday - at full strength, with defenders Patrick Gerhardt and Aziz Behich available after missing the easy win over Victory through suspension. Ben Garuccio was impressive as Behich's stand-in at left back, but it would be a surprise if Behich did not regain his position.

 

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/a-clash-with-formula-one-grand-prix-puts-the-brakes-on-heart-crowd-20140303-340gs.html

Edited by Murfy1
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