Empty Seats and a Finals Attendance Problem: Why Are NRL Crowds Falling Short When the NRL is Booming?

The NRL has spent much of 2026 celebrating record-breaking crowds.

More than four million fans have attended matches during the regular season, making 2026 the most-attended season in NRL history. The league has repeatedly pointed to growing interest in rugby league as evidence that the game is stronger than ever.

But then came Finals Week One. Four finals were played across the weekend, yet large sections of seats remained empty at several of them.

The total attendance was 93,860, with an average attendance of 23,465 per game.

That is actually around 9,000 higher than the first week of the 2025 finals, when approximately 85,000 fans attended.

So the problem isn't simply that fewer people are going to NRL finals. It is that*some of the league's biggest games are failing to fill the stadiums they are being played in.

The figures make one thing immediately obvious. Auckland isn't the problem.

The Warriors-Dolphins qualifying final attracted 26,131 people and created the sort of atmosphere the NRL wants from finals football.

The biggest issue was in Sydney.

The Sharks' elimination final against North Queensland attracted just 17,429 fans to Allianz Stadium despite the game being do-or-die football.

The Panthers-Roosters clash the following afternoon attracted 22,148, leaving thousands of empty seats at CommBank Stadium.

The Rabbitohs and Knights did considerably better with 28,152, but even that left plenty of room inside Allianz.

The comparison with previous seasons makes the situation more complicated.
Finals Week One crowds:

2023: 113,787
2024: 123,384
2025: 85,006
2026: 93,860

So 2026 is:

10.4% higher than 2025
17.5% lower than 2023
23.9% lower than 2024

The 2024 number was boosted by a particularly strong opening finals weekend, including a crowd of 50,714 for Canterbury against Manly at Accor Stadium.

The 2023 opening weekend also produced four strong crowds, including more than 50,000 at Suncorp Stadium and almost 30,000 at Newcastle.

So while 2026 isn't historically disastrous, it is difficult to ignore the contrast between today's modern NRL stadiums and the empty seats visible during some of the most important games of the season.

This is where the attendance story becomes much more interesting. The NRL's regular-season crowds have been going in the opposite direction. And the NRL says 2026 has gone even further, with more than four million spectators attending matches across the regular season.

That means there isn't necessarily a problem with people losing interest in rugby league.

Instead, the problem appears to be where the NRL is asking fans to watch finals football, and the cost involved.

The clearest example is Cronulla. The Sharks finished fifth and earned the right to host an elimination final.

But their home ground, Ocean Protect Stadium, was deemed unsuitable for an NRL final. Instead, Cronulla's home final was moved to Allianz Stadium.

The problem? Ocean Protect Stadium holds around 15,000 people while Allianz Stadium can accommodate more than 40,000. The Sharks ultimately attracted only 17,429 fans.

NRL chairman Peter V'landys defended the decision, arguing that the NRL needs finals venues to provide a professional standard of facilities.

He also acknowledged that the smaller Sharks venue could have been filled, while the much larger Allianz Stadium produced a sea of empty seats.

And Sharks halfback Nicho Hynes admitted the crowd was “a bit embarrassing”.

There is also a more obvious factor, which is going to the footy isn't cheap.

Finals tickets can cost more than regular-season tickets, while families also have to factor in transport, food, parking and other costs.

For supporters who don't live close to the stadium, a finals match can become an expensive day out.

That becomes even more significant when the team isn't playing at its traditional home ground.

The NRL has not pointed to ticket prices as the sole explanation for the poor Sydney crowds, but the combination of ticket cost, travel and unfamiliar venues is difficult to ignore.

So, is there actually an NRL attendance crisis?

And Finals Week One attracted around 9,000 more people than the corresponding week last year. Peter V'landys is therefore correct when he says the NRL's overall finals crowd figure is higher than 2025.

But that doesn't mean the NRL should ignore what happened. A finals match should feel like an event.

When 17,429 people are sitting inside a stadium capable of holding more than 40,000, or 22,148 are watching a major qualifying final inside a 30,000-seat venue, the empty seats become part of the broadcast.

And that creates a perception problem for a competition that is otherwise enjoying unprecedented growth.

The solution may fairly simples; Put finals games in venues where the fans actually want to go, and make attending games affordable, especially for families.

Smaller suburban stadiums may create a better atmosphere when a club's supporters are strongly connected to them.

The NRL has already shown it understands the value of atmosphere in Auckland, where 26,131 fans packed Go Media Stadium for the Warriors' home final.

Perhaps the lesson from Week One isn't that NRL fans don't want to attend finals. Perhaps it's that they want to attend finals on their own terms, in their own stadiums, rather than being asked to travel to oversized neutral-looking venues.

And with the preliminary finals now approaching, the NRL has another chance to get the formula right.

Because if rugby league really is booming, empty seats shouldn't be one of the defining images of its biggest games, and pricing out fans of a traditionally "working class" sport seems incompatible with the culture of the sport.