2025 Attendances

[The_Wookie]

11.12.2024

Gather Round tickets snapped up in record time


The AFL is pleased to announce that more than 195,000 Gather Round…Festival of Footy tickets have sold… with five of the nine games sold out, 20,000 more than this time last year.

Member on sale on Tuesday saw a significant uplift in demand for tickets this year, selling more than 100,000 tickets in the first four hours, in comparison to the same amount in 24 hours last year.

This year there are an extra 47,000 tickets on offer for fans with the two Saturday matches being ticketed separately.

Tickets still remain for Collingwood vs Sydney Swans on Friday night, Carlton vs West Coast on Saturday afternoon, Melbourne vs Essendon on Saturday night and a very limited number of restricted view tickets and tickets for the Pepsi Collective for Port Adelaide vs Hawthorn on Sunday evening.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said it was clear Gather Round momentum was not slowly down.

“The demand for tickets this year was significantly higher than the first two Gather Rounds, with more than 195,000 tickets being purchased in the first two days,” said Mr Dillon.

“A ticket to the matches at the Barossa Park was always going to be one of the hottest tickets in town and the fans have certainly illustrated that by selling out both matches so quickly.”

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said: “Gather Round continues to exceed all expectations.

“We are honoured that so many footy fans from around the country are making the commitment to travel to our beautiful state to experience this event like no other.

“They’ll be truly welcome.

“If you haven’t got a ticket already – get in quick!”

Tickets for the remaining matches can be found here.

 

[ep12]

Wouldn't ensuring that Collingwood plays Carlton twice come under engineering the fixture?

Sorry edited to add the word not in, posting on a 6am flight lol

 

[The_Wookie]

17.03.25

ROUND ONE BECOMES THE HIGHEST ATTENDED ROUND OF FOOTY OF ALL-TIME

The AFL is thrilled to announce that Round One of the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season has broken the record of the highest ever attended round with 431,505 fans attending matches across the weekend.

It is only the fifth time in history more than 400,000 fans have attended a single round.

The average attendance in Round One was 47,945.

Thursday night kicked off with the third consecutive crowd of over 80,000 for the opener between Carlton and Richmond, marking the eighth time in history this match has delivered a crowd of 80,000 plus in Round One.

The 80,735 fans who attended the Hawthorn vs Essendon match up was the highest ever home and away crowd between these two clubs. The previous best was 78,294 in 2017, while Sydney and Brisbane saw their Grand Final rematch reach 34,906, the largest crowd between these two clubs in 19 years.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon thanked fans who came out in such huge numbers across Round One.

“Round One and all nine matches is always such an exciting time for all our clubs, and we are so thankful for all the fans turning out in record numbers,” Mr Dillon said.

“The clubs do so much work connecting with their fans and making the matches must attend events and on behalf of the AFL I want to thank all the fans, venues, broadcasters and clubs for giving us a Round One for the history books."

Top 10 attended rounds all-time

1. Rd 1 2025 - 431,505
2. Rd 1 2024 – 413,405
3. Rd 7 2024 - 408,433
4. Rd 8 2024 - 403,452
5. Rd 1 2017 - 400,401
6. Rd 3 2018 - 393,537
7. Rd 1 2023 – 392,248
8. Rd 5 2017 - 391,980
9. Rd 5 2018 - 381,880
10. Rd 1 2019 – 380,789

 

[Air_Chester]

it doesnt take much though. Have WCE v GC in QLD and the record doesn't get broken.

And if my aunty had balls she’s be my uncle.

The afl engineers the fixture enough already, enough is enough. Fair contests (ie all teams start the season in the same week, not making sure Collingwood plays Carlton twice) should be promoted above engineering large crowds for commercial sake. It will never happen but it would be nice.

I don’t think knowing which teams play in round one makes any difference - you’re playing a game you’d be playing either way, and it’s not affecting the break between games or the travel.

Return fixtures are a different thing.

 

[Rabman]

431,505 for Round 1, absolutely smashing the record set last year of 413,405.

Quite an achievement when you consider the inclement weather for the Geelong and Melbourne games (and the terrible scheduling of Melbourne-GWS in general).

So I think we can lock in Carlton-Richmond, Essendon-Hawthorn, Sydney-Brisbane, North-Dogs.

Now if we just switch the others to Melbourne vs St.Kilda, Collingwood vs Geelong, and then a combo of GCS vs. WCE, Fremantle vs Port and Adelaide vs GWS (rotating so there’s always one in WA, SA and either NSW/QLD) I think we’ve got the perfect round one combination to maximise crowds.

I would have no issue whatsoever with locking down round one on that basis, keep it going for five years and then review it.

I don’t think it’s fair that clubs like Adelaide and West Coast have to cop playing the expansion clubs because Victorian fans still fail to realise it’s a national competition.

 

[Air_Chester]

I don’t think it’s fair that clubs like Adelaide and West Coast have to cop playing the expansion clubs because Victorian fans still fail to realise it’s a national competition.

It’s got nothing to do with “Victorian fans”, the suggestion was how to maximise the attendance, and WCE and Adelaide will draw well against expansion clubs (as clearly evidenced this weekend).

Adelaide can play Geelong and Collingwood can play GWS, or you can do Adelaide-WCE and GCS-GWS if it soothes your fragile ego.

 

[gopies1981]

Bulldogs v Collingwood should easily be the biggest home and away crowd the bulldogs have played in front of. The biggest crowd the doggies have played in front of is 68,744 v Richmond in 1974. The bulldogs are still the only Victorian club to not play in front of 70,000 during the home and away season. Considering it’s a bulldogs home game celebrating 100 years in the vfl/afl the crowd will be 75-80,000! My prediction is 78,000. Hopefully the doggies members turn up in full force.

 

[Cmarsh]

Bulldogs v Collingwood should easily be the biggest home and away crowd the bulldogs have played in front of. The biggest crowd the doggies have played in front of is 68,744 v Richmond in 1974. The bulldogs are still the only Victorian club to not play in front of 70,000 during the home and away season. Considering it’s a bulldogs home game celebrating 100 years in the vfl/afl the crowd will be 75-80,000! My prediction is 78,000. Hopefully the doggies members turn up in full force.

Unfortunately there is a bit of rain forecast for Melbourne during the day. Hopefully doesn't deter too many.

 

[kranger]

The bulldogs are still the only Victorian club to not play in front of 70,000 during the home and away season.

North Melbourne are only in that club twice, both are against Collingwood in 1994.

Bulldogs are unfortunate that Collingwood have tended to play their home games against Bulldogs at Marvel and not the MCG.

 

[MattF185]

It’s saying only 0-1mm of rain on Friday. Let’s hope it cracks the 70k mark. Anything over that would be great!

Hard to know what Carlton v hawthorn gets. Carlton home game. Thursday night. Perhaps low 60’s? If it was a Friday night or Saturday I would expect 68-72k.

 

[Hawkk]

It’s saying only 0-1mm of rain on Friday. Let’s hope it cracks the 70k mark. Anything over that would be great!

Hard to know what Carlton v hawthorn gets. Carlton home game. Thursday night. Perhaps low 60’s? If it was a Friday night or Saturday I would expect 68-72k.

Difficult to know. Does Thursday Night actually impact early season matches?

Only comparable games I can think of is St Kilda v Collingwood (69,517 in round 3) Melbourne v Brisbane (43,098 in round 6) and Carlton v Melbourne (58,472 in round 10) last year

Of those games, St Kilda v Coll was the fourth biggest for that fixture (and biggest since 2010), Melbourne v Brisbane was a record and Carlton v Melbourne was about 10,000 short of the 2023 record (a de facto elimination final) but bigger than any other Melb v Carl game for more than 25 years.

In 2023, Geelong and Carlton drew 55,861 in round 2, despite Carlton and Richmond (88,084) and Collingwood and Geelong (86,595) drawing 85k. Playing Geelong on a Thursday Night would have to be the worst possible scheduling and that game was down on 68,208 who attended in mid-2022.

The last three Carlton v Hawthorn games drew 66,317, 66,337 and 84,773 (all late season and day games). So it probably should get 70,000 as a pass for a round 2 games - but the variable is the weather and how deflating round 1 was for Carlton.

Ticket sales are pretty good - wasn't demand in the AFL members higher for this games than Haw v Ess a few weeks ago? The public demand and MCC is a bit less. Its a designated away game for Hawthorn (like last year) so that usually helps push up these marquee games with walk ups.

 

[Hawkk]

Bulldogs v Collingwood should easily be the biggest home and away crowd the bulldogs have played in front of. The biggest crowd the doggies have played in front of is 68,744 v Richmond in 1974. The bulldogs are still the only Victorian club to not play in front of 70,000 during the home and away season. Considering it’s a bulldogs home game celebrating 100 years in the vfl/afl the crowd will be 75-80,000! My prediction is 78,000. Hopefully the doggies members turn up in full force.

Looks like heaps of public seating has been sold. Big variable would be MCC members surely - the Dogs have the smallest MCC following amongst the 12 VFL clubs. The AFL members will sell given Collingwood’s massive following there. Given this, anything above 75,000 would be enormous - but I think it'll get there.

 

[Underarm]

Difficult to know. Does Thursday Night actually impact early season matches?

Probably not as much as losing last week did. Game could have pushed 80k...

 

[manicmagpie]

Looks like heaps of public seating has been sold. Big variable would be MCC members surely - the Dogs have the smallest MCC following amongst the 12 VFL clubs. The AFL members will sell given Collingwood’s massive following there. Given this, anything above 75,000 would be enormous - but I think it'll get there.

I'm a bit less confident in this being huge at the moment. I don't think the back sections of the top level of any public stand have been put on sale as of yet.

The AFL members is going really well - a few bays ahead of Haw/Ess but a few bays behind Rich/Carl. The MCC turnout for Coll/Port was very sparse so I can only think it will be better this week.

At this stage the crowd looks like it should be better than Coll/Port but is well behind Haw/Ess and Rich/Carl. I'm just aiming for a record Bulldogs crowd and anything more being a bonus.

 

[dave10]

I'm a bit less confident in this being huge at the moment. I don't think the back sections of the top level of any public stand have been put on sale as of yet.

The AFL members is going really well - a few bays ahead of Haw/Ess but a few bays behind Rich/Carl. The MCC turnout for Coll/Port was very sparse so I can only think it will be better this week.

At this stage the crowd looks like it should be better than Coll/Port but is well behind Haw/Ess and Rich/Carl. I'm just aiming for a record Bulldogs crowd and anything more being a bonus.

Yep. Gut feel is anything starting with ‘7’ is more than acceptable. Weather permitting. It should draw every Dog and Pies bouncing back was critical to ensuring they turn up to an away game. I’m thinking somewhere in the low 70’s.

Blues / Hawks will be impacted to a degree by Thursday night. Anything over 70,000 would be a good crowd surely.

 

[BallaratBulldog]

In a way it’s hard to believe North vs the Dogs in 1998 drew 68,000 at the G.

Would be nice to play a home game or two there each year given we have to play home finals there.

 

[BallaratBulldog]

Yep. Gut feel is anything starting with ‘7’ is more than acceptable. Weather permitting. It should draw every Dog and Pies bouncing back was critical to ensuring they turn up to an away game. I’m thinking somewhere in the low 70’s.

Blues / Hawks will be impacted to a degree by Thursday night. Anything over 70,000 would be a good crowd surely.

I do think there is some caution due to our injuries. Which still are piling up from the weekend.

 

[Hawkk]

I'm a bit less confident in this being huge at the moment. I don't think the back sections of the top level of any public stand have been put on sale as of yet.

The AFL members is going really well - a few bays ahead of Haw/Ess but a few bays behind Rich/Carl. The MCC turnout for Coll/Port was very sparse so I can only think it will be better this week.

At this stage the crowd looks like it should be better than Coll/Port but is well behind Haw/Ess and Rich/Carl. I'm just aiming for a record Bulldogs crowd and anything more being a bonus.

Looking at the centenary games, North Melbourne really drew the short straw.

W Bulldogs v Collingwood Rd 2 MCG Fri
Hawthorn v Richmond Rd 9 MCG Sun
North Melbourne v Geelong Rd 21 Marvel

Hawthorn and North are playing their first VFL opponents (the Hawks almost 100 years to the day), whilst the Dogs just went for the biggest club (surely Brisbane - first opponent or Melbourne (GF win) makes more sense)

It would have been nice for North to get an MCG home game - they were an MCG tenant for 17 years and invented night football. North have actually played more games at the MCG (356) than Marvel (259)

 

[Sammoll]

Hard to know what Carlton v hawthorn gets. Carlton home game. Thursday night. Perhaps low 60’s? If it was a Friday night or Saturday I would expect 68-72k.

Hard one to predict. Ticket sales look good so it’ll depend on how many Carlton members are taking the week off after last week’s humiliation. Back to back Thursdays certainly doesn’t help, especially for those with kids.

BOM also predicting a “High chance of showers, most likely in the afternoon and evening” and “ The chance of a thunderstorm in the afternoon and evening”, which won’t help.

I think the Hawks being up and about will help - General Admission tickets have already been sold out for a few days now for example.

 

[Hawkk]

Hard one to predict. Ticket sales look good so it’ll depend on how many Carlton members are taking the week off after last week’s humiliation. Back to back Thursdays certainly doesn’t help, especially for those with kids.

BOM also predicting a “High chance of showers, most likely in the afternoon and evening” and “ The chance of a thunderstorm in the afternoon and evening”, which won’t help.

I think the Hawks being up and about will help - General Admission tickets have already been sold out for a few days now for example.

A month before the Hawks next round of MCG games (Easter Monday into the 100-year Richmond game) which should…