Stadium Capacity vs Crowds

[Gydafud]

As a bit of an exercise to learn some new things in Excel, I decided to compare crowds at home games by a team against the capacity of the stadiums they are playing in. Each club has a maximum possible total home crowd size they could attain in a year, and I thought it would be interesting to see which teams had most butts in seats after 3 rounds, and which team was leading the way to max capacity.

After Round 3


Progress towards total possible home crowd size


Obviously crowd sizes are assisted by the match-up, and some grounds are smaller than others, but this is not meant to be a comment on a club and their drawing power, just a statement of the facts. Hopefully all my formulas are working correctly to display the correct numbers, and if people are interested in seeing how it unfolds, I can do weekly updates.

 

[Righteo]

GC not playing at their home ground until rnd 11 makes this a bit problematic. Maybe just exclude them altogether until then?

 

[Gydafud]

GC not playing at their home ground until rnd 11 makes this a bit problematic. Maybe just exclude them altogether until then?

Yeah fair point. I didn't even consider that. Might just reduce their "home" totals.

 

[BallaratBulldog]

This would be more fun at the end of a season in a world where there wasn't club medallion and afl members etc areas stopping the possible attended total.

 

[ChrisHunt313131]

As a bit of an exercise to learn some new things in Excel, I decided to compare crowds at home games by a team against the capacity of the stadiums they are playing in. Each club has a maximum possible total home crowd size they could attain in a year, and I thought it would be interesting to see which teams had most butts in seats after 3 rounds, and which team was leading the way to max capacity.

After Round 3
View attachment 482318

Progress towards total possible home crowd size
View attachment 482317

Obviously crowd sizes are assisted by the match-up, and some grounds are smaller than others, but this is not meant to be a comment on a club and their drawing power, just a statement of the facts. Hopefully all my formulas are working correctly to display the correct numbers, and if people are interested in seeing how it unfolds, I can do weekly updates.

Great information!

 

[Pessimistic]

Hawks play games at the G and only Richmond has a bigger proportion of supporters at the stadium

 

[jim boy]

Bit early in the season for this - Adelaide for example has played only the one home match, and that was a grand-final rematch, so not exactly a cross section

 

[Kwality]

stretch those Xcel skills & add a comparison of stadiums,

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

We haven't actually played at Spotless yet, and it won't be available for a couple of more rounds yet.

 

[theyellowsash]

The problem with this comparison is that it's much easier to 80% fill a 50k stadium in a 2-team town than it is to 80% fill a 100k stadium in a 10 team town.

Also I find it interesting all the whining in the MCG thread where WA supporters are claiming to be bigger than everyone else, yet they can't fill their brand new 50k stadium

 

[Kwality]

The problem with this comparison is that it's much easier to 80% fill a 50k stadium in a 2-team town than it is to 80% fill a 100k stadium in a 10 team town.

Also I find it interesting all the whining in the MCG thread where WA supporters are claiming to be bigger than everyone else, yet they can't fill their brand new 50k stadium

In what respect is this comparison a problem for you?
You'll find there is more than one way to compare anything ... maybe even here

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

The problem with this comparison is that it's much easier to 80% fill a 50k stadium in a 2-team town than it is to 80% fill a 100k stadium in a 10 team town.

Also I find it interesting all the whining in the MCG thread where WA supporters are claiming to be bigger than everyone else, yet they can't fill their brand new 50k stadium

That's unfair
It was teething trouble with the GA numbers so there's some capacity for casual attendance.

 

[juss]

Two team towns with 50-60k stadiums should be packing out each week. And in SA/WA they are.

Also, two Vic clubs should not have trouble filling Etihad, but it looks like many do.

 

[Gydafud]

Bit early in the season for this - Adelaide for example has played only the one home match, and that was a grand-final rematch, so not exactly a cross section

I noticed that as well so I added the column for home games played after I had done most of the table for the rolling update. Wanted to get the bulk of it set up so I could just pump in crowd numbers and that was all. Thought I would share the progress now anyway

stretch those Xcel skills & add a comparison of stadiums,

That might be another way to cut it and just take the total crowds and not tieing it to teams. I'll try add that next.

We haven't actually played at Spotless yet, and it won't be available for a couple of more rounds yet.

Have played a home game at Canberra though. It's hard to distinguish between home games and home ground, as a few clubs play a bigger (or smaller) stadiums based on their opponents. Thought I would keep it simple and just use a blanket rule of "home game" against each team, as they all get 11 of those.

This would be more fun at the end of a season in a world where there wasn't club medallion and afl members etc areas stopping the possible attended total.

Also reserve seat members not attending, or ticket holders not showing up. No team will be at 100% and there is no real way to remove the AFL/MCC/Stadium members from the total crowd reports.

 

[theyellowsash]

In what respect is this comparison a problem for you?
You'll find there is more than one way to compare anything ... maybe even here

The comparison is a problem because you can't statistically compare vastly different situations without accounting for context. A better comparison would be comparing attendance against membership. In this system, stkilda would win if they decided to host every home game at punt road cause 5000 would turn up and fill the 'stadium'

 

[Pessimistic]

Or create a board called "post your selective stats to bignote your team" would be half of bigfooty

 

[Gydafud]

The comparison is a problem because you can't statistically compare vastly different situations without accounting for context. A better comparison would be comparing attendance against membership. In this system, stkilda would win if they decided to host every home game at punt road cause 5000 would turn up and fill the 'stadium'

That is generally the assumption, same with the WA/SA clubs filling their stadiums. I was just curious to see how it plays out over a stadium. Would be nice if stadiums or clubs released "members attendance" figures though, but I wasn't trying to draw a comparison to loyalty of members/supporters or anything, just the straight comparison between home games and max attendance.

 

[Augustine]

I think this is important info. A full stadium looks great on Tv and creates a great atmosphere at the ground.

Recently I watched part of an NRL game between St George Illawarra and Newcastle at Win Stadium in Wollongong. A friend who doesn’t watch that much sport commented “wow there’s lots of people there.” (Every seat was full)

In reality there was only 18,500 people there. Now putting aside the fact that that’s actually a decent crowd for NRL, the sold-out smaller stadium gave the perception of a big crowd.

Put the same crowd at Etihad or MCG and it looks awful. You’d comments like from people like my friend “wow not many people there”.

The perception of a fun, colourful atmosphere and the perception of big crowds is almost as important the actual crowd number.

It’s disapponting that the boutique 30k stadium in Melbourne idea has seemingly been dropped. I think the sizes of the new stadiums in Adelaide and Perth are perfect.

 

[Brunswick Trap King]

The problem with this comparison is that it's much easier to 80% fill a 50k stadium in a 2-team town than it is to 80% fill a 100k stadium in a 10 team town.

Also I find it interesting all the whining in the MCG thread where WA supporters are claiming to be bigger than everyone else, yet they can't fill their brand new 50k stadium

Are you trying to pre-empt that Richmond's percentage will decrease rapidly as soon as they play a non-Victorian club at home?

And it's 60k, not 50k.

 

[turbo182]

Or create a board called "post your selective stats to bignote your team" would be half of bigfooty

Or Perhaps, encourage all of your members to actually show up to your games?

 

[Pessimistic]

Or Perhaps, encourage all of your members to actually show up to your games?

not to mention the MCC and AFL members - great empty spaces while fans have to squash into the top deck. stadium seating is well farked all round

anyway, come on guys - get to games!!!!

Happy now?

 

[maskmcgee]

Idea is flawed for Victorian clubs, as if Essendon was hosting Anzac day this year ours could quite possibly be higher than 100%

 

[footyfan1978]

Yeah fair point. I didn't even consider that. Might just reduce their "home" totals.

Plus Fremantle got a disgraceful 12th home game. Compromising the whole ladder even more than it already is. If they ended up 8th and some team 9th within one win of them, with only 11 home games, people will catch on how disgraceful it is.

 

[Augustine]

Plus Fremantle got a disgraceful 12th home game. Compromising the whole ladder even more than it already is. If they ended up 8th and some team 9th within one win of them, with only 11 home games, people will catch on how disgraceful it is.

I wouldn’t go there. How many away games do Victorian teams get at their own home grounds? SA and WA teams get one per season.

 

[footyfan1978]

I wouldn’t go there.

I am, 12 home games is a disgrace when 16 others have only 11.
If I am West Coast Eagles on 12 wins and Frematle finish in 8h spot on 13 wins and less percentage and Eagles miss finals, s**t will hit fan, as it should. But it should be hitting fan already but most fans totally asleep, like Augustine not getting it.