2026 Attendances

[Rouel_14]

Why go to the effort just to please the simple minds of the ignorant and ill informed?

If they dont know by now that most of the fans sit same side of the camera, then thats their problem.

Yes its a them problem, but its also an AFL problem for the neutral observer flicking it in and thinking terrible crowd.

Another thing that irks me is why in hell was the top deck of the AFL reserve open? Keeping Ponsford closed great for TV.

 

[Cmarsh]

13,309 at PFS for GC vs WC.

Biggest home crowd for GC at PFS vs WCE.

Not bad for a late finishing game on a Sunday night.

 

[PonsfordMagpie]

After Round 1.

HOME CROWDS
Club (# of home games played) = Total (Average)

• St Kilda (1) = 82,528 (82,528)
• Carlton (1) = 74,313 (74,313)
• Essendon (1) = 71,384 (71,384)
• Collingwood (1) = 62,482 (62,482)
• Melbourne (1) = 44,577 (44,577)
• Sydney (2) = 78,500 (39,250)
• Brisbane Lions (1) = 31,606 (31,606)
• Western Bulldogs (1) = 28,318 (28,318)
• Geelong (1) = 27,815 (27,815)
• North Melbourne (1) = 23,318 (23,318)
• Gold Coast (2) = 33,168 (16,584)
• GWS (1) = 16,157 (16,157)

HOME AND AWAY CROWDS
Club (# of games played) = Total (Average)

• Richmond (1) = 74,313 (74,313)
• Collingwood (2) = 145,010 (72,505)
• Essendon (1) = 71,384 (71,384)
• St Kilda (2) = 127,105 (63,553)
• Adelaide (1) = 62,482 (62,482)
• Carlton (2) = 114,685 (57,343)
• Melbourne (1) = 44,577 (44,577)
• Hawthorn (2) = 87,541 (43,771)
• Sydney (2) = 78,500 (39,250)
• Brisbane Lions (2) = 69,734 (34,867)
• Western Bulldogs (2) = 59,924 (29,962)
• Fremantle (1) = 27,815 (27,815)
• Geelong (2) = 47,674 (23,837)
• North Melbourne (1) = 23,318 (23,318)
• Port Adelaide (1) = 23,318 (23,318)
• GWS (2) = 44,475 (22,238)
• Gold Coast (2) = 33,168 (16,584)
• West Coast (1) = 13,309 (13,309)

 

[mblack42]

13,309 at PFS for GC vs WC.

Biggest home crowd for GC at PFS vs WCE.

Not bad for a late finishing game on a Sunday night.

West Coast has historically been at the lower end of their crowds (along with Port Adelaide and North), averaging 10461. Throw in some wet weather and a late Sunday night finish, you'd take that any day of the week.

 

[TheGoldPersons]

Didnt help that Titans vs Redcliffe was on at the same time

 

[manicmagpie]

383k for Round 1 makes it the 10th biggest round on record.

It's down on the previous three Rounds 1, but this is mostly due to the lack of a game at Perth Stadium or Adelaide Oval. Switch either of Geelong/Freo or GC/WC to Perth and we're back over 400k again.

Slightly disappointing blockbuster crowds at the G were balanced out with excellent results at Melb/StK and the two Docklands games.

 

[Tandy]

I was at the dogs v gws game. Couldn’t believe how low the attendance was when I was looking around. Cost of living in sure had to be a factor. But a perfect Saturday weather wise. The place should have been a sell out as it was their first Melbourne game of the year. Personally didn’t care as it was easier to get into the bars. Still, shameful from the Dogs supporters.

(Geelong was worse but just making a comment as I was there)

 

[threenewpadlocks]

I was at the dogs v gws game. Couldn’t believe how low the attendance was when I was looking around. Cost of living in sure had to be a factor. But a perfect Saturday weather wise. The place should have been a sell out as it was their first Melbourne game of the year. Personally didn’t care as it was easier to get into the bars. Still, shameful from the Dogs supporters.

(Geelong was worse but just making a comment as I was there)

Dogs have never sold out a Docklands game against a non-Victorian opponent in their history, and this crowd vs GWS was the 2nd biggest that the Dogs have ever hosted in a GWS game, only behind the 2017 fixture which obviously came off the back of the Dogs' flag and that they defeated GWS in the Prelim (and it was also a critical match late in the season for both teams' finals positioning too).

Consider that this was almost certainly designed to be one of the Ballarat games until they decided not to play any games there (afternoon, not night fixture, early season before Ballarat gets truly cold, low away attendance in order to not lock out as many fans).

It was 4,500 more fans than the 3rd Dogs vs. GWS game at Docklands.

28,000+ is an exceptional crowd in this context without a significant number of away fans.

 

[Prince Imperial]

I was at the dogs v gws game. Couldn’t believe how low the attendance was when I was looking around. Cost of living in sure had to be a factor. But a perfect Saturday weather wise. The place should have been a sell out as it was their first Melbourne game of the year. Personally didn’t care as it was easier to get into the bars. Still, shameful from the Dogs supporters.

(Geelong was worse but just making a comment as I was there)

The club was hoping for 30k so it was a tad disappointing but hardly shameful.

No Vic club has ever sold out a match against GWS and looking at crowd records the only two non-Vic ones who may have done so are their cross-town rivals and the Eagles who when they have a competitive team have zero problems selling out their stadium against anyone.

 

[MattF185]

The club was hoping for 30k so it was a tad disappointing but hardly shameful.

No Vic club has ever sold out a match against GWS and looking at crowd records the only two non-Vic ones who may have done so are their cross-town rivals and the Eagles who when they have a competitive team have zero problems selling out their stadium against anyone.

I have a feeling Carlton v GWS 2023 was a sell out, but I get your point.

 

[Prince Imperial]

I have a feeling Carlton v GWS 2023 was a sell out, but I get your point.

44,354 at Marvel is probably a sellout these days so I think you probably are right.

 

[____]

The club was hoping for 30k so it was a tad disappointing but hardly shameful.

No Vic club has ever sold out a match against GWS and looking at crowd records the only two non-Vic ones who may have done so are their cross-town rivals and the Eagles who when they have a competitive team have zero problems selling out their stadium against anyone.

We sold out a home game against GWS in both 2024 and 2025.

 

[Prince Imperial]

We sold out a home game against GWS in both 2024 and 2025.

30k and 31k but I'll take your word for it.

Anyway apart from WC, Sydney Carlton and Brisbane, nobody has ever sold out a home game against GWS...

 

[Rouel_14]

looking forward to this week and the rest of the year - I’m just hoping for as little sub 30K Richmond Home games as possible. Could be as many as four this year which would be the first for quite some time.

Hopefully Saturday Afternnoon, first home game and not much local footy starting yet all go in their favour.

Tassie game shouldn’t hurt average as wouldn’t pull any more at Marvel but maintaining that 45K average would be nice too.

Think we may struggle on both fronts with Dreamtime and Anzac eve both probably bottom 6-8 clashes as home games this year.

 

[justlookingaround]

I've got an AFL membership, would've gone on friday night but it was like $35 to upgrade, can't see the logic in making a 70k crowd game fully ticketed.

 

[Gizmo]

The numbers that reveal the AFL’s brewing problem

After soft crowds for marquee matches in round one, there are two themes worth exploring: that they were fully ticketed, requiring even members without a reserved seat to pay to upgrade, and that fans are tiring of prolonged failure this century.

www.theage.com.au

The Essendon and Carlton home games contained two themes that warrant exploration.

The first is that both marquee events were designated as “fully ticketed”, which means that members of the clubs without a seasonal reserved seat had to book a ticket at the cost of $13, just to be assured of a seat. They could pay more if they wanted a superior vantage.

Essendon and/or the AFL were justified in making that game fully ticketed, based on Merrett. But it is reasonable to ask whether the ticketing slug, at a time when the cost of living remains challenging, acted as a disincentive for fans. Ditto for Carlton and Richmond, since the mid-week forecast was only for 72-74,000 from the AFL.

But the more pertinent and worrisome explanation for the soft crowds in those games is that Carlton and Essendon fans are tiring of prolonged failure this century – that even the commendable stickiness of the Bombers faithful is loosening. Richmond people, meanwhile, simply recognise the reality of a list reconstruction that will take much longer than the $100 million bricks and mortar version at Punt Rd.

 

[ep12]

I've got an AFL membership, would've gone on friday night but it was like $35 to upgrade, can't see the logic in making a 70k crowd game fully ticketed.

You could have just walked up and scanned into the AFL reserve though?

 

[justlookingaround]

You could have just walked up and scanned into the AFL reserve though?

apparently not

 

[threenewpadlocks]

You could have just walked up and scanned into the AFL reserve though?

apparently not

You could - the 'around the grounds' link on the AFL membership website said you could, I know, I checked it last week - but I think it was communicated extremely poorly with a million emails and discussions about 'fully ticketed' and 'click this link to upgrade your seat'.

And from memory it was an extremely poor walk-up in any case - only the last few rows at the back of Level 4 for a couple of bays.

 

[Cmarsh]

The numbers that reveal the AFL’s brewing problem

After soft crowds for marquee matches in round one, there are two themes worth exploring: that they were fully ticketed, requiring even members without a reserved seat to pay to upgrade, and that fans are tiring of prolonged failure this century.

www.theage.com.au

"Essendon and/or the AFL were justified in making that game fully ticketed, based on Merrett."

This is a joke, right?

 

[ep12]

You could - the 'around the grounds' link on the AFL membership website said you could, I know, I checked it last week - but I think it was communicated extremely poorly with a million emails and discussions about 'fully ticketed' and 'click this link to upgrade your seat'.

And from memory it was an extremely poor walk-up in any case - only the last few rows at the back of Level 4 for a couple of bays.

The walk up areas for Essendon Hawthorn was 40% of level 4. Q15-Q23 row U-DD and Q24-Q28 row K-DD.
Not very poor at all for a game that they were wanting 80k to.

 

[manicmagpie]

"Essendon and/or the AFL were justified in making that game fully ticketed, based on Merrett."

This is a joke, right?

Everybody seemed to forget that Merrett didn’t actually change clubs. You only get real spice when there’s someone playing their former club. What exactly were the various fan bases meant to be cheering or booing last Friday?

 

[Cmarsh]

Everybody seemed to forget that Merrett didn’t actually change clubs. You only get real spice when there’s someone playing their former club. What exactly were the various fan bases meant to be cheering or booing last Friday?

So basically they made people pay extra for what they thought would be some kind of spicy attraction based on a failed trade. Punters voted with their feet saying I'm not paying extra and it shaved 5-10k off the crowd.

 

[dave10]

Everybody seemed to forget that Merrett didn’t actually change clubs. You only get real spice when there’s someone playing their former club. What exactly were the various fan bases meant to be cheering or booing last Friday?

The rivalry is strong enough without any extra spice.

From Essendon side, there’s certainly additional spite, ‘hatred’ of Sam Mitchell for his raid on the Club Captain. Hatred in a footy sense of course. There’s certainly additional animosity since last off season from what I’ve seen, read and heard.

 

[Raz Man]

Looking to this week,

Hawks v Swans at the home of footy tomorrow night... any update on how this game is faring?!

Adelaide v Bulldogs (AO) - Genuine blockbuster game of the round, I am sure Rabman has some quality insight as to how this Friday night game will shape up?