Most popular afl club Roy Morgan Poll

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gopies1981

gopies1981

Norm Smith Medallist
Veteran
Feb 25, 2007
6,054
2,461
Melbourne
AFL Club
Collingwood
www.bandt.com.au

Study: Swans The AFL's Most Popular Team, As Fans Desert The Suns

On the downside The Suns are the most unpopular team in the AFL, on the upside they're the easiest to get tickets to.
www.bandt.com.au

Most popular afl clubs as on July 2019

Sydney 1,100,000
West Coast 733,000
Collingwood 637,000
Adelaide 596,000
Essendon 592,000
Brisbane 515,000
Richmond 453,000
Carlton 422,000
Geelong 416,000
Hawthorn 389,000
Fremantle 371,000
St.kilda 297,000
Western bulldogs 279,000
Port Adelaide 276,000
Melbourne 242,000
North Melbourne 226,000
GWS 190,000
Gold Coast 35,000
 

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Next year Brisbane will be over 1 million just like in 2006. These figures have to be taken with a semi trailer load of salt.


Interstate Clubs On Top In AFL Supporter Ladder
Article No. 649 - June 19, 2007

Following two successive Grand Final appearances, including the 2005 Premiership, the Sydney Swans are the AFL’s most supported team, with an estimated 1,742,000 supporters according to the latest Roy Morgan Research Single Source data.

The Brisbane Lions — the 2001-02-03 Premiers — sit clearly in second place with 1,152,000 supporters, however, this figure is down 16.4% from the 1,378,000 Lions supporters in the year ending December 2005. The Swans’ 2005-06 Grand Final opponents — the West Coast Eagles — have the third most supporters with 815,000.

The highest ranked Victorian club is Essendon with 771,000, who are 83,000 ahead of the next best Victorian based club — Collingwood (688,000).

Despite a lack of recent success, Carlton is the third most popular Victorian team (515,000), however, the Blues’ current supporter base is well down on its 2001 result of 603,000.

Victorian clubs make up the bottom four places on the supporter “ladder”: Melbourne (212,000), the Kangaroos (228,000), Western Bulldogs (231,000) and Hawthorn (310,000). With the exception of the Kangaroos, all of these clubs experienced a decline in supporter numbers from the previous period.

Kangaroos powerbrokers will be hoping the games they play at Carrara on the Gold Coast over the next three years will further boost their supporter base.

Overall, the number of AFL supporters has fallen marginally (0.9%) in the past 15 months: 8,799,000 in the year ending December 2005 compared to 8,720,000 in the year ending March 2007. There has been an 11.8% increase in AFL supporter numbers since the year ending December 2001.

And there is more, the Roy Morgan Research Single Source data can be used highlight some interesting aspects of AFL supporters. For example, when compared to all AFL supporters, Adelaide Crows supporters are 77% more likely to have eaten at a Pizza Haven restaurant in the last four weeks, Collingwood Magpies supporters are 104% more likely to have made a purchase from Dimmeys/Forges in the last four weeks and Essendon Bombers supporters are 92% more likely to have consumed Red Bull in the last seven days. Further details can be found below.

These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Sports Monitor, part of Roy Morgan Single Source, a nationwide survey of 24,315 people aged 14 years and over from April 2006 to March 2007.



730256
 
If it wasn't already clear, (almost) nobody cares about the Suns.
Seriously, even GWS (!!!) has almost 6x as many supporters.
 
Last edited:
Wow Hawthorn supposedly lost 28 per cent of its fan base and slipped from 545,000 (5th) to 389,000 (10th)

I guess Kane Cornes was right...

That said, it’s bizarre that Hawthorn have almost as many Facebook ‘supporters’ (336,000) as Roy Morgan ‘supporters’ (389,000)

To be honest that’s probably a better sample size as it captures pretty much everyone under 55. Although some clubs put more emphasis on social media then others (mostly the Victorian clubs) so it’s not exactly horses for courses

The key for Roy Morgan has always been about the upsell, look out for the follow up press release talking about supporter insights and demographics
 
Decided to take this data and map it against AFL club membership figures, to see what % of supporters are members of their clubs.

730439

  • Gold Coast have the highest conversion rate, with 39% of their supporters being members
  • West Coast have the lowest conversion rate, with only 5.4% of their supporters being members
  • Top 5 biggest increases in Membership rank to Conversion rank:
    • Gold Coast: +17 (Membership Rank: 18th / Conversion Rank: 1st)
    • North Melbourne: +9 (Membership Rank: 15th / Conversion Rank: 6th)
    • GWS: +8 (Membership Rank: 17th / Conversion Rank: 8th)
    • Melbourne: +7 (Membership Rank: 10th / Conversion Rank: 3rd)
    • Port Adelaide: +6 (Membership Rank: 11th / Conversion Rank: 5th)
  • Top 5 biggest decreases in Membership rank to Conversion rank:
    • West Coast: -13 (Membership Rank: 2nd / Conversion rank: 15th)
    • Collingwood: -11 (Membership Rank: 3rd / Conversion rank: 14th)
    • Adelaide: -9 (Membership Rank: 7th / Conversion rank: 16th)
    • Essendon: -8 (Membership Rank: 4th / Conversion rank: 12th)
    • Sydney: -8 (Membership Rank: 9th / Conversion rank: 17th)
 
Engimal v3 said:
Decided to take this data and map it against AFL club membership figures, to see what % of supporters are members of their clubs.

View attachment 730439

  • Gold Coast have the highest conversion rate, with 39% of their supporters being members
  • West Coast have the lowest conversion rate, with only 5.4% of their supporters being members
  • Top 5 biggest increases in Membership rank to Conversion rank:
    • Gold Coast: +17 (Membership Rank: 18th / Conversion Rank: 1st)
    • North Melbourne: +9 (Membership Rank: 15th / Conversion Rank: 6th)
    • GWS: +8 (Membership Rank: 17th / Conversion Rank: 8th)
    • Melbourne: +7 (Membership Rank: 10th / Conversion Rank: 3rd)
    • Port Adelaide: +6 (Membership Rank: 11th / Conversion Rank: 5th)
  • Top 5 biggest decreases in Membership rank to Conversion rank:
    • West Coast: -13 (Membership Rank: 2nd / Conversion rank: 15th)
    • Collingwood: -11 (Membership Rank: 3rd / Conversion rank: 14th)
    • Adelaide: -9 (Membership Rank: 7th / Conversion rank: 16th)
    • Essendon: -8 (Membership Rank: 4th / Conversion rank: 12th)
    • Sydney: -8 (Membership Rank: 9th / Conversion rank: 17th)
Click to expand...
Roy Morgan did the maths for you but not the graph.

AFL support increases for 2018 Premiers West Coast Eagles as well as the high-flying Lions and the Demons - Roy Morgan Research

www.roymorgan.com www.roymorgan.com
 
Its only one poll, there are different measures to define a clubs supporter base. The numbers for clubs like Hawthorn, Richmond, Geelong, Carlton, Essendon and Collingwood are well below than what they really are.
 
What else we can do said:
Its only one poll, there are different measures to define a clubs supporter base. The numbers for clubs like Hawthorn, Richmond, Geelong, Carlton, Essendon and Collingwood are well below than what they really are.
Click to expand...

Not trying to plug my own thread but I looked at this 5 years ago when comparing social media, membership and attendances to RM numbers

www.bigfooty.com

Support Base Spreadsheet - Where do the 18 AFL clubs sit

Guys, I've been working on this for a while but below is a spreadsheet comparing all 18 clubs against 6 indicators of club support, across 3 identifiable bands (Facebook / Twitter - Social Media, Membership / H+A attendances - active support and afl.com.au / RM for latent support). Obviously...
www.bigfooty.com www.bigfooty.com

I’m sure the numbers have changed significantly since (for starters social media is now much more mainstream with gen x’ers and baby boomers) and some teams have surged and others have fallen

If I had the time it would be interesting to look at the 2019 numbers 5 years on
 
I'm fairly new to bigfooty so this is the first time I've seen your analysis. In regards to Facebook and Twitter I don't think much as changed overall. But the Hawks and Tigers support has exploded on the back of premierships. But still Adelaide West Coast and Carlton's numbers are well down. Take another social media platform Youtube for example Collingwood and Carlton have way more views on their content than any other club. But it does not mean they have more supporters than West Coast.
 

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What else we can do said:
I'm fairly new to bigfooty so this is the first time I've seen your analysis. In regards to Facebook and Twitter I don't think much as changed overall. But the Hawks and Tigers support has exploded on the back of premierships. But still Adelaide West Coast and Carlton's numbers are well down. Take another social media platform Youtube for example Collingwood and Carlton have way more views on their content than any other club. But it does not mean they have more supporters than West Coast.
Click to expand...
Roy Morgan have been doing these surveys since about 2002. They ask 15,000 to 20,000 people maybe 200 questions over a 2 or 3 month period, covering consumer products, TV, politics, media, different sports, retailers etc and then do reports about it and sell them for about $5,000 each, but tailor them for individual AFL clubs, NRL clubs,, NBL clubs etc.
 
What else we can do said:
Its only one poll, there are different measures to define a clubs supporter base. The numbers for clubs like Hawthorn, Richmond, Geelong, Carlton, Essendon and Collingwood are well below than what they really are.
Click to expand...

The Vic market is split into so many parts, thats what the numbers reflect.
 
Whilst you can't trust the absolute numbers, with the swans and lions being skewed very heavily to the casual fan end of the distribution curve, the relative positions of the teams to each other as per the graph I posted in post #2 from 2019 and post #4 from 2007 show there has been much change over the last 12 years except for in 2 cases.

Brisbane numbers have dropped away as those very casual type fans didn't respond as supporting a team when they aren't successful and the Hawks premiership and finals success has seen them have good growth over 12 years.

That's all you can take out of this, the relative positions of the clubs.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
Whilst you can't trust the absolute numbers, with the swans and lions being skewed very heavily to the casual fan end of the distribution curve, the relative positions of the teams to each other as per the graph I posted in post #2 from 2019 and post #4 from 2007 show there has been much change over the last 12 years except for in 2 cases.

Brisbane numbers have dropped away as those very casual type fans didn't respond as supporting a team when they aren't successful and the Hawks premiership and finals success has seen them have good growth over 12 years.

That's all you can take out of this, the relative positions of the clubs.
Click to expand...

Except we dropped 28 per cent in a year according to these numbers (and remember these polls usually lag by 6-12 months)

In fact by the numbers our supporter numbers are lower than 2004 (where we ‘had’ 390,000 ‘supporters’ bizarrely)

Like I said, I don’t think the raw numbers matter too much (the socials are probably just as good if not more accurate as they demonstrate raw numbers of affiliation) but the big thing is the supporter characteristics and demographics

So I guess these sorts of polls are probably great for sponsorship campaigns
 
Hawkk said:
Except we dropped 28 per cent in a year according to these numbers (and remember these polls usually lag by 6-12 months)

Like I said, I don’t think the raw numbers matter too much (the socials are probably just as good if not more accurate as they demonstrate raw numbers of affiliation) but the big thing is the supporter characteristics and demographics

So I guess these sorts of polls are probably great for sponsorship campaigns
Click to expand...
That's why I said don't look at the absolute numbers but look at the relative positions 12 years apart.
 
Kwality said:
The question probably is 'do you follow an AFL team'
&
'do you follow a NRL team'.

Would you answer the Storm for NRL?
Click to expand...
Exactly, and I haven't been to a Storm game in 8 years. I do take notice of their results and I might sit down and watch maybe one of their games a year though.

I'm sure sponsors take note of these figures when factoring in potential reach.
Sydney having massive national/multinationals like QBE, Citi, Volkswagon and Qatar Airways is no accident. They have eyeballs.
 
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