AFL is on the decline - the younger generation is just not that into you

[Feraligatr]

I dunno

I'm a a gen Y'er (27 years old, female) and Live and breathe the game at the top level. I have a Richmond 3121 membership and an AFL membership so I can go to as many games as I can. Watch games on Foxtel, absorb footy media, read this board religiously.

I think you can't blanket statement that the younger gens are losing interest because it's like all things, it peaks and ebbs in cycles, but support will always be there.

 

[Firestarter]

Fake news, old timer. The code is the #1 in Aus and has never been so rich.

Its like people who think back to childhood and wish they could go back. Yeah it was easy and fun but you had no money, alcohol or credit cards.

People always tell me how kids shows these days have gone to the dogs and they need to go back to how they were in the 90s. Well thats cool until you actually go and watch a 90s kids show and realise its actually shit.

People reckon 80s footy was the golden era but the skill of the modern game is far superior.

Nostalgia is a wonderful thing but it is entirely selective and leaves out all the shit.

If you are done with AFL, goodbye.

Trust me, bub. The league's so far up its own arse and ingrained with irremovable bias and prejudice that I could start ignoring it tomorrow and not feel anything. I'm only around for my team.

Quality of the play is one thing. The mentality of the people who run it and the people who do what it takes for a paycheck (Michael Christian is the latest in a long line of scrap eaters) make it truly unbearable.

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

I find this discussion interesting. I'm pretty much in the old fogey group.

Thing is I go to a local suburban stadium a couple of k's away. That has:-

Excellent facilities
A reserves curtain raiser
AFL grade football to watch.

Nuffin to bitch about really.

 

[Billy ray]

I find this discussion interesting. I'm pretty much in the old fogey group.

Thing is I go to a local suburban stadium a couple of k's away. That has:-

Excellent facilities
A reserves curtain raiser
AFL grade football to watch.

Nuffin to bitch about really.

Curtain raiser?

 

[Craze]

Interesting thread. Well done OP.

I think AFL is well entrenched and followed by kids today. No cause for concern.

If there is a sport in great trouble, it is test cricket.

 

[Marc_Remillard]

You hardly ever see the kids playing kick to kick anymore.

True, soccer is more popular in the local school. Kids also don't wear footy colours, it's not 'cool' anymore

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

Curtain raiser?

NEAFL game before every Spotless game. I believe it's because we can. We only have 8 games a season at Spotkess and the surface is excellent, and it's only used by us in winter. Thunder and the Wanderers in summer but the surface is replaced after the show each year.

 

[Billy ray]

NEAFL game before every Spotless game. I believe it's because we can. We only have 8 games a season at Spotkess and the surface is excellent, and it's only used by us in winter. Thunder and the Wanderers in summer but the surface is replaced after the show each year.

How long before main game does it finish?
The suns sometimes have thembut there are hours amd hours between games.
Plus metricon is a cluster**** of a place to get to (no train, no parking ) and park n rides with buses dont start until close to game time

 

[blaisee]

I think the point about immigrants coming into Australia and not caring about football is also a factor.

about 190,000 came to Australia from os in 2017,

The migrants who arrived in the 1960s were from Europe ( mostly )
Alot of them lived in Collingwood, Richmond, Carlton.
They had some exposure to the tribalism of following a football code ( soccer )
They assimilated quite well ( after the first waves of racism subsided anyway )

They took to AFL much easier than the current migrants arriving from Asia and India, who are not traditional football loving nations.

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

How long before main game does it finish?
The suns sometimes have thembut there are hours amd hours between games.
Plus metricon is a cluster**** of a place to get to (no train, no parking ) and park n rides with buses dont start until close to game time

Traditionally it's an hour. Bit shorter this year and there was announcement about pre-warm ups etc pre-season by the AFL that changed it I think. It's maybe 10 minutes difference though.
Plenty of room in the members bar, especially early so it's not a drama.

We were dead lucky with the Olympic park precinct sitting there underutilised and with train access and plenty of parking existing.

 

[Gavin Excell]

I preferred the NBA back in the 'glory days', no doubt.

However American sports still have such enormous appeal for the following reasons:

Their sports cater for the superstar players. The very nature of NFL, NBA and the MLB is that the superstars get their chance to do their thing. The slugger stands at the plate, and gets a chance.
There's no tackling in basketball, so the superstar gets his hands on the ball, and can do his thing.
The quarterback gets the ball. If he's good enough, he can do his thing.

People legitimately pay to the watch the stars play over there. I pay to watch them play! I won't necessarily care about a Yankees result, but I'd sit and watch Aaron Judge play. You should have seen the crowd at Angels stadium the other month when Ohtani pitched! It was nuts. It was all about the big superstar.

I'm a mad NBA fan, so I'd watch Steph Curry play all day long - but I'd also sit there and watch a 'neutral' game if LeBron, Russ, Harden or any of these are playing.

I couldn't care less about the result of the SuperBowl (because my team is shit and is never in it), but the big name QB is always worth watching.

American sports are still entertaining. It's certainly different to what it was back in the 80s, but they have ensured that there are still reasons for people to watch that aren't emotionally invested in the result.


And that's my fundamental issue with the AFL. It's boring. I'm still interested in the results, but I'll usually only watch the start, then flick around and if it's close in the last quarter, I'll tune back in.

American sports - yawn

 

[captain cotch 9]

Ive started to get into rugby union.
Once the rebels start to become successful they will become as popular as the storm in melbourne.
Its far more entertaining then league

 

[db swannie]

I grew up in western Sydney in the 70s, rugby league heartland. I stopped watching league back in the late 80s, started watching the Swans mid 90s, was hooked and have been watching them year in year out ever since. My kids (10 and 14) got so into the Swans last year that I bought them memberships this year. They both play Aussie rules now, my daughter had her best game last weekend, in her first year. They both look at the app every day to see what’s happening with the Swans, and they watch about 5-6 games every weekend.

Can’t speak for others, but Afl is alive and well in our household.

 

[deltablues]

I don't think that's the case.

Sport used to be tribal - then it became an industry.

It's an entertainment product. Nothing more.


Sport will always prosper, as long as it is actually entertaining.
And therein lies the problem for the AFL.

It's not tribal anymore. There's still a few loser tragics that are conned by the marketing that they're part of some army or something - but they're a dying breed.

So sport has to be entertaining, or its stuffed.

When it's tribal, no one cares what it looks like. It just doesn't matter.

But when it's not, it's got to be entertaining enough to pay to watch, ahead of other entertainment products.

This is why I fear for the AFL. They have killed off the key forward, or at least been asleep at the wheel whilst it was happening. They've removed the characters from the game.
They've allowed coaches to hijack it into a clogged up defensive mess.

It's an ugly sport to watch, with no reason to sit through a whole game. To be fair, it's actually always been a pretty ugly game - but there were other factors that you'd pay to see. Superstar players, characters. Villains. Drama.

These are all gone now.

I watch the NRL on Friday nights more than the AFL. I certainly watch the NBA ahead of the footy.
If you rip the tribalism out of the game, you'd better be sure that your product is entertaining.

Then after it became an industry it became political.

In the States the NFL is losing fans, especially in the heartland and the South, due to political/SJW posturing. Sport is escapism for the average fan. They don't need no lectures/groupthink proselytizing.

 

[SportsCentre]

I don't think the support is on the decline.
I think the broader issue is what appealed about the VFL / SANFL / WAFL / AFL etc no longer exists.
The character has gone. Every club is now a social crusader, which x 18 becomes very vanilla, and plain boring.
Clubs don't speak about their culture, they speak about their "brand".
In Victoria, kids either go to Etihad or the MCG, or Geelong down the highway. Home grounds also contributed to the character of clubs.
Footscray at the Western Oval, the wind, dimensions and mud. St Kilda at Moorabbin with the animal cage and the mud on mud of the centre square. Carlton at Princes Park, Collingwood at Victoria Park, Essendon at Windy Hill, all grounds with unique characteristics. All gone.

PS. How many weekly shows do we need to say all the same thing ad nauseam?

 

[LordLucifer]

When I was a kid in the 80’s and playing jnr footy at Aberfeldie we had 1 team for each age group, now there’s about 3 each and they aren’t alone with this sort of participation.

There's your first problem.

Go Douttas !!!

 

[Geelong Dynasty]

There's your first problem.

Go Douttas !!!

Had plenty of mates there when I was at Buckley Park

 

[LordLucifer]

Had plenty of mates there when I was at Buckley Park

Buckley Park High School ??

 

[LordLucifer]

Had plenty of mates there when I was at Buckley Park

Better let you know, I was at BPHS too.

 

[Geelong Dynasty]

Better let you know, I was at BPHS too.

What year? I just did 2 years there, year 10 and 11

 

[LordLucifer]

What year? I just did 2 years there, year 10 and 11

I'm a little older than you, Form 1 in 1971.

 

[Raging Blue]

The interest in the game has never been greater. Although, nowadays people have many more options. The game is now marketed for people's convenience. You can watch the game live at home if you choose or go to the game.

With 18 teams these days, fans can go missing more often because of lack of success. But when they start to win they come out of the woodwork. That's a bit of problem because kids hate losing all the time.

When kids get to age of 18 to 30 they have many more options like going out every Frid & Sat or travelling the world. When they have their own kids & those kids reach 5 plus they start the cycle again.

At least 98% of kids will never be good enough to play elite sport. Kids will dream early on at playing in the big time but the difference in the future will be when a kid realises he or she are not good enough, they are less likely to play mature sport. There will always be elite programs & you will always get all the elite kids playing. A bit like in the USA

I still love the game. Only thing, when will my bloody team start winning for a change.

 

[PenfoldsFan]

Im so over AFL footy, i cant even be bothered explaining why.
I only visit this site for the weekly fallout melts and the crime section.

Congrats Ed!

 

[Bostonian]

Shouldn't the stadiums be half full with young women by now?

 

[jwint43]

"AFL is on the decline because I think it is"