St Kilda is confident early-season low home crowd turnouts won’t impact its bottom line
ST KILDA is confident a trio of poor home crowds will not turn into a season-long trend that affects its bottom line with a defining month of football ahead of the beleaguered club.
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ST KILDA is confident a trio of poor home crowds will not turn into a season-long trend that affects its bottom line.
The Saints have extracted only a win and a draw from six games but have also been hit by a fixture that started with three home games against interstaters.
It averages only 19,337 for its three home games so far after clashes against Brisbane (23,731), Adelaide (19324) and the Giants (14,956).
This puts it behind North Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs for average attendances.
The Saints have home games against Melbourne, Collingwood, Sydney, Carlton, Richmond through the year which will draw strong crowds if the team turns around its fortunes.
St Kilda chief executive Matt Finnis told the Herald Sun he believed the Saints could come close to last year’s average home attendance of 31,410.
“Our three home games thus far have been played against three interstate teams,’’ he said.
“Our crowd numbers will clearly increase as we face bigger drawing club such as Collingwood, Richmond, and Carlton.
“We remains on target to achieve an average crowd of approximately 30,000 at the end of the season. Clearly strong on-field performance would add to that.”
A strong on-field start to the season can translate into stronger attendances and membership, which in turn affect a club’s ability to turn a healthy profit.
It is understood the Saints still made budget at the Adelaide game given a strong walk-up of Crows fans and were only 4000 fans below budget at the Giants game given modest expectations.
A new Etihad deal signed by tenant clubs sees the average take-home gate increase from $125,000 to $325,000.
But it rewards clubs with strong reserved seat sales, meaning it is imperative the Saints turn around their form and draw strong home crowds against Victorian foes.
St Kilda has already unveiled plans to halve its $10 million debt by 2020, with the AFL keen for it to quickly improve its financial position.
Collingwood leads the AFL in home attendances so far (average of 64,846) after a crowd of 30,941 against GWS, 91,440 on Anzac Day and 72,157 against Richmond.
Carlton’s average home ground attendance after three games is a healthy 41,491, boosted by the crowd of 68,548 against Collingwood in Round 3.
Greater Western Sydney’s crowds so far are just a touch over 10,000 given a trio of low-drawing crowds against the Bulldogs (10454), Fremantle (11,356) and Brisbane (10,046).
They will hope to roar home with strong home crowds against Essendon, Hawthorn, Richmond and Sydney later in the year.
AVERAGE HOME ATTENDANCES SO FAR THIS YEAR
64,846 - Collingwood
64,574 - Richmond
55,567 - Melbourne
53,287 - West Coast
49,533 - Fremantle
46,691 - Adelaide
43,854 - Geelong
41,491 - Carlton
40,020 - Port Adelaide
38,588 - Hawthorn
36,627 - Essendon
35,788 - Sydney
31,335 - Western Bulldogs
23,458 - North Melbourne
19,337 - St Kilda
18,555 - Gold Coast
16,614 - Brisbane Lions
10,619 - Greater Western Sydney
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