2026 Attendances

[dave10]

Maybe less likely outside of Melbourne but in 2023 when Richmond finished top 8 their member show rate was 50%. The pub released this data in their emails. Let’s be honest, we are saying it holds 24,000 but 20,000 is going to be a sell out most weeks.

I think you could as you are sitting a new standard. At Richmond the higher you climb up the membership ranks it actually becomes compulsory to have bays. Essentially all of level 2 are bays not seats.

The world is their oyster, they can train members to return seats, opt out to seats etc right from the very start.

This is a challenge facing all clubs now. It certainly impact the big clubs at Marvel possibly most. Carlton and Essendon struggle to fit more than 44-45k into Marvel for a sell out now.

Bombers are actively trying to address it. They’ve introduced a Gold Reserved Bay in S44-46 at Marvel on level 2 (used to be designated reserved seat). They will be moving this way in future. They also resell member seat returns but this usually only results in about 400-500 extra sales at best.

Interestingly, last year Essendon had a member reserved seat show rate of below 50% at 6 of its home games. It was only at 30% for their late season Thursday night games. In the end it didn’t matter because the team was so poor the stadium was not close to capacity but it highlights the overall issue.

 

[Hawkk]

I wouldnt have thought its not out of the realms of possibility that they could sell 18-20,000 reserved seats before the season starts, leaving only a few thousand for everyone else. Bear in mind its only for 7 games so its not going to be a massive cost. Not all of them will attend every game but the seat will be sold.

Are you talking about reserve seat holders or ticketed memberships? How many clubs actually sell 20,000 reserve seats for their home games?

West Coast, Adelaide, Fremantle, Collingwood, Essendon, Carlton, Hawthorn, Richmond, Geelong anyone else?

The majority of clubs (at least the Victorian ones) have very large general admission memberships, and then you stadium memberships like the MCC, SCG members / SCG Trust, Gabba Trust / Queensland Cricketers Club that take up large parts of the ground.

Getting 200,000 to 250,000 supporters to buy a bumper sticker is one thing, but getting 5-10% of the population to buy reserve seating year in, year out is another challenge all to itself (especially if more than half the games are in TV friendly timeslots).

Like I said, the decentralised population makes regular 15,000 to 20,000 crowds quite difficult. And if Launceston games are any guide (where 25 per cent of the crowd fly in for the game) the Devils really need those Saturday and school holiday home games to get the travellers (like the Suns on the Gold Coast)

 

[Rouel_14]

I'm thinking you mean 2022, we didn't play finals in 2023.
Member show rates dont take into account AFL reserve and MCC reserve 'Richmond club support members', where we have 19K members combined. AFL 6.5K and MCC 12.5K

If they added this to Richmond's reserve seat areas, the show rate would be roughly 60-70% overall.

Yep 2022 sorry!

The club has no control over those seats, so they can’t do anything to address those. 50% is dam low which ever way you look at it though.

 

[Rouel_14]

On another note, it amazes me how leagues around the world can close off top decks to create a sell out atmosphere yet we can’t.

Probably my biggest bug bear especially in rough times. 30,000 on level one and 2 of the G could look, feel and sound great.

 

[Rob]

Are you talking about reserve seat holders or ticketed memberships? How many clubs actually sell 20,000 reserve seats for their home games?

West Coast, Adelaide, Fremantle, Collingwood, Essendon, Carlton, Hawthorn, Richmond, Geelong anyone else?

The majority of clubs (at least the Victorian ones) have very large general admission memberships, and then you stadium memberships like the MCC, SCG members / SCG Trust, Gabba Trust / Queensland Cricketers Club that take up large parts of the ground.

Getting 200,000 to 250,000 supporters to buy a bumper sticker is one thing, but getting 5-10% of the population to buy reserve seating year in, year out is another challenge all to itself (especially if more than half the games are in TV friendly timeslots).

Like I said, the decentralised population makes regular 15,000 to 20,000 crowds quite difficult. And if Launceston games are any guide (where 25 per cent of the crowd fly in for the game) the Devils really need those Saturday and school holiday home games to get the travellers (like the Suns on the Gold Coast)

With such a small stadium, you might need to buy a reserved seat membership just to guarantee a seat. I doubt there would be stadium membership and its only going to be 7 games. And they don't have the same culture in Melbourne where apparently people buy reserved seat memberships only to show up half the time.
So yeah, I can easily see it happening.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Typical upcoming Kardinia Park match. Odds on to draw sub 32k (like 16 of the 22 matches post-redevelopment), even though anybody can easily get $35 GA seats.

Strongly suggests to me the 24.5k capacity at Macquarie Point will be perfect for most AFL events there, as outlined in the stadium capacity analysis.

 

[Bay53]

There was this Freo game back in 1997 on WA DAY which was a Monday Public holiday only in WA with a crowd of 22,500 which was about on average for the time for them

AFL Tables - Fremantle v Adelaide - Mon, 2-Jun-1997 6:40 PM (8:40 PM) - Match Stats

Monday night, so after work for those in the east.

Perhaps the derby at 2pm Perth time, 4pm Eastern would be big.

 

[MattF185]

I heard Kingy suggest it on Fireball about a month ago, which I agree with him with. There should be a match at around 5:40pm on Friday. Plenty of people knock off early around the city, also gives time for kids to make the match after school. NRL have a 6pm Friday match so not like it doesn’t work.

 

[Underarm]

I heard Kingy suggest it on Fireball about a month ago, which I agree with him with. There should be a match at around 5:40pm on Friday. Plenty of people knock off early around the city, also gives time for kids to make the match after school. NRL have a 6pm Friday match so not like it doesn’t work.

which timeslot across the weekend should it replace?

 

[Hawkk]

Just bought a ticket for Thursday Night’s game and the PAX for the game is over 74,000. Will be interesting to see where the crowd lands (for a Thursday). Anything over 65,000 would be a win (20 per cent lower than Friday or Saturday)

 

[Rob]

I heard Kingy suggest it on Fireball about a month ago, which I agree with him with. There should be a match at around 5:40pm on Friday. Plenty of people knock off early around the city, also gives time for kids to make the match after school. NRL have a 6pm Friday match so not like it doesn’t work.

As someone that has to deal with 6:10 weeknight games occasionally, can I just say that is a terrible idea. 6:10 is a nightmare to get to, and i'd imagine 5:40 would be worse than that.

 

[dave10]

Typical upcoming Kardinia Park match. Odds on to draw sub 32k (like 16 of the 22 matches post-redevelopment), even though anybody can easily get $35 GA seats.

Strongly suggests to me the 24.5k capacity at Macquarie Point will be perfect for most AFL events there, as outlined in the stadium capacity analysis.

I agree.

Just bought a ticket for Thursday Night’s game and the PAX for the game is over 74,000. Will be interesting to see where the crowd lands (for a Thursday). Anything over 65,000 would be a win (20 per cent lower than Friday or Saturday)

i think this feels right. My gut feel is 68-70k. I think for enticing games the crowd might hold up slightly better. Pies / Blues two weeks ago probably only about ~10% below its max crowd a good guide imo.. Weather looks great so I think it could get 70,000+ on the night.

 

[manicmagpie]

I heard Kingy suggest it on Fireball about a month ago, which I agree with him with. There should be a match at around 5:40pm on Friday. Plenty of people knock off early around the city, also gives time for kids to make the match after school. NRL have a 6pm Friday match so not like it doesn’t work.

Nah, this is not a good idea. Almost impossible to get to from outside the inner suburbs, and the percentage of people who actually work in the city on a Friday would be the lowest it's ever been.

The NRL angle is a furphy as well, a lot of their "6pm" starts are actually in New Zealand and 8pm local time, and the ones in Australia don't seem to have crowds that would make it seem like a success.

 

[Tasmanian saint]

14 k at the Tassie vfl game on Saturday I think it’s safe to say there not going to struggle for crowds like gws and suns have

 

[ep12]

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14 k at the Tassie vfl game on Saturday I think it’s safe to say there not going to struggle for crowds like gws and suns have

They won't struggle like the Giants or Suns because it is a heartland football state and the AFL doesn't have to grow the game down there.

 

[Tasmanian saint]

They won't struggle like the Giants or Suns because it is a heartland football state and the AFL doesn't have to grow the game down there.

There plenty saying the state wouldn’t be big enough population wise to support a club

 

[____]

As someone that has to deal with 6:10 weeknight games occasionally, can I just say that is a terrible idea. 6:10 is a nightmare to get to, and i'd imagine 5:40 would be worse than that.

Yep. As a general rule games shouldn't start before 7pm on a workday.

Kingy only suggests this because he doesn't and probably never had to work a normal job.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

re Tasmania reserved seating:

Essendon's also been upset with a lot of their reserved seat holders (being the biggest club playing at Docklands) not showing up, so they've slowly been trying to introduce the idea of reserved bays rather than reserved seats, where you have to actively opt-in to claiming a seat: https://membership.essendonfc.com.au/membership/gold-reserved-bay

It's a slow burn from Essendon as obviously if you move people from their reserved seat they kick up a stink, even though by definition they're not attending as many as one quarter of the games (so IMO they don't really have a right to kick up a stink).

So yeah while Tasmania will probably sell 18,000 "reserved bay" tickets they'll probably only allocate them 15,000 seats or whatever, come up with an active opt-in system, and that leaves them 9,500 seats corporate, general admission, standing room, away support, etc. and getting close to capacity.

Given it's a new team you don't have to invent a system where anyone's entitled to sit in the same seat game to game. Sure a few old timers might demand the right to pay money to sit in the same seat every week but that old timer would be the same person who won't show up in a Round 19 game at Sunday 5.10pm when they're already 6-12 playing a home game against Gold Coast or Fremantle that is a bad look.

 

[Walshawk]

I heard Kingy suggest it on Fireball about a month ago, which I agree with him with. There should be a match at around 5:40pm on Friday. Plenty of people knock off early around the city, also gives time for kids to make the match after school. NRL have a 6pm Friday match so not like it doesn’t work.

Worst slot for crowds in the NRL. Supporters constantly complain about the 6pm slot. No thanks. Maybe a 6.30pm slot followed by a 9.20pm game in Perth.

 

[Walshawk]

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14 k at the Tassie vfl game on Saturday I think it’s safe to say there not going to struggle for crowds like gws and suns have

Tassie and Canberra should have been teams 17 and 18.

 

[Gizmo]

 

[Rouel_14]

re Tasmania reserved seating:

Essendon's also been upset with a lot of their reserved seat holders (being the biggest club playing at Docklands) not showing up, so they've slowly been trying to introduce the idea of reserved bays rather than reserved seats, where you have to actively opt-in to claiming a seat: https://membership.essendonfc.com.au/membership/gold-reserved-bay

It's a slow burn from Essendon as obviously if you move people from their reserved seat they kick up a stink, even though by definition they're not attending as many as one quarter of the games (so IMO they don't really have a right to kick up a stink).

So yeah while Tasmania will probably sell 18,000 "reserved bay" tickets they'll probably only allocate them 15,000 seats or whatever, come up with an active opt-in system, and that leaves them 9,500 seats corporate, general admission, standing room, away support, etc. and getting close to capacity.

Given it's a new team you don't have to invent a system where anyone's entitled to sit in the same seat game to game. Sure a few old timers might demand the right to pay money to sit in the same seat every week but that old timer would be the same person who won't show up in a Round 19 game at Sunday 5.10pm when they're already 6-12 playing a home game against Gold Coast or Fremantle that is a bad look.

You wonder why clubs don’t just rip the bandaid and do it all in one go.

Pretty easy message to sell at marvel - we have out grown our home. We need to keep it a fortress. We need to let more members in.

Pretty hard to argue with more people getting to go to the footy.

 

[manicmagpie]

Pretty hard to argue with more people getting to go to the footy.

You’d think that, but boy you should have seen the Collingwood board when the Pies tried to move to reserved bays. The entitlement was off the charts.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

You’d think that, but boy you should have seen the Collingwood board when the Pies tried to move to reserved bays. The entitlement was off the charts.

Yep and as a new club they have an opportunity to do it once, and do it well.

Optics won't be great if technically every seat in the stadium is sold (10 months in advance, via memberships), and even though you can get money back by "returning" a seat, people just don't. So you might have even sub 80% attendances for a sold out game.

They can do their best to avoid that.

 

[Tasmanian saint]

Tassie and Canberra should have been teams 17 and 18.

I understand why they wanted to go to the Gold Coast and western Sydney but to attempt to do them both at the same time was extremely arrogant and a terrible business decision they should have picked one and went with Tasmania. Should have been bringing the other one in now