Gather Round for SA - 2024, 2025, and 2026 Announced

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16.04.23

GATHER ROUND SOUTH AUSTRALIA
AFL LOCKS IN SA FOR NEXT THREE SEASONS


The AFL in partnership with the SA Government is pleased to announce ‘Gather Round…. A Festival of Footy’ will be hosted in South Australia for the next three seasons.

The inaugural ‘Gather Round’ has been an overwhelming success, with all nine games sold out, more than 220,000 fans attending matches across the Adelaide Oval, Norwood Oval and Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills and tens of thousands of fans attending the footy festival on the banks of Torrens.

More than 60,000 fans purchased tickets from interstate.

Across 2024, 2025 and 2026, Gather Round …. A festival of footy will be hosted exclusively in South Australia, with Adelaide Oval to be the central venue, with the intent from both the AFL and the SA Government to take regional matches in 2024 to the Barossa / McClaren Vale region.

As part of the three-year term, both the AFL and SA Government have also committed to establishing a community football legacy fund, that will benefit local footy clubs in the state beyond the weekend of matches.

The AFL will lock in the fixture dates of the round in the coming weeks to give fans as much lead time as possible to book travel and accommodation.

Ticketing information will be release later in the year.

“South Australia really turned it on. Gather Round and all the activity across the state, the nine matches, the footy festival and the community football engagement has been some of the best days and events the AFL has ever delivered,” AFL Chief Executive Gillon McLachlan said.

“It has been a success because everyone in football got behind the idea, clubs, players, corporate partners and most importantly our fans, to deliver an extraordinary few days,

“While the concept has real momentum, and we plan on taking it to other states around the country, we also feel in order for it to be as successful in the other states we need to continue to build out the concept in South Australia,

“The reality is we only had a few months to pull this together, and we hope by locking it in now we are giving everyone a longer runway to put together a bigger and even better event, and our fans certainty around booking travel and accommodation.

“The match at Mount Barker was a special afternoon on Saturday and an important part of recommitting to South Australia was to establish the community legacy fund, ensuring local footy clubs’ benefit from bringing the Gather Round to town.”

During the round the AFL has facilitated dozens of community club and school visits, held seminars for community club volunteers and delivered more than 10,000 footballs to regional community clubs.

Details on the Community legacy fund will be communicated at a later date.

“On behalf of the AFL I want to thank to Premier Malinauskas and his team in the SA Government who in partnership, delivered an unbelievable few days for footy and the state of South Australia.”

The AFL will also work with the AFLPA on the commitments to the players.

“The players have been strong partners in the Gather Round concept and have embraced wholeheartedly the round. We will now work with the AFLPA on the commitments to the players in the coming years.”

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said “The inaugural Gather Round has been a stunning success, in no small part thanks to the willingness of South Australians, and our interstate visitors, to show up.
“We know that this has delivered huge benefits for our state, and that is why I’m so pleased to see it return for the next three years.”

“With more time to plan, we know we can make Gather Round even bigger and better than what it has already become.”

“I want to thank Gillon McLachlan, the AFL, wider footballing community, public servants, councils and others who’ve all worked so hard to deliver such an amazing event in just a few months.”

“But most of all, I want to thank each and every person who showed up.”

“This agreement is because of you.”
 

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Bad idea by the AFL I reckon. Novelty will wear off pretty quickly and you'll have half full stadiums by 2026.

Should be every second year and move it around. Could get state government's to bid on it.
Yeah I would've gone Sydney next year (cause they didn't host a GF same as Adelaide), then Brisbane in 25, Perth in 26, Hobart/Launceston 27 when the Devils team comes in. Oh well.
 
Would’ve been great if they’d gone on an alternate host bidding cycle instead of anchoring it down for 3 years. Coming from QLD, I’ve been to the last 2 magic rounds and will be attending a third this year but it does begin to get stale. The saving grace is I’m in my 20s and it’s a good excuse to go crazy for a weekend. Avoiding the same pitfalls as the NRL would’ve been great.

Personally I would’ve gone:
Sydney 2024
Perth 2025
QLD 2026
Tasmania 2027

Give the other states a chance to have a footy festival of their own instead of falling to the same issues the Grand Final has.
 
I think this is the AFL letting SA help itself. The SA government were looking for some certainty to commit to investing into better infrastructure. There really is only Adelaide Oval in this state that has seating for more than a couple of thousand people.

Hopefully by 2026, Norwood Oval has a face lift and there is some permanent infrastructure in the Barossa, Hills and Fleurieu so AFL can be hosted there in the future without having to build temporary structures. Would be great for the regions and football in SA. By then, Thebarton Oval should also be up and running as the Crows facility and should also be an excellent venue for the boutique AFL games, state league and AFLW.

Queensland and NSW already have a few decent venues and have had handout after handout to get going. Not to mention the extra players SA develop to go to filling squads in other states.

WA are in the same boat as SA. At least they had the Grand Final last year.

It is about time the AFL gave something back to SA. By 2027 and onwards though, I think rotating will be the way to go.
 
I haven’t seen any complaints about the Adelaide Oval turf, even with the rain on Saturday.

Would that suggest only using 2 ovals, with a split of 5:4 games could work in the future, from a playing surface perspective?
 
I think this is the AFL letting SA help itself. The SA government were looking for some certainty to commit to investing into better infrastructure. There really is only Adelaide Oval in this state that has seating for more than a couple of thousand people.

Hopefully by 2026, Norwood Oval has a face lift and there is some permanent infrastructure in the Barossa, Hills and Fleurieu so AFL can be hosted there in the future without having to build temporary structures. Would be great for the regions and football in SA. By then, Thebarton Oval should also be up and running as the Crows facility and should also be an excellent venue for the boutique AFL games, state league and AFLW.

Why would the AFL, or anyone for that matter, want AFL standard stadiums in country SA where nobody lives? There isn't even a SANFL side close to any of these areas. Mt Barker was a nice venue appropriate for the area with a heap of temporary stands added for the occasion. And Mt Barker is a lot bigger than anywhere else suggested.
 

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Bad idea by the AFL I reckon. Novelty will wear off pretty quickly and you'll have half full stadiums by 2026.

Should be every second year and move it around. Could get state government's to bid on it.
You will be 100% wrong and underestimate the pulling power of AFL footy in SA and Gather Round will go from strength and after the 3 years in Adelaide it can de rotated among other states!
 
Would’ve been great if they’d gone on an alternate host bidding cycle instead of anchoring it down for 3 years. Coming from QLD, I’ve been to the last 2 magic rounds and will be attending a third this year but it does begin to get stale. The saving grace is I’m in my 20s and it’s a good excuse to go crazy for a weekend. Avoiding the same pitfalls as the NRL would’ve been great.

Personally I would’ve gone:
Sydney 2024
Perth 2025
QLD 2026
Tasmania 2027

Give the other states a chance to have a footy festival of their own instead of falling to the same issues the Grand Final has.
The AFL could have two Gather Round fixtures in different cities each year one early in the season and one late in the season if they wanted to.
 
The AFL could have two Gather Round fixtures in different cities each year one early in the season and one late in the season if they wanted to.
Only if they add an extra round, otherwise you're dipping into clubs playing 11 home and 11 away. That will never change and I cannot for the life of me think why some people say we should go to clubs playing 20 games a year if there's a 20th team. That's not going to happen, clubs don't want to lose a home game.
 
Only if they add an extra round, otherwise you're dipping into clubs playing 11 home and 11 away. That will never change and I cannot for the life of me think why some people say we should go to clubs playing 20 games a year if there's a 20th team. That's not going to happen, clubs don't want to lose a home game.
If we go to 19 teams, you can just add an extra round for Gather, you have to have an even. Number of games, so we have to add 19 extra games or add none. So, we either scrap Gather Round, find seven or eight clubs willing to sell their home game, or add 19 extra neutral games.
 
If we go to 19 teams, you can just add an extra round for Gather, you have to have an even. Number of games, so we have to add 19 extra games or add none. So, we either scrap Gather Round, find seven or eight clubs willing to sell their home game, or add 19 extra neutral games.

I hadn't thought of that but that is correct. Almost certainly we will be moving to 24 games I would have thought
 
I hadn't thought of that but that is correct. Almost certainly we will be moving to 24 games I would have thought
There is also a way to do the fixture so that you only add one week to the season and still have the pre-finals bye. You would start Labour Day weekend. You then have to wait until all teams have played each other once (after Rnd 19), then you schedule the last six games with the top 12 teams having the bye in Rnd 26. No team has ever made the finals from 12th or lower with six games to go. GF would still be the last Saturday in September except Oct 1 every seventh season. If you stagger each clubs byes across the season, and still want a pre-finals bye, you have to add two weeks, which means either starting the season in Feb, or ending in October.
 
am i right in saying SA premier has committed to ground upgrades in this term of govt following the weekends frolic?
 
am i right in saying SA premier has committed to ground upgrades in this term of govt following the weekends frolic?
Yes - the day before the formal announcement, I heard the SA Premier say they were committed to developing boutique stadiums for hosting AFL games in McLaren Vale and the Barossa (like the Adelaide Hills, both prime tourist areas on the edges of the metro area), but they would need the Gather Round locked in for at least 3 years to justify the expenditure.
 
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There is also a way to do the fixture so that you only add one week to the season and still have the pre-finals bye. You would start Labour Day weekend. You then have to wait until all teams have played each other once (after Rnd 19), then you schedule the last six games with the top 12 teams having the bye in Rnd 26. No team has ever made the finals from 12th or lower with six games to go. GF would still be the last Saturday in September except Oct 1 every seventh season. If you stagger each clubs byes across the season, and still want a pre-finals bye, you have to add two weeks, which means either starting the season in Feb, or ending in October.

That's interesting as well

Obviously the tough sell is the complete draw reset in the last 6 weeks.
 
Would’ve been great if they’d gone on an alternate host bidding cycle instead of anchoring it down for 3 years. Coming from QLD, I’ve been to the last 2 magic rounds and will be attending a third this year but it does begin to get stale. The saving grace is I’m in my 20s and it’s a good excuse to go crazy for a weekend. Avoiding the same pitfalls as the NRL would’ve been great.

Personally I would’ve gone:
Sydney 2024
Perth 2025
QLD 2026
Tasmania 2027

Give the other states a chance to have a footy festival of their own instead of falling to the same issues the Grand Final has.

I was thinking this was the idea, but clearly the SA government has bribed the AFL (sorry, 'supported the game') enough to sway their minds.

I'll be curious to see if interest holds up in year 2/3/4 and what they'll do to help it along.
 

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