Fixture Gather Round - SA announced as host for next 3 years 2024-2026

[Festerz]

16.04.23

GATHER ROUND SOUTH AUSTRALIA
AFL LOCKS IN SA FOR NEXT THREE SEASONS

The AFL in partnership with the SA Government is pleased to announce ‘Gather Round…. A Festival of Footy’ will be hosted in South Australia for the next three seasons.

The inaugural ‘Gather Round’ has been an overwhelming success, with all nine games sold out, more than 220,000 fans attending matches across the Adelaide Oval, Norwood Oval and Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills and tens of thousands of fans attending the footy festival on the banks of Torrens.

More than 60,000 fans purchased tickets from interstate.

Across 2024, 2025 and 2026, Gather Round …. A festival of footy will be hosted exclusively in South Australia, with Adelaide Oval to be the central venue, with the intent from both the AFL and the SA Government to take regional matches in 2024 to the Barossa / McClaren Vale region.

As part of the three-year term, both the AFL and SA Government have also committed to establishing a community football legacy fund, that will benefit local footy clubs in the state beyond the weekend of matches.

The AFL will lock in the fixture dates of the round in the coming weeks to give fans as much lead time as possible to book travel and accommodation.

Ticketing information will be release later in the year.

“South Australia really turned it on. Gather Round and all the activity across the state, the nine matches, the footy festival and the community football engagement has been some of the best days and events the AFL has ever delivered,” AFL Chief Executive Gillon McLachlan said.

“It has been a success because everyone in football got behind the idea, clubs, players, corporate partners and most importantly our fans, to deliver an extraordinary few days,

“While the concept has real momentum, and we plan on taking it to other states around the country, we also feel in order for it to be as successful in the other states we need to continue to build out the concept in South Australia,

“The reality is we only had a few months to pull this together, and we hope by locking it in now we are giving everyone a longer runway to put together a bigger and even better event, and our fans certainty around booking travel and accommodation.

“The match at Mount Barker was a special afternoon on Saturday and an important part of recommitting to South Australia was to establish the community legacy fund, ensuring local footy clubs’ benefit from bringing the Gather Round to town.”

During the round the AFL has facilitated dozens of community club and school visits, held seminars for community club volunteers and delivered more than 10,000 footballs to regional community clubs.

Details on the Community legacy fund will be communicated at a later date.

“On behalf of the AFL I want to thank to Premier Malinauskas and his team in the SA Government who in partnership, delivered an unbelievable few days for footy and the state of South Australia.”

The AFL will also work with the AFLPA on the commitments to the players.

“The players have been strong partners in the Gather Round concept and have embraced wholeheartedly the round. We will now work with the AFLPA on the commitments to the players in the coming years.”

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said “The inaugural Gather Round has been a stunning success, in no small part thanks to the willingness of South Australians, and our interstate visitors, to show up.
“We know that this has delivered huge benefits for our state, and that is why I’m so pleased to see it return for the next three years.”

“With more time to plan, we know we can make Gather Round even bigger and better than what it has already become.”

“I want to thank Gillon McLachlan, the AFL, wider footballing community, public servants, councils and others who’ve all worked so hard to deliver such an amazing event in just a few months.”

“But most of all, I want to thank each and every person who showed up.”

“This agreement is because of you.”

-ends-

 

[RonnieRaven]

These games would get 80k at the MCG, no way they are being played back to back at AO.

It’s an extra round so as long as it’s profit it’s all good.
What SA will pay for the round compare To the 50 year mcg contract would make up for the extra 40 thousand punters.

 

[Recon_29]

Those four teams rarely all play each other twice. You can still have them later in the season @ MCG.

Yep gone are the days when we would play Tigers, Pies and Bombers twice. Would love an extra crack at it.

 

[jdeezy]

So if SA is locked in, I'd go for a set up something like this:

Thursday Night at Adelaide Oval:
Adelaide v Geelong

Friday Night at Adelaide Oval:
Port v Collingwood

Given the constant comments about not giving an extra home game, these would be regular "home and away" games, meaning you could run Adelaide/Collingwood and Geelong/Port as designated neutral games later in the season at other venues. Both would pull a good crowd any week and have enough spice to be primetime games so should satisfy TV commitments.

Super Saturday Triple Header at Adelaide Oval:
Brisbane/Richmond
Hawthorn/West Coast
Carlton/Fremantle

The idea here is putting on some big Victorian teams that would draw supporters from interstate (as well as having big supporter bases in SA), sandwiched at the start and the end of the day to bring them in all day. However, there aren't any major match ups that would draw more in Victoria "wasted" in this round, meaning they can still have the big crowds at home. The WA teams are both fixtured on the same day in the hopes of bringing family and groups over from WA as well. All 3 games should be close enough to satisfy neutrals and Fremantle/Carlton should be a big enough game to satisfy TV audiences for a Saturday night

Saturday Night in the Barossa:
Gold Coast/St Kilda

Saturday night's other game is played somewhere in the Barossa as a tourism booster, with the hopes that many would take the day exploring the region before popping in to the game. It's not a huge interest game - though the King twins against each other could draw in interested neutrals either locally or maybe fans from other days looking for something to do on a Saturday night.

Sunday Double Header (Early and Twilight) at Noarlunga:
GWS/North Melbourne
Essendon/Sydney

The idea with using Noarlunga is its close to the city so it's accessible from Adelaide for those staying the weekend in the CBD, but close enough to the Southern regions that there will be tourism benefits from people staying at Mclaren Vale, etc for the weekend then coming for the game Sunday. I've gone with Essendon as a bit of a crowd bringer and put both NSW teams with a similar thought process to having both WA teams together (not that I expect big crowds from NSW).

Sunday Afternoon at Mount Gambier:
Melbourne/Western Bulldogs

Wasn't sure exactly where to host this one but quite liked somebody else's idea of Mount Gambier as another tourist driver for the state. I've put two Vic clubs here for two reasons: 1) to satisfy Channel 7 as this would be the 7 broadcast game, and 2) with the weekend likely in school holidays I could see families driving over and spending a couple of days here, or even passing through for this game on their way back to Victoria from earlier games.


What do you reckon? If they went with something like this I could see it being pretty successful, with some decent footy and some good tourism benefits. But who knows what the AFL has planned.

 

[Taylor]

Given the constant comments about not giving an extra home game, these would be regular "home and away" games, meaning you could run Adelaide/Collingwood and Geelong/Port as designated neutral games later in the season at other venues. Both would pull a good crowd any week and have enough spice to be primetime games so should satisfy TV commitments.

That's a good point. If the AFL wanted to have a game in NZ or China or Alice Spings or the USA etc then being able to send two teams there playing an away game, so nobody is losing a home game, it would give them a lot of flexibility.

 

[Recon_29]

What do you reckon? If they went with something like this I could see it being pretty successful, with some decent footy and some good tourism benefits. But who knows what the AFL has planned.

Don't mind it. I think they will close out the show on Sunday at Adelaide Oval though.

 

[glengowan]

I know you’re being hypothetical, but fun fact.
Port Augusta’s Central oval is not deemed AFL standard due to a city council lacking brains and foresight. Built the newly renovated central oval the wrong orientation. This despite spending over $22 Million renovating it. to be held in this region it would need to be in port Pirie or Whyalla.

It's funny how the current administrators think ovals should go North-South and they're spending a huge amount on realigning Thebarton Oval. I know it is now for the Crows and it makes sense to be the same as Adelaide Oval, but they were going to do so prior to the Crows announcing Thebby home, just because. I just had a quick look at Google Maps and it looks like Port Augusta's Central Oval is aligned exactly as the current Thebarton Oval (and Prospect Oval) is. Both Thebarton and Prospect were purpose built for Football back in the 1920's and they were smart enough to orientate the ovals so for the majority of winter, the sun set directly to the wing.

So, I would argue Port Augusta, for the purpose of football, when the sun is often going down in the last quarter of an afternoon game, have done the correct thing and the admin staff need to get out of their offices and lead out from Full Forward at 4:30pm on a July afternoon and rethink their orientation of ovals.

I can understand from a cricket point of view having the ovals more north-south as in summer the sun sets almost directly west.

 

[ibd77]

Here is my SA line up baring blockbuster games as these would be reserved during the normal minor round season. I'd like to see a spread of locations statewide rather than suburban grounds. This pretty much rules out twilight games as most venues would not have AFL standard lighting.

Collingwood vs GWS @ Adelaide Oval Thursday Night 7.20PM

Port Adelaide vs North Melbourne @ Adelaide Oval Friday Night 7.20PM

Geelong vs Essendon @ Mount Gambier, Saturday Early Afternoon 1.00PM
Sydney vs West Coast @ Port Lincoln, Saturday Late Afternoon 2.30PM
Adelaide vs Gold Coast @ Adelaide Oval, Saturday Night 7.20PM

Melbourne vs St Kilda @ Barossa Valley, Sunday Early Afternoon 1.00PM
Fremantle vs Western Bulldogs @ Whyalla, Sunday Late Afternoon 2.30PM
Richmond vs Brisbane @ Adelaide Oval, Sunday Night 7.20PM

Carlton vs Hawthorn @ Adelaide Oval Monday Night 7.20PM


Ranking Region Population
1 Adelaide, SA 1,002,127
2 Mount Gambier, SA 22,751
3 Whyalla, SA 21,271
4 Gawler, SA 16,837
5 Port Pirie, SA 13,263
6 Bridgewater, SA 13,197
7 Port Augusta, SA 13,194
8 Murray Bridge, SA 13,017
9 Port Lincoln, SA 12,664
10 Mount Barker, SA 9,153

 

[spudmaster]

Here is my SA line up baring blockbuster games as these would be reserved during the normal minor round season. I'd like to see a spread of locations statewide rather than suburban grounds. This pretty much rules out twilight games as most venues would not have AFL standard lighting.

Carlton vs Hawthorn @ Adelaide Oval Monday Night 7.20PM

 

[ibd77]

Monday, 13 March 2023, Adelaide Cup Day. Public Holiday for a horse race that probably gets less people attending than this match.

 

[Cubs2Lions]

 

[The_Wookie]

Im told that this is pretty much locked in for Adelaide over the Easter Period next year. About April 9 i think.

 

[jdeezy]

Im told that this is pretty much locked in for Adelaide over the Easter Period next year. About April 9 i think.

Wasn't expecting Easter, with a few games already penciled in yearly for that weekend and it also being one of the rare years next year where Easter is not in the school holidays for SA as well. Interesting choice if true.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

if the AFL had of come out and just said that we are dropping a pre-season game and instead adding an extra round of premiership season games, so that now there are 23 home and away games, everyone would have been excited. more footy amirite?
and then, at the launch of the fixture they then say that the extra round will be held in one city, rotated every season, and that no team will end up with more than 11 home games, again people would have been excited.

Nah. Season too long as it is and fixture too compromised already. Terrible idea, AFL just selling off another piece of their soul.

 

[Seattle Mariners]

Im told that this is pretty much locked in for Adelaide over the Easter Period next year. About April 9 i think.

The Hawthorn V Geelong Easter Monday MCG game is one of the locked in show piece fixtures of the season.

Highly doubt that fixture will be removed from the calendar and therefore on that basis, magic round won't be over the Easter weekend, but the following weekend.

Happy to be proven wrong though.

 

[Canberra Pear]

The Hawthorn V Geelong Easter Monday MCG game is one of the locked in show piece fixtures of the season.

Highly doubt that fixture will be removed from the calendar and therefore on that basis, magic round won't be over the Easter weekend, but the following weekend.

Happy to be proven wrong though.

Brisbane have been pretty keen on turning Easter Thursday into a tradition against Collingwood, too.

 

[Walshawk]

It will be the weekend after Easter, which is the middle weekend of Vic school holidays as the reason SA is putting up $10m is that they want tens of thousands of interstate visitors and that is the best week for that.

 

[Recon_29]

Would be surprised if it is easter when there are already 3 marquee games that weekend. Easter Thursday in Brisbane, Good Friday game & Easter Monday. Not sure the clubs would agree to losing those fixtures.

 

[Seattle Mariners]

Would be surprised if it is easter when there are already 3 marquee games that weekend. Easter Thursday in Brisbane, Good Friday game & Easter Monday. Not sure the clubs would agree to losing those fixtures.

Yeah the more I think about the more I think the poster who revealed his information about Easter may be incorrect.

There is virtually no way those 3 annual marquee Easter fixtures are going to be washed up by an Adelaide magic round.

It will be the week after Easter IMO.

 

[catters05]

It’s a shame the AFL didn’t push SA govt to help get funding into the SANFL grounds so some of the games could be played ant them like in Glenelg, Norwood etc and AO used once each day over the 4 days.

 

[The_Wookie]

The Hawthorn V Geelong Easter Monday MCG game is one of the locked in show piece fixtures of the season.

Highly doubt that fixture will be removed from the calendar and therefore on that basis, magic round won't be over the Easter weekend, but the following weekend.

Happy to be proven wrong though.

According to the source, its supposedly the weekend after Easter, but then gives a date of the around the 9th, which is easter. SA Gov is convicnced its theirs though.

 

[Tigerlaird]

Will be fun to go to back to my hometown and see the mighty Tigers play a team at AO other than Port or Crows. Can't wait.

 

[jdeezy]

According to the source, its supposedly the weekend after Easter, but then gives a date of the around the 9th, which is easter. SA Gov is convicnced its theirs though.

The week after Easter 2024 would be around the 9th, any chance this is too late to get happening this year?

 

[The_Wookie]

 

[Dirty Bird]

Yet, if they spread out the games and dont take advantage of triple headers Saturday/Sunday, this will come back to bite you as we'll be switching on games at Adelaide Oval that are empty.

Why would someone come from interstate just for 1 game at Adelaide Oval that day, it'd just be like a regular away game. You'd end up with 10,000 in a 50k seat stadium

It'd be an embarrassment.

This needs MINIMUM 6 games at AO (Th, F, 2x Sa, 2x Su) to even work (And the standalone games need to be Adel/PA)

AND

It needs to be well priced.

It wont be part of our memberships, so alot of fans (particularly elderly, especially after the debacle of the covid years (particularly 2020)) wont bother if it costs $100 for your regular seat.

 

[Bjo187]

Who the hell is Mark Duffield and what's magic round got to do with the off field success of the two expansion sides? For what it's worth, I agree with him on the other parts, 20k should be about the minimum they should be aiming for.