2025 Attendances

[The_Wookie]

11.12.2024

Gather Round tickets snapped up in record time


The AFL is pleased to announce that more than 195,000 Gather Round…Festival of Footy tickets have sold… with five of the nine games sold out, 20,000 more than this time last year.

Member on sale on Tuesday saw a significant uplift in demand for tickets this year, selling more than 100,000 tickets in the first four hours, in comparison to the same amount in 24 hours last year.

This year there are an extra 47,000 tickets on offer for fans with the two Saturday matches being ticketed separately.

Tickets still remain for Collingwood vs Sydney Swans on Friday night, Carlton vs West Coast on Saturday afternoon, Melbourne vs Essendon on Saturday night and a very limited number of restricted view tickets and tickets for the Pepsi Collective for Port Adelaide vs Hawthorn on Sunday evening.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said it was clear Gather Round momentum was not slowly down.

“The demand for tickets this year was significantly higher than the first two Gather Rounds, with more than 195,000 tickets being purchased in the first two days,” said Mr Dillon.

“A ticket to the matches at the Barossa Park was always going to be one of the hottest tickets in town and the fans have certainly illustrated that by selling out both matches so quickly.”

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said: “Gather Round continues to exceed all expectations.

“We are honoured that so many footy fans from around the country are making the commitment to travel to our beautiful state to experience this event like no other.

“They’ll be truly welcome.

“If you haven’t got a ticket already – get in quick!”

Tickets for the remaining matches can be found here.

 

[BallaratBulldog]

A reminder that the Adelaide game was celebrating the Bont and Libba milestones from the previous weeks that were away games.

Also up to that point 95% of melb games were night games, giving a big chance for more regional and family fans.

30,000 is gettable but the Adelaide 40,000 will be a outliner until proven otherwise.

Freo game does lend itself to more neutral interest.

 

[manicmagpie]

What do we reckon it is tonight? Around 40-45k?

 

[manicmagpie]

41,150 at the G.

 

[manicmagpie]

Carlton finish the year on 1,147,479.

It's their 3rd highest total of all time, but it's a fall of around 130k from last year's record.

It's the 18th highest season total across all clubs, the 5th highest excluding Collingwood.

 

[Hawkk]

Carlton finish the year on 1,147,479.

It's their 3rd highest total of all time, but it's a fall of around 130k from last year's record.

It's the 18th highest season total across all clubs, the 5th highest excluding Collingwood.

Essendon now at 993,059 with the Wednesday game to come. Not sure how many that will draw but it should draw 7,000

 

[PonsfordMagpie]

Lowest Essendon-Carlton crowd since Mother's Day 2006 when it got 32,976.

 

[Hawkk]

Lowest Essendon-Carlton crowd since Mother's Day 2006 when it got 32,976.

In any other slot this gets 50,000 to 52,000 which is passable for a dead rubber. The fact that C7 didn’t even pick this up made it completely meaningless.

Thursday’s should be reserved for AFLW and smaller stadiums (interstate and maybe Western Oval, Moorabbin or Princes Park)

 

[____]

Next year I'd like to see aflw start during the men's bye rounds and if they insist on keeping the stupid floating fixture, have aflw on Thursday nights once the floating fixture starts.

 

[dave10]

Correct. Clearly a crap crowd but if we assume Thursday is a 20% crowd killer, it probably draws 51-53k on a Saturday or Sunday arvo which feels about right.

The 41,150 narrowly beats the 40,270 that attended the final round Collingwood Vs Essendon game in 2015.

 

[AstuteTiger]

Correct. Clearly a crap crowd but if we assume Thursday is a 20% crowd killer, it probably draws 51-53k on a Saturday or Sunday arvo which feels about right.

The 41,150 narrowly beats the 40,270 that attended the final round Collingwood Vs Essendon game in 2015.

Thurs night games, as we know aint for attendances. It looked empty and quiet too. I guess it would've been 3-5K less if not for the $7 tickets and Merrett's 250th. Early season games, it works or a public holiday, but for winter its a killer for crowds.

 

[Raz Man]

Thurs night games, as we know aint for attendances. It looked empty and quiet too. I guess it would've been 3-5K less if not for the $7 tickets and Merrett's 250th. Early season games, it works or a public holiday, but for winter its a killer for crowds.

Yeah, we were just one more goal away from the Bomber army getting into the game in that last quarter I felt. We never allowed the crowd to get into it and that is a shame. It was always going to be a mediocre crowd.

 

[dave10]

Thurs night games, as we know aint for attendances. It looked empty and quiet too. I guess it would've been 3-5K less if not for the $7 tickets and Merrett's 250th. Early season games, it works or a public holiday, but for winter its a killer for crowds.

This seasons been a write off for Bombers fans. It never got started and then it has morphed into 2016 * feels with all the injuries and playing all these mid season picks and kids. Then you add 6 Thursday / 1 Wednesday. It’s just been a season where all the stars misaligned. If it’s not $7 GA then it’s kids free. They’re all doing it.

Yet, they will still almost certainly draw 1.0M through the gates. It’s not all bad.

 

[Hawkk]

This seasons been a write off for Bombers fans. It never got started and then it has morphed into 2016 * feels with all the injuries and playing all these mid season picks and kids. Then you add 6 Thursday / 1 Wednesday. It’s just been a season where all the stars misaligned. If it’s not $7 GA then it’s kids free. They’re all doing it.

Yet, they will still almost certainly draw 1.0M through the gates. It’s not all bad.

It’s crazy that everything possible could go wrong for Essendon and they are still going to draw 1 million fans. That said, I’m not sure any of their crowds have been any good since about round 10. A decent Essendon team playing 5 or 6 MCG home games will surely draw 1,250,000 or more to home and away games…

 

[dave10]

It’s crazy that everything possible could go wrong for Essendon and they are still going to draw 1 million fans. That said, I’m not sure any of their crowds have been any good since about round 10. A decent Essendon team playing 5 or 6 MCG home games will surely draw 1,250,000 or more to home and away games…

Agree this. I’d argue they’ve had very few great crowds. The 80k (Hawks) and 47k (Crows) in rounds 1 & 2 were excellent considering. They lost those two games easily, Bomber fans knew then it was going to be a tough year and it never recovered. They’ve had many decent crowds and this has kept the floor decent. A bit like the Tigers did, the day Essendon are the genuine article and the games circus performers the crowds will come from everywhere as you say. Few posters around here have any idea how big the crowds will be when those days arrive, they weren’t around 1995-2001 when they were drawing those huge numbers, without kids going free, 3 game memberships, MCC provisional access etc that have pushed the crowd boats higher across the comp.

Carlton between 2005-2020 were possibly worse on field but certainly drew smaller crowds than the also poorly performing Bombers (2016* aside) in those barren years. It was drawing semi regular <20k crowds to Docklands. Essendon didn’t and still don’t (2016 aside).. Then bang, the Blues make Prelims and 1.27M go to their games. Essendon would expect at least a similar meteoric increase albeit I think off a slightly higher base crowd floor. Time will tell, I think the Blues numbers last year are a good reference point though.

 

[Hawkk]

Agree this. I’d argue they’ve had very few great crowds. The 80k (Hawks) and 47k (Crows) in rounds 1 & 2 were excellent considering. They lost those two games easily, Bomber fans knew then it was going to be a tough year and it never recovered. They’ve had many decent crowds and this has kept the floor decent. A bit like the Tigers did, the day Essendon are the genuine article and the games circus performers the crowds will come from everywhere as you say. Few posters around here have any idea how big the crowds will be when those days arrive, they weren’t around 1995-2001 when they were drawing those huge numbers, without kids going free, 3 game memberships, MCC provisional access etc that have pushed the crowd boats higher across the comp.

Carlton between 2005-2020 were possibly worse on field but certainly drew smaller crowds than the also poorly performing Bombers (2016* aside) in those barren years. It was drawing semi regular <20k crowds to Docklands. Essendon didn’t and still don’t (2016 aside).. Then bang, the Blues make Prelims and 1.27M go to their games. Essendon would expect at least a similar meteoric increase albeit I think off a slightly higher base crowd floor. Time will tell, I think the Blues numbers last year are a good reference point though.

They should do 1,300,000 easily with the extra Gather Round. As I said yesterday, the AFL has stacked the draw so the Vic teams that play lots of MCG games have a much larger floor than the rest. Anyway, the home and away average for all clubs since 1997:

Collingwood 51,392.1
Essendon 46,431
Richmond 41,944.2
Carlton 41,526.3
Hawthorn 36,699.5
Adelaide 34,981
Geelong 34,883.8
West Coast 33,638.3
Melbourne 32,896.9
St Kilda 32,226.5
Sydney 31,822.9
Fremantle 30,073.6
W Bulldogs 29,793.2
Port Adelaide 28,911
Nth Melbourne 28,277.2
Brisbane Lions 26,910
Gold Coast 18,697
GWS Giants 18,256.8

When you consider Essendon haven’t won a final for 21 years, those numbers are extremely high.

ANZAC Day, Dreamtime and round 1 will take Essendon to a different league. Most teams only draw decent crowds once they are in top 4 contention and Essendon haven’t been playing in those realistically since about 2004…

 

[dave10]

They should do 1,300,000 easily with the extra Gather Round. As I said yesterday, the AFL has stacked the draw so the Vic teams that play lots of MCG games have a much larger floor than the rest. Anyway, the home and away average for all clubs since 1997:

Collingwood 51,392.1
Essendon 46,431
Richmond 41,944.2
Carlton 41,526.3
Hawthorn 36,699.5
Adelaide 34,981
Geelong 34,883.8
West Coast 33,638.3
Melbourne 32,896.9
St Kilda 32,226.5
Sydney 31,822.9
Fremantle 30,073.6
W Bulldogs 29,793.2
Port Adelaide 28,911
Nth Melbourne 28,277.2
Brisbane Lions 26,910
Gold Coast 18,697
GWS Giants 18,256.8

When you consider Essendon haven’t won a final for 21 years, those numbers are extremely high.

ANZAC Day, Dreamtime and round 1 will take Essendon to a different league. Most teams only draw decent crowds only draw decent crowds once they are in top 4 contention and Essendon haven’t been playing in those realistically since about 2004…

You don’t need to convince me, I’ve been of this belief a long time. It was drawing ~65,000 against the Swans and 50,000 against the Eagles in the late 1990’s / early 2000’s when crowds were broadly lower. Then, the Crows game in round 2 confirmed it to me again if I needed it. It entered 2025 as a bottom 5-6 team, got comfortably beaten round 1 but still drew 46,668 against the Crows. It was another one of those crowds that said a lot and went unnoticed. A flying top 4 type Essendon is capable of drawing ~60,000 to that type of Crows, Eagles fixture in the coming years. It will have the footy world captivated when it’s a genuine article again.

 

[Rouel_14]

You don’t need to convince me, I’ve been of this belief a long time. It was drawing ~65,000 against the Swans and 50,000 against the Eagles in the late 1990’s / early 2000’s when crowds were broadly lower. Then, the Crows game in round 2 confirmed it to me again if I needed it. It entered 2025 as a bottom 5-6 team, got comfortably beaten round 1 but still drew 46,668 against the Crows. It was another one of those crowds that said a lot and went unnoticed. A flying top 4 type Essendon is capable of drawing ~60,000 to that type of Crows, Eagles fixture in the coming years. It will have the footy world captivated when it’s a genuine article again.

We shall never really know an Essendon ceiling due to Marvel Home games.

Flip the script of Collingwood and Essendon over the last 25 years of win/loss and we may well be talking Essendon as the biggest club in the land.

 

[Rouel_14]

Melbourne Storm just posted their 5th home sell-out of 2025 — a new record.

They’re on track for a 6th next week during the AFL finals bye + Craig Bellamy’s 600th game.

NRL scheduling them at home on ANZAC Day, Gather Round, and the pre-finals bye is really smart. It gives them clear air in Melbourne when AFL isn’t dominating.

It makes you wonder… how good would a 30,000-seat stadium be for smaller Vic clubs?

• A packed 25k in a 30k venue >>> a half-full 50k stadium.
• Creates a fortress vibe. Loud, intimidating, great for TV.

Storm are showing how to “game the schedule” and turn it into sell-outs.

Imagine if North, Dogs, or Saints had a purpose-built 30k home ground.

Of course, Victoria is broke We’ll probably be lucky to see a new seat added to the ‘G in our lifetime.

 

[MattF185]

Melbourne Storm just posted their 5th home sell-out of 2025 — a new record.

They’re on track for a 6th next week during the AFL finals bye + Craig Bellamy’s 600th game.

NRL scheduling them at home on ANZAC Day, Gather Round, and the pre-finals bye is really smart. It gives them clear air in Melbourne when AFL isn’t dominating.

It makes you wonder… how good would a 30,000-seat stadium be for smaller Vic clubs?

• A packed 25k in a 30k venue >>> a half-full 50k stadium.
• Creates a fortress vibe. Loud, intimidating, great for TV.

Storm are showing how to “game the schedule” and turn it into sell-outs.

Imagine if North, Dogs, or Saints had a purpose-built 30k home ground.

Of course, Victoria is broke We’ll probably be lucky to see a new seat added to the ‘G in our lifetime.

The issue is, if the AFL built a 30k seat stadium, we would still have the same issues regarding reserved seat members not attending the matches, meaning the crowds will max out at around the 25k mark.

 

[Rouel_14]

The issue is, if the AFL built a 30k seat stadium, we would still have the same issues regarding reserved seat members not attending the matches, meaning the crowds will max out at around the 25k mark.

I’d counter:

1. - 25K in a 30K seater looks better than a 25K in a 50K seater

2. Collingwood have taken a big step next year in moving to a reserved bay model. I would think most other clubs are watching very closely at the impact and would bet it’s probably the way of the future.

 

[dave10]

Melbourne Storm just posted their 5th home sell-out of 2025 — a new record.

They’re on track for a 6th next week during the AFL finals bye + Craig Bellamy’s 600th game.

NRL scheduling them at home on ANZAC Day, Gather Round, and the pre-finals bye is really smart. It gives them clear air in Melbourne when AFL isn’t dominating.

It makes you wonder… how good would a 30,000-seat stadium be for smaller Vic clubs?

• A packed 25k in a 30k venue >>> a half-full 50k stadium.
• Creates a fortress vibe. Loud, intimidating, great for TV.

Storm are showing how to “game the schedule” and turn it into sell-outs.

Imagine if North, Dogs, or Saints had a purpose-built 30k home ground.

Of course, Victoria is broke We’ll probably be lucky to see a new seat added to the ‘G in our lifetime.

Storm posted member record 40,278 I think. Run by Justin Rodski, possibly the best CMO at club level in the AFL for many years. He was outstanding at Essendon.

 

[manicmagpie]

I’d counter:

1. - 25K in a 30K seater looks better than a 25K in a 50K seater

2. Collingwood have taken a big step next year in moving to a reserved bay model. I would think most other clubs are watching very closely at the impact and would bet it’s probably the way of the future.

Collingwood have already walked back some of their proposed changes due to the complaints from members.

 

[dave10]

Collingwood have already walked back some of their proposed changes due to the complaints from members.

What have they backed away from?

 

[manicmagpie]

What have they backed away from?

They are allowing all affected members to opt in to continuing to have their seats.

 

[dave10]

They are allowing all affected members to opt in to continuing to have their seats.

For each game they have to opt in? At least that means the seat will be used.