Yeah they're both heavily used, especially by AFL, the point I was making was not that they're under utilised. It's that Professor Know it all made a comment that the NSW is spending on 'NRL' venues of Allianz and Commbank, whereas Melbourne venues and spending on these venues are way more heavily skewed towards AFL and AFL attendance.For the years 2024 and 2025 based on total attendances divided by capacity, below is how utilised each stadium has been in that time.
This doesn.t even include concerts which would heavily favour Melbourne's stadiums, plus not a full season of cricket this year.
Stadium Capacity 2204 Total 2025 Total No. times filled Comm Alianz MCG Marvel
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Why doesn't the AFL finally put the NRL back into its place?!
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threenewpadlocks
Brownlow Medallist
But there's no moral argument for government spending on anything except the fact that people prove themselves to go to events and use the stadium and therefore spending money on stadiums that are already in demand a lot and therefore in demand for the future.
Once you throw in concerts etc. a given seat at Marvel on average is used in excess of 50 times per year, so that's why the government is/has funded upgrade. Despite you championing the 'multipurpose' element of those stadiums, all of the 'multipurpose' uses adds up to only an average bum in seat for an average seat in that stadium less than 40 times a year.
NRL doesn't have a moral case for government funding if the attendances aren't such that people aren't turning up to the stadium that makes the government funding for the stadium worthwhile.
As you can see below, these two Melbourne venues are by far and away largely AFL venues.
MCG 2023 – approximate breakdown by attendance
Marvel Stadium 2023 – approximate breakdown
MCG 2023 – approximate breakdown by attendance
| Category | Approx attendance | % of total stadium crowd* |
|---|---|---|
| AFL | ~3,319,000 | ≈ 85% |
| Other sports (cricket, rugby, etc.) | ~363,700 | ≈ 9% |
| Concerts (Ed Sheeran) | ~217,500 | ≈ 6% |
| Total (sports + concerts) | ~3,900,000 | 100% |
Marvel Stadium 2023 – approximate breakdown
| Category | Approx attendance | % of total stadium crowd |
|---|---|---|
| All sports (AFL-heavy mix) | ~1,644,000 | ≈ 86% |
| Concerts (McCartney, Styles, RHCP) | ~267,500 | ≈ 14% |
| Total (sports + concerts) | ~1,912,000 | 100% |
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The point being made is that the Sydney venues and Sydney in general has way more of a mixed sporting and event landscape and the government get bang for buck due to the variety of events able to be covered by these upgrades. So its hardly spending it just for the the NRL.
Victoria government also gets bang for its buck because they're so heavily utilised by AFL.
Hence why the victorian government and AFL are bed buddies as they help each other. The negative of this is that it continues to make AFL a very melbourne-centric view sport, despite of the expansion teams.
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Not just Marvel Stadium but GMHBA Stadium as well. Both stadiums have had millions of dollars pumped into them by the Victorian Government yet are only used for 20/20 cricket when not used by the AFL. The likes of Suncorp and CommBank are much better State Government investments as the stadiums are used for a variety of professional sports.
- Moderator
- #306
Rubbish. The only professional comp sydney has that melbourne doesnt is super rugby.
Melbourne
- 9 AFL teams (this is almost 4m in attendance in its own)
- 1 NRL team
- 3 Aleague teams
- 2 NBL teams
- 2 SN teams
- 2 BBL teams
- 1 Australian Tennis Open (this is more than 1m in attendance)
- 1 Formula One Grand Prix (this is half a million in attendance)
- 1 Mellbourne Cup
- 1 Boxing Day Test
Sydney
- 9 NRL teams
- 1 Super Rugby team
- 2 AFL teams
- 3 Aleague teams
- 2 SN Teams
- 2 BBL teams
- 1 NBL team
- 1 Everest
- 1 NY Test
All three Major Melbourne venues will host 50+ major sporting events a year. Marvels total attendance for the year is unknown, because the AFL dont publish it, but it holds more than just concerts, the AFL and BBL - its also a MAJOR conference, uni graduation and church event location due to its roof.
Rod Laver and the tennis precinct hold concerts all year round as well, just like Qudos Bank does.
The MCG gets surprisingly little funding from the government - as its funded by the AFL and cricket for the most part. Docklands was paid for in return for 20 years of grand finals, and as a condition that it was made available for major victorian sporting or other events for 30 years.
Combined the Victorian and Federal Governments have spent less on Aami Park, the MCG, Docklands and GMBHA in the last 30 years than was spent on the Allianz rebuild alone.
Macca180
Club Legend
Upset..lol. What am I upset about?
I said NRL is smart putting the GF on at prime time.
I also said if both games were on at same time wouldn't be close in terms of ratings. Just my opinion.
Maybe shocked is a better word. Shocked that the biggest game in Australia takes 6 months to sell out a Grand Final that anyone can buy a ticket too.
Surprised, shocked maybe. Not upset.
You seem upset about my opinion.
I was talking about the specific venues that were listed and in sporting reference ie Commbank, Allianz in Sydney and MCG and Marvel in Melbourne, and the fact that the Melbourne venues have way more of a skew towards hosting AFL than those Sydney venues towards NRL which was the counter point to the other poster talking about how much the NSW government spends on those NRL venues while ignoring spend to Melbourne stadiums that actually impact AFL way more directly.
Because when you consider the addition of League, Soccer, Union, you also consider the mens games, womens games, internationals etc Marvel and MCG don't have that kind of spread of usage across multiple sports. They are certainly well used stadiums though, because of AFL specifically.
In fact stadiums like Commbank and even the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium were built with soccer first mentality, league / union second.
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- May 5, 2016
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I’m not going to go and watch it if my team isn’t in it. I’d imagine many others feel the same way. I don’t think for league fans it is the ‘event’ that it is for AFL fans. Mind you, I’m a lifelong AFL fan and I wouldn’t go to watch two neutral teams play in it, either.
The nrl grand final either always sells out or practically sells out. Literally every crowd in the last decade has been 80k+ which is the practical sellout capacity for the 82k size stadium which is probably less than that ever since they installed the big wrap around screen which ate up a few rows.
If that would be the case like you think, why did nrl prelim finals outrate the afl ones that were on similar timeslots/days?
That’s comparing apples with apples.
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- Moderator
- #313
It still amuses me that the NRL genuinely believes they are the premier code, all thanks to the GF TV ratings, lol. How about club memberships and attendance numbers.
What about all the other ratings like every other final series game that the nrl outrated the AFL? It amuses me when AFL people focus purely on the gf rating and just put it to the fact that the nrl gf is on at prime time unlike the afl gf - but literally ignore all other finals.
- Moderator
- #315
My point is everything you just wrote is utter nonsense, doesnt take into account the fact that Aami Park was specifically built with the rebels and storm and victory in mind, and doesnt take into account the fact that Victorian stadium infrastructure is literally layered for the sports played there.
All three venues - MCG, Marvel, Aami Park host 50+ sporting events there per year. No Government gets better value for money out of their venues.
Anything drawing 5m through the door is goin g to skew the stadium usage in its favour. After all its more than the entire NRL season drew nationally.
Asnd you missed the point that the Victorian Government spends comparatively little on oval stadiums compared to the NSW Governments spend on a single stadium.
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- Moderator
- #316
that actually didnt address anything he wrote about crowds and memberships. Or the fact that almost every independent survey puts the AFL ahead.
It amuses me when the NRL fans constantly go on about average tv ratings like its the only thing that matters. Its not and never has been.
I agree but I’m not saying the nrl is the most popular code based on tv ratings, I’m just addressing the posts on tv ratings and its not just the gf that the nrl outrates the afl. Many posts in here that are like “if only the afl gf was also prime time then afl would be smashing the nrl tv ratings”
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- #318
And GF for GF its probably true. But any post on TV ratings stops when you think its inly average tv ratings that are relevant to the discussion, and I simply dont have time for this crap here.
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Thanks to the current forward thinking, progressive NRL administration RL adapts, evolves, sells the game and moves forward much faster than the AFL.
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- Moderator
- #321
There really isnt. and these have been the famous last words uttered before every NRL deal since 2000.
The last NRL deal was signed in 2020, the next deal will include - multiple womens origins, two new NRL teams, probably include superleague, and strong rating pacific championships/nrlw. Its also starting halfway through the current AFL deal - which also was noted during the week as probably getting some uplift due to the Origin and other bits being bolted on. With all things AND inflation, it HAS to beat the AFl deal, and no one will or should be surprised at that point.
And thats if Vlandys doesnt choke again.
Its also worth noting that the way deals are structured is they start low and finish high, they arent an average amount paid over the journey. So even if they do negotiate a bigger deal, by 2029, it may not actually be bigger on an annual basis.
sorry, I don’t understand, how can it still be lower on an annual basis by 2029 if it starts higher than the afl and also increases annually from there?
- Moderator
- #324
The overall deal may be higher than the AFLs, but the AFL will be in the 4th year of its deal. the NRL at the start of theirs. Media deals generally start at a low point and work their way up...so if the NRL negotiate a higher per year rate, to be higher than the AFL its going to have to factor in the rate they are paid in years 4-7 of the AFL deal - because it will be higher than the average.
| Year | Announced | Broadcast Paid | Inc |
| 2011 | $175,000,000 | $167,250,000 | |
| 2012 | $250,000,000 | $225,577,000 | 35% |
| 2013 | $250,000,000 | $240,674,000 | 7% |
| 2014 | $250,000,000 | $248,396,000 | 3% |
| 2015 | $250,000,000 | $256,602,000 | 3% |
| 2016 | $250,000,000 | $264,154,000 | 3% |
| 2017 | $418,000,000 | $281,028,000 | 6% |
| 2018 | $418,000,000 | $391,504,000 | 39% |
| 2019 | $418,000,000 | $397,439,000 | 2% |
| 2020 | $418,000,000 | $368,670,000 | -7% |
| 2021 | $418,000,000 | $382,647,000 | 4% |
| 2022 | $418,000,000 | $412,543,000 | 8% |
| 2023 | $466,000,000 | $460,238,000 | 12% |
| 2024 | $466,000,000 | $475,507,000 | 3% |
Thanks. I’m with you now.
I think you are a bit bullish on the nrl rights, they’ve added value and were undersold last time, but the afl deal is extraordinarily high, they will be doing very well to get $600m pa imo. Maybe after the NZ rights they’ll beat it.
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