The Warriors have lost 1 of their past 9 games.
The loss was against the Cowboys where they received the worst referring decision of the year (so far) which ended a three match winning streak. The next week they played in front of a paltry 10037 supporters against the Dragons.
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But how many more fans would they have got if they went into the Dragons game with 4 straight wins? For arguments sake, lets say they got another 2000 punters, each paying an average of $30. That’s 60 grand down the gurgler because of a dodgy call. And what can we do about it? Nothing.
This is quite a conservative estimate, considering they had a crowd of 20,000 to watch them beat the Titans.
Since the start of 2004 the Warriors have not managed to put together a winning steak of 5 games or more. This is a key factor in their inability to attract large crowds.
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Two things to note here:
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Firstly, it was the video referee made the decision. Steve Nash had plenty of time and camera angles to use; yet still made a monumental error.
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Secondly the Warriors received an apology from Robert Finch, the referees’ boss. This in itself is an admission that they got it wrong.
The game is lucky this was not a semi final, or even a grand final, where the consequences would be huge.
Lets not forget the NRL are happy to dish out $10,000 fines to clubs who criticise referees. Now it’s time they acted in a professional manner and compensated clubs when their staff make wrong calls that impact a clubs revenues.
Running a professional sporting team is not cheap and most of the clubs in the NRL sustain heavy losses. The NRL must accept the impact it ’s referees can have on a club’s revenue and compensate clubs for blunders like the one the Warriors were a victim of.
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