2011 crowds

[zachary]

By way of comparison NRL semi final tonight 13,972

 

[Zagg]

By way of comparison NRL semi final tonight 13,972

Massive lolz!

 

[bradrowe#32]

Great crowd for the Pies-Eagles, while Saints-Swans was just ok.

Tomorrow's game should be massive, close to 90k.

 

[beez]

By way of comparison NRL semi final tonight 13,972

Mate, that's fine, the TV audience would've been massive.

/Rebecca Wilson

 

[HARKER]

It will be a lot more than that.
An MCC attendant today at the G told me that 85K tickets have been sold.
With MCC walk up you'd be expecting 90K+.

I hope you're right but it rarely pans out that way and we'll have the weather to blame on top of any other reasons.

 

[bradrowe#32]

By way of comparison NRL semi final tonight 13,972

That's actually nearly 3k under its 2011 average. Well done.

 

[eddiesmith]

Okay then what do you think the crowd will be?

60-70K?

maybe 80K?

Low 80's

Been plenty of sell outs in recent years that never got close to 90,000

 

[eddiesmith]

I agree. The only non-Grand Final that could conceivably get 100,000 to the MCG would be Melbourne vs Essendon or Melbourne vs Collingwood.

A Preliminary Final featuring either of those two combinations could pack out the 'G.

The irony of that, however, is that with the Demons being involved, the MCC would be full, but the general ticketing might not.

In 2002, if Melbourne had beaten Adelaide in week 2 (they came close) and it was a Collingwood vs Melbourne Prelim, there would have been about 97,000 I reckon. That 2002 Prelim was the Pies first MCG finals match in 12 years. A Coll vs Melb Prelim that year would have been a bigger crowd than what the Coll v Bris Grand Final got the week after.

Tomorrow's game will probably get borderline 90,000, high 80,000's more likely.

A preliminary final involving Collingwood is guaranteed to pack the MCG, would be interested if we played Carlton or Essendon, if they played each other they would probably go bloody close as well in the next year or 2 given the long wait. We got 98,000 against Geelong a few years ago which beat the GF by about 8,000 and every other PF this century bar 1 we have drawn just 2-5,000 less than the GF the next week

Imagine next year PFs of Pies v Cats and Blues v Bombers, ticketek might finally need to break up the selling of the matches

 

[The_Wookie]

Saints v Swans Official Crowd: 39,205 at Etihad Stadium
Pies v Eagles Official crowd: 67, 379 at the MCG
Geelong v Hawthorn Official crowd: 73,400 at MCG

 

[Hawkk]

yeah and next week will be lucky to get 90K to the 2 matches.

50K Hawks Vs Swans (especially without Buddy)

40K West Coast Vs Essendon (or possibly Carlton)

Hawks/Swans average over 44k to MCG home and away games over the past 5 years, given that it'll be the nominated series ticket game a crowd in the range of 55-60,000 should be par for course (possibly 60k if Franklin plays)

 

[Hawkk]

cats fans are notorious for hating friday night matches, due to work, distance, and travel. The weather wouldnt have inspired fence sitters to go. hawthorn arent as big as they think they are. And so 75k it is.

In any given year, where the game is not nominated as the Series ticket match, the 1st week games rarely draw more than you would expect for a general home and away game (even Carlton/Essendon, which may draw mid 80,000's is not necessarily greater then what you would expect for a general home and away game)

I flew into Melbourne for a meeting on Friday morning, and given the weather, I was expecting a crowd in the low 60,000's (I predicted 75,000 during the week)

 

[Jesus Baulks]

The AFL need to revise their final's pricing if they want better crowds. $70 for a decent ticket is half the price of a season membership for crying out loud. It completely deters neutrals from attending games in my opinion and as we can see from Friday night's game, just getting the club supporters along doesn't cut the mustard.

Why not lower the prices on games they know aren't as popular and won't sell out? Friday night's game would've sold a lot better if all the level 4 seats were only $30 for example. Same with the game at Etihad.

I think it's better to make slightly less on the ticket price, but have a capacity crowd in. It's a much better look for the AFL, it's better for the fans, the atmosphere is heightened etc. The AFL would make up the difference of selling the poorer seats for less through alcohol and food bought by the extra attendees anyway.

 

[vapours]

$70 for a decent ticket is half the price of a season membership for crying out loud.

Is it seriously $140 for a season Collingwood membership?

 

[Face_Plain]

Saints v Swans Official Crowd: 39,205 at Etihad Stadium
Pies v Eagles Official crowd: 67, 379 at the MCG
Geelong v Hawthorn Official crowd: 73,400 at MCG

Not even 40k for an elim final under the roof? Wow. Sydney looked like they had decent numbers there as well.

 

[pepsi]

I don't mind the $70 for the best seat in the house.

The massive issue is the fact that the $70 ticket category takes up about 75% of all public tickets available. That is where they are truly ripping us all off.

 

[Hawkk]

Also worth noting (and speaking purely of Friday Night) it was nice to see the MCC members (80%) attendance and AFL members (90%) pulling their weight with the attendance

I guess the argument to take finals seating off the MCC is insurmountable

 

[Jesus Baulks]

Is it seriously $140 for a season Collingwood membership?

Nah it wouldn't be, you're right. You'd probably get all home Collingwood games for that price though, so 11 games.

 

[grimface_87]

I think it's better to make slightly less on the ticket price, but have a capacity crowd in. It's a much better look for the AFL, it's better for the fans, the atmosphere is heightened etc. The AFL would make up the difference of selling the poorer seats for less through alcohol and food bought by the extra attendees anyway.

You just have to find the right balance though. I'm sure the AFL would prefer a 90% crowd than a 100% crowd with people being locked out/unable to buy tickets

 

[Hornberger]

Depending on the weather but anything other a Collingwood vs Sydney and Geelong vs West Coast premlinary finals should break the record for a 9 game final series (615,000). Their is a small chance that a Collingwood vs Hawthorn and Geelong vs Carlton/Essendon would break the overall record for a final series (651,000)

 

[Jesus Baulks]

You just have to find the right balance though. I'm sure the AFL would prefer a 90% crowd than a 100% crowd with people being locked out/unable to buy tickets

Why would they prefer that? If every final sold out the AFL would be ecstatic, who cares about the ones who missed you, they had 100,000 chances to get a ticket.

 

[Hornberger]

why would they prefer that? If every final sold out the afl would be ecstatic, who cares about the ones who missed you, they had 100,000 chances to get a ticket.

90,000 * 70 > 100,000 * 40

 

[The_Wookie]

Not even 40k for an elim final under the roof? Wow. Sydney looked like they had decent numbers there as well.

Bulldogs and Swans played in front of 39,596 in a semi final at the MCG last year.

 

[Jesus Baulks]

90,000 * 70 > 100,000 * 40

I didn't say 100,000 @ $40 though. I'm talking about the less popular games as well. Sure, sell the Carlton v Essendon tickets at 70, but why not sell the top deck of the Collingwood vs West Coast game for peanuts?

I'm talking 73,000 @ $70 vs say, 65,000 @ $70ish and 25,000 @ 30-40

 

[zachary]

The AFL need to revise their final's pricing if they want better crowds. $70 for a decent ticket is half the price of a season membership for crying out loud. It completely deters neutrals from attending games in my opinion and as we can see from Friday night's game, just getting the club supporters along doesn't cut the mustard.

Why not lower the prices on games they know aren't as popular and won't sell out? Friday night's game would've sold a lot better if all the level 4 seats were only $30 for example. Same with the game at Etihad.

I think it's better to make slightly less on the ticket price, but have a capacity crowd in. It's a much better look for the AFL, it's better for the fans, the atmosphere is heightened etc. The AFL would make up the difference of selling the poorer seats for less through alcohol and food bought by the extra attendees anyway.

I agree - the first round of the finals should be at home and away prices. It's kind of an in-between round - teams in the top four get a second chance and the losers of the elimination finals shouldn't be there anyway.
They should wait until the semis before upping the prices. They would get more people going to the first week, and would probably make the same money anyway.

 

[Hornberger]

I didn't say 100,000 @ $40 though. I'm talking about the less popular games as well. Sure, sell the Carlton v Essendon tickets at 70, but why not sell the top deck of the Collingwood vs West Coast game for peanuts?

I'm talking 73,000 @ $70 vs say, 65,000 @ $70ish and 25,000 @ 30-40

So you want to the AFL to set prices for individual games. Does that not only make the AFL look incrediably greedy, more greedy then with a single uniformly high price it would also piss alot of Carlton and Essendon fans who would be effectively paying twice the price for the same seat.