Latest news with #attendance
CBS News
2 days ago
- Climate
- CBS News
California State Fair reports boost in attendance for 2025
California State Fair officials say they saw another increase in attendance for this year's edition of the summer tradition. Sunday was the final night of the 17-day run of the fair. Unseasonably cool weather appears to have helped boost the crowds for the final weekend, officials say, with more than 90,000 people coming out to the fair on Saturday alone. In total, officials say they had more than 700,000 guests for the 2025 run of the fair – an increase of around 8 percent from last year. "As we look ahead to 2026, we do so with momentum and gratitude," said Tom Martinez, CEO of California Exposition & State Fair, in a statement. The attendance boost continues the positive trend for the fair, which also saw a 10 percent increase in 2024 despite a long stretch of 100-plus degree heat that year.
The Australian
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Australian
Adam Scott buoyant for return to ‘glory years' of Aussie Open golf
The Australian Open is on track to shatter modern day attendance records on the back of Rory McIlroy mania as organisers refuse to give up on luring more international top-100 ranked players for the history-making event. On the eve of The Open in his native Northern Ireland, where he was even given an ovation as he walked off the range on a practice day, McIlroy's presence has emboldened Adam Scott to predict the Australian Open could return to its 'glory years'. Reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy is heading to Melbourne for the Australian Open. Picture: Getty Images Adam Scott believes the Australian Open could return to its 'glory years'. Picture:Golf Australia has already reported ticket sales have surged past traditional markers at this time of the year after the McIlroy coup, with the event to be played at Royal Melbourne later this year. McIlroy will return to Victoria for next year's tournament at Kingston Heath. Scott skipped last year's event after a gruelling season and was a critic of the format, in which men and women played separate tournaments on the same course in the same week. The Royal Melbourne Golf Club during the Presidents Cup golf in 2019. Picture: Stan Badz/PGA TOUR via Getty Images Asked if he was pleased for the Australian Open to return to its traditional position with men and women having stand-alone tournaments, easing the logistical chaos, Scott said: 'I am. I think they've made significant changes and I think it's in the right direction. 'I think the fact that Rory's been lured down shows that they're making good decisions and I hope this is the start of glory years of the Australian Open again. 'And that's not to take away anything from the last whatever years, but it is hard to think that the Aussie Open hasn't been played at Royal Melbourne since '91. 'So, I'm happy that I'm going to sneak one in my career.' McIlroy is expected to be joined in the Australian Open by the best homegrown stars such as Scott, Cameron Smith and Min Woo Lee. Cameron Smith will feature at Royal Melbourne. Picture: Jose Luis Contreras/Dax Images Min Woo Lee has also committed to the Australian Open. Picture: Michael Miller/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images But Golf Australia chief executive James Sutherland and PGA of Australia's Nick Dastey have been speaking to further overseas players at Royal Portrush about the Stonehaven Cup and Australian PGA Championship, to be held at Royal Queensland. McIlroy's management confirmed to News Corp at Royal Portrush the grand slam winner would bring the green jacket to Australia, his most coveted prize after being just the sixth man to claim all four majors. Rory McIlroy prepares for the Open at Royal Portrush. Picture: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images 'We obviously would like to have as many international players of high ranking come in,' Sutherland said. 'We'll continue to explore our opportunities, but I think we all know and understand the realities of the timing at the end of the year, that it's sometimes difficult to get people to play more golf at that time of the year. 'But we're also optimistic that there are players for various reasons that will want to come out. They'll see that the event and our summer of golf is getting bigger and better all of the time.' Smith has been the most vocal critic of the course set-up under the dual gender format, but a long-awaited return to Royal Melbourne on the sandbelt is expected to bring firm and fast conditions. 'That's the way we'll intend it to play, and we'll be doing everything we can to make sure that's the case,' Dastey said. 'Sometimes the weather gods don't allow it, but it's certainly the intention that it'll be a traditional Royal Melbourne.' Read related topics: Australian Open Tennis
ABC News
2 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
With numbers stagnating, here's how the league plans to increase AFLW crowds this year
The AFLW burst onto the scene nine years ago with the infamous inaugural lockout game at Prince's Park; over 24,000 filled the stands and thousands more were left outside the gates, unable to get in. Since then, the last three grand finals sold out, 53,034 people flooded Adelaide Oval for the 2019 grand final, 20,652 showed up for the inaugural Showdown in 2022, and the first meeting between Essendon and Hawthorn was forced to move to Docklands after such high demand. Yet crowds have dwindled the past few years, which saw just an average of 2,660 fans rocking up per home-and-away game last season. While this is largely due to inopportune time slots and venues — including a compressed fixture last season with Tuesday and Wednesday night matches and recent expansions diluting audiences — unsurprisingly, one of the AFL's main strategic aims this year is to grow AFLW attendance and fan bases. It also comes amid reports of the AFL telling all 18 clubs the women's game is losing $50 million a year. However, AFL executive general manager of strategy Walter Lee stressed the league was not worried about the long-term viability of the competition. "I want to reiterate, the competition is here to stay. We are investing, but it is here to stay," he said. "When you sort of take a 10-year vision around this kind of investment, this is no different from how we invest into Western Sydney [or] Gold Coast … It's long-term. It's trying to be visionary about it." So, here's how the league is aiming to get more bums on seats this season. Josh Bowler, AFL's head of strategy and scheduling, said this season had gone "back to a more traditional fixture structure" after trialling the compressed fixture last season, which squeezed 11 rounds into 10 weeks. While this impacted the product, with some teams playing four games within 15 days, and made it hard for crowds to get to midweek games, it also contributed to the "footy fatigue" many fans feel at the back end of the year. Yet even before that, attendance took a hit after the move to the suburban grounds two years prior. For example, Essendon and Hawthorn's inaugural 2022 clash at Docklands attracted 12,092 spectators, yet just 3,778 when the clubs played each other in Frankston the following year. Another reason for smaller crowds has been the rapid expansions. Total attendance has risen by 52 per cent since season one (195,000 to 297,000), however, with more teams in the competition, the attendance has become more diluted. This year, the season length has increased to 12 rounds within 12 weeks. It could move to 14 by 2027, but to make that move, the league must first meet key metrics agreed to by the AFL and the AFL Players' Association: an average attendance of 6,000 fans and 100,000 broadcast viewers per match. In 2023, a key metric target was an average crowd attendance of 3,500. The ABC asked the AFL what its internal targets were for this season, but the league said they would not release those publicly to avoid making them an ongoing narrative. Lee said a focus this year was "fan-friendly time slots", venue consolidation and allowing for rituals to be created around home venues. "We're playing in too many different time slots, and we're playing in too many different venues as well. And so as a fan, how do you format ritual?" he said. "Take an example with Melbourne. They played seven matches here in Victoria [last season] and in seven different time slots … So it's really hard as a fan to build that ritual." One initiative not being utilised in fixturing this year — despite the majority of clubs actively campaigning the league for it — is double-headers. When the fixture came out earlier this year, AFLPA chief Ben Smith said the union provided the AFL with a submission based on player feedback that included a desire for more "category-one venues and the opportunity to play some double-headers". The AFL said they did not want to compromise on atmosphere if the crowds weren't there yet to support it. Last season, the Western Bulldogs' round-two AFLW match was rescheduled at the last minute to a double-header with the men's elimination final at the MCG to avoid a club fixture clash. The league used this as an example of why double-headers wouldn't work in the short term. However, that match was organised the week of, with the women's game starting at 4.30pm on the Friday afternoon, before the men's clash at 7:40pm. "Even though there were 23,000 recorded [in attendance], the atmosphere at 23 per cent utilisation isn't what we're trying to project," Lee said. "I guess the conclusion is, like, 30,000, 40,000 — that's when it starts to get sort of more exciting." GWS was one of the clubs that were "strong advocates" for double-headers in the two-round crossover between the end of the men's home-and-away season and the AFLW, believing it would work for their market. "We're a young club with a new audience, a new fan base, and we want to be able to build that across our men's and women's program," GWS general manager of AFLW and football operations Alison Zell told ABC Sport. Bowler added that "the W needs to be built around AFLW", in venues that work for its product, and not fit in with the men's competition. The lack of double-headers has also contributed to no category-one venues being used for AFLW this year, limiting the ability to get crowds above the 20,000-plus mark for bigger games. While part of this is to encourage fans to create rituals at grounds such as Whitten Oval and Windy Hill, the league said it wouldn't move to larger stadiums until the crowds supported it. Players have consistently advocated for some marquee games to be played at larger stadiums, such as the Showdown at Adelaide Oval. Last year, AFL executive general manager of football Laura Kane told The Sydney Morning Herald that for future AFLW matches to be played at Docklands Stadium, games would need to attract 20,000 supporters to justify using the venue. Kane said Arsenal Women were a great example of knowing when to move from a 5,500-seat stadium to 50,000 in the Women's Super League overseas. "What was really interesting to me is how strategic they were with the one, two or three times that they triggered that big stadium experience," Kane said. "[Filling the stadium] wasn't because they hoped, it wasn't because they thought 'maybe they'll come'. It wasn't because they thought, 'let's strategically try and leverage the men's'. It was because they knew they were ready. "So the patience in that … [And] in every single fan survey or every question we ask of our fans, they absolutely love that closeness to the players, [and] the fullness of the stadiums. And so it's one of the single biggest things, biggest decisions and strategic priorities we have is where we play." Improving the on-field product is another main strategic aim for the league. "We know what people like watching, because we have AFL every weekend to look at, what are the things that people enjoy?" Kane said. "They enjoy close games, unpredictable finishes, lead changes, you know, so on and so forth and so, how do we do that? … Investing in the pathway of the young players is the answer for us." Kane said the metrics spoke for themselves with the talent in the pathways entering the system. One of the biggest factors to help improve the product, Laura Kane said, was time. "The quality of the under-18 games is unbelievable compared to what we've seen 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago." However, in the now, the AFL is strong on wanting an attacking style from teams. Essendon and the Western Bulldogs' "ugly" clash at the end of the condensed fixture last year was widely criticised for the defensive style of play from both sides. Essendon won 3.8 (26) to 0.3 (3). "I think Scott Gowans was interviewed last year and said it himself, like, we might lose by a big margin, but we're committed to playing an offensive, attacking style," Kane said. "It's a lot on the ability of the players to execute the skills, but it's also on us to help set up a framework that allows them to do that more easily." AFLW's new general manager of women's football, Emma Moore, said the AFL wanted to harness what she was calling the "Caitlin Clark effect": an increase in women's sport viewership and attendance driven by stardom. This would mean attracting fans to AFLW because of a big name like Sam Kerr (soccer) and Caitlin Clark (WBNA). "The huge opportunity that we have in AFLW is the vast volume of players that we have to begin with, and the incredible skills, personalities and champions of themselves and the sport they play, what they bring," Moore said. "So we really want to unlock that opportunity for them and so it's really clear for us that going forwards, a key play in growing our fan base is growing that connection between our fans and their players."
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Daily Mail
Parents' fury as primary school bans children without 100% attendance from end-of-year bouncy castle treat
Furious parents have blasted the primary which has banned children with less than 100 per cent attendance from their end-of-year bouncy castle. Several pupils were left in floods of tears after being barred from an end-of-year party, as they watched classmates enjoy themselves, all because they didn't have perfect attendance. Fuming parents said children were 'emotionally damaged' after watching classmates at Lanesend Primary School in Cowes, Isle of Wight, enjoy the reward without them. One mother told how her daughter missed out over just a single sick day. Others lambasted the decision as 'abusive' and staged a protest by keeping their children home. The school's executive principal, Alex Augustus, insisted the treat was 'never designed to punish or discriminate'. In an email to parents, he said: 'Please know that this was only done with the best intentions as we wanted to reward children for something that we thought was an exceptional accomplishment. 'It was never designed to punish or discriminate against other children.' But parents weren't buying it, with Stacey Dale-Lamb telling the BBC her daughter came home in tears after missing the event by just one day's absence. She said: 'Who gets 100 per cent? Illness - you can't help it, can you? Understandably, she was very upset on the way home, crying.' Another parent, Riana Neocli, said her seven-year-old daughter was 'heartbroken' and believed she was being punished for not working hard enough. The controversy has sparked outrage across the island, with some families accusing the school of failing to show compassion, and turning a celebration into a public shaming. She said: 'I don't think she should be punished for being late for school because we are homeless and don't have transport other than bus... let alone having to sit and watch the children go on it, which is what they wanted.' Peter Crates said his son had special educational needs and hospital appointments and could not attend school full-time. He said: 'He wouldn't have understood at all. I don't see that as a reward. It's more of a punishment to the children that aren't allowed on there.' Another parent, Danielle Hall, said: 'This is not down to the staff at all. 'I have had staff members crying on the door to me, trying to explain to the children why they can't [go on the bouncy castle]... It is the senior management.' She said she had been falsely accused by a member of staff of taking part in a 'riot' over the issue. Ms Hall said: 'It's absolutely shocking. I have had to explain to them why their peers can be involved and they can't. 'They were really poorly, hospitalised for it, it wasn't just a little illness. 'They weren't even fit to be at home, let alone at school. They have been penalised for that. How do you explain that to a five year old? 'It's frustrating. I just don't want to speak for my own children it's every child when I left yesterday when they found out and were walking down this lane in tears to their parents.' Another parent, who did not wish to be named, said: 'This punishes children - some as young as five - for circumstances completely out of their control'. Parents have said they believe it also contradicts the diversity and equality policy set out by the Diocese of Chichester Academy Trust (DCAT), which has run Lanesend since February 2024. In its diversity and equality statement, DCAT said it is 'committed to preventing discrimination, valuing diversity and achieving equality of opportunity'. It is understood that only parents of children with exemplary attendance were sent notifications about the bouncy castle. The note to the parents, sent out on Wednesday, said: 'As a result of your child's exemplary attendance this school year we are rewarding them with a bouncy castle treat tomorrow in school. 'Children will be on it in small groups, monitored by adults. Congratulations once again for this amazing achievement!' Mr Augustus' email to parents concluded: 'We are sorry if this has caused any upset and will take your feedback on board.' Neither the school or the Diocese of Chichester Academy Trust (DCAT) responded to a request for comment.
Forbes
20-07-2025
- Sport
- Forbes
Record-Breaking UEFA Women's Euro Attendances Surpass Previous Edition
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND - JULY 09: The LED board displays a new record attendance of 287,438 during the ... More UEFA Women's EURO 2025 Group D match between England and Netherlands at Stadion Letzigrund on July 09, 2025 in Zurich, Switzerland. (Photo by) The cumulative attendances for matches at UEFA Women's Euro 2025 in Switzerland will surpass the previous edition in England three years ago with two games left to play. The crowd at last night's final quarter-final between France and Germany in Basel took the combined attendances from the 28 matches so far to 574,117, just 758 of the all-time record. During Tuesday's first semi-final between Italy and England, the aggregate figure will surpass 600,000 for tbe first time since the competition began in 1984. The average attendances at the tournament are also in excess of 20,000 for the first time ever. The UEFA Women's Euro in England in 2022 was book-ended by two headline-grabbing attendances at the country's two largest grounds. 68,871 were at the Opening Match between England and Austria at Old Trafford and 87,192 witnessed the dramatic competition final between England and Germany at Wembley Stadium. These remain the two largest crowds in the competition's history and inflated the tournament's overall attendances to an aggregate of 574,875, more than double the cumulative audience at any previous edition of the UEFA Women's Euro. These figures seemed almost unbeatable, especially considering that the next tournament would be staged in Switzerland, a country without the same passionate tradition for the game and a women's team which had never progressed beyond the group stage of the competition. More importantly, none of the nation's stadiums have a capacity in excess of 40,000. Nonetheless, the European governing body believed they could surpass the figures in England and have been proved right. The tournament has consistently sold out the country's choice of stadiums and the consistence attendances throughout the tournament have led it to overtake the figures in England even before the showpiece final next Sunday, which is almost certainly set to attract the largest crowd of the 2025 tournament. Six of the ten attendances in the 41-year history of the tournament have been recorded at this UEFA Women's Euro. Notably, all of the previous record crowds have centred around either the final of the competition or matches involving the host nation. This has not been the case in Switzerland, where three of those six attendances have been at games involving two visiting teams - Germany v Denmark, Netherlands v France and Germany v France. Indeed the match between the Germans and the Danes in Basel was witnessed by the highest-ever crowd at a finals match which did not involve the host nation. BASEL, SWITZERLAND - JULY 08: The LED board shows a record attendance of 34,165 during the UEFA ... More Women's EURO 2025 Group C match between Germany and Denmark at St. Jakob-Park on July 08, 2025 in Basel, Switzerland. (Photo by) The first game for the host nation Switzerland at the same St. Jakob Park venue in Basel pulled in a crowd of 34,063. This was the highest-ever attendance for a women's match involving the Swiss national team. Their success in reaching the last eight for the first time maintained local interest in the tournament for longer, helping boost other attendances. UEFA also estimate that during the group phase of the competition 60,000 fans took part in fan walks to the stadiums before games. This included 8,000 from Wales and the Netherlands ahead of their meeting in Lucerne. The following day, 14,000 Swiss and Icelandic supporters walked the 3km from the fan zone in central Bern to the Stadion Wankdorf where the two teams played that evening. BERN, SWITZERLAND - JULY 6: Fans of Switzerland participate in the Fan Walk before the UEFA Womens ... More EURO 2025 Group A match between Switzerland and Iceland at Stadion Wankdorf on July 6, 2025 in Bern, Switzerland. (Photo by Noemi Llamas/Sports) 'If it was not clear before, it is undeniable now – women's football is unstoppable and here to stay," said UEFA's women's football director Nadine Kessler. "Before a ball was even kicked, over 600,000 tickets were sold – a record-breaking milestone that speaks volumes about the growing passion for the women's game.' 'Nearly every match has been a sell-out, with electric atmospheres and fans turning out in unprecedented numbers. Millions more are following the action around the world through social media and live broadcasts. This is more than a tournament; it's a movement, and the response from across Europe and beyond proves that women's football is not only here to stay – it is setting the new standard.'
