AFL is on the decline - the younger generation is just not that into you

[Carson Dial]

Same number of flags as freo.

But not the same number of Grand Finals

 

[NoobPie]

Apart from useless anecdotal evidence, what evidence is there that less people enjoy the game or less kids are getting into Footy compared to 20 years ago?

Stop telling your own personal story, it means literally nothing if a individual doesn't like 1 thing as much as he use to.

You seriously don’t acknowledge that people who post incessantly on a sports forum they apparently don’t like anymore are precisely representative of the general population?

 

[Frank Gallagher]

Tragedy

Basketball is awful

Yeah i'm not a big fan TBH, the Mrs was a basketballer though, i'd prefer he quit squad basketball and concentrated on open day athletics during summer.

 

[Present Not Past]

AFL is the highest paid sport in Australia in terms of skill level required, equivalent to payment, equivalent to numbers required.

 

[Carson Dial]

Higher paid than tennis or golf?

 

[Present Not Past]

Higher paid than tennis or golf?

Yes, when you factor in the skill level required to play in an AFL team and the numbers required for the AFL competition.
Sure there are elite tennis and golf players who earn more but their numbers are fewer in Australia.

 

[HavUEvaSeenTheRain]

AFL is the highest paid sport in Australia in terms of skill level required, equivalent to payment, equivalent to numbers required.

Absolutely, I think choosing football over any other sport as a career is a no brainer if talent and enjoyment are equal.

 

[Rob]

Higher paid than tennis or golf?

Tennis? Jesus, what you do reckon the 10th best Australian tennis player gets paid?

Tennis is a terrible sport to play professionally unless you're in the top 100-150 in the world.

 

[Cuzz09]

But AFLX...

 

[boncer34]

On Seven this season, the national combined ratings average per game is 1.579m, down from 2.03m on Ten last season. This is partially, but not entirely made up with an average Fox figure of 485,000 per game. Estimated shortfall in terrestrial ratings approx 4.4 million.

Other then quoting big bash figures got anything to add?

 

[Carson Dial]

Tennis? Jesus, what you do reckon the 10th best Australian tennis player gets paid?

Tennis is a terrible sport to play professionally unless you're in the top 100-150 in the world.

Tennis? Jesus, what you do reckon the 10th best Australian tennis player gets paid?

Tennis is a terrible sport to play professionally unless you're in the top 100-150 in the world.

That would be someone like Thanasi Kokkinakis who is ranked 9 or 10 in Australia and has earned over $1.2m in his career and is only 22 years old. Not sure what his world ranking is, still a pretty good return I would say.

 

[Carringbush2010]

Interesting views here, mostly pessimistic. Which is amusing because we're all on a footy forum dedicated to footy and all of the posters with their negative views have a team they follow.

A few points:

• Agreed the commentary is not what it should be, but FMD if that's going to turn you from the game why are you a poster on a footy forum having a petulant whinge about the commentary? FFS listen to the radio while watching, oh right they're self centred also
• Being 48 yo I remember great games of footy through the 70s and 80s, I also remember real shitty games with a glorious 2k people in attendance watching 120 minutes of a muddy maul resulting in something like 4 goals apiece - and everyone moans about congestion now!
• Sure back in the "golden era" there were thrilling one on one contests, now have feats of athleticism that we rarely saw back then. We now have tactics and visually different game styles that suit teams strengths which result in intriguing arm wrestles............not good enough for you?
• Rule changes: ok yeah it's a bit reactionary and probably too many. Why don't you bring your tears and your dummy to AFL house and throw it at Gil? Oh that's right throwing your toys out of the cot on behind a keyboard should fix it.

I enjoy it now as much as I did then, seems I'm in the minority. Thought we were from a generation that don't take things for granted and appreciate what we have - I appreciate the game we have now. Guess I'm the exception to the rule.

So yeah go watch gridiron or basketball (got me f****** how they are more entertaining to watch) if you want, just stop your bitching and moaning about footy.

As for the thread title, and I don't know the figures but I see lot's of teens and kids playing footy whether or not that's due to population comparisons from then to now I don't know. They also follow their teams, probably not like us oldies did at their age but that doesn't mean they're not interested there's just so much variety in the world available for them now.

Compare it to other sports around the world, would say NFL supporters be more invested in the 70s than they are now? Probably, not because the game is worse but probably due to the world being different - information and entertainment is available everywhere in fact it's saturation levels. They and us didn't have all that back then so we watched the footy and they watched the gridiron.

 

[NoobPie]

That would be someone like Thanasi Kokkinakis who is ranked 9 or 10 in Australia and has earned over $1.2m in his career and is only 22 years old. Not sure what his world ranking is, still a pretty good return I would say.

Apparently he is the 8th ranked Australian and 150th in the world.

The 150th best afl player is probably on 500k a year and doesn’t have to pay for accomodation, travel and coaching out of that money

I would suggest this example hasnt helped the case of tennis for an aspiring Australian athlete

 

[Carson Dial]

Apparently he is the 8th ranked Australian and 150th in the world.

The 150th best afl player is probably on 500k a year and doesn’t have to pay for accomodation, travel and coaching out of that money

I would suggest this example hasnt helped the case of tennis for an aspiring Australian athlete

That depends on the individuals ability and how risk/ reward motivated they are.

 

[Rob]

That would be someone like Thanasi Kokkinakis who is ranked 9 or 10 in Australia and has earned over $1.2m in his career and is only 22 years old. Not sure what his world ranking is, still a pretty good return I would say.

Only because he's been out of it. He's actually currently the 9th. The 8th and 10th are Marc Polmans and Alexei Popyrin. The latter is actually a good young prospect but he's earning not much at the moment and would need to improve significantly to change that. Which is my point - the 10th best Australian tennis player doesn't make much of a living, you need to be a lot better than that. Go down to the 20th best and it's basically challenger tours and living out of a car.

The 20th best Australian football player makes close to a million bucks a year.

 

[NoobPie]

That depends on the individuals ability and how risk/ reward motivated they are.

Well if it’s just about money they would have to be extremely risk loving to choose tennis over football all else being equal. You would need a sustained career winning atp tournaments to do better financially than being in the top 20 afl players for, say, 5 years in a 10-15year career

 

[Carson Dial]

Well if it’s just about money they would have to be extremely risk loving to choose tennis over football all else being equal. You would need a sustained career winning atp tournaments to do better financially than being in the top 20 afl players for, say, 5 years in a 10-15year career

I agree the top 20 tennis professionals are truly world class elite athletes who would overshadow what top AFL players could earn in a year by 10 times plus.

If I was a great athlete looking for a high standard of living then AFL would tick most of the boxes.

Not sure who the 150th best AFL player is, or how you would even measure that, but I would like to be able to
verify that.

 

[NoobPie]

I agree the top 20 tennis professionals are truly world class elite athletes who would overshadow what top AFL players could earn in a year by 10 times plus.

If I was a great athlete looking for a high standard of living then AFL would tick most of the boxes.

Not sure who the 150th best AFL player is, or how you would even measure that, but I would like to be able to
verify that.

Back of the envelope, the 150th best player would be about the 8th best player in the average team

The average afl player earns about ~370k iirc...and there are about 800 rostered players. The 150th highest paid player earning 500k seems a reasonable guess


According to this, the 20th highest atp earner is not earning even close to double the highest afl player let alone 10 times...


https://live-tennis.eu/en/atp-ytd-prize-money-ranking

 

[Carson Dial]

I hear what you are saying but the flaw here is that tennis players income is ranked by earnings , so there is no average. In AFL you would need to base the average earnings on the mode as this will be the most common number.

You can’t use the average or ‘mean’ as this just divides the total number of players by the total earnings , so your Buddy Franklin types on $1M plus are included as are those on $100k or less (and they do exist).

 

[NoobPie]

I hear what you are saying but the flaw here is that tennis players income is ranked by earnings , so there is no average. In AFL you would need to base the average earnings on the mode as this will be the most common number.

You can’t use the average or ‘mean’ as this just divides the total number of players by the total earnings , so your Buddy Franklin types on $1M plus are included as are those on $100k or less (and they do exist).

According to the afl 2017 annual report, in 2017 the 139th player earned at least 501k

https://indd.adobe.com/view/3dab2f7a-5539-4c78-a88e-76d91cea5788

So while you are correct there is a skewed distribution of earnings, 500K seems like a pretty accurate estimate of the earnings of the 150th player. It is comfortably higher than the worlds
150th biggest tennis earner

 

[kid_a]

Crowds are bigger despite tickets costing more.
TV rights are only getting more and more valuable.
Membership bases are exploding.

Yeah it seems everyone is jumping off the AFL bandwagon

 

[Marcel Proust]

Crowds are bigger despite tickets costing more.
TV rights are only getting more and more valuable.
Membership bases are exploding.

Yeah it seems everyone is jumping off the AFL bandwagon

TV rights and three game memberships do not mean the young generation are that into aussie rules football these days. I dont blame them either its a pretty average sport these days

 

[Professor Knowall]

... its a pretty average sport these days

Proust is too much into a rememberance of things past.

 

[kid_a]

TV rights and three game memberships do not mean the young generation are that into aussie rules football these days. I dont blame them either its a pretty average sport these days

I disagree, the sport is faster and more intense overall than it was in the past, perhaps the open style of the 90s was more of what we would rather have but I think footy is still pretty good to watch.
Can only speak about WA, but I can assure you in Perth most kids are still kicking footies at the beach or park and up north in the pilbara and Kimberley, where I'm originally from, the only thing on most kids minds is having a kick and talking about the eagles or dockers.....well either that or fishing.

 

[Cuzz09]

3 game memberships are bought because people cant plan their years and its possibly cheaper at the time.

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