Play Nice 2022 AFL/AFLW Crowds/TV Ratings/Stream thread

[Rob]

Pies, Eagles and COVID bring significant drop in crowds


Its behind a paywall but some interesting quotes include:

“The Australian Government has declared four pandemics: influenza in 1918, 1957 to 1959, 1968 to 1970 and 2009, and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 to (hopefully) 2022. The data is too patchy for the 2018 pandemic, but for 1957 and 1968 pandemics the league’s average attendance certainly declined.

In 1957, the VFL’s attendance hit a then all-time high of 25,589, only to decline to 23,359 by 1960. Again, prior to the 1968 pandemic crowds hit an average of 26,362 before falling to 22,997 during 1968. There was a very small decline in 2009 versus 2008 for good measure.

The most obvious answer here is the correct one: COVID is still lingering, and enough people are staying away from big events that it’s showing up in the numbers.”



“And what do you know, looking at this week’s chart, there are a couple of teams which stick out. The decline in average attendance at Collinwood and West Coast home games is responsible for almost three quarters of the average decline across the league. The Pies have gone from an average of 58,975 in 2019 to 37,732 in 2022.

The Eagles were riding high in the second year at Optus Stadium with an average attendance of 53,513 – their support has collapsed to 33,932 per game. If maintained, it would be West Coast’s lowest average attendance since 2001.

Not far behind the top two is Fremantle, where the average crowd has declined from 40,896 to 26,965. Adding West Coast and Fremantle together suggests the average Optus Stadium home crowd has declined from 47,204 to 30,448 – a stunning decline of 36%.

Back to the central point: the decline in home game attendance in Western Australia accounts for about 71% of the overall decline in AFL attendance between 2019 and 2022. And what’s going on in Western Australia? The pandemic is roaring after years of being quelled by government policy and a fair dose of luck.”

—————

That’s an Interesting take on previous pandemics – I wasn’t aware of pandemics in 1957 to 59 and 1968 to 70.

Its pretty obvious the reporter has got their data from here AFL Tables - Fremantle - Crowds as its not up to date, as its missing last weeks crowd figs from the Freo v Coll match.

The first few Optus Stadium games this season were all crowd limited to roughly 75% which the article fails to mention.

The Collingwood home ave is also pretty misleading as our home games so far include Ade, WCE, GC and none against the big 4 clubs.

But our away ave is 55,282 which is the highest by a mile as it includes matches against Rich and Ess.

Optus was limited to 50% early in the season.

 

[Bjo187]

Did anybody catch the attendance tonight?

 

[manicmagpie]

Did anybody catch the attendance tonight?

 

[Bjo187]

Thanks, thought it looked more than that though.

 

[MattF185]

Melbourne’s highest crowd v Fremantle at the G is 27,829 in 2017. Hopefully that is eclipsed today.

 

[weewilly]

Melbourne’s highest crowd v Fremantle at the G is 27,829 in 2017. Hopefully that is eclipsed today.

It will if the Melbourne Members turn up!

 

[Bjo187]

So Melbourne storm got live on the main channel 9 on Thursday night into Melbourne and got 42k viewers. This was with no AFL game on as competition. Last night the swans were as usual relagated to 7 mate in Sydney and got 55k viewers.

How do the AFL let 7 get away with constantly putting good games on the secondary channels into growth markets? Surely this is something that needs to change under the new rights deal.

 

[Sammoll]

22,068 at Brisbane vs GWS today is the largest ever H&A game crowd between these two.

 

[wagstaff]

Melbourne’s highest crowd v Fremantle at the G is 27,829 in 2017. Hopefully that is eclipsed today.

Crowd was 29,812.

 

[PonsfordMagpie]

Crowd was 29,812.

Good crowd.

 

[Raz Man]

Crowd was 29,812.

That’s a top effort from the Dees supporters! Nice work. Keep it up.


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[MattF185]

Can see around 40k next week to Dees v swans if weather holds up.

 

[GIMINO]

WCE v WB

31,838

 

[PonsfordMagpie]

Geelong vs Adelaide = 19,051

Gold Coast vs Hawthorn = 7,516

 

[weewilly]

WCE v WB

31,838

Yep still way down for the WCEs! Barely half full on a Sat night!

 

[GIMINO]

Yep still way down for the WCEs! Barely half full on a Sat night!

Thought the club would like to see crowds in the 35-40 mark on the team performances since the mid season bye last year the team has gone 3w 15L

 

[weewilly]

Thought the club would like to see crowds in the 35-40 mark on the team performances since the mid season bye last year the team has gone 3w 15L

AFL fans are in 2022 now less inclined to attend matches if they think their side is in for another belting!

Much cheaper and easier to stay at home and watch on TV and if you don't like what you see switch it off!

 

[Dirty Bird]

That’s a top effort from the Dees supporters! Nice work. Keep it up.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

But was it?
On tv you could hear a pin drop whenever Melbourne did anything
And a massive roar whenever Fremantle did anything.

 

[Kwality]

That’s a top effort from the Dees supporters! Nice work. Keep it up.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

Melbourne is one of the clubs that need the opposition supporters along, aka, the State League model.

 

[Rob]

Thought the club would like to see crowds in the 35-40 mark on the team performances since the mid season bye last year the team has gone 3w 15L

Yeah probably, but they wouldn't care too much because the seats are already paid for. Watch them still book a profit of $5m plus.

Can't be easy for supporters - as s**t as Freo has been over the years, I don't think there has ever been a year where there's been more than a couple of games where i've gone to a home game with absolutely zero hope of a win. That's a West Coast fan's life every single game. And even worse it's not like they're doing it with a team full of kids.

 

[Rob]

But was it?
On tv you could hear a pin drop whenever Melbourne did anything
And a massive roar whenever Fremantle did anything.

There was a pretty good Freo contingent, but likely to only be about 1500 or so.

Although it didn't look like 29k on TV, looked more like 20k or so. Maybe the MCG members had a lot of people in it.

 

[MattF185]

23,464 at Marvel Stadium for Saint Kilda v North Melbourne. About what you would expect.

 

[kranger]

Pies, Eagles and COVID bring significant drop in crowds


Its behind a paywall but some interesting quotes include:

The Eagles were riding high in the second year at Optus Stadium with an average attendance of 53,513 – their support has collapsed to 33,932 per game. If maintained, it would be West Coast’s lowest average attendance since 2001.

Not far behind the top two is Fremantle, where the average crowd has declined from 40,896 to 26,965. Adding West Coast and Fremantle together suggests the average Optus Stadium home crowd has declined from 47,204 to 30,448 – a stunning decline of 36%.

Back to the central point: the decline in home game attendance in Western Australia accounts for about 71% of the overall decline in AFL attendance between 2019 and 2022. And what’s going on in Western Australia? The pandemic is roaring after years of being quelled by government policy and a fair dose of luck.”

—————

Its pretty obvious the reporter has got their data from here AFL Tables - Fremantle - Crowds as its not up to date, as its missing last weeks crowd figs from the Freo v Coll match.

So for the Freo vs Collingwood game, instead of being an attendance of 0, if we add in the crowd figure of 35,534, the Freo home average crowd is 34,072 across 5 games.

And the Optus Stadium average so far is 34,001 across 10 games.

Being mindful there was a Capacity Restrictions of 75% - 45,000 for rounds 1-6 (though the restriction was only lifted the night before the round 7 game), so hard to organise the extra ticket release that fast and convince people to buy them.

 

[The_Wookie]

BT sayin 80 odd thousand at the G

 

[weewilly]

23,464 at Marvel Stadium for Saint Kilda v North Melbourne. About what you would expect.

A hell of a lot better than the paltry 13,000 that North got to their last home game at Marvel.