Strategy What should the AFL do with gather round?

[Lavender Bushranger]

Who actually benefits out of it apart from the SA Govt, the local SA businesses & the two SA clubs ??

Don't they pay the AFL to host it?

 

[ep2018]

Low key surprised a long term deal hasn't been offered and signed already between the SA government and the AFL.

Are they hoping WA step in with an offer and force SA to offer more money for it? Or maybe they genuinely want to move it to opening round and have NSW/QLD host it.

 

[Cleric]

Driving around the city on Thursday and Friday and its full of people walking around in football tops, hats and scarves. It really is a football festival, and not just a round with all teams playing in the same state. There would have to be a large number of visitors from interstate for sure.

 

[Dan26]

I am genuinely confused as to why this gather round is supposed to be a good thing. Maybe for the South Australian tourist board it is.
Why is playing half the games at exposed windy suburban grounds to relatively small crowds improving the spectacle.
For me this has been the worst round for entertainment as a tv viewer.
Alfs answer to Glastonbury or Woodstock but with 100000 less people through the gates than last week. Totally expect to be gaslit by the afl saying what an amazing success it’s been. Shitter product is not success in my book.

Exactly. The media have fallen in love with it and by extension the public has too, despite there being NO genuine reason to even have it. I've never seen a good argument for why it exists. It's good for the S.A economy, sure, but that's not the AFL's responsibility.

• It further compromises and already compromised fixture.
• it gives two teams an extra home game they don't deserve.
• it adds an unnecessary 23rd match further diluting an already long season (there should be less matches not more)
• Apart from the Adelaide Oval, it's played at crappy grounds that are low capacity and not up to AFL standard.
• It's played in the most dominant AFL market (per capita) in the country, so it's not as if it "grows the sport" which you could loosely justify were it played in NSW or Qld.

I think it started in Super Rugby, and the NRL went with it also, which makes some sense because those sports average half of what the AFL crowd average is. Those sporting leagues can play double-headers or triple headers featuring games that would ordinarily get 16,000, and pack Suncorp Stadium with double header events to get a full house. Makes sense.

The AFL is "close" to the second-highest crowd-drawing league in the world behind the NFL. I think it might now be 4th behind the NFL, EPL and Bundesliga, but it's pretty close to equal second. It doesn't need all the teams playing in one city to create an event. There are regular 70,000+ crowds during the season anyway. Even West Coast, with their struggles, pack out Optus Stadium every second week. We have big events, by virtue of the fact that it is a huge crowd drawing league.

The AFL doing Gather Round therefore, is as stupid and non-sensical as the EPL or NFL doing it. Let the lower crowd drawing league do crap like this. We don't need to do it. It adds nothing, and has no purpose other than helping the South Australian economy.

 

[dees arent rabble]

Who actually benefits out of it apart from the SA Govt, the local SA businesses & the two SA clubs ??

Labor government would have there grubby hands out

 

[Cleric]

Do it in South Australia AND in Perth AND in Queensland AND in Sydney.

4 Gather Rounds would be great.

Not sure about that, but the concept is working and what the AFL does to get maximum benefit from it I guess is the question.

 

[HavUEvaSeenTheRain]

There seems to be a lot more negativity here in this thread than the general consensus amongst the media/players, coaches and people who go to gather round.

Bigfooty is abit like talkback radio. It attracts a disproportionate amount of negative people, whingers and sooks.

 

[Angus Young]

Move it a city that has things happening.

 

[jdeezy]

Who actually benefits out of it apart from the SA Govt, the local SA businesses & the two SA clubs ??

The shitload of fans who have come over here and get to go to a few games, have some festival pop ups (Norwood food and wine fest is great fun) and just enjoy the vibe of people enjoying the city?

Have you been to one?

 

[Westend]

Exactly

Airlines have dynamic pricing.

The league will announce when gather rd is before the fixture. I'm unlikely to fly over and spend 4 days there. I'd do 2-3, by the time the exact games are out, demand has forced prices higher than I"m willing to spend.

I'd drive to Melbourne or Sydney but not Perth/Brisbane so I can wait for that.

But Perth is logistically nearly impossible.

bullshit

 

[Quinz]

I think it's great. Looks like great fun as a neutral fan.

This year they've struggled a bit with making the match ups good though. Playing the grand finalists against last year's bottom two just seems really stupid. And the two home teams playing Carlton and St Kilda?

 

[HairyO]

Well then

Get yourself a decent city that can host a Gather Round.

ITs not decent if you have to pay millions for the AFL to allow it.

 

[SC_Power]

ITs not decent if you have to pay millions for the AFL to allow it.

How much does any city pay any sport to host it? Even the AFL Grand Final.

Seriously, not one of your smarter comments.

 

[420]

WA is not going to work. You cannot drive there. Nobody is going to get a week off work + the weekend to go and watch a game of footy.

Flights from Adelaide are already $750

If the financially-illiterate cannot make it to WA GR, then they can wait until its back in SA

 

[secondary]

It works perfectly in SA. Looks like a great vibe and just a generally fun weekend.
What's the actual point of it? Maybe just take an unbiased look at how successful it's been, how many people are going and enjoying it?
Not everything needs to have hard and fast rules of why it should exists.
It's clearly a very fun event, something the AFL has struggled to succeed in much lately.

 

[Tandy]

Happy with it in Adelaide as it’s working. Everyone loves it. They could move it every few years as a once off just to spread the love. It would work in Perth of course and I think in Tassie. But the risks are will enough people show up with it in Brisbane (new stadium, Carrara, Sunshine Coast). Townsville and cairns are too far away and defeats the whole “gather” part. Likewise in regional vic. One game in Albury, Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong. It’s all too far apart. Melbourne would be uninspiring.

27: adel
28: tas
29: adel
30: adel
31: perth
32:adel
33:adel
34: Brisbane
35: adel
36: adel

 

[Former Decathlete]

SA 2027-2030
Tassie 2031-2034
Qld 2035-2038
Perth 2039-2042
Repeat

 

[Former Decathlete]

Happy with it in Adelaide as it’s working. Everyone loves it. They could move it every few years as a once off just to spread the love. It would work in Perth of course and I think in Tassie. But the risks are will enough people show up with it in Brisbane (new stadium, Carrara, Sunshine Coast). Townsville and cairns are too far away and defeats the whole “gather” part. Likewise in regional vic. One game in Albury, Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong. It’s all too far apart. Melbourne would be uninspiring.

27: adel
28: tas
29: adel
30: adel
31: perth
32:adel
33:adel
34: Brisbane
35: adel
36: adel

Agree but forget Tassie until 2031.

 

[craffles]

I’m ok with it, SA is a sports mad state, the whole region gets behind it and creates a carnival type vibe. I’m not sure it has a permanent shelf life as I don’t think any other states are really that viable and it will get long in the tooth after a while but may as well milk it for all it’s worth now commercially and give sports mad South Aussies an event.

We are a national competition and celebrating footy in one of the heartlands that doesn’t get much love is brilliant for me.

 

[Dirty Bird]

Move it a city that has things happening.

But then we hear the Victorian excuses of 'we didn't go to the footy because there's so much other stuff to do'

 

[Dirty Bird]

bullshit

You saw it with WWE Elimination Chamber.

Dynamic Pricing lead to flights and accommodation being too high. They couldn't sell out the stadium.
It's why when they went back with Crown Jewel last year they took it to RAC Arena instead.

If 50k coming causes those problems, how will you cope with 150k?
I repeat, logistically nearly impossible.

Can't cope there, how do you think it'll cope with even more.

 

[Dirty Bird]

I think it's great. Looks like great fun as a neutral fan.

This year they've struggled a bit with making the match ups good though. Playing the grand finalists against last year's bottom two just seems really stupid. And the two home teams playing Carlton and St Kilda?

St Kilda actually made sense.
But I feel Adelaide should've played Richmond or North Melbourne.

After 4 years

SA vs Carlton (2)
SA vs Essendon, Melbourne, Geelong, Hawthorn, St Kilda, Western Bulldogs (1)
SA vs Collingwood, North Melbourne, Richmond (0)

Was sharing it around so no team had to deal with the perceived disadvantage (Though, I'm sure one can use statistics to say it's actually advantagous to play the SA teams in Gather Rd)

 

[Chuckie357]

Bigfooty is abit like talkback radio. It attracts a disproportionate amount of negative people, whingers and sooks.

Typeback radio?

 

[LordLucifer]

The shitload of fans who have come over here and get to go to a few games, have some festival pop ups (Norwood food and wine fest is great fun) and just enjoy the vibe of people enjoying the city?

Have you been to one?

Sorry, suggesting the event had a "vibe" makes me zone out.

 

[Pistol Night]

But then we hear the Victorian excuses of 'we didn't go to the footy because there's so much other stuff to do'

We can go to the strippers after the game