2026 Attendances

[dave10]

A record for Hawks v Port in Melbourne. 2028 and 4 extra HFC home games at Marvel can’t come soon enough.

It’s perplexing that the Hawks fans seem to have no real problem with Marvel. They’ve always travelled there in good numbers.

 

[ep12]

It’s perplexing that the Hawks fans seem to have no real problem with Marvel. They’ve always travelled there in good numbers.

It’s almost like they realise that it’s only one extra stop on a train, an indoor stadium with no elements and MCC members do actually get access to th ground.
Meanwhile at Melbourne and Richmond…

 

[Rabman]

Adelaide Oval attendance: 45,854

 

[Giant YoYo]

It’s almost like they realise that it’s only one extra stop on a train, an indoor stadium with no elements and MCC members do actually get access to th ground.
Meanwhile at Melbourne and Richmond…

Strikes me as fanbases far too spoilt for games.

I go between Adelaide, Melbourne and Canberra to watch mine given the lack of games here . . . To go another stop over on a train would be amazing.

 

[Walshawk]

If they discover they could get more money for the club by selling games to Cairns is it really that stupid?

Yes. We don’t need the money. Cairns is a cow paddock - it has 6000 seats. Unless the government gives us a million per game, there is no way we can make more money there anyway.

 

[Rob]

It's a good crowd because I understand the context, but I feel like the very context that we should be assuming that crowds decrease for these Marvel games to be a bit strange. I get that there's certain capacity constraints and quality of seating (ie, sitting on the back row with a GA ticket, vs a reasonable seat at the MCG), plus MCC member etc. considerations. But this crowd would have been around 45-50,000 at the MCG surely? There are still several thousand Hawthorn fans that level of their support does not extend to attending a different stadium, which can easily be considered disappointing.

This isn't to disagree with the above point though that Hawks are better at it than fans of other clubs. Just strange that it happens at all, to any club.

It's like the times when it's clear that there's only like, 5,000 Melbourne fans at a Marvel game. I do wonder how it can be that there's more than 5,000 people that claim to be passionate Melbourne fans then?

Aren't you answering your own question? There's what, 100k or so MCC members that would get free entry to an MCG game but need to book a seat at Marvel. Combined with a much smaller AFL members reserve you can quite easily see how crowds are 10 to 15k lower just from that. With Melbourne having the largest MCC member supporter base its fair to assume that they'd be the most affected.

I agree its a shade bizarre, because generally the view is a lot better at Marvel.

 

[Hawkk]

Yes. We don’t need the money. Cairns is a cow paddock - it has 6000 seats. Unless the government gives us a million per game, there is no way we can make more money there anyway.

Precisely. I know Carlton and Richmond have sold the odd game but it’s unbelievable how caviar Hawthorn is with selling their home games — which ultimately is the product.

Completely unnecessary as it’s now impossible to lose money on Melbourne based games under the new Marvel / MCG stadium deals.

Aren't you answering your own question? There's what, 100k or so MCC members that would get free entry to an MCG game but need to book a seat at Marvel. Combined with a much smaller AFL members reserve you can quite easily see how crowds are 10 to 15k lower just from that. With Melbourne having the largest MCC member supporter base its fair to assume that they'd be the most affected.

I agree its a shade bizarre, because generally the view is a lot better at Marvel.

The Victorian clubs have all become good at signing up MCC members as club members too. That gives MCC members access to Docklands games too.

I think we overstate the difference in crowds between MCG and Docklands games…unless it’s between two blockbuster Victorian clubs.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Aren't you answering your own question? There's what, 100k or so MCC members that would get free entry to an MCG game but need to book a seat at Marvel. Combined with a much smaller AFL members reserve you can quite easily see how crowds are 10 to 15k lower just from that. With Melbourne having the largest MCC member supporter base its fair to assume that they'd be the most affected.

I agree its a shade bizarre, because generally the view is a lot better at Marvel.

Sure, but Hawks would only have about 15k MCC members among the 150,000 all membership type members. Some of them would at least be passionate enough that cost alone isn't going to prevent you from buying a new ticket. I get that there's a pool of neutral supporters in Melbourne who only go to MCG and not Marvel games, but it's really not all that significant - not more than a couple of thousand. Given neutral people go to Docklands games too - after all, it was the only game on in Melbourne today. Hawks did well to minimise that crowd difference to merely be only about 10k for what an MCG crowd "would have" been, but that can often go into the 15k-25k range for other sometime MCG team games when they play at Docklands.

Because the MCG is such an outstanding stadium, it leads to a level of pretentiousness by comparison for Marvel, people over-highlighting its weaknesses as a stadium as a result. Like you say, you get a fantastic view of the game from every seat in the house, and a variety of choice as to what angle you want to watch a game in - unlike literally every other AFL stadium there is.