- Feb 6, 2013
- 12,443
- 17,240
- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
Crowds per game have dropped in the past 4 years. Partly why they're playing more games, to cover a decline.
I agree that 20K is a good figure. I think CA is worried how fragile the product is and that's why they want it in school holidays.
I don't think the additional games is to cover the decline, I'm convinced it is the primary cause for the decline. CA thought packing the season with more games wouldn't affect engagement at all, that the viewers would simply all turn on and turn up for everything, but they overlooked that it was the short and sweet carnival atmosphere that was a fundamental part of its appeal.
By trying to turn it into a League like the AFL I think they made it too much of an investment of time to follow the League for a lot of people, the games themselves were less of an 'event' so people wanting to go purely for the atmosphere knew that it was likely a lot of the games wouldn't be as exciting due to a smaller crowd, and the TV ratings took a huge dive.
They killed the golden goose out of greed I think.