- Jul 19, 2010
- 25,526
- 62,794
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
Come on, you know we have a say - the past 18 months has happened because we have a say - bums on seats.
Here's an example:
West Coast have an average attendance at Subiaco of 36840 since 97. In their last season that they made a GF pre Perth Stadium (2015) their average Subiaco attendance was 35987. In their lean years of 08-10, their average Subiaco attendance was 37653, 36377 and 34931 respectively. They finished 15th, 11th and 16th in those years (out of 16 teams).
Adelaide's average attendance at Football Park was 39640 since 97. In the last season we made the finals during the Footy Park era (2012) our average was 36829. The following year, with a 10/12 record our average was 33613. We finished 1 game out of the 8.
My point being that West Coast have bottomed out a few times in their history, retained the support of their fans, and bounced back to win flags not long after. Adelaide fans have been more fickle, dropping off as soon as it looks like we are not going to make the 8.
I contend that our club's unwillingness to bottom out has been commercially driven, as a result of fans not turning up when the team is sh*t. As a result, we are always "around the mark" but lack the currency to draw in top players. Our good times have been on the back of some astute (lucky) mid round and rookie picks. The fans have driven this, because it is clear that we dont turn up when our beloved team is out of contention.
Is it possible that Adelaide fans are their own worst enemy? If we want the club to focus on football, should we do out part when the team is not competitive? Im playing devil's advocate a bit here, but I think a cursory look at these numbers does add some weight to this perspective.
How do you know fans drop off if we’ve never bottomed out? I don’t think that 2013 stat is a big enough sample size...
I don’t have the stats to back this up (I’m sure someone here does) but I’d say our members are some of the most loyal in the comp, especially considering what they’ve got to be loyal about - which let’s face it, isn’t much.