National Rugby League Openers Struggle With Attendance Numbers Below A-League's

The National Rugby League "is in danger of having its worst start to a season for a decade, with its average crowd figures for the opening round lower than the A-League’s this weekend," according to Honeysett & Read of THE AUSTRALIAN. Traditional rivals South Sydney and the Sydney Roosters "drew fewer than 30,000 fans to ANZ Stadium on Thursday night while fewer than 20,000 were on hand" to watch Brisbane against Canterbury on Friday night. In comparison, the A-League’s derby between Sydney FC and Western Sydney "had 40,285 fans pack into Allianz Stadium contributing to an average attendance of 16,870 per game across five games" -- with the NRL registering 16,753 after seven games. The NRL "was forced to play games in Sydney because some of its biggest drawing venues -- Suncorp Stadium and Mt Smart Stadium among them -- were unavailable." An NRL spokesperson said that "being forced to play seven games in Sydney had contributed to the poor attendances" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 3/10).