Seed Newsvine
It's hard to know on what basis they will finally be willing to concede, but based on a quick round of all the rugby blogs recently, that day appears a long way off. Which only matters because once it ceases to be this pathetic north-versus-south rivalry, will Australia become unique among nations in having a full-time professional indigenous sport as its first-tier sporting code nationwide (Gaelic football is amateur, before anyone whinges too loud). Not merely that, but what must surely be the greatest spectator sport on earth can then safely, finally turn its energies to spreading its creed through the rest of the world, as is only fitting.
And of course rugby, and its traditions won't die. Nobody is asking them to. But I'm sick to the gullet of credible media institutions like the Sydney Morning Herald, courtesy of the obsessed Roy Masters, printing outright lies, such as claiming League outrates AFL on TV and deserves an equal deal for their rights the next time round. It's a complete lie, by any statistical measure. It outrates AFL on Pay-TV alone, because pay has a much higher penetration in Qld and NSW - pay having carried the majority of League games since the Super League debacle of count 'em 13 years ago. That if anything is an argument that Foxtel should throw a hell of a lot MORE than they threw at the last AFL rights deal.
The point is also made by Talkingfooty.com that "when one takes into account the "reach" of the programs, a different story emerges. The reach measures the cumulative audience that watches a program (including when it was replayed at various times during the week) for any length of time. The reach of the average AFL home and away game on Foxtel was 562,000 to the NRL's 546,000."
AFL kills league on free to air, week-in, week-out.
This from Talkingfooty.com ...
"Using the official Oztam readings, the average weekly audience for the AFL in 2009 was 2,956,000 per week, compared to the NRL's 1,548,000.
Over the entire season, the AFL was watched by a total of 65,023,000 and the NRL by 40,272,000. But what many fail to take into account is the three hour running time of an AFL telecast compared to the two hour running time of it's NRL rival. When this is taken into account, the AFL is viewed 2.4 times as often as the NRL on free-to-air according to Oztam figures. 195,069,000 cumulative hours were viewed for the AFL compared to 80,546,000 for the NRL."
Consider each code's grand final, the ultimate game of the year. The surefire measure of maximal interest in the sport. League plays their game (as the sport had all sense of real tradition ass-raped out of it by Rupert Murdoch during Super League) on a Sunday night. Absolute rolled-gold TV primetime. This year the League game featured a hugely-supported underdog team from Australia's most populous city, and a team finally gaining real media traction in its second most populous city, a team arguably in the process of creating one of the sport's true dynasties. The script could not have been better for the League gurus. The AFL product featured two Victorian teams who rank amongst the sport's smaller fan-bases - one from a city with a population of a few hundred thousand, and was played on Saturday afternoon, in deference to tradition - but in TV terms complete dead-air time. The result? AFL audience 3,848,813 - League audience 3,537,613. A difference of not far under 10%. If League couldn't beat the AFL in 2009, it is never going to happen, short of a Fremantle v Gold Coast final in 2011.
And just this week, we now have the results of the Sensis Consumer Report - a very detailed study by one of the country's premier suppliers of business data. And I hope the advertisers, sponsors and networks are paying heed;
Australia’s favourite sports:
1. AFL (21 per cent)
2. NRL (12 per cent)
3. Cricket (11 per cent)
4. Soccer (11 per cent)
Australia’s favourite teams:
1. Australian Cricket Team
2. Adelaide Crows
3. Collingwood Magpies
4. Brisbane Broncos
5. West Coast Eagles
6. Carlton Blues
7. Essendon Bombers
8. Sydney Swans
9. Hawthorn Hawks
10. Fremantle Dockers
Tally that against the most recent stats I've been able to obtain for attendances (2006), which this retarded blogger thing won't let me post with any sort of sensible formatting (if anyone wants to see the numbers, let me know - I have an excel spreadsheet). You will find only one NRL club (Brisbane) averages better crowds than even the lowest drawing AFL club (Port Adelaide). The top 11 clubs in the country are all AFL, then Brisbane, then the entire rest of the AFL comp. Then to add insult to injury comes the Perth-based Rugby UNION team, and the Melbourne Victory A-League side. Then come your NRL teams, most attracting half as many people or less than the average AFL crowd. AFL averages 36,831. NRL averages 15,820. The Sydney Swans are the most popular team in Sydney by about 18,000 attendees.
So, bring on your new Commission-based structure. Keep ringing in the "innovations" the AFL was wise to twenty years ago. You'd have to be a little fearful what might happen without News Corp in there to give you so much puff and page space, or pay the $6m Melbourne Storm loses every season (after, it should be added four consecutive years in the Grand Final - Sydney of course turned profits in its Grand Final years).
By any reasonable yardstick the game is up. If it weren't for the fact that media was so Sydney-centric, it would be all over completely. Which isn't to say Rugby doesn't have a place, or immense cultural value to those who love it. It always will. Nobody wants it to die, but there are plenty of people waiting for people to let go of the ridiculous cultural cringe, and let the world's greatest spectator sport be embraced for what it is - one of the country's greatest gifts to itself.
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