no a winning Essendon or winning Richmond can easily be bigger! aside from the Eddie attempts to keep the pies relevant in the media by whoring them out at every opportunity possible factor
since 2000 the pies have played in 4 grand finals won 1, been a top 4 side for a good part of the last 17 years been in the finals playing all home games at the MCG
ill let the Richmond fans speak for the tigers but for a team that has been shite for 30 plus years their popularity speaks for it self
Essendon has done nothing since 2001 except the last 5 years been involved in the biggest cheating/ drug saga in AUstralian sporting history, they play out of etihad where its known it will draw 5 to 10 k less than MCG games, we have had several game this season classed as sell outs eg like last week 48k against the bulldogs & they are not even in the 8 and sit on top of the crowd attendance ladder & they won the spoon last year!
how much further ahead would Essendon be if they were top 4 or even with a bit of success & played all home games at the MCG like the pies and tigers do!
btw if you look at merchandise sales the club it in the top 3 or 4 every year as well
Settle.
Essendon's crowds have been exceptional this season but it is the first clear season after the 5 year self sabotage...
Lets see if the bounce is maintained in 2-3 years time when normality is restored. Typically clubs have a big bounce after a number of seasons of declining attendance and then the numbers are stabilise and stay the same irrespective of performance (i.e. Richmond in 1995 through the 1990s, 2013 onwards, Collingwood after 2002 and after 2010, Carlton after 2007, Hawthorn after 2008 and even St Kilda from 2004 all through to 2012)
No one club has the perfect set of circumstances where they completely dominate home and away attendance.
Well perhaps Collingwood in the 16/17 team competition in 2010/11 (1,306,461/6,495,814 ~ 20.11% and 1,269,959/6,525,071 ~ 19.46%), Richmond in the 12 team competition in 1980 (827,825/3,280,129 ~ 25.23%) and Melbourne in the 12 team competition in 1964 (639,753/2,536,965 ~ 25.21%).
Essendon and Carlton have issues with Ethiad, Hawthorn (80k to 100k a season) and North Melbourne have games in Tasmania, Richmond and Melbourne have underperformance, Geelong have a Kardina Park cap, St Kilda, North Melbouerne and W Bulldogs all have issues with the fixtures, Ethiad and time slots...
Those Collingwood attendances in 2010/2011 are incredible. With 4/5 more teams in the competition they completely dwarfed all comers in home and away attendance (296,624 greater then the next biggest club in 2010, 176,753 greater then the next biggest club in 2011)