latest Roy Morgan Polls

[mkrulz11]

Australia wide:
SYDNEY 1,554,000
WEST COAST 835,000
BRISBANE 822,000
ADELAIDE 726,000
ESSENDON 715,000
COLLINGWOOD 673,000
CARLTON 622,000
RICHMOND 400,000
GEELONG 380,000
HAWTHORN 352,000
ST.KILDA 309,000
KANGAROOS 307,000
FREMANTLE 275,000
PORT ADELAIDE 263,000
BULLDOGS 232,000
MELBOURNE 206,000

VICTORIA:
COLLINGWOOD 457,000
ESSENDON 455,000
CARLTON 366,000
GEELONG 275,000
RICHMOND 268,000

 

[Danni]

I know I am having an extremely ignorant evening, but what exactly is the poll topic? What were they voting on?

 

[mkrulz11]

supporter base estimates.

 

[Danni]

thanks

 

[Derek]

Norff 22123

Whore-thorn 23157 (counting dog & cats)

 

[Bloodstained Angel]

Yes indeed

Its no use the Kangaroos saying they are the "national team"

quite clearly the Swans command by far the most support from all over Australia. They are not sometimes called 'Australia's favourite team' for nothing.

I think this gets back to the early days in the 1980's when, for people who did not live in Victoria, there were only two ways to see VFL footy on TV.

watch the Winners on Sunday evening, or watch the Swans LIVE on Sunday afternoon.

All that early TV exposure has obviously endeared the Swans to alot of footy fans, myself included.

 

[Rooboy 96]

Kangaroos - 25,253 members

Derek your Gutless opinion means zip, stand up and tell us who you barrack for...

or we can only guess...

 

[Dan26]

Dunno about that.

Essendon conducted their own oll back in 1993, and the Dons had more support than the Pies.

That was in 1993. Imagine what it's like now.

One week ago, the Herald Sun reported than 19% of Victorians barrack for the Bombers. Well ahead of Collingwood (14%)

Not denying the Sydney total, but most of those people are individuals who ust happen to live in NSW so when asked, they just instinctively say Sydney.

How many of the Sydney toal are "real" hard-core passionate supporters ?

Merchadising, membership, and attendance indicate the Swans are high up, but noe THAT high up. I'm aware the Swans have capped their membership in Sydney at 25,000, but even if they didn't cap it, it wouldn't reach much higher than 30-31,000 approx.

I stick by the Bombers as the most popular team.

 

[Derek]

Suffice to say Pooboy it ain't Norfff. But that is most of the Australian population isn't it????? And thanks a lot I can't stand..... you that is.

 

[Bloodstained Angel]

Thanks for that Dan - your figures are about right.

For 'hard core support' its impossible to measure. Some people in Sydney are fantical Swans supporters - but are not members (strange but true)

Conversely, alot of current Swans members would be your classic 'theatre - goer' type fan, who, if asked would not consider themselves 'hardcore' supporters.

To further complicate the picture, you also have to take into consideration our Melbourne supporter base. We have 3000 Melbourne based members, it is safe to assume that these are all 'hardcore'. But, again, the Swans command much more support in Melbourne than just our members (numbers here are capped as well)

The best indication of the 'hardcore' support we have in Sydney is to look at how our home crowds fared this season. In the middle of the season Sydney slumped to 14th on the ladder. During this time we played Brisbane at home in Round 11, Hawthorn at home in Round 13, Essendon at home Round 14 and St Kilda at home Round 16.

During this time we got around 23,500 average to a home game. Consider this to be a pretty reasonable 'ballpark' figure (Don't forget we were losing alot of games in this period and it was a torrid time at the club)

So, hardcore support for the Swans ? - around 25,000 in Sydney.

Not much, but I remember the times in the early 90's when Sydney had 2,700 members and a average home attendance of around 11,000. So it ain't that bad.

What this Morgan poll does show is that Sydney command 'softcore' support in huge numbers, easily more than any of the Melbourne clubs, including the Bombers.

 

[Gonzo]

Question without notice BA

A poll taken in Martin Place asking Sydneysiders to name another AFL side besides the Swans would get what sort of result?

Just askin

Cheers

Gonzo

 

[BMD]

Gonzo,

Most Sydneysiders with any sort of interest in sport would be able to name a few other sides.

There's a lot of people who follow the AFL a bit and could name most sides.

Then again, there's a lot of people in Sydney who follow no sort of football of any code at all.

An interesting question might be to ask Sydney siders to name a team in the Sydney Football League.

Bugger all could do it , I would say.

 

[Rooboy 96]

Derek, Still too scared to say who you barrack for...

GUTLESS

 

[Bloodstained Angel]

Thats a great question Gonzo

Lets pretend : If I stood in Martin Place during the lunchtime rush and asked 100 people to name an AFL club OTHER than the Swans.

Hmmmmm dunno but if I can base the response according to the people that 'come out of the woodwork' and watch their club play the Swans at the SCG, then I would have to say :

20 Collingwood
15 Adelaide Crows
10 Richmond
10 Essendon
9 Saint Kilda
8 Geelong
7 Carlton
7 Kangaroos
4 West Coast
3 Port Adelaide
2 Hawthorn
1 Brisbane
1 Fremantle
1 Melbourne
1 Western Bulldogs

I stress, this is totally subjective, unscientific speculation. But none the less I think it is reasonably accurate.

Collingwood fans in Sydney turn out in droves to watch Swans v Pies games, as I said here many months ago I usually find one of these guys next to us and I have to say in all honesty I enjoy their wit and knowledge of the game enormously.

The Crows is hardly a surprise, Sydney is packed full of ex-pat South Aussies who all show up in force, also there is a significant amount of the same that now barrack for the Swans as well.

The rest, fairly predictable, the big Melbourne clubs are well supported up here, The Carlton figure is a pure guess-ti-mate because it has been so long since Carlton played at the SCG...

Other comments :

Port Adelaide commands more support than either Hawthorn, Melbourne or the Doggies.

Saint Kilda's large and colourful fan base extends to Sydney as well.

The Kangaroos support is actually going backwards ... (sorry Roo fans)

 

[Gonzo]

BSA

Yeah fair enough

How many blank looks or don't knows or who cares would you get?

My guess would be there would be a fair proportion (just going on personal experience - have been doing a bit of work out of Sydney for the past couple of months)

and would tend to agree with the Roos comment (which coming from Kangas man is a bit of shame really!!)

Cheers

Gonzo

 

[Bloodstained Angel]

Just to follow up on BMDs very pertinent points he has raised.

Dead right - most Sydney people could not name a team in the SFL to save themselves.

and most imporatntly of all, BMD is also absolutely correct in saying the overwhelming majority of Sydney people don't follow football of any kind at all.

The big sports here in Sydney are things like fishing, golf, sailing, turf, tennis and salt water sports like swimming, surfing, etc.

Sydney is very different to Melbourne, football (any code) is not such a big deal here.

The weather and the closeness of the people to great beaches and harbours means that when it comes to sport, Sydneysiders prefer to PARTICIPATE in things like fishing, boating and swimming. In terms of being a SPECTATOR, Sydney people would be found at the track watching the horses just as much as any other big spectator sport.

Thats why crowds at the Soccer, Basketball and Rugby may seem strangely small to you Southerners.

To put it in a nutshell - we would rather be at the beach mate !

cheers

 

[Bloodstained Angel]

Gonzo

To get 100 positive responses, I would have to interview about 300 people.

 

[hawkforce]

Eat SHIT!

One billion flies can't be wrong!

Or...

to put it another way...

pathetically lay claim to being part of the "largest group" the "most supported".

Bunch of school yard bullies desperate to prove they are "in" with the "happening" crowd.

Of all football's vagaries this is the one I find most interesting. Carlton are above this need to justify (of all "big" clubs they have the lowest crowds) comfortable in their corporate background.

Essendon are desperate to claim the title, but it smacks of pitiful whinging ("look at the stats! We're biggest! We're bigger than you!").

Collingwood, who would easily take the title of this ridiculous competition if they could field a competent team/administration, are so demoralised by their appalling lack of success that having a large (and increasingly latent) supporter base is all they can cling to. "We would be biggest... if...!". Now they are so impressed by Eddie McEgo's bluster that they forgive him for leading them to a wooden spoon and financial loss; followed by a 15th... and a financial loss!

but, because he is arrogant and full of shit, pie fans say "he is restoring us to the public eye!". Yes, we are all watching closely as they sit firmly on the bottom of the ladder.

Richmond, at least, have had the decency to retain a decent membership since '95, despite all the disappointments. But a successful season(s) will see them, no doubt, laying some pathetic claim to this fatuous "contest".

Before 1997, the most enjoyable seasons of footy I ever had was following Fitzroy from 91-93.

With the Hawks it was just a matter of turning up at finals time. But the roys were on the way out... but they were fighting every inch of the way!

THAT WAS PASSION!

And that's what we learned at Hawthorn during those terrible/wonderful/dark/exhiliarating days before and after the merger debate.

Hawthorn members saved Melbourne. NEVER LET THE MEDIA RE-WRITE THAT HISTORY!

and with any luck they will win this years GF. Joe Gutnick, at least, has integrity!

Anyone who seeks recognition through popularity is a phony. You are judged by how you face adversity.

To that cheap, gutless piece of shit with the "cats and dogs" line (Eddie Mcfailure's cheap shot I believe): I was there, processing all the membership forms from 97-99. In 1997, we released the story about several members signing their dogs up. PR. God, we needed every cent we could get!

The board changed policy the next year and we could only register a membership to registered people. This was BEFORE the AFL made it a requirement.

Meanwhile Essendon GAVE AWAY 3000 junior memberships (all clubs did this but the next highest GIVEN total was about 1500).

In 1999, McEgo claimed to have sold 1000 memberships at the Hawks/Pies opening game. This was quite possibly the most ridiculous and fraudulent claim EVER by this fraud of a man.

But we get the cheap shots... just like North, bulldogs, saints etc...

You are beneath contempt with this school-yard attitude.

You will never... ever... know true passion until you rid yourselves of this immaturity.

 

[Groucho]

Surely this poll just reflects NSW as the most populous state and not the Swans as the most popular team. I mean if you took a poll about Rugby League teams' popularity I'm sure Storm would be way up there but not many people give a damn about them down here.

 

[Rooboy 96]

Hawkforce, I am with you buddy, they have no idea, and never will...

 

[Bloodstained Angel]

All polling is total bullshit

How can the answer to a highly loaded question by 1000 or so people mean anything else than the answers given by those 1000 people ?

We are all individuals after all and everyone's opinion is different.

 

[Joel]

Hawkforce I agreed with the majority of what you said, however on the Eddie McGuire thing. How at all is this guy a failure? He is self made! However I don't blame the last two seasons on Eddie. If you had a look at our list from 2 years ago (even last year) there have been an amazing amount of changes with the youngsters coming through. I promise you will begin to see the fruition Eddie's efforts within about 2 years (prob 2002). Alot of the team has played less than 25 games.

 

[Don]

The Morgan poll is about 1200 people per weekend 52 weeks of the year and is accurate.

Sydney easily hyas the larget supporter base, easily as the poll suggests.

If you look at the Swans currrent membership most of it comes from the area of Eastern Sydney close to the SCG.

A little success could see awesome support

 

[Tim]

If you look at the poll (see the Roy Morgan web-site) they asked first whether people followed the AFL. Of those who said yes (54% of people) they then asked which team do you support - you can bet a lot of Sydney people said No and were eliminated at this stage. The numbers for Sydney are "harder" than you are giving credit for. Using attendances doesn't help much - the average at this year's trough was around 23,500 but that just indicated that SCG members and many Swans members weren't at the games. Also, remember the games are LIVE on TV in Sydney. What would Essendon's home crowd average be if they only played interstate teams and all the games were live on TV? A better indicator of the true Swans support will come when they have regular access to Homebush with a capacity initially of 110,000 then reduced to 72,000 in 2004. Depending on how it is marketed (ie if memberships < $300) then you may be in for a surprise. It is easy to forget that the Newcastle/Sydney/Wollongong basin has around 5.5-6 million people. If only 1% of them became a Swans member that would be 55,000 or so.

 

[dees01]

They never asked me!