2023 Crowds and TV/Streaming

[dave10]

Some intriguing fixtures this week at the home of football. Blues fans definitely are not happy and that will affect the crowd number. Tigers have won a couple games in a row and Saints are up and bout in 2023. Could be a 50,000 crowd possibly!

Carlton v Gold Coast @ MCG = 27-30 k

Richmond v St Kilda @ MCG = 47-50 k

I think you’re under cooking the Tigers / Saints one. I’m pretty sure the Tigers have been promoting this heavily with late season membership promotions to get them over 100K again. It’s also Cotchins 300th game, Tigers have won two in a row and remain a finals threat. Saints back on winners list. Weathers fine. I may be off the mark here, something tells me this feels like an ~60,000 type fixture. Tigers contributors, am I off the mark here?

Blues / Suns depends on the weather of the day. It feels like your typical low 23-25K Marvel crowd, being at the MCG I will say 25-28K so you will be close with your prediction here. I will go with 27,000 too.

 

[largebus]

Remember last year when crowds were at their lowest level in years and people were blaming the umpires?

Never mind lifting the early capacity restrictions and the lessened COVID apprehension, the uptick is obviously all down to the umpiring all magically improving!

 

[manicmagpie]

Mcc level 4 was 3/4 full too thanks to people reserving tickets and then walking up on level 1.

How do you do that though?

Give more seats to general public and cut club/afl members allocations a fraction and they have to sign up- certain amount and first in first served.

If the MCC situation is as described above, this needs to change. You can't continue to have a system that lets you reserve a 'lesser' seat then decide to move down to a better one if it's vacant. If the MCC wants to preserve the idea of walking up even in huge games they have to make the walk up seats the top deck only.

 

[Underarm]

I think you’re under cooking the Tigers / Saints one. I’m pretty sure the Tigers have been promoting this heavily with late season membership promotions to get them over 100K again. It’s also Cotchins 300th game, Tigers have won two in a row and remain a finals threat. Saints back on winners list. Weathers fine. I may be off the mark here, something tells me this feels like an ~60,000 type fixture. Tigers contributors, am I off the mark here?

Maybe. All crowds are up significantly this year so its definitely possible. Its usually 50-55k, but theres very few examples of Richmond home games to base it off.

 

[Underarm]

If the MCC situation is as described above, this needs to change. You can't continue to have a system that lets you reserve a 'lesser' seat then decide to move down to a better one if it's vacant. If the MCC wants to preserve the idea of walking up even in huge games they have to make the walk up seats the top deck only.

Which was the old system, and everyone was complaining because no one was walking up to sit in row AA in the MCC.

And the same thing happens in the General public/AFL members. People who stand every game are forced to buy a level 4 seat.

 

[The_Wookie]

THE AFL is pleased to announce the four millionth attendee of the 2023 Toyota AFL Premiership Season passed through the gates over the round 13 weekend.

4,207,137 fans have attended rounds 1–13, which is 205,088 more than the record-breaking season of 2019 (4,002,049). This is only the second time in history that cumulative attendance has surpassed four million by round 13.

A total round attendance of 347,636 made round 13 this year the highest attended AFL Home and Away round 13 on record, ahead of 2009 (311,584).

Round 13 saw the number of 80,000-plus attended matches move to eight, with 2023 now holding the record for the most 80,000-plus crowds in an AFL Home and Away season (surpassing the seven matches in 2013).

Sunday night's Carlton v Essendon match (83,638) and Monday's Melbourne vs Collingwood match (83,578) are now the sixth and seventh most-attended matches of 2023, with yesterday 'Big Freeze' crowd the highest-attended Melbourne v Collingwood match in the Fight MND era, and only the second time in 50 years the match-up has exceeded 80,000 attendance.

Top 10 attended matches across opening 13 rounds of 2023

• 95,179 Collingwood vs Essendon, MCG (Rd 6)
• 88,084 Richmond vs Carlton, MCG (Rd 1)
• 86,595 Geelong vs Collingwood, MCG (Rd 1)
• 85,241 Collingwood vs Richmond, MCG (Rd 3)
• 83,985 Melbourne vs Richmond, MCG (Rd 6)
• 83,638 Carlton vs Essendon, MCG (Rd 13)
• 83,578 Melbourne vs Collingwood, MCG (Rd 13)
• 80,534 Carlton vs Collingwood, MCG (Rd 10)
• 78,300 Essendon vs Richmond, MCG (Rd10)
• 71,463 Collingwood vs Sydney Swans, MCG (Rd 8

 

[manicmagpie]

I think this will be the first year that 4 teams all draw over 1 million people through the gates. The closest we've come previously is 2013, when Carlton were less than 19k away from joining Collingwood, Essendon and Richmond.

• Collingwood will challenge the overall record of 1,306,141 (touch and go)
• Essendon will challenge their record of 1,169,551 (probably just fall short)
• Richmond and Carlton are harder to predict as they could fall away from finals contention but Richmond could easily end up over 1.1 million and even a pessimistic prediction for Carlton has them comfortably over the 1 million mark.

1 million plus in a season:

 

[Our Game]

Dreamtime.

Wookie, What was the AFL TV ratings total for the long weekend?

 

[dave10]

I think this will be the first year that 4 teams all draw over 1 million people through the gates. The closest we've come previously is 2013, when Carlton were less than 19k away from joining Collingwood, Essendon and Richmond.

• Collingwood will challenge the overall record of 1,306,141 (touch and go)
• Essendon will challenge their record of 1,169,551 (probably just fall short)
• Richmond and Carlton are harder to predict as they could fall away from finals contention but Richmond could easily end up over 1.1 million and even a pessimistic prediction for Carlton has them comfortably over the 1 million mark.

1 million plus in a season:
View attachment 1711795

Assume this excludes the Gather Round figures which distorts the home / away crowd aggregates and averages. Moreover, The Carlton and Essendon outcome would be a terrific result given they only play 7-8 games per year at the MCG as opposed to the Tigers / Purs up to 14 games I think.

Comparison of the clubs is loose at best due to home game venues arrangements. Interesting all the same though.

 

[The_Wookie]

Wookie, What was the AFL TV ratings total for the long weekend?

Code	Round	Attendance	Average		Round	FTA Matches	Cons 7 Total	VOZ ON Total	VOZ Cons Total	Hours Viewed
AFL	1	392,248	43,583		1	9	5,785,380			14,463,450
AFL	2	373,541	41,505		2	9	5,033,424			12,583,560
AFL	3	359,456	39,940		3	8	5,104,136			12,760,340
AFL	4	362,144	40,238		4	7	5,489,622			13,724,055
AFL	5	268,287	29,810		5	7	5,673,292			14,183,230
AFL	6	357,461	39,718		6	9	6,640,582			16,601,455
AFL	7	335,565	37,285		7	7	4,254,350	3,016,350	3,044,350	10,635,875
AFL	8	283,670	31,519		8	7	4,333,650	4,329,650	4,351,650	10,834,125
AFL	9	315,505	35,056		9	7	3,780,522	3,699,522	3,811,522	9,451,305
AFL	10	313,076	34,786		10	9	4,699,352	4,684,352	4,771,352	11,748,380
AFL	11	270,432	30,048		11	9	4,397,310	4,247,310	4,302,310	10,993,275
AFL	12	228,746	32,678		12	6	3,742,338	3,640,338	3,787,338	9,355,845
AFL	13	347,643	43,455		13	8		5,883,784		2,936,960

 

[gopies1981]

If the MCC situation is as described above, this needs to change. You can't continue to have a system that lets you reserve a 'lesser' seat then decide to move down to a better one if it's vacant. If the MCC wants to preserve the idea of walking up even in huge games they have to make the walk up seats the top deck only.

I Think the situation can easily be solved. Make top level of the Olympic stand, GSS and ponsford stand all for GA walk up including for mcc and afl members. Anzac Day would be the only all ticketed game. It upsets a lot of fans when they have sellouts at the mcg and the crowds are between 78-88,000. The stadium holds 100,000 so these sellout s really should be getting 90,000 at a minimum.

If the afl don’t fix this issue of sellout’s at the mcg will be between 80-85,000

 

[dave10]

I Think the situation can easily be solved. Make top level of the Olympic stand, GSS and ponsford stand all for GA walk up including for mcc and afl members. Anzac Day would be the only all ticketed game. It upsets a lot of fans when they have sellouts at the mcg and the crowds are between 78-88,000. The stadium holds 100,000 so these sellout s really should be getting 90,000 at a minimum.

If the afl don’t fix this issue of sellout’s at the mcg will be between 80-85,000

That’s not easily achieved presently. Essendon for example, sell members reserved seats in the front ~12 rows of Q49-55 and Q6-16 for home games. Reverting to members seating bays may be a solution although that would be a tough conversation with reserved seat members.

 

[Pedantic]

Does anyone know why there were a couple of bays in the southern stand on level 4 at the Punt Road end that were completely unsold?

Also why don't they sell the restricted view seats near the scoreboard on level 4 in the Olympic stand for games like this? May as well put them up for say $20 clearly labelled restricted view, someone would take them.

 

[Pedantic]

Remember it was a Melbourne home game and that would cost at least 5000 compared to it being a Collingwood home match!

Would it? Probably the sparsest part of the ground was level 4 of the Ponsford which I believe is Collingwood members (even worse than the AFL and MCC members). Would they be any more incentivised to come if it was a Collingwood home game?

 

[gopies1981]

Would it? Probably the sparsest part of the ground was level 4 of the Ponsford which I believe is Collingwood members (even worse than the AFL and MCC members). Would they be any more incentivised to come if it was a Collingwood home game?

I actually think if it was a Collingwood home game it would have been smaller due as Melbourne don’t get many fans to away games.

Last year the crowd was 76,000 and Melbourne probably had around 15,000 fans at that game. Melbourne home game and they draw 30-35,000 as per yesterday.

Issue is that the smaller clubs like Melbourne, st.kilda, bulldogs and north on the public holiday games would draw 30-35,000 fans as the home team (maybe except for north as they would draw 25,000 max). But away games they would draw around 10-15,000.

Big clubs like collingwood would draw minimum 40,0000 as the away team on public holiday’s and would draw upwards of 60-65,0000 as the home team

 

[gopies1981]

That’s not easily achieved presently. Essendon for example, sell members reserved seats in the front ~12 rows of Q49-55 and Q6-16 for home games. Reverting to members seating bays may be a solution although that would be a tough conversation with reserved seat members.

They need to do something especially with teams such as collingwood, Richmond, Carlton and Essendon. Best solution is for home game member with reserved seats they get given the first two levels of the Olympic stand and and the first 3 levels of the gss stand baring Collingwood who get the entire ponsford and then give them the first 3 levels of the gss. The top level needs to be GA walk up. MCC and afl members should open up any remaining seats to general admission the Monday prior to the weekend games for any unsold seats.

Another way they could do this is for any fully ticketed game the reserve seat holder has to pay a $5.00 seat hold fee. If they don’t pay the fee then the seat goes to general admission the Monday prior to the game. Below are the games that were notified as a sellout at the mcg.

Collingwood v Essendon 95,000
Richmond v Carlton 88,000
Geelong v Collingwood 86,000
Collingwood v Richmond 85,000
Melbourne v Richmond 84,000
Carlton v Essendon 83,000
Melbourne v collingwood 83,000
Carlton v Collingwood 80,000
Essendon v Richmond 78,000

Apart from Anzac Day the other games should have reached 90,000 people.

There are two games that should become a sellout for this year collingwood v Geelong and Essendon v Collingwood. Both games should get 90,000 but with the current situation you would probably get 85,000

 

[Our Game]

Code	Round	Attendance	Average		Round	FTA Matches	Cons 7 Total	VOZ ON Total	VOZ Cons Total	Hours Viewed
AFL	1	392,248	43,583		1	9	5,785,380			14,463,450
AFL	2	373,541	41,505		2	9	5,033,424			12,583,560
AFL	3	359,456	39,940		3	8	5,104,136			12,760,340
AFL	4	362,144	40,238		4	7	5,489,622			13,724,055
AFL	5	268,287	29,810		5	7	5,673,292			14,183,230
AFL	6	357,461	39,718		6	9	6,640,582			16,601,455
AFL	7	335,565	37,285		7	7	4,254,350	3,016,350	3,044,350	10,635,875
AFL	8	283,670	31,519		8	7	4,333,650	4,329,650	4,351,650	10,834,125
AFL	9	315,505	35,056		9	7	3,780,522	3,699,522	3,811,522	9,451,305
AFL	10	313,076	34,786		10	9	4,699,352	4,684,352	4,771,352	11,748,380
AFL	11	270,432	30,048		11	9	4,397,310	4,247,310	4,302,310	10,993,275
AFL	12	228,746	32,678		12	6	3,742,338	3,640,338	3,787,338	9,355,845
AFL	13	347,643	43,455		13	8		5,883,784		2,936,960

The new VOS measuring method total of 5,883,784 for round 13 is impressive.

 

[Bjo187]

The new VOS measuring method total of 5,883,784 for round 13 is impressive.

Indicative of when you have stand alone games for once. Makes a massive difference and inflates the numbers significantly.

 

[collingwood23]

We could be seeing a lot of very healthy crowds over the next 3 rounds. Fixture looks great! Some games to lookout for are definitely tigers vs saints, Collingwood vs Adelaide and Essendon vs port Adelaide.

 

[dave10]

We could be seeing a lot of very healthy crowds over the next 3 rounds. Fixture looks great! Some games to lookout for are definitely tigers vs saints, Collingwood vs Adelaide and Essendon vs port Adelaide.

For most of these fixtures, formlines aside, it comes down to weather conditions given the games highlighted are at the MCG, often at night and in Winter. Could be some big swings either way

 

[brad]

You can't double dip for seats already sold as much as you want to fill the stadiums. People who buy a one off reserved seat can decide not to attend a game for various reasons and leave the seat/s free. It is not just home club members who are no shows on the day.

Clubs won't have a bar of just having GA on the top decks as they'd miss out on a lot of revenue.

 

[hawkers10]

My crowd predictions for the Round:
Port vs Geelong: 38k
Brisbane vs Sydney: 24k
Giants vs freo: 8k
Richmond vs saints: 51k
Carlton vs suns: 27k
North vs dogs: 26k

 

[collingwood23]

My crowd predictions for the Round:
Port vs Geelong: 38k
Brisbane vs Sydney: 24k
Giants vs freo: 8k
Richmond vs saints: 51k
Carlton vs suns: 27k
North vs dogs: 26k

Almost bang on I just recon that saints vs saints will be a bit closer to the 60k mark

 

[Billy ray]

Almost bang on I just recon that saints vs saints will be a bit closer to the 60k mark

Both supporters bringing exactly 30k each?

 

[Our Game]

Both supporters bringing exactly 30k each?

It is a Richmond home game so 60K is possible depending on the weather.