2026 Attendances

[Gizmo]

Great crowd at the G.

 

[baggercrowdsonic]

dave10
Respect your tenure fella, but to undermine this one as circumstantial must mean then, that all other stand out crowds fall under the same?

 

[ep12]

Best Melbourne turn out at an away game in a decade. Did well to coincide with Maxs 250th.

 

[Cmarsh]

What's the Demons biggest home crowd vs the Suns? Think that may be broken next week.

 

[PonsfordMagpie]

What's the Demons biggest home crowd vs the Suns? Think that may be broken next week.

27,013 in Round 1 2015.

 

[dave10]

dave10
Respect your tenure fella, but to undermine this one as circumstantial must mean then, that all other stand out crowds fall under the same?

Not at all. Just explaining logic that can swell some crowds well beyond expectations. Blues hardly expected to be deep finalists so there’s other factors that drive it.

Early season Sunny afternoon slots in Melbourne traditionally surprise to the upside early in the season, certainly for competitive / intriguing games. Just noting with hindsight, this had several ingredients that’s all.

 

[baggercrowdsonic]

Not at all. Just explaining logic that can swell some crowds well beyond expectations. Blues hardly expected to be deep finalists so there’s other factors that drive it.

Early season Sunny afternoon slots in Melbourne traditionally surprise to the upside early in the season, certainly for competitive / intriguing games. Just noting with hindsight, this had several ingredients that’s all.

Absolutely the ingredients you point out did enhance the crowd.

My point is that every stand out crowd had ingredients that grew it to be notably large. Fine to unearth those reasons, just read it as a little salted out with the use of word 'expected'.

Here I now am salty, crowd proud though.

 

[dave10]

Absolutely the ingredients you point out did enhance the crowd.

My point is that every stand out crowd had ingredients that grew it to be notably large. Fine to unearth those reasons, just read it as a little salted out with the use of word 'expected'.

Here I now am salty, crowd proud though.

You’re not the only salty one this year!

 

[ep12]

What's the Demons biggest home crowd vs the Suns? Think that may be broken next week.

Not a single change it gets broken on Easter Sunday which is probably the second worst day to play football after Mother’s Day.

 

[dave10]

I don’t have an official crowd but they announced that the crowd last night at Bombers / Kangaroos was 41,000+.

 

[Raz Man]

I don’t have an official crowd but they announced that the crowd last night at Bombers / Kangaroos was 41,000+.

Wow. That is massive overs for mine. I genuinely thought this was sub 30,000 k on a cold Saturday night with our poor form.

 

[dave10]

Wow. That is massive overs for mine. I genuinely thought this was sub 30,000 k on a cold Saturday night with our poor form.

Amazing what happens when you don’t force punters to pay $55 for a seat in the nosebleeds.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Amazing what happens when you don’t force punters to pay $55 for a seat in the nosebleeds.

Put team form to one side, and these last two Melbourne games prove that the average fan will turn up when the game is expected to be close, and there's genuine uncertainty over who will win, where both average sentiment, people doing their footy tips earlier in the week, and the bookmaker odds all suggest generally that you can't be confident over which team will win the game Something that the AFLW could learn form, but I digress.

It also proves how weather plays a part, and how Docklands crowds have historically got people to games via the roof.

There's a lot of commentary in this thread about how the big Melbourne teams need to be good again to get big crowds. That's actually overegging it a bit ... we merely need them not to be bad. There's nothing worse for a Melbourne crowd vs an interstate team to be underdogs, and underdogs by more than a couple of goals, where we still have plenty of North, Essendon, Carlton and Richmond games this year to happen.

It's why the AFL's failure to reign in the lack of competitive balance with the northern state teams etc. are an issue. You'll have teams hosting GWS, GC, Brisbane in Melbourne this year and enter into those games as six goal underdogs. That will likely keep thousands of fans away if those games had the home team merely 2/3 goal underdogs.

 

[Hawkk]

Why? Melbourne and Carlton Dre between 38-47k every year until both teams were in th top 4 and it capped at 55k and 68k both on Saturday nights in top 4 clashes.

How many times have they played on a Sunday afternoon in April? I'm not surprised this game drew 68,000 tbh. Carlton are an enormous club and an up about Melbourne always draw large crowds to the MCG.

There is a misconception that Melbourne is a small club like North, St Kilda and the Dogs but that is not the case at all. They are a much bigger club (in Victoria).

 

[BallaratBulldog]

How many times have they played on a Sunday afternoon in April? I'm not surprised this game drew 68,000 tbh. Carlton are an enormous club and an up about Melbourne always draw large crowds.

There is a misconception that Melbourne is a small club like North, St Kilda and the Dogs but they consistantly proven they are a much bigger club if competitive.

They have the MCC advantage.

 

[sverik25]

How many times have they played on a Sunday afternoon in April? I'm not surprised this game drew 68,000 tbh. Carlton are an enormous club and an up about Melbourne always draw large crowds to the MCG.

There is a misconception that Melbourne is a small club like North, St Kilda and the Dogs but that is not the case at all. They are a much bigger club (in Victoria).

Not sure the other evidence shows that they are bigger, more just that their supporters are better at going to games.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

How many times have they played on a Sunday afternoon in April? I'm not surprised this game drew 68,000 tbh. Carlton are an enormous club and an up about Melbourne always draw large crowds to the MCG.

There is a misconception that Melbourne is a small club like North, St Kilda and the Dogs but that is not the case at all. They are a much bigger club (in Victoria).

Disagree - one piece of evidence of this is people nominating Melbourne as their favourite team in polling is smaller than every other club in Victoria bar North:

Sydney Swans are Australia’s most widely supported AFL club for 20 straight years - Roy Morgan Research

www.roymorgan.com

This almost lines up perfectly with 2025 membership numbers which the bottom clubs were ordered in the exact same way - North fewest polled fans, fewest members, Melbourne second-fewest fans, second-fewest members in Victoria.

That being said, Melbourne being an MCG tenant club will always lead to greater attendances when they're the away team at the MCG (in contrast to Saints, North and Dogs' away attendances when they play their away games at Docklands being much lower than their home crowds). This is because of Melbourne having ~10,000 of their club members being MCC/AFL Gold members (who do not care for home or away), plus the fact that the bigger GA capacity for away fans meaning that your typical reserved seat holders in home games feel happy sitting in GA seats because there's lots of space, vs a Dogs/Saints/North reserved seat holder maybe not liking Docklands GA where they don't want to sit next to an opposition fan.

 

[Rouel_14]

Blues and Dee’s the crowd of the year so far by a long way. Nearly 70,000.

That’s an Anzac eve marquee type attendance.

 

[ep12]

Blues and Dee’s the crowd of the year so far by a long way. Nearly 70,000.

That’s an Anzac eve marquee type attendance.

Anzac Eve needs to stay above 70k but this will be the most challenging year for that I suspect. Its good that they are selling GA tickets and are going to allow a GA rollup.

 

[Walshawk]

Nothing, it's just that it would inevitably lead to crowds of 22,000 against GC somewhere along the cycle, which Hawks want to avoid and therefore they're not "missing out" by taking games to Launceston, what sparked this debate

So, Hawthorn should play four games in Tasmania just in there is a season where a home games might only draw 22K? Makes no sense. Play those four games in Melbourne and an extra 100k would attend.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

So, Hawthorn should play four games in Tasmania just in there is a season where a home games might only draw 22K? Makes no sense. Play those four games in Melbourne and an extra 100k would attend.

Dude, I'm just relaying information from people high up in the Hawks and Tassie and people associated with them that I've heard. I have no idea or I'm not providing commentary on it, just that everyone who makes the decisions and that are party to it seem to be happy with it, it seems to be a successful venture beyond just the headline attendance numbers, and Hawthorn have a genuine home ground advantage there in a sporting sense. And there's very minimal Hawks member grumbling as well (you aside), possibly because there isn't much fan demand for a Docklands home game in a half-empty stadium with zero away supporters that would be played if there were more games in Melbourne, so there's not much complaints for avoiding such a game.

 

[____]

How many times have they played on a Sunday afternoon in April? I'm not surprised this game drew 68,000 tbh. Carlton are an enormous club and an up about Melbourne always draw large crowds to the MCG.

There is a misconception that Melbourne is a small club like North, St Kilda and the Dogs but that is not the case at all. They are a much bigger club (in Victoria).

Yep, as someone who moved to Victoria, there's definitely a lot more Dees supporters than what a lot of people think.

Remember in early 2024 they got 43k for a Thursday night game against us, I don't think St Kilda, Bulldogs and North could do that on a Thursday night against us, especially after daylight saving ends.

 

[10571z]

Why did they stop allowing parking at the MCG? The entire jolimont experience is off putting for plenty.

 

[Hawkk]

They have the MCC advantage.

Which is why they are a bigger club. They are overrepresented sure, but if you combined AFL and MCC memberships together that's the break down of club support in Victoria.

Do we really think Carl v WB, St K or NM draws 68,000 at the MCG today going through a rebuild?

 

[Hawkk]

Disagree - one piece of evidence of this is people nominating Melbourne as their favourite team in polling is smaller than every other club in Victoria bar North:

Sydney Swans are Australia’s most widely supported AFL club for 20 straight years - Roy Morgan Research

www.roymorgan.com

This almost lines up perfectly with 2025 membership numbers which the bottom clubs were ordered in the exact same way - North fewest polled fans, fewest members, Melbourne second-fewest fans, second-fewest members in Victoria.

That being said, Melbourne being an MCG tenant club will always lead to greater attendances when they're the away team at the MCG (in contrast to Saints, North and Dogs' away attendances when they play their away games at Docklands being much lower than their home crowds). This is because of Melbourne having ~10,000 of their club members being MCC/AFL Gold members (who do not care for home or away), plus the fact that the bigger GA capacity for away fans meaning that your typical reserved seat holders in home games feel happy sitting in GA seats because there's lots of space, vs a Dogs/Saints/North reserved seat holder maybe not liking Docklands GA where they don't want to sit next to an opposition fan.

Those Roy Morgan numbers are probably the worst way to determine supporter numbers. That said measures like social media, Supercoach etc do show Melbourne in the bottom 2/3. Melbourne do, for whatever reason, get a lot bigger crowds to the MCG than those clubs (and probably Geelong too) though.