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.

 

[budge27]

Tickets were cheap for that game though.

What they should have done is open up the entire top deck and charge $25. Who knows, maybe they will in the week leading up to the game.

They were only charging $29 late on for the top deck for the socceroos last night and the place was full. I paid $35 for a level 1 seat ages ago which was a bargain. Surely it makes more sense to have the tickets cheaper and have the place full than double the price and only have the stadium half full…

 

[AstuteTiger]

Had the tiges beaten gws last week, "we let that one slip", I think we would've been looking at 50K today V Swans.
I say now around 42-44k with wet weather forecast the whole weekend.

Carl v Ess, I was thinking 80-82K at first, but a top temp of 9 degrees (7-8 degrees at start of game), plus rain forecast. I have revised my crowd estimate to 73-77K

Pies V Dees, same about 82-85K due to both teams in form, albeit Dees slip up last week.
With wet weather forecast, I'd say 79-81K. With the significance of the day, hoping it still tops 80K

 

[Raz Man]

Had the tiges beaten gws last week, "we let that one slip", I think we would've been looking at 50K today V Swans.
I say now around 42-44k with wet weather forecast the whole weekend.

Carl v Ess, I was thinking 80-82K at first, but a top temp of 9 degrees (7-8 degrees at start of game), plus rain forecast. I have revised my crowd estimate to 73-77K

Pies V Dees, same about 82-85K due to both teams in form, albeit Dees slip up last week.
With wet weather forecast, I'd say 79-81K. With the significance of the day, hoping it still tops 80K

I’m intrigued by today’s fixture at the ‘G between Richmond & Sydney.
Looking forward to a decent roll up from the old Sth Melbourne folk!

 

[Rouel_14]

Had the tiges beaten gws last week, "we let that one slip", I think we would've been looking at 50K today V Swans.
I say now around 42-44k with wet weather forecast the whole weekend.

Carl v Ess, I was thinking 80-82K at first, but a top temp of 9 degrees (7-8 degrees at start of game), plus rain forecast. I have revised my crowd estimate to 73-77K

Pies V Dees, same about 82-85K due to both teams in form, albeit Dees slip up last week.
With wet weather forecast, I'd say 79-81K. With the significance of the day, hoping it still tops 80K

50K even with a win seems high.

We only pulled 56K against them when we were on our top 4 roll back in 2017.

Both teams out of finals contention, wet weather footy, up against local footy 35K max?

 

[dave10]

50K even with a win seems high.

We only pulled 56K against them when we were on our top 4 roll back in 2017.

Both teams out of finals contention, wet weather footy, up against local footy 35K max?

It’s hard to know in today’s climate. All MCG crowds are basically exceeding expectations. I really think the MCC provisionals and additional entry for other applicants are having a material impact. As are free kids initiatives etc, although today isn’t applicable.

I’d have thought 46-48k would’ve been reasonably expected in a fine day if Tiges won last week. It’s the Saturday afternoon slot so that helps. I think it will still draw 43-45k today, Tiges losing last week won’t make much difference as they’re still really competitive and ‘pleasing’ their fans relative to expectations.

 

[Rob]

They were only charging $29 late on for the top deck for the socceroos last night and the place was full. I paid $35 for a level 1 seat ages ago which was a bargain. Surely it makes more sense to have the tickets cheaper and have the place full than double the price and only have the stadium half full…

I don't disagree. Also give people the chance to go to the game who ordinarily don't attend.

 

[AstuteTiger]

I’m intrigued by today’s fixture at the ‘G between Richmond & Sydney.
Looking forward to a decent roll up from the old Sth Melbourne folk!

Looks around 40K. I predicted about 42 to 44K so see how we go.

Swans who normally bring 10K+ when they're doing well I wouldn't think they brought that many today more around the 5 to 7K

 

[AstuteTiger]

50K even with a win seems high.

We only pulled 56K against them when we were on our top 4 roll back in 2017.

Both teams out of finals contention, wet weather footy, up against local footy 35K max?

This was based on us winning and weather permitting. I revised it to 42 to 44 due to the weather and the loss last week.

Looks around 40K or a tad over

 

[dave10]

This was based on us winning and weather permitting. I revised it to 42 to 44 due to the weather and the loss last week.

Looks around 40K or a tad over

I reckon it’s 46/47k. Another strong MCG crowd.

 

[AstuteTiger]

I reckon it’s 46/47k. Another strong MCG crowd.

You may well be right.
I'm on level 2 AFL members so a little hard to see around the ground

 

[manicmagpie]

41,452 at the G.

 

[Raz Man]

41,452 at the G.

Great crowd for mine. Tiger fans are definitely voting with their feet this season & showing their appreciation for the youth on show.

 

[Cmarsh]

29502 at GMHBA for Geelong vs GC

 

[kickazz]

29502 at GMHBA for Geelong vs GC

Gee that is pretty good, only a few thousand less than most games and considering the opponent and weather that's a decent crowd.

 

[ep12]

I have never involved myself in the Canberra or western Sydney crowd arguments.

Personally I think the western Sydney crowd will never care about football because rugby and soccer are ingrained in the cultures of those people.

However, I also think that we have spent enough years lamenting the crowds in western Sydney to know that it isn’t working there.

We are also close to seeing that the Canberra afl supporters don’t care about gws either. It is 30% away support, 50% neutral and 20% gws support there (from my mates who live up there admittedly) and it is becoming unsustainable.

I hope it works in the west of Sydney but my pragmatic self is saying that it never will.

 

[Giant YoYo]

I hope it works in the west of Sydney but my pragmatic self is saying that it never will.

Why would it?

It's a team that tries succeeding in both markets but succeeding at none, all while mentioning how competitive the market is. It may have worked precovid but the market has completely changed. You can't operate in this market with what they're offering at the extended time periods they're offering it.

I'm a fan that can't get enough of footy but even I know it. The extended run of no games is awful.

The sold out crowds in Canberra just pepper over the cracks. It's not a fortress and if the club is serious about contending it needs to reconsider playing in secondary markets but for whatever reason, at this time, won't.

 

[MelbourneGWS]

9,005 for our match against Port today. Higher than the average crowd against Port at Manuka of 8587, and just 181 short of it being the 2nd best attended of the 4 games played at Manuka. I believe that this would have happened were it not for today’s rain and cold weather, and the Rugby Union Brumbies having their finals match at the same time as our game.

AFL: GWS Giants v Port Adelaide • Manuka Oval • 2025

GWS Giants v Port Adelaide at Manuka Oval in Canberra in 2025. Buy tickets, view the seating map, get directions, book nearby accommodation, find flights and live stream.

www.austadiums.com

 

[Canberra Pear]

9,005 for our match against Port today. Higher than the average crowd against Port at Manuka of 8587, and just 181 short of it being the 2nd best attended of the 4 games played at Manuka. I believe that this would have happened were it not for today’s rain and cold weather, and the Rugby Union Brumbies having their finals match at the same time as our game.

AFL: GWS Giants v Port Adelaide • Manuka Oval • 2025

GWS Giants v Port Adelaide at Manuka Oval in Canberra in 2025. Buy tickets, view the seating map, get directions, book nearby accommodation, find flights and live stream.

www.austadiums.com

Yeah not a bad crowd considering the weather and slot they put it in. Honestly felt like more than that.

Great result, too.

 

[MelbourneGWS]

Yeah not a bad crowd considering the weather and slot they put it in. Honestly felt like more than that.

Great result, too.

Yes was there and thought it was more than 10k. Good crowd considering the circumstances, but not the result I wanted!

 

[____]

I don't get playing night games in Canberra during May to August. Especially when it's still paywalled anyway.

 

[Canberra Pear]

Yes was there and thought it was more than 10k. Good crowd considering the circumstances, but not the result I wanted!

I actually guessed 11k. I was way off! The wet weather definitely factored. If it was a more typical Canberra June night game (cold, but dry), I reckon it would've had another 1-2k.

I don't get playing night games in Canberra during May to August. Especially when it's still paywalled anyway.

Reckon it was a bit of a test/trial.

If Canberra gets a team of its own, it's inevitable that the occasional game has to be scheduled at night during winter. It was a bit of a test to see if we'd still show up.

Can't think of any other sane reason to schedule one of only three games then.

 

[dave10]

I thought the Cats crowd yesterday was terrific.

The Tigers / Swans crowd was about ‘par’ in the end and about what we should’ve expected. The Canberra crowd was what it was.

The Giants really appear in the off field fanbase development phase of where Essendon are on field, stuck in middle land!

 

[dave10]

Carlton / Essendon is sold out in terms of any available public seating. I assume the dreadful rain forecast will have crossed off the day for casual MCC / AFL / Club reserved seat holders. Something around 80-82,000 could be as low as 70-72,000 if the heavens really open today.

 

[ep12]

Carlton / Essendon is sold out in terms of any available public seating. I assume the dreadful rain forecast will have crossed off the day for casual MCC / AFL / Club reserved seat holders. Something around 80-82,000 could be as low as 70-72,000 if the heavens really open today.

I think ticket sales for tonight are indicative of about 78k but crap weather is going to bring it down to 75k.
Tomorrow is indicative of around 82k and that will be brought down by weather to 80k.

Given that there are 4.5k unsold afl and mcc seats on the top deck for tonight I don't think it can get to 80K. I cant imagine the walk-ups will fill this given the weather.
Tomorrow there will be 1k unsold on the top of the mcc and 350 unsold Melbourne member seats.

 

[Rouel_14]

I know absolutely zero of Hands Oval, except it looks absolutely like a ripping venue and they are packed in like sardines the likes you rarely see in Ballarat/Tassie.

North Melbourne should make bank. $$