Remove this Banner Ad

Hello from USA

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

FootyJunkie said:
Ticket prices are peanuts compared to what you would expect for an NFL game. The cheapest ticket at the MCG in Melbourne is about $22 AUD, third level.... although the AFL have brought in variable pricing for "blockbuster" matches just this year, something that you do find in US pro-sports leagues. Needless to say, the locals hate it. Still, the average joe can more or less still go to a game and follow their team live in person... for now at least.

A challenge is for fans out in Perth however, not so much due to price, but due to availability... both teams are quite popular in Perth with West Coast having a waiting list of club memberships while Fremantle is pretty much full themselves, but both play home games out of an outdated 45k capacity Subiaco Oval, although a larger stadium in Perth is in the works for 2018. So it can be a little tricky to attend a game in Perth if you are not a member... general admission tickets are usually pretty limited.
Click to expand...

So, if I'm understanding this correctly, having a membership there is sort of the equivalent of having season tickets here, and the attendance at your 'big game' is similiar to that of our 'Super Bowl' in that it consists essentially of corporate guests and v.i.p.'s to the exclusion of most genuine club fans? Just trying to draw correlations between what I already understand about my game and the language nuances of yours.

Currently in America, of the sports that I enjoy, professional baseball is the best value to my way of thinking. Decent seats (outfield, upper level)can be had at sub-$20 USD cost, with better seats in the $20-40 range. My summer Minor League season tickets came in at around $8 each directly behind home plate. A very economical, and enjoyable way to spend a hot summer's evening out-of-doors.
 
Club Membership for a year gives you entry to your team's home games for that season, with the money going to the team.

The Grand Final in September gets the Super Bowl treatment... filled with corporates. Others in attendance include MCC (Melbourne Cricket Club, who manage the MCG where the Grand Final is staged each year) members, AFL members, and members of the two competing clubs and those who managed to get a ticket through expensive ticket packages.
 
Last edited:
whatsthisfooty said:
So, if I'm understanding this correctly, having a membership there is sort of the equivalent of having season tickets here, and the attendance at your 'big game' is similar to that of our 'Super Bowl' in that it consists essentially of corporate guests and v.i.p.'s to the exclusion of most genuine club fans? Just trying to draw correlations between what I already understand about my game and the language nuances of yours.
Click to expand...
Pretty much spot on.

A membership to a club varies in price, some clubs are more expensive than others but I know for the Hawks at least you can get a membership that will let you into all home games - each team plays 11 matches at home and 11 matches away during the normal season - for about $300, but they are good seats. General admission to a Victorian match is about $20AUD (cheaper for the lower drawing teams, too). Kids, students, elderly and some poorer people with certain welfare cards also get in cheaper, I think just over $10AUD (or $9USD)

Finals here get more expensive the deeper a team goes, and the Grand Final, the Super Bowl of the AFL, is very hard to get tickets for unless you are prepared to pay massive amounts or are a lucky member (each club playing off gets a certain number of tickets it can sell to its members). The MCG, the biggest AFL ground and the place where the Grand Final is played has a capacity of 100k. Even if you do get in I think the cheapest seats to that game (which aren't even seats, just standing room behind the seats!) are around $200.

Pro Baseball sounds a bit cheaper than AFL but not by too much.
 
Last edited:
Tomahawk22 said:
A membership to a club varies in price, some clubs are more expensive then others but I know for the Hawks at least you can get a membership that will let you into all home games - each team plays 11 matches at home and 11 matches away during the normal season - for about $300, but they are good seats. General admission to a Victorian match is about $20AUD (cheaper for the lower drawing teams, too). Kids, students and elderly and some poorer people with certain welfare cards also get in cheaper, I think just over $10AUD (or $9USD)
Click to expand...

Don't Hawthorn allow its members in Melbourne to attend a few Hawthorn "away" games in Melbourne, to make up for the home games they sell to Tasmania?
 

Log in to remove this Banner Ad

FootyJunkie said:
Don't Hawthorn allow its members in Melbourne to attend a few Hawthorn "away" games in Melbourne, to make up for the home games they sell to Tasmania?
Click to expand...
Yeah, we get 4 replacement games on top of the 7 played here normally to make up for those 4 games played in Tassie to total 11. This year they are good games, all high drawing crowds.

We get access to these away games:
Round 5: Geelong v Hawthorn, MCG, Monday 21 April, 3.20pm
Round 6: Richmond v Hawthorn, MCG, Sunday 27 April, 3.20pm
Round 13: Carlton v Hawthorn, MCG, Friday 13 June, 7.50pm
Round 23: Collingwood v Hawthorn, MCG, date and time TBC
 
Thanks for the input, guys. It's been awhile since I've tried to learn a sport from ground zero. It's fun though. I must admit, I've been poking around out in the 'real' forums and I'm completely lost, so it's great to learn a little back story for some of these teams.
 
hcd199 said:
whatsthisfooty

It seems you're going to get the early Saturday afternoon match each week, in which case this would be your schedule (I've changed the dates from Saturday to Friday):
April 25 - Gold Coast v Greater Western Sydney
May 2 - Hawthorn v St Kilda
May 9 - Port Adelaide v Fremantle
May 16 - Richmond v Melbourne
May 23 - Greater Western Sydney v Richmond
May 30 - Melbourne v Port Adelaide
June 6 - Hawthorn v West Coast
June 13 - Richmond v Fremantle
June 20 - Port Adelaide v Western Bulldogs
June 27 - Hawthorn v Gold Coast
July 4 - Richmond v Brisbane Lions
July 11 - Melbourne v Geelong
(Don't know whether you'll get games on July 18th or 25th; if you do, they'll be in different timeslots)
August 1 - Adelaide v West Coast
August 8 - Greater Western Sydney v North Melbourne
August 15 - Sydney v St Kilda
August 22 - North Melbourne v Adelaide
Click to expand...

If these are the games you end up getting the best games on this list in my opinion would be:
May 9 - Port Adelaide v Fremantle - Both teams are looking very strong at the start of the season. Freo is one of the Perth teams you may be interested in.
June 6 - Hawthorn v West Coast - Not to pump up my own club too much but we are the best club out there so far, and West Coast is the other Perth team.
June 13 - Richmond v Fremantle - Both are expected to be in the finals by most.
June 20 - Port Adelaide v Western Bulldogs - Both teams are young but extremely fit. Will be a fast paced, well contested game.

June could be a good time to watch a few good games of footy.
 
whatsthisfooty I see people giving you dates for games you can see considering you won't see many games and you'll be lucky to see all eighteen teams before the end of the season due to the lack of games you really will see; if you have Internet I can give you a stream that streams 90% of AFL games and is free. This stream also streams every sport in the world from bowls, to NFL, EPL, Tennis or even darts and of course AFL!! However I don't wish to get an infraction so if you wish you can PM me/vice versa.
 
Or...since you're in the USA, you can subscribe to this - either by the month or for the full season and get access to all the games live and on replay.

Or even better, you can get a Hawthorn international membership for just a few dollars more and get a subscription to that service as part of the package (just sayin...)

I would say, as a fellow Packer fan, that Hawthorn should be your team - but having an avatar pic like that would be like me having one of Joel Selwood.

Are you sure you're a Packer fan?
 
specq said:
Or...since you're in the USA, you can subscribe to this - either by the month or for the full season and get access to all the games live and on replay.

Or even better, you can get a Hawthorn international membership for just a few dollars more and get a subscription to that service as part of the package (just sayin...)

I would say, as a fellow Packer fan, that Hawthorn should be your team - but having an avatar pic like that would be like me having one of Joel Selwood.

Are you sure you're a Packer fan?
Click to expand...

Hahaha! First of all, I'm a linebacker fan...Butkus, Nitchke, Lambert and a few more. The great ones. While my avatar may not be the best representation of my team, it's my favorite picture of arguably the best linebacker of all time and his approach to the problem of offensive ball carriers. I just like the pic. :cool:
 

Remove this Banner Ad

I'll leave it up to FoxSports2 to decide which games I watch for the time being. Any and all extra cash I have (had) is taken up by Daughter's graduation at this point. Besides, right now the teams are all absolutely equal to me, so it matters not who I watch, just that I learn a little each time, and enjoy your product while I'm doing so...and I always have the good and generous folks here to flesh out the unseen part of the game for me. Things like "who's going to Tasmania?" "What's with all the rule changes, why do they insist on mucking around with a perfectly good game" ""Who got suspended for what and how long and why it was/wasn't fair" "What's the PED situation and has there been/will there ever be progress with it, does it even matter". I've noticed in my short time here that many of the issues facing your sport as a whole, mirror many in my NFL as well, and the opinions for their cure are as divided too. Except perhaps the Tasmanian issue, but there is talk in the NFL of moving a team (Jacksonville I think) to flippin London for cripes sake. So again there is even a sort of similarity there. Anyway thanks for the good fun and introduction to your sport. I've even managed to nearly make my 20 on this thread with still a couple days to go on my probation, although it will probably be some time before I have anything valuable to contribute on the main board.
 
whatsthisfooty said:
I've noticed in my short time here that many of the issues facing your sport as a whole, mirror many in my NFL as well, and the opinions for their cure are as divided too. Except perhaps the Tasmanian issue, but there is talk in the NFL of moving a team (Jacksonville I think) to flippin London for cripes sake. So again there is even a sort of similarity there. Anyway thanks for the good fun and introduction to your sport. I've even managed to nearly make my 20 on this thread with still a couple days to go on my probation, although it will probably be some time before I have anything valuable to contribute on the main board.
Click to expand...

Wow, and to think teams here complain about their travel time o.o

Also, didn't the NFL try Europe already, to generally hilarious results?

A note on the Tassie situation:

Tasmania is one of the places crying out for an AFL team. Literally: the last time expansion was announced, Tassie put together a bid (running full-page ads in the Melbourne newspapers) and even roped in Mars as a sponsor. Unfortunately Tassie is a small market, so not very appealing to the AFL, and solidly on "our" side of the Barassi Line, so most people down there follow AFL anyway. Hence the AFL don't think they'd attract new fans to the sport, which is their other big aim right now. Hence the relocation suggestions and accompanying outraged howls from the suggested clubs.
 
Matt_TY said:
Wow, and to think teams here complain about their travel time o.o

Also, didn't the NFL try Europe already, to generally hilarious results?

A note on the Tassie situation:

Tasmania is one of the places crying out for an AFL team. Literally: the last time expansion was announced, Tassie put together a bid (running full-page ads in the Melbourne newspapers) and even roped in Mars as a sponsor. Unfortunately Tassie is a small market, so not very appealing to the AFL, and solidly on "our" side of the Barassi Line, so most people down there follow AFL anyway. Hence the AFL don't think they'd attract new fans to the sport, which is their other big aim right now. Hence the relocation suggestions and accompanying outraged howls from the suggested clubs.
Click to expand...

Right, our NFL is currently making big noise about player safety with tackling rule changes, concussion awareness and etc. yet they push for more games in the season, wanting to go from 16 to 18 games when so many teams are already decimated by injury by the end of the season. And as you mention the additional travel burden for teams crossing the Atlantic to play regular games in a local where the support would be questionable to say the least. Makes me shake my head.:confused: At least you know that the Tasmanians (sp?) are solidly fans of your sport and, though an island, Tasmania IS a part of Australia is it not? I don't know enough about your situation to hazard a guess as to how it should be worked out, but I think the chance of a successful resolution that benefits most fans is better in your case than with the NFL in London. I'm just not sure how many Londoners would come out regularly to see American Football, I think they enjoy an exhibition once a year or so, but very much doubt the sustainability. If there was interest for much more, NFL Europe would still be around and they'd be pushing for some sort of championship match with NFL USA.

Unfortunately, it seems the quest for more and more $ is once again pushing out people who love their game in the hopes of attracting folks who've already demonstrated a lukewarm appreciation for the sport at best. $.$

Oh well, until I get that Commissioners offer of employment confirmed by phone, I guess that I'll just have to resign myself to the fact that my logic must be flawed...again.:(
 
lethal03 said:
The game has an amazing history, Carlton celebrating 150 years this year Melbourne even older.
Click to expand...

I thought Carlton were going to wear the old school CFC monogram on their jumper for all games this season.
The one where it looked they were sewed onto the jumpers an hour before the game so they all looked different on each Carlton jumper.

1995 Grand Final celebrations...

svSPORTINGLIFE-420x0.jpg

DieselSydneyArticle_620X370.jpg
 

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

Great to see you following our great game!

Another thing you should consider when choosing a team is club songs, and see which one you like.
Club songs have more of a significance than American sports, they get played when the players run out, straight away over the loudspeakers after a win, and the players sing it when they get into the rooms straight away after winning. For older clubs, the songs have been around for decades, the newer interstate clubs have more modern songs that can sound a bit cheesy (Fremantle being a good example)

Here is every club song in the AFL:
 
threenewpadlocks said:
Great to see you following our great game!

Another thing you should consider when choosing a team is club songs, and see which one you like.
Club songs have more of a significance than American sports, they get played when the players run out, straight away over the loudspeakers after a win, and the players sing it when they get into the rooms straight away after winning. For older clubs, the songs have been around for decades, the newer interstate clubs have more modern songs that can sound a bit cheesy (Fremantle being a good example)

Here is every club song in the AFL:
Click to expand...


I like the singing, it adds a nostalgic feel in a techno-nutty age.
 
not sure if anyone has said this but I noticed ealier in the thread you said rooting for a team, well we don't do that, we barrack for a team. just a heads up :)
and you honestly should 'barrack' for the mighty pies! no need to change after you've already selected us as your club of support.
 
Fuzzy Happy Poo said:
not sure if anyone has said this but I noticed ealier in the thread you said rooting for a team, well we don't do that, we barrack for a team. just a heads up :)
and you honestly should 'barrack' for the mighty pies! no need to change after you've already selected us as your club of support.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification, Fuzzy, that's just the sort of thing I'm trying to learn.

The 'Pies are definitely in the mix, I've seen them play and thought they played well and hard, if I change, it'll be because some club that I haven't seen yet clicks with me on a personal level.

I wish that I could remember which teams contested the very 1st match that I saw. It must have been 1st or 2nd round as it was 3-4 weeks ago. One of the teams was just exceptional at kicking to one another and regularly made completions that I'd expect only from a forward pass in the NFL. That team may have had black as a part of their kit as well, but as I was only half-watching I don't remember the teams or the unis at all.
 
Welcome to the AFL from the other side of the pond! There is no substitute for watching games to get au fait with the game but you soon pick it up like with anything else. The fluidity of the game and the sheer size of the ovals (we can partly thank cricket - my favourite sport - for that) they play on make for a superb spectacle along with the (mostly) great stadia and crowds, which rival any league in the world all things considered.

If you can't watch a game live, you can always listen on the radio (public radio or commercial radio, take your pick) with the AFL app or on the AFL website during games. There are also podcasts you can catch such as the BigFooty one the guys here put together, Football Preview and Sports Today from 3AW and On The Couch from FOX Sports. There are more but those are the ones I listen to.

As you rightly said earlier, the history of Australian Football is quite magnificent and there are so many great stories and champions of the game. YouTube is a great source for videos. 100 Years of Australian Football is one of my favourite sports documentaries and I watch it time and time again. If you like interview shows, Open Mike is great with Mike Sheahan, who is the doyen of AFL journalism.
 
whatsthisfooty said:
Thanks for the clarification, Fuzzy, that's just the sort of thing I'm trying to learn.

The 'Pies are definitely in the mix, I've seen them play and thought they played well and hard, if I change, it'll be because some club that I haven't seen yet clicks with me on a personal level.

I wish that I could remember which teams contested the very 1st match that I saw. It must have been 1st or 2nd round as it was 3-4 weeks ago. One of the teams was just exceptional at kicking to one another and regularly made completions that I'd expect only from a forward pass in the NFL. That team may have had black as a part of their kit as well, but as I was only half-watching I don't remember the teams or the unis at all.
Click to expand...

I often cringe when (especially) Americans use their own terms for football such as "overtime" and "one-timer" but mind you I still can't quite get round to saying e.g. Geelong are on top of the ladder or I barrack for Adelaide :) #

Maybe the game you watched was Port Adelaide? They play footy, which is really easy on the eye.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Hello from USA

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

Back
Top