Play Nice 2024 AFL and State League Attendance

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Is ten tickets a little over generous for a match up that drew 87K to a final in 2016?

Only game in Melbourne will ensure 94+ I’d assume.



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That's just the in-theory public tickets.

Every chance all or most of the tickets get sold out before it even gets to that stage as club members can take one additional ticket per barcode
 

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Is ten tickets a little over generous for a match up that drew 87K to a final in 2016?

Only game in Melbourne will ensure 94+ I’d assume.



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94k would sit with Pies vs Footscray 1956 prelim final, which is currently the third highest ever crowd for the Dogs.
 
Gonna be an absolutely cracking game the dogs v hawks, both a bit unlucky they're meeting each other in week 1 coz both would have gotten through to a prelim i think.
 
Collingwood ended up with the highest home attendance and set a new home record (no Gather Round matches included, not even Port or Crows):

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One of the rarer sights in AFL crowd stats - someone other than Collingwood ended up top for Away crowds - Carlton pip them by just 4k, the first time Carlton have been top of this stat since 1987:

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3 new entries into the Top 50 H&A club tallies:

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  • Collingwood with the 2nd highest season ever, just missing last year's record by around 17k
  • Collingwood's season the highest by a team missing the finals, breaking that record by over 250k
  • Carlton's highest ever total and the highest by anyone other than Collingwood, beating Richmond in 2018 by over 80k.
  • Essendon also broke the previous record for a non-finals season
  • Richmond didn't make the top 50 but did record the highest total for a wooden spooner
We are in a golden age for Melbourne-based crowds - especially at the MCG.

From the Hawthorn perspective, that includes four of their top 20 ever home and away crowds (three from round 15 onwards) - and six (of nine MCG games) inside the top 40.

2024 was a pretty terrible fixture for the Hawks (two games vs Richmond, but only one (at the MCG) vs Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, and Geelong). Nine games at the MCG (average 63,153, but two less than the three-peat era), no Friday Night games (it's been five years since Hawthorn had an MCG Friday Night game), plus Sunday twilight games vs the Swans, North, and the Dogs (both at Docklands), but the Melbourne-based crowds ramped up in the second half of the year.

So, to draw just under 940,000 with four games in Tassie, plus games at Manuka, Carrara, and Kardina Park (which is the new norm), and the 0-5 start was pretty good.

With a decent draw, I think Hawthorn stands a pretty good shot at getting 1 million or more supporters through the gates next year - and as I've said before, I'm pretty confident that they can and will become the fifth Victorian team (the fifth Beatle) to draw 1 million plus through the gates regularly when they bring most of those games home.

Next year, I would love to return to MCG games against Essendon and one of Geelong, Carlton or Collingwood. It's been years and years since the Hawks have had return fixtures against their biggest rivals (not impacted by Covid).

A strong Hawthorn playing MCG home and away games is fantastic for the Big 4—it turns a lot of 55,000 to 65,000 attendances into 70,000 to 80,000 attendances.
 
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Collingwood set a new record average vs teams from a different state:

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This set me on a path to see how all clubs are tracking since Port entered and Fitzroy/Brisbane merged.

Here is a graph and table of the top two teams each year. This shows how the upper range has tended to be between 35-50,000, but Collingwood have really lifted it this season.

IMG_5049.png

And here is everyone, broken into groups of 6.
IMG_5050.png

IMG_5052.png
IMG_5051.png
 
I think people are forgetting that this will be the Dogs' first final in Melbourne since the 2016 Grand Final.

Likewise, Hawks have not played a Melbourne final since 2018, and they last won a final in Melbourne in 2015.

Combined with these two teams arguably being the form teams of the competition over the last 3 months ... everything is set up.

If we take the very simple assumption that both teams' ordinary supporters will have the highest attendance above and beyond a typical H&A game, that's 80,000+ right there.

I can see there not being a huge crowd if there's other reasons. I remember the 2016 elimination final being more or less split despite Hawthorn being the bigger crowd simply because their fans already had significant opportunity to watch Melbourne finals across the previous 5 years, including the previous week.

Dogs crowds have been good this year and an average, typical home game is getting thousands more than an average game for the Dogs in the modern era.

As the only game in Melbourne, throw in AFL membership (tickets are only $23 for them) and MCC and this will get 90,000+ in my view.
 
I think people are forgetting that this will be the Dogs' first final in Melbourne since the 2016 Grand Final.

Likewise, Hawks have not played a Melbourne final since 2018, and they last won a final in Melbourne in 2015.

Combined with these two teams arguably being the form teams of the competition over the last 3 months ... everything is set up.

If we take the very simple assumption that both teams' ordinary supporters will have the highest attendance above and beyond a typical H&A game, that's 80,000+ right there.

I can see there not being a huge crowd if there's other reasons. I remember the 2016 elimination final being more or less split despite Hawthorn being the bigger crowd simply because their fans already had significant opportunity to watch Melbourne finals across the previous 5 years, including the previous week.

Dogs crowds have been good this year and an average, typical home game is getting thousands more than an average game for the Dogs in the modern era.

As the only game in Melbourne, throw in AFL membership (tickets are only $23 for them) and MCC and this will get 90,000+ in my view.

It would need a massive MCC and AFL membership-neutral membership.

Hawthorn is fifth for MCC and AFL members, but the Dogs are 10th (behind North).

I'm not ruling it out, but finals attendances don't necessarily draw more than home and away games. There are lots of examples of big home and away games outdrawing finals - in 2013 and 2014, the Hawks and Cats drew 80,000 and 85,000 to home and away games but just 85,500 and 75,000 to finals in both seasons.

That said, that was before the golden age of MCG finals - it should match 2016
 
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It would need a massive MCC and AFL membership-neutral membership.

There's only going to be 2 games in Melbourne prior to the Grand Final and this matchup is as enticing as any final will be this season. Can't see there being any seats left in the AFL Members at all.
 

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Don't forget most of the crowd were Bulldogs fans in 2016 against the Hawks.

Whether they were Dogs fans or every single neutral fan in the country, I’d guess that pretty much every non Hawthorn fan was anti ‘Fourthorn.’

That 2016 Dogs team had enormous momentum and sentiment (a bit like the 1987 Dees or the 1997 Saints). Had the Hawks won that night it would have been like killing bambi (same with the Swans in the GF)

Its pretty unusual for Hawthorn to be somewhat likeable - that said, I can see this current team become deeply unlikeable if success comes.

The line between ‘brash’ ‘cocky’ and ‘arrogant’ is pretty close.
 
We are in a golden age for Melbourne-based crowds - especially at the MCG.

From the Hawthorn perspective, that includes four of their top 20 ever home and away crowds (three from round 15 onwards) - and six (of nine MCG games) inside the top 40.

2024 was a pretty terrible fixture for the Hawks (two games vs Richmond, but only one (at the MCG) vs Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, and Geelong). Nine games at the MCG (average 63,153, but two less than the three-peat era), no Friday Night games (it's been five years since Hawthorn had an MCG Friday Night game), plus Sunday twilight games vs the Swans, North, and the Dogs (both at Docklands), but the Melbourne-based crowds ramped up in the second half of the year.

So, to draw just under 940,000 with four games in Tassie, plus games at Manuka, Carrara, and Kardina Park (which is the new norm), and the 0-5 start was pretty good.

With a decent draw, I think Hawthorn stands a pretty good shot at getting 1 million or more supporters through the gates next year - and as I've said before, I'm pretty confident that they can and will become the fifth Victorian team (the fifth Beatle) to draw 1 million plus through the gates regularly when they bring most of those games home.

Next year, I would love to return to MCG games against Essendon and one of Geelong, Carlton or Collingwood. It's been years and years since the Hawks have had return fixtures against their biggest rivals (not impacted by Covid).

A strong Hawthorn playing MCG home and away games is fantastic for the Big 4—it turns a lot of 55,000 to 65,000 attendances into 70,000 to 80,000 attendances.

I was looking at the hawks on Instagram yesterday and they actually have more followers than we do which shocked me.

I think they definitely got a whole heap of new fans during their 4 peat. Having Franklin helped there too. I have two mates from overseas that adopted them, one Indian and one Irish, so I think they definitely sit 5th now in the Vic clubs, but with perhaps a higher theatre goer percentage, due to many being recent fans to the game.
 
10 is standard for all MCG games/finals. Beats buying two lots of five.
Geelong and port members can buy 2 tickets per membership;

Sydney and gws members can buy one ticket per membership;

Brisbane and Carlton is one ticket per member;

Hawthorn and western bulldogs 2 tickets per member.


I’ll be surprised if there’s any tickets available to general public for the mcg match.
 
Geelong and port members can buy 2 tickets per membership;

Sydney and gws members can buy one ticket per membership;

Brisbane and Carlton is one ticket per member;

Hawthorn and western bulldogs 2 tickets per member.


I’ll be surprised if there’s any tickets available to general public for the mcg match.
Or any of the matches. Maybe Port.
 
Or any of the matches. Maybe Port.
Port had 45.5k at their SF vs GWS last year, coming off a bad loss to Brisbane in the QF the week prior. QFs typically draw more than a SF and Geelong will have a lot more support than GWS, so I'm hopeful that this match should be pretty close to 50k.
The only concern for any game in Adelaide is if rain is forecasted due to the entire hill end being exposed.
 
Geelong and port members can buy 2 tickets per membership;

Sydney and gws members can buy one ticket per membership;

Brisbane and Carlton is one ticket per member;

Hawthorn and western bulldogs 2 tickets per member.


I’ll be surprised if there’s any tickets available to general public for the mcg match.
2 per barcode, but 10 in the transaction. So 5 members+5 guests.
 
Port had 45.5k at their SF vs GWS last year, coming off a bad loss to Brisbane in the QF the week prior. QFs typically draw more than a SF and Geelong will have a lot more support than GWS, so I'm hopeful that this match should be pretty close to 50k.
The only concern for any game in Adelaide is if rain is forecasted due to the entire hill end being exposed.
Surely enough Port Members can park their unjustifiable hatred of Kenny to rock up and support their club and actually sell this one out?
 
The scg seems to be down to single seats only within an hour of public release.

You can still get two tickets together in Adelaide, but you can’t get four.

8:30 update: looks like no sseats remaining in Sydney at all,while Adelaide is now down to single seats
 
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The scg seems to be down to single seats only within an hour of public release.

You can still get two tickets together in Adelaide, but you can’t get four.

8:30 update: looks like no sseats remaining in Sydney at all,while Adelaide is now down to single seats
The fact that there is no contract between Stadium Aus and the AFL anymore aside, seems a move to a bigger capacity ground than the scg if available would have been more than justified.
 

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