2019 AFL Crowds & Ratings Thread

Sep 17, 2004
40,316
14,029
Australia
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Th

That Essendon v Geelong game in 2004 was considerably impacted by rain and it rained most of the day. Explains why some seat holders, MCC and AFL didn’t show that night.

That’s beside the point (and interesting enough the St Kilda v Sydney the preceding night, in similar weather, drew a similar crowd)

My point is, the AFL / VFL finals have a history of massive and ho-hum finals attendances.

When you look back to the 1970s it was common for VFL Park finals (even featuring Collingwood, Richmond and Carlton) to draw high 50k / low 60’s which was well below the capacity for the time.

And even when you look at some of the Waverley Park finals featuring Essendon, Melbourne, St Kilda and Hawthorn in the late 1980s to mid 1990s plenty of finals games (typically in the first week) struggled to attract much more than half of the stadium.

So in that sense, 50k plus for a Semi Final featuring Geelong and a WA club is still a pretty decent roll up.

Had it been a Preliminary Final or even a Qualifying Final it probably would have drawn an extra 10,000 Geelong / neutral fans.

More often then not the 2nd week of the finals is the lowest drawing weekend in September, of course there are some exceptions (Haw v WB, Haw v Melb) and I guess you would have had a similar roll up had Essendon surged into the second week
 

AstuteTiger

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 22, 2009
6,904
15,741
Melbourne
AFL Club
Richmond
That said, in terms of paying customers, it’s likely the AFL would have made more from a capacity crowd at Kardina Park then they would have last night (given AFL Series, AFL members, MCC and last minute discounted tickets). Perhaps some food for thought

Do you think with last nights 51.8K crowd that the cats would lobby for future years for finals V non Vic clubs to be played at GHMBA or that's it regardless of who they play as top seed the AFL will forever schedule the cats to play finals at the G.
Take away non supporting cats or eagles from MCC, AFL members and AFL series ticket you would be looking at about 40K, easy for this game to be played at the cats home ground, some food for thought i say.
 
Sep 17, 2004
40,316
14,029
Australia
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Would Geelong vs Essendon have drawn 53K last night though?
It'd have more interest is what I am saying. Nothing exciting about two clubs who've been there and done that. Brisbane or Essendon however makes the game more interesting.

No doubt it would have drawn 90k and perhaps 95k with Essendon’s huge AFL / MCC support

The precedence for huge 2nd weekend crowds is for a sentimental (WB, Melb) / or underachieving big club (Carl, Ess) to win an Elimination Final (preferably from 7th or 8th) and take on a vulnerable / winnable first week loser

So a Geelong v Essendon SF would have been a perfect storm for a huge roll up.

To expect much more than 50k for a Geelong Semi Final was optimistic given the Cats SF track record since 2004
 
Sep 17, 2004
40,316
14,029
Australia
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Do you think with last nights 51.8K crowd that the cats would lobby for future years for finals V non Vic clubs to be played at GHMBA or that's it regardless of who they play as top seed the AFL will forever schedule the cats to play finals at the G.
Take away non supporting cats or eagles from MCC, AFL members and AFL series ticket you would be looking at about 40K, easy for this game to be played at the cats home ground, some food for thought i say.

Surely it depends on the agreement they have with the MCC? If they shift finals to Docklands or GMBA, than surely the MCC requests more higher drawing home and away games at the MCG. Isn’t there supposed to be a minimum number of MCG finals (where available) over a 3 year rotation otherwise they ask for more higher drawing games at the MCG?

With series, afl, mcc and discounted club tickets I doubt the AFL made much out of last nights game on the gate
 
Feb 13, 2011
10,760
13,540
AFL Club
Richmond
Surely it depends on the agreement they have with the MCC? If they shift finals to Docklands or GMBA, than surely the MCC requests more higher drawing home and away games at the MCG. Isn’t there supposed to be a minimum number of MCG finals (where available) over a 3 year rotation otherwise they ask for more higher drawing games at the MCG?

With series, afl, mcc and discounted club tickets I doubt the AFL made much out of last nights game on the gate
I would imagine the loss from this game is cancelled out by the huge profit they made from the Match last week, and any other time Geelong play a home final at the MCG.

If the AFL allow this game to be played at Gmhba stadium then there a whole raft of other fixtures that would have to be played at GMHBA or Docklands. Which means the potential match ups would drop from 170/306 to 81. It's not a conversation the AFL want to have.
 

Sammoll

Club Legend
Apr 9, 2015
1,180
3,362
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Melbourne City FC, Southampton FC
Highest crowd Brisbane have ever gotten against GWS is 16,049, so this would be fantastic.
 

Pedantic

Club Legend
Jun 7, 2016
1,436
2,249
AFL Club
Melbourne
Surely it depends on the agreement they have with the MCC? If they shift finals to Docklands or GMBA, than surely the MCC requests more higher drawing home and away games at the MCG. Isn’t there supposed to be a minimum number of MCG finals (where available) over a 3 year rotation otherwise they ask for more higher drawing games at the MCG?

With series, afl, mcc and discounted club tickets I doubt the AFL made much out of last nights game on the gate
The AFL makes plenty out of the MCC. The MCC forks over list price to the AFL for every person through their turnstyles.

AFL members sure they don't make much on the gate, but how many members would they lose if the percpetion was that Geelong home finals won't be played at the G? Doubt it would be a negligible number among Geelong AFL members.

AFL series tickets -- how many of these actually get sold? Anecdotally I've never met anyone who has bought one of these, yet during the week before I finals game chatting to mates, work colleagues, blokes at the local footy club, etc. there are always plenty going who are MCC, club, AFL members or just buying one off tickets.
 
Surely 80K+ (was first thinking 85-90K) but the weather at this early stage is not looking to kind for next Friday and Saturday. Hopefully, by the time next week rolls around the weather forecast has improved.
Demographics of Collingwood fans means we tend to go for cheaper tickets(as was seen in the semi final last year), and prelim finals ain't cheap. Not intending to be a whinge about ticket prices, just pointing out why the crowd will be around the 75k mark. Weather as well doesn't help.
 

TigerTime_89

4x Jack Dyer Medalist
Apr 3, 2018
3,187
5,446
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
Melb Storm, Liverpool, S Thunder
I'd also say in regards to the 2017 PF that Richmond had not been that far in finals in many years so that built alot of excitment and momentum to get the 94k. Collingwood aren't in that same position.
How many Giants supporters do you reckon will be there on Saturday? I reckon your support at away games has doubled since 17 by just looking at the Giants supporter bays. How many did you have at the 17' PF?
 

Cmarsh

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 23, 2012
7,692
10,422
NSW
AFL Club
GWS
How many Giants supporters do you reckon will be there on Saturday? I reckon your support at away games has doubled since 17 by just looking at the Giants supporter bays. How many did you have at the 17' PF?
Look I really have no idea but our support at the gabba last night looked ok. Is a hard ask for supporters to keep turning up at different ends of the country to watch the team play though.
 
Feb 13, 2011
10,760
13,540
AFL Club
Richmond
I'd also say in regards to the 2017 PF that Richmond had not been that far in finals in many years so that built alot of excitment and momentum to get the 94k. Collingwood aren't in that same position.
If it was any other club in Melbourne I would understand. The biggest club in the competition should be able to get at least 85-90k.
 
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