AFLW 2019 AFLW Grand Final: Adelaide vs Carlton, Sun Mar 31, 12.30pm ACDT

[radiojake]

People coming and going??

With no tickets there is no passouts

What the exact number is doesn't really matter - was definitely the biggest crowd for a women's footy match regardless and an amazing endorsement

 

[cmndstab]

Being there myself I can tell you, there was no way there was 53k people there. Why lie

I don't think anyone is trying to be deceptive. I know Port supporters have their own theories about the SMA and deliberate undercounting/overcounting with Port and Crows games, I have no idea about that, but I doubt it was the case here.

I agree that, as full as the ground was, it didn't have the "no empty seats" feel of a 50k+ crowd. However, this crowd had a different demographic. Many more children, infants, etc that can sit on a parent's lap and take up only one seat. In many cases, kids that young aren't going to stay seated for 2+ hours, either. Some would have left early, some people would have seen the crowd on TV and decided to come in late. I know someone who made a split second decision to come at half time.

If there was less than 53k (I suspect there was closer to 45k), the number wouldn't have been misreported as part of some conspiracy to fudge the numbers. Hell, if you were going to fudge the numbers, you'd choose something more believable than that. I think it's just that they were too short-staffed (only expected 20-30k people to come) to do the job properly. They had people there with a ticket that they scanned every time someone came in, it's not hard to imagine that some people ended up scanned twice, or a ticket got scanned more times than intended while trying to do multiple swipes for a father carrying a child, etc.

In any event, it was a monster crowd. It's a shame that so much air has been given to the "it wasn't that big" discussion at the expense of the much more important "women's sport inspired tens of thousands of people to give up their Sunday afternoon to come and watch" discussion.

 

[port_adelaide_1870]

I don't think anyone is trying to be deceptive. I know Port supporters have their own theories about the SMA and deliberate undercounting/overcounting with Port and Crows games, I have no idea about that, but I doubt it was the case here.

I agree that, as full as the ground was, it didn't have the "no empty seats" feel of a 50k+ crowd. However, this crowd had a different demographic. Many more children, infants, etc that can sit on a parent's lap and take up only one seat. In many cases, kids that young aren't going to stay seated for 2+ hours, either. Some would have left early, some people would have seen the crowd on TV and decided to come in late. I know someone who made a split second decision to come at half time.

If there was less than 53k (I suspect there was closer to 45k), the number wouldn't have been misreported as part of some conspiracy to fudge the numbers. Hell, if you were going to fudge the numbers, you'd choose something more believable than that. I think it's just that they were too short-staffed (only expected 20-30k people to come) to do the job properly. They had people there with a ticket that they scanned every time someone came in, it's not hard to imagine that some people ended up scanned twice, or a ticket got scanned more times than intended while trying to do multiple swipes for a father carrying a child, etc.

In any event, it was a monster crowd. It's a shame that so much air has been given to the "it wasn't that big" discussion at the expense of the much more important "women's sport inspired tens of thousands of people to give up their Sunday afternoon to come and watch" discussion.

Agree that it was a big crowd (agree looked 43-45k) and AFLW should be proud but imo no way it looked 53k people. It does feel like they up the numbers over 50k for the feel good story

 

[radiojake]

It would have been a feel good story if it was 35k - it's probably harder to get those kind of crowd figures when it's a non ticketed event

 

[SunGirl89]

Being there myself I can tell you, there was no way there was 53k people there. Why lie

Tell me the last time an accurate crowd figure was given for a low to medium attendance at Docklands.

 

[jezzajay]

A few years back I was managing sales and marketing for the ticketing company that handled the NRL games that came to Cairns. I knew exactly what the ticket sales/door numbers were for the games (including door lists etc). I always found it amusing how the numbers reported (in papers and online match reports that would come out immediately) for the game were always 2-3000 more than what was officially counted by our system - in this case was a fudge of numbers by about 20%. Basically the games were struggling to get 10,000 and I know they wanted to exceed that amount through the home teams forecasts for the game so of course they boost the final number to make themselves appear competent. The press never approached us about what the numbers were, the numbers were provided by the home team of the game in which we wouldn't pass on the actual figure until the following Monday of the game after reconciling everything. I don't understand the reasoning behind it apart from 'selling the story' to the home game side fans...and for selling the game on TV stations etc.
Having experienced that I will never take a reported crowd number as official. I believe all sports do it in some capacity.