Fixture Gather Round - SA announced as host for next 3 years 2024-2026

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16.04.23

GATHER ROUND SOUTH AUSTRALIA
AFL LOCKS IN SA FOR NEXT THREE SEASONS

The AFL in partnership with the SA Government is pleased to announce ‘Gather Round…. A Festival of Footy’ will be hosted in South Australia for the next three seasons.

The inaugural ‘Gather Round’ has been an overwhelming success, with all nine games sold out, more than 220,000 fans attending matches across the Adelaide Oval, Norwood Oval and Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills and tens of thousands of fans attending the footy festival on the banks of Torrens.

More than 60,000 fans purchased tickets from interstate.

Across 2024, 2025 and 2026, Gather Round …. A festival of footy will be hosted exclusively in South Australia, with Adelaide Oval to be the central venue, with the intent from both the AFL and the SA Government to take regional matches in 2024 to the Barossa / McClaren Vale region.

As part of the three-year term, both the AFL and SA Government have also committed to establishing a community football legacy fund, that will benefit local footy clubs in the state beyond the weekend of matches.

The AFL will lock in the fixture dates of the round in the coming weeks to give fans as much lead time as possible to book travel and accommodation.

Ticketing information will be release later in the year.

“South Australia really turned it on. Gather Round and all the activity across the state, the nine matches, the footy festival and the community football engagement has been some of the best days and events the AFL has ever delivered,” AFL Chief Executive Gillon McLachlan said.

“It has been a success because everyone in football got behind the idea, clubs, players, corporate partners and most importantly our fans, to deliver an extraordinary few days,

“While the concept has real momentum, and we plan on taking it to other states around the country, we also feel in order for it to be as successful in the other states we need to continue to build out the concept in South Australia,

“The reality is we only had a few months to pull this together, and we hope by locking it in now we are giving everyone a longer runway to put together a bigger and even better event, and our fans certainty around booking travel and accommodation.

“The match at Mount Barker was a special afternoon on Saturday and an important part of recommitting to South Australia was to establish the community legacy fund, ensuring local footy clubs’ benefit from bringing the Gather Round to town.”

During the round the AFL has facilitated dozens of community club and school visits, held seminars for community club volunteers and delivered more than 10,000 footballs to regional community clubs.

Details on the Community legacy fund will be communicated at a later date.

“On behalf of the AFL I want to thank to Premier Malinauskas and his team in the SA Government who in partnership, delivered an unbelievable few days for footy and the state of South Australia.”

The AFL will also work with the AFLPA on the commitments to the players.

“The players have been strong partners in the Gather Round concept and have embraced wholeheartedly the round. We will now work with the AFLPA on the commitments to the players in the coming years.”

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said “The inaugural Gather Round has been a stunning success, in no small part thanks to the willingness of South Australians, and our interstate visitors, to show up.
“We know that this has delivered huge benefits for our state, and that is why I’m so pleased to see it return for the next three years.”

“With more time to plan, we know we can make Gather Round even bigger and better than what it has already become.”

“I want to thank Gillon McLachlan, the AFL, wider footballing community, public servants, councils and others who’ve all worked so hard to deliver such an amazing event in just a few months.”

“But most of all, I want to thank each and every person who showed up.”

“This agreement is because of you.”

-ends-
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Last edited by a moderator:
Nelso said:
The whole point of Gather Round is to entice tourists from interstate to sample the best locations in regards to hospitality in Adelaide and surrounding suburbs and prime spots, e.g Mt Barker and the Barossa.

Both Woodville and Alberton offer nothing that would keep visitors in those suburbs before and after the game.

Thebarton has nothing to offer either.

The facts are is that the SA Government are chipping in coin each year for Gather Round and they want a significant return for their investment.

The only other SANFL grounds which could work are Glenelg and Prospect Ovals due to the proximity of restraurants and shopping precincts.
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I don't know, I could see Thebarton potentially being something in the future. There's already a few boutique spots in the area with a couple of distilleries, breweries, pubs, cafes and restaurants. Once the old West End land starts getting developed I'm picturing they're going to go for upmarket Bowden vibes with it (which incidentally also would be walkable from Thebarton) and a bunch more would open so there might be enough attraction to be a worthwhile venue in a bit of time.

That being said if places developed along those lines Port Adelaide would've finally become the bustling upmarket hub it's always been promised to be years ago and therefore Alberton wouldn't be a crazy option, but the Port has never gone further than being "maybe the next big spot" so you can't really hold your breath for Thebarton becoming the place to be.
 
Prospect have bid (well they are making noise) for 2026, it has potential if they can somehow tie in the best part of Prospect road with transport up to the oval. Nice field dimensions and holds more than Norwood needs some work though.
 
Big_Birdy said:
Isn’t Elizabeth the biggest footy Oval in Oz? Seem to remember that stat being bandied about a while back
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Don't know if its officially the biggest, but its playing surface boundary to boundary dimensions are 178m x 130m.

Other playing surface dimensions are Kardinia Park is 170m x 115m and Subiaco dimensions were 175m x 122m when it was an AFL ground, and most WAFL grounds are a similar dimension.

Waverley Park fence to fence dimensions were 200m x 160m. If you look at old footage you see the goals set up further and further from the fence in latter part of the 1990's compared to the 1970's.
 

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Looking to already book accommodation after 2 awesome experiences.

Are we thinking Thursday 10 April to Sunday 13 April which is the middle weekend of the VIC school holidays, per previous 2 gather rounds?
 
Seattle Mariners said:
Looking to already book accommodation after 2 awesome experiences.

Are we thinking Thursday 10 April to Sunday 13 April which is the middle weekend of the VIC school holidays, per previous 2 gather rounds?
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It will be in during Vic school holidays, which I don't when they start and end, but it wont be the next weekend after 10th-13th as Easter is Friday 18th to Monday 21st.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
It will be in during Vic school holidays, which I don't when they start and end, but it wont be the next weekend after 10th-13th as Easter is Friday 18th to Monday 21st.
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From Google:

2025Start dateFinish date
Term 128 January (students start 29 January in government schools)4 April
Term 222 April4 July
Term 321 July19 September
Term 46 October19 December
 
Seattle Mariners said:
Looking to already book accommodation after 2 awesome experiences.

Are we thinking Thursday 10 April to Sunday 13 April which is the middle weekend of the VIC school holidays, per previous 2 gather rounds?
Click to expand...
I reckon it almost certainly has to be then, given Easter the next week and ANZAC day the weekend after.
 
Seattle Mariners said:
Looking to already book accommodation after 2 awesome experiences.

Are we thinking Thursday 10 April to Sunday 13 April which is the middle weekend of the VIC school holidays, per previous 2 gather rounds?
Click to expand...
Almost certainly.

Looking at the holidays next year. The best week would actually be the next week as all states are in holidays.

However, that's Easter, and with Brisbane vs Collingwood, North Melbourne vs Carlton and Hawthorn vs Geelong meant to play that week in their states. Almost certain that they'll bring Gather Rd forward the week so it's just the WA Fans who are inconvenienced (hopefully their games are Sunday to accommodate ten)

However, with Easter the following week, I wonder what the odds of the opening games being

Thursday Night Adelaide vs Collingwood
Friday Twilight Brisbane vs North Melbourne
Friday Night Port Adelaide vs Carlton
 
Smart. We've done the same. Book cheap air bnbs before they bump the prices when it's announced.
 
Dirty Bird said:
Almost certainly.

Looking at the holidays next year. The best week would actually be the next week as all states are in holidays.

However, that's Easter, and with Brisbane vs Collingwood, North Melbourne vs Carlton and Hawthorn vs Geelong meant to play that week in their states. Almost certain that they'll bring Gather Rd forward the week so it's just the WA Fans who are inconvenienced (hopefully their games are Sunday to accommodate ten)

However, with Easter the following week, I wonder what the odds of the opening games being

Thursday Night Adelaide vs Collingwood
Friday Twilight Brisbane vs North Melbourne
Friday Night Port Adelaide vs Carlton
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Zero percent. Carlton won’t be scheduled to play Adelaide again. That will be shared around.
Would be extremely surprised if we get North v Brisbane Part III as well. The first two have been flops, you don’t make a third one.
 

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After the Tassie stadium is built, raise the profile of Darwin too with a split gather round week. Hobart and Darwin

Example
Wed Hobart tas v coll
Thu Darwin bris v WB
Fri Hobart haw v carl
Sat day hobart ess v wce
Sat night Hobart fre v rich
Sat night Darwin gws v pta
Sun day Hobart stk v syd
Sun night Darwin GC v Geel
Mon Darwin mel v adel
Tue Hobart tas v nth
 
peetoo said:
After the Tassie stadium is built, raise the profile of Darwin too with a split gather round week. Hobart and Darwin

Example
Wed Hobart tas v coll
Thu Darwin bris v WB
Fri Hobart haw v carl
Sat day hobart ess v wce
Sat night Hobart fre v rich
Sat night Darwin gws v pta
Sun day Hobart stk v syd
Sun night Darwin GC v Geel
Mon Darwin mel v adel
Tue Hobart tas v nth
Click to expand...
Would defeat the purpose of calling it "Gather Round" when fans are split between opposite ends of the country.
 
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