Infographic: 2014 NRL Crowds and TV

Crowds and TV Ratings are the driving force behind success of the NRL in a business sense. I took a look at all the crowd and TV Ratings numbers from Round 1 to 5 and compiled it all into a simple to read infographic.

NRL CEO, Dave Smith has publicly said his goal for 2014 is to see crowds average 16,500 across the competition. In the analysis, compared to 2013, the numbers are down by almost 10% on average. For the game to thrive, it's up to members and fans to get to games and support club.

On the back of a record $1 billion TV deal signed off ahead of the 2013 season, the TV Networks were banking on strong ratings to bring in a return. However, after 5 rounds of 2014, numbers are down on average across free-to-air and pay-tv networks.

Many have said, mostly those north of the New South Wales border, that Sydney is too saturated with NRL teams. This may be the case as Queensland, on average has higher crowds than it's southern cousins in New South Wales. However, when you look at the average of crowds outside of Suncorp Stadium you get a slightly different picture. After 5 rounds of the new season, 5 games have been played at 1300SMILES and Cbus Super Stadia combine to give an average crowd of just 11,514.

Take a scroll through the infographic below and be sure to let us know what you think! We will revisit this after Round 10 and see how things are tracking.

Click here for a larger standalone version