2025 Attendances

[The_Wookie]

11.12.2024

Gather Round tickets snapped up in record time


The AFL is pleased to announce that more than 195,000 Gather Round…Festival of Footy tickets have sold… with five of the nine games sold out, 20,000 more than this time last year.

Member on sale on Tuesday saw a significant uplift in demand for tickets this year, selling more than 100,000 tickets in the first four hours, in comparison to the same amount in 24 hours last year.

This year there are an extra 47,000 tickets on offer for fans with the two Saturday matches being ticketed separately.

Tickets still remain for Collingwood vs Sydney Swans on Friday night, Carlton vs West Coast on Saturday afternoon, Melbourne vs Essendon on Saturday night and a very limited number of restricted view tickets and tickets for the Pepsi Collective for Port Adelaide vs Hawthorn on Sunday evening.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said it was clear Gather Round momentum was not slowly down.

“The demand for tickets this year was significantly higher than the first two Gather Rounds, with more than 195,000 tickets being purchased in the first two days,” said Mr Dillon.

“A ticket to the matches at the Barossa Park was always going to be one of the hottest tickets in town and the fans have certainly illustrated that by selling out both matches so quickly.”

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said: “Gather Round continues to exceed all expectations.

“We are honoured that so many footy fans from around the country are making the commitment to travel to our beautiful state to experience this event like no other.

“They’ll be truly welcome.

“If you haven’t got a ticket already – get in quick!”

Tickets for the remaining matches can be found here.

 

[Hawkk]

Night grand finals are/will be a result of the AFL looking to the Superbowl, not to the NRL though.

The AFL doesn’t compete with the Super Bowl for media rights money though - but they do with the NRL. Especially now the Murdoch’s are out of Fox. 5 years ago AFL owned media and streaming was all the rage (NFL style) but Covid put a stop to that…

 

[The_Wookie]

Attendance should be the only metric that matters for these sort of rounds.

Fortunately its not.

If an NRL magic round game got less than 10k show up and a lot of those tickets being free, everyone would rightfully call it a flop no matter how much the league was getting from the state government.

Gather Round was never intended to be a carbon copy of the NRL magic round. It shouldnt be judged the same way.

 

[The_Wookie]

The AFL doesn’t compete with the Super Bowl for media rights money though - but they do with the NRL.

The NRL having a night grand final or anything else - including Origin and Magic Round hasnt given them an edge in media rights ever.

Especially now the Murdoch’s are out of Fox. 5 years ago AFL owned media and streaming was all the rage (NFL style) but Covid put a stop to that…

Mostly the 2018 media rights deal and changes to Telstras rights in 2019 changed that. AFL Media is a joint operation with Telstra (who own/operate the AFL and club site network), and many of their streaming rights werent handed to Kayo mid 2019.

 

[____]

Fortunately its not.



Gather Round was never intended to be a carbon copy of the NRL magic round. It shouldnt be judged the same way.

It's a very shitty imitation. Getting money from a politician shouldn't be seen as a success.

I can't think of any other major sporting league that would consider crowds of less than 10k with most tickets being free to be a success.

 

[The_Wookie]

Do you think the NFL, EPL or NBA would do a ‘gather’ round?

I dont really care what they do. I bet they dont even play Australian football either.

Thursday Night Football, regular Sunday Night Football, regular Monday Night Football, Good Friday and Night finals.

Night football was played on the MCG 100 years by the VFA decades before it was done in the NRL/NSWRL rugby league. The NFLs night series was also played before it was done in the NSWRL.

Good Friday was being played by the SANFL and WAFL before the NRL and North had been trying to get a game on the day off the ground since the 1980s.

First AFL night final was in 1993. NFI when the first NRL night finals were.

 

[The_Wookie]

It's a very shitty imitation.

Thats not really a widely held view outside of this forum, and even on this forum I doubt its strongly held by most.

Getting money from a politician shouldn't be seen as a success.

Selling events to Governments is how EVERY sport does it. Magic round is literally paid for by the Queensland Government

I can't think of any other major sporting league that would consider crowds of less than 10k with most tickets being free to be a success.

There are more than a few "major sporting leagues" that would consider crowds of 10k to be amazing in this country.

Members were always entiteld to ticketing at these matches. Theres a reason the AFL has many times the members of NRL clubs.

 

[Bjo187]

The problem is a lot of the concepts were either inevitable or common enough elsewhere that they were always likely to find their way here.

I agree, but they all happened or were fast tracked in the nrl due to the afl testing the waters on these concepts first.

The 24 hour channel on fox was requested due to the afl having a successful one first, the Daly m is clearly trying to emulate the brownlow, much like the a.b medal tried to, both with less success. The commission I remember at the time they went with it because the afl was so much more well run, they wanted to emulate it, it was all over rugby league news at the time. Graeme Samuel even joined as an nrl commissioner to help emulate it.

Concussion again, the crack downs followed the afl going hard on it and on nrl w even Hunter fujak says the nrl never would have started a woman's league if the afl didn't go first, they thought they'd be left behind.

So all things that may have or may not have happened, but they mostly did so coz their main competitor did it first and it looked successful.

 

[Walshawk]

9K at Showgrounds for GWS demonstrates that Opening Round has zero effect on building up the game in western Sydney. First game there in a month, and v a low drawing opposition. Poor concept. Poor execution.

 

[Air_Chester]

9K at Showgrounds for GWS demonstrates that Opening Round has zero effect on building up the game in western Sydney. First game there in a month, and v a low drawing opposition. Poor concept. Poor execution.

Can’t imagine why playing a team that has won 8 of their last 72 games wouldn’t draw a crowd. A mystery beyond comprehension, truly.

 

[Underarm]

The NRL copied the AFL with State of Origin, though.

I don't think either code copied each other. Both Rugby League and Football had been playing state rep footy since federation.

If they copied it from anyone, it's cricket.

 

[MelbourneGWS]

9,231 was the crowd for our match against West Coast according to the Austadiums website.

This is the 9th time we have played West Coast at home (albeit 1 was at Blacktown), and the crowd today was our 5th biggest home crowd against them. Significantly better than the crowd of 5057 we got the last time we played West Coast at home in 2022.

AFL: GWS Giants v West Coast Eagles • Engie Stadium • 2025

GWS Giants v West Coast Eagles at Engie Stadium in Sydney in 2025. Buy tickets, view the seating map, get directions, book nearby accommodation, find flights and live stream.

www.austadiums.com

 

[Fletched]

9,231 was the crowd for our match against West Coast according to the Austadiums website.

This is the 9th time we have played West Coast at home (albeit 1 was at Blacktown), and the crowd today was our 5th biggest home crowd against them. Significantly better than the crowd of 5057 we got the last time we played West Coast at home in 2022.

AFL: GWS Giants v West Coast Eagles • Engie Stadium • 2025

GWS Giants v West Coast Eagles at Engie Stadium in Sydney in 2025. Buy tickets, view the seating map, get directions, book nearby accommodation, find flights and live stream.

www.austadiums.com

It's okay, pretty hard to read much one way or the other, that's no better number than past games but it's obvious how much more concentrated the members area is getting

Need to see a few more games at engie this year to see how the growth is

If you follow the suns (or swans) the natural growth should really start kicking in now

 

[Cmarsh]

9,231 was the crowd for our match against West Coast according to the Austadiums website.

This is the 9th time we have played West Coast at home (albeit 1 was at Blacktown), and the crowd today was our 5th biggest home crowd against them. Significantly better than the crowd of 5057 we got the last time we played West Coast at home in 2022.

AFL: GWS Giants v West Coast Eagles • Engie Stadium • 2025

GWS Giants v West Coast Eagles at Engie Stadium in Sydney in 2025. Buy tickets, view the seating map, get directions, book nearby accommodation, find flights and live stream.

www.austadiums.com

Yeah quality of opposition does seem to make a difference. We got 15k vs West Coast in 2017 at the Showgrounds when West Coast were building into a pretty good side.

Two NRL games in Sydney yesterday probably didn't help either.

 

[____]

Thats not really a widely held view outside of this forum, and even on this forum I doubt its strongly held by most.

The only people outside Big footy who think it's a great format are South Australians or people who live in South Australia. But let's be honest, South Australians are just weird.

Selling events to Governments is how EVERY sport does it. Magic round is literally paid for by the Queensland Government

It is yes, but here's the big difference. If no politician was paying for magic round, the NRL would still do it because it fills out stadiums without any free tickets. It would just be rotated around places like Auckland, maybe even Townsville, Newcastle or Canberra, rather than be in Brisbane every year. Remember NRL teams are actually willing to give up a home game for it, something that would never happen in the AFL.

If no politician pays for gather round, there is no way the AFL would bother having the poor imitation in any city. Why have games that have less than 10k with mostly free tickets when you can just have a normal round. Playing at their regular home grounds I think GWS will be the only team that gets less than 10k to any of their regular ground home games.

If the AFL had a proper magic round, it would be a guaranteed success in Adelaide, Perth or Brisbane (lots of Vic/SA/Tas expats in South-East Queensland that still have their original teams). They'd sell out all 9 games without needing to give out any free tickets.

There are more than a few "major sporting leagues" that would consider crowds of 10k to be amazing in this country.

The AFL and NRL are the only two major sporting leagues in this country, let's be real. Maybe the Big Bash but that's just light entertainment to most people and no one is gonna pay for Foxtel or Kayo just to watch a BBL game.

Neither of those leagues would consider anything less than 10k to be a good crowd, let alone with mostly free tickets.

Members were always entiteld to ticketing at these matches. Theres a reason the AFL has many times the members of NRL clubs.

AFL has more members because it's the bigger league, and more of an attendance culture. AFL has had more members before their shitty imitation of magic round was a thing.

The fact the AFL needs to give out free tickets to gather round, while the NRL doesn't give out free tickets to magic round, should be rightfully seen as an embarrassment to the AFL.

Also I'm not a Melbourne or Essendon member but I was able to get four free tickets to that game on Ticketek just over a week out from that game.

9K at Showgrounds for GWS demonstrates that Opening Round has zero effect on building up the game in western Sydney. First game there in a month, and v a low drawing opposition. Poor concept. Poor execution.

Even though my team is supposed to benefit from this concept I'm hoping it doesn't continue. Collingwood wanting out has me optimistic because they are probably the only team besides Sydney that could get a decent crowd at Giants stadium. It's gonna annoy me that GC and Essendon have a game in hand for almost all the season.

 

[Hawkk]

9K at Showgrounds for GWS demonstrates that Opening Round has zero effect on building up the game in western Sydney. First game there in a month, and v a low drawing opposition. Poor concept. Poor execution.

I hope you also bag Hawthorn and Richmond when they draw sub 20,000 to Marvel games against the Suns and Eagles too.

I thought the crowd was decent - although it’s clear the Suns have the bigger home base (and this has proven the case for Gold Coast games since Covid)

 

[Hawkk]

I dont really care what they do. I bet they dont even play Australian football either.

Then why are they ‘following’ the NFL on the Super Bowl then?

Night football was played on the MCG 100 years by the VFA decades before it was done in the NRL/NSWRL rugby league. The NFLs night series was also played before it was done in the NSWRL.

That wasn’t the VFL (and AFL) though.

Good Friday was being played by the SANFL and WAFL before the NRL and North had been trying to get a game on the day off the ground since the 1980s.

Again, not VFL (AFL).

First AFL night final was in 1993. NFI when the first NRL night finals were.

The NSWRL (modern day NRL) was playing night finals in the late 1980s — dubbed ‘play off for fifth…’

Aren’t we now considering that too?




And I forgot to mention, we took their finals system too.

 

[manicmagpie]

And I forgot to mention, we took their finals system too.

Which one are you referring to? The NRL has always followed the AFL on finals in recent times. We had the McIntyre final 8 before they did and then we ditched it in favour of the far superior current system 12 years ahead of the NRL.

Which always reminds me of this classic exchange from The Committments:

You know everything about music, Jimmy, you had Frankie Goes To Hollywood's album before anyone had heard of them.

And you were first to realize they were shite.

 

[Walshawk]

I hope you also bag Hawthorn and Richmond when they draw sub 20,000 to Marvel games against the Suns and Eagles too.

I thought the crowd was decent - although it’s clear the Suns have the bigger home base (and this has proven the case for Gold Coast games since Covid)

You are missing my point.

OR concept is to give footy a boost in new markets. But it I clear that Pies in Rnd 1 has no ongoing benefit or effect on growing the fan base. It they can only get 9k when a top 3 flag favourite, it clearly didn’t work.

It was worth a try but it is a flawed concept.

And poorly executed - by having no games there for a month, then scheduling WC, the AFL was ensuring there always no flow on benefit from the one off good crowd v Pies.

 

[PonsfordMagpie]

Port Adelaide vs St Kilda = 34,201

 

[Hawkk]

Which one are you referring to? The NRL has always followed the AFL on finals in recent times. We had the McIntyre final 8 before they did and then we ditched it in favour of the far superior current system 12 years ahead of the NRL.

Which always reminds me of this classic exchange from The Committments:

They used our current system in 1999 - and for some reason (unknown to anyone) ditched it for heavily flawed McIntyre system in 2000

 

[Hawkk]

You are missing my point.

OR concept is to give footy a boost in new markets. But it I clear that Pies in Rnd 1 has no ongoing benefit or effect on growing the fan base. It they can only get 9k when a top 3 flag favourite, it clearly didn’t work.

It was worth a try but it is a flawed concept.

And poorly executed - by having no games there for a month, then scheduling WC, the AFL was ensuring there always no flow on benefit from the one off good crowd v Pies.

Both expansion clubs are growing fast on the smaller Melbourne clubs on social media. What’s clear (as above) is that the Gold Coast Suns have a lot more potential than the Giants to grow their home game attendance.


Facebook

1. Collingwood 420,000
2. Essendon 357,000
3. Hawthorn 356,000
4. West Coast 339,000
5. Carlton 321,000
6. Richmond 319,000
7. Adelaide 292,000
8. Sydney Swans 282,000
9. Geelong 252,000
10. Fremantle 236,000
11. Brisbane Lions 234,000
12. W Bulldogs 217,000
13. Port Adelaide 216,000
14. St Kilda 211,000
15. Melbourne 196,000
16. North Melbourne 162,000
17. GWS Giants 136,000
18. Gold Coast Suns 116,000


TikTok

1. Collingwood 298,700
2. Hawthorn 283,600
3. Geelong 233,100
4. St Kilda 214,300
5. Richmond 179,500
6. Sydney Swans 167,400
7. Essendon 147,300
8. Brisbane 134,100
9. Adelaide 128,300
10. Western Bulldogs 124,800
11. Carlton 111,100
12. GWS Giants 100,300
13. Melbourne 93,500
14. Port Adelaide 88,000
15. North Melbourne 84,400
16. Fremantle 76,000
17. Gold Coast 74,500
18. West Coast 64,100

Twitter

1. Collingwood 161,800
2. Adelaide 161,300
3. Essendon 147,500
4. Carlton 129,700
5. Port Adelaide 113,500
6. Richmond 113,700
7. Hawthorn 106,700
8. Sydney Swans 105,700
9. West Coast 102,700
10. Brisbane 100,100
11. Geelong 96,100
12. Fremantle 91,800
12. St Kilda 88,900
13. Port Adelaide 82,000
14. North Melbourne 78,700
15. Western Bulldogs 75,100
16. Melbourne 74,000
17. GWS Giants 69,100
18. Gold Coast 62,100

Instagram

1. Collingwood 409,000
2. Richmond 320,000
3. Carlton 306,000
4. Hawthorn 303,000
5. Essendon 271,000
6. WCE 264,000
7. Geelong 254,000
8. Sydney Swans 253,000
9. Brisbane Lions 221,000
10. West Bulldogs 203,000
11. Adelaide 197,000
12. Fremantle 185,000
13. Port Adelaide 172,000
14. Melbourne 162,000
15. GWS 160,000
16. St Kilda 157,000
17. North 143,000
18. Gold Coast 118,000

If Opening Round has helped attract more attention to these clubs (and both have the fastest growing profiles over the past decade) than it has been a huge success in my books.

The role of the Giants and Suns are not to be big top 6-8 clubs (that will be the Lions and Swans in time) it’s to give the AFL a second game in Queensland every week. On these numbers I think they will get there.

 

[manicmagpie]

They used our current system in 1999 - and for some reason (unknown to anyone) ditched it for heavily flawed McIntyre system in 2000

Nah, the NRL never had the exact same system that the AFL started using in 2000 until 2012. They had a couple of different systems in 1995-96 that are nearly the same but with different outcomes in either week 2 or 3. 1999 was McIntyre in all its glory.

 

[Hawkk]

Nah, the NRL never had the exact same system that the AFL started using in 2000 until 2012. They had a couple of different systems in 1995-96 that are nearly the same but with different outcomes in either week 2 or 3. 1999 was McIntyre in all its glory.

Good point. My mistake!

 

[Walshawk]

Both expansion clubs are growing fast on the smaller Melbourne clubs on social media. What’s clear (as above) is that the Gold Coast Suns have a lot more potential than the Giants to grow their home game attendance.


Facebook

1. Collingwood 420,000
2. Essendon 357,000
3. Hawthorn 356,000
4. West Coast 339,000
5. Carlton 321,000
6. Richmond 319,000
7. Adelaide 292,000
8. Sydney Swans 282,000
9. Geelong 252,000
10. Fremantle 236,000
11. Brisbane Lions 234,000
12. W Bulldogs 217,000
13. Port Adelaide 216,000
14. St Kilda 211,000
15. Melbourne 196,000
16. North Melbourne 162,000
17. GWS Giants 136,000
18. Gold Coast Suns 116,000


TikTok

1. Collingwood 298,700
2. Hawthorn 283,600
3. Geelong 233,100
4. St Kilda 214,300
5. Richmond 179,500
6. Sydney Swans 167,400
7. Essendon 147,300
8. Brisbane 134,100
9. Adelaide 128,300
10. Western Bulldogs 124,800
11. Carlton 111,100
12. GWS Giants 100,300
13. Melbourne 93,500
14. Port Adelaide 88,000
15. North Melbourne 84,400
16. Fremantle 76,000
17. Gold Coast 74,500
18. West Coast 64,100

Twitter

1. Collingwood 161,800
2. Adelaide 161,300
3. Essendon 147,500
4. Carlton 129,700
5. Port Adelaide 113,500
6. Richmond 113,700
7. Hawthorn 106,700
8. Sydney Swans 105,700
9. West Coast 102,700
10. Brisbane 100,100
11. Geelong 96,100
12. Fremantle 91,800
12. St Kilda 88,900
13. Port Adelaide 82,000
14. North Melbourne 78,700
15. Western Bulldogs 75,100
16. Melbourne 74,000
17. GWS Giants 69,100
18. Gold Coast 62,100

Instagram

1. Collingwood 409,000
2. Richmond 320,000
3. Carlton 306,000
4. Hawthorn 303,000
5. Essendon 271,000
6. WCE 264,000
7. Geelong 254,000
8. Sydney Swans 253,000
9. Brisbane Lions 221,000
10. West Bulldogs 203,000
11. Adelaide 197,000
12. Fremantle 185,000
13. Port Adelaide 172,000
14. Melbourne 162,000
15. GWS 160,000
16. St Kilda 157,000
17. North 143,000
18. Gold Coast 118,000

If Opening Round has helped attract more attention to these clubs (and both have the fastest growing profiles over the past decade) than it has been a huge success in my books.

The role of the Giants and Suns are not to be big top 6-8 clubs (that will be the Lions and Swans in time) it’s to give the AFL a second game in Queensland every week. On these numbers I think they will get there.

Gold Coast will be ok because it is full of ex-pat Victorians, and because it is a nice place for oppo fans to visit.

Unfortunately western Sydney is neither of those things.

 

[The_Wookie]

Then why are they ‘following’ the NFL on the Super Bowl then?


That wasn’t the VFL (and AFL) though.



Again, not VFL (AFL).


The NSWRL (modern day NRL) was playing night finals in the late 1980s — dubbed ‘play off for fifth…’

Aren’t we now considering that too?


View attachment 2275167

And I forgot to mention, we took their finals system too.

you not differentiating between NSWRL, ARL, Superleague and NRL competitions though. Ok then.