Opinion Non-Crows AFL 6: This Is Getting Cruel

[Kane McGoodwin]

I thought the AFL's best opportunity for growth is in the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney region with the population projections in 30 years time.

It was one of the driving reasons for having these teams in the first place.

No team of any code has done well in the Gold Coast.

 

[brucetiki]

No team of any code has done well in the Gold Coast.

The Titans and Suns would be two of the longest lasting sides on the Gold Coast, which is saying something.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

The Titans and Suns would be two of the longest lasting sides on the Gold Coast, which is saying something.

It's been a sporting graveyard.

 

[CrowsB4hoes]

nobody? What about this guy? He's 1/3 of your crew. And it's been the sleeping giant since tyat Best bloke played for Liverpool.

Go to Sydney or Brisbane and ask them mate

 

[GROTTO]

No team of any code has done well in the Gold Coast.

Yeah I know, Im not disagreeing about that, the fact is that one of the reasons the AFL wanted a team on the Gold Coast was because of its population projection.

 

[GROTTO]

It's been a sporting graveyard.

The VFL would argue its an excellent nursery for Vic teams to build their next premiership team.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

The VFL would argue its an excellent nursery for Vic teams to build their next premiership team.

Hopefully for AFC too...

 

[AFC979810]

AFLW has more interest/coverage than A-League.

Interest no. Forced coverage - yes.

Those of us old enough have been hearing about how soccer will overtake footy here for decades.

I was hearing it in the 80's how it was just a matter of time "look how many juniors are playing, it's captured the hearts and minds of the next generation"

This seems to be the common response of the old guard. Why is it different now if I have been hearing it since the 80's.

1. A League has changed and isn't a cultural war anymore.
2. We are part of Asia now. That means every 4 years we play in a major tournament which we have won once. This league also provides us access to the greatest world tournament every 4 years (we have now qualified for the last 5 tournaments and made it to the last 16 in 2/5 world cups).

The difference is that there have been significant strides made in the past 20 years.

Well that generation are now middle aged and they still don't give two shits about our national soccer league.

The only question is will peoples interest/engagement in watching overseas soccer leagues/champion players stop them watching/attending AFL?

That seems to be the premise of the soccer guys on here. Or do they really believe the A-League will surpass the AFL?

Once again my worry is that AFL has nowhere to grow. Their fan base/revenue stream is pretty much tapped out. We are at the top of the mountain for AFL.

Other sports will now continuously chip away. This started 20 years ago and will continue to gain momentum.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

I wonder if netball finally becoming professional in the past 15 years will help netball become a bigger sport than it is currently.

I think the management of netball will prevent that. A Karen-heavy bevy of humourless control freaks at every level. It's soap opera bitching at every turn from the youngest age groups up. Which is a shame because it could be huge. The recent sponsorship saga a case in point.

The grassroots structure is a joke. School teams mixed in with church teams mixed in with community club teams mixed in with premier league teams - in the same competitions. A dog's breakfast is a kind description.

Plus Bill Burr's "Women failed the WNBA" rant is spot on. For whatever reason women don't consume sport in the same copious amounts as men do. They don't organise netball tipping competitions at work, they don't pore over their fantasy netball teams for hours every week, they don't watch Netball360 every night. They don't go to the games, then record the games and watch them back afterwards, then watch panel shows the next day to dissect the games further plus go onto message boards like BigNetball to discuss the game more with a bunch of randoms.

They do not give a ****

Go to any barbecue and the guys will end up together talking sport. The women will end up sitting around a table talking life & general gossipy stuff. The kids will end up kicking a ball around (boys) or doing something non-sporty inside (girls)

 

[kirky]

Attendance is a big one. 2002 - 32,000. 2022 - 31,000.

Participation also down. Lots blamed on Pandemic. ‘Living in their screens’: McLachlan’s fight to get kids back into local footy

s**t even just reading through this forum - its most rabid supporters lament the changes and the way the game is now.

An increasingly hard sell: just what has happened to AFL football? | Jonathan Horn

How did we arrive here? Who, or what, is to blame? And is there a solution? Jonathan Horn breaks down the game’s current malaise

www.theguardian.com

The AFL is stuck between tradition and ratings.

'Doesn't make sense': AFL under pressure to make grand final change

The disappointing AFL grand final TV ratings could have telling repercussions. Details here.

au.sports.yahoo.com

In truth its a one city sport that has had a great run.

Again you are being a bit disingenuous.

2002 - both Gold Coast and GWS didn’t exist.

Attendances were generally increasing year on year from the late 90’s to 2010;and the noticeable drop is due to entry of Gold Coast and GWS due to their poor home crowds which impact on averages. In addition, Hawks and NM going to Tasmania also has an impact.

I don’t disagree the AFL need to do something - probably cull of few Melbourne teams for starters.

Using raw stats can be very misleading if you don’t delve further.

AFL Tables - Crowds 1921-2024

And lets see this year given all Covid-19 restrictions are now full removed.

And whilst soccer remains a summer sport it will make little inroads to the AFL/NRL.

And just on the MLS season as well, they don’t take on the NFL either (other than the first 3 weeks) due to lack of stadium - they use the same stadiums of the NFL (where a NFL team is located). How many people would actually go during a US winter? A problem the NFL don’t have in attracting people to their games.

 

[AFC979810]

Again you are being a bit disingenuous.

2002 - both Gold Coast and GWS didn’t exist.

Attendances were generally increasing year on year from the late 90’s to 2010;and the noticeable drop is due to entry of Gold Coast and GWS due to their poor home crowds which impact on averages. In addition, Hawks and NM going to Tasmania also has an impact.

I don’t disagree the AFL need to do something - probably cull of few Melbourne teams for starters.

Using raw stats can be very misleading if you don’t delve further.

AFL Tables - Crowds 1921-2024

And lets see this year given all Covid-19 restrictions are now full removed.

2022 was also a 26 year low of average attendance for the AFL. A-league grew in attendance from 2021 - 2022.

IMO the writing is on the wall.

And whilst soccer remains a summer sport it will make little inroads to the AFL/NRL.

And just on the MLS season as well, they don’t take on the NFL either (other than the first 3 weeks) due to lack of stadium - they use the same stadiums of the NFL (where a NFL team is located). How many people would actually go during a US winter? A problem the NFL don’t have in attracting people to their games.

The above is rather disingenuous. MLS has 20 of their own stadiums and use 7 NFL stadiums. Conflict is hardly an issue since NFL teams average 8 days out of 365 per year for their stadiums to be used.

 

[Samcro24]

Lol @ the nuffies that think soccer is a threat to Australian rules football.

I don’t hate the sport but it’s a soft boring game by comparison. Look at the game this morning, absolute snooze fest. We’ll never be any good at it, and our country will never embrace it like we do footy, despite the AFLs best efforts to **** the game up.

It’s as laughable as saying it will be bigger in the states than gridiron.

 

[Mutineer]

Lol @ the nuffies that think soccer is a threat to Australian rules football.

I don’t hate the sport but it’s a soft boring game by comparison. Look at the game this morning, absolute snooze fest. We’ll never be any good at it, and our country will never embrace it like we do footy, despite the AFLs best efforts to * the game up.

It’s as laughable as saying it will be bigger in the states than gridiron.

Is it even as big as baseball in the States?

 

[Samcro24]

Is it even as big as baseball in the States?

Nope

 

[AFC979810]

Lol @ the nuffies that think soccer is a threat to Australian rules football.

I don’t hate the sport but it’s a soft boring game by comparison. Look at the game this morning, absolute snooze fest. We’ll never be any good at it, and our country will never embrace it like we do footy, despite the AFLs best efforts to * the game up.

It’s as laughable as saying it will be bigger in the states than gridiron.

Look at the world sport expert calling it gridiron.

 

[AFC979810]

Is it even as big as baseball in the States?

MLS will surpass NHL in the next 5 years to become the #4 sport in the US.

Then it will overtake Baseball by 2035. Its a long, slow process.

But its inevitable.

 

[AFC979810]

MLS will surpass NHL in the next 5 years to become the #4 sport in the US.

Then it will overtake Baseball by 2035. Its a long, slow process.

But its inevitable.

Would love your thoughts Mutineer.

 

[Scorpus]

MLS will surpass NHL in the next 5 years to become the #4 sport in the US.

Then it will overtake Baseball by 2035. Its a long, slow process.

But its inevitable.

Wouldn't MLS have to more than 10x their revenue in 13 years to make that a reality? Or see MLB reduce revenue significantly?

 

[AFC979810]

Wouldn't MLS have to more than 10x their revenue in 13 years to make that a reality? Or see MLB reduce revenue significantly?

MLB is poorly run. They are a lockout away from becoming irrelevant.

MLS Could Make Huge Gains With Prolonged MLB Lockout - Overtime Heroics

www.overtimeheroics.net

The landscape is changing. You grow or you die. MLB & NHL aint growing - they gonna die.

 

[kirky]

2022 was also a 26 year low of average attendance for the AFL. A-league grew in attendance from 2021 - 2022.

IMO the writing is on the wall.


The above is rather disingenuous. MLS has 20 of their own stadiums and use 7 NFL stadiums. Conflict is hardly an issue since NFL teams average 8 days out of 365 per year for their stadiums to be used.

The first thing is you don’t take one year in isolation. You wait for trends to occur.

If conflict isn’t an issue, then why doesn’t MLS take the NFL head on. The reason is obvious.

 

[kirky]

MLS will surpass NHL in the next 5 years to become the #4 sport in the US.

Then it will overtake Baseball by 2035. Its a long, slow process.

But its inevitable.

****, I’ll could possibly be dead and buried by then.

So who are you going to yell at when it happens.

 

[BRL121]

*, I’ll could possibly be dead and buried by then.

So who are you going to yell at when it happens.

He's a serious ageist.

 

[GROTTO]

*, I’ll could possibly be dead and buried by then.

So who are you going to yell at when it happens.

Just try and hang there till the next Crows flag, likely in the 2030s at the earliest.

 

[AFC979810]

The first thing is you don’t take one year in isolation. You wait for trends to occur.

If conflict isn’t an issue, then why doesn’t MLS take the NFL head on. The reason is obvious.

You don't take the NFL head on. Thats stupidity. You do exactly what the MLS is doing. You keep doing growing slowly and piggy back off of having the World Cup in 2026. Once more its a slow burn. The US has been on the right path the past 30 years, Australian soccer has been on the right path since 2005.

But all signs are pointing to the AFL being cherry ripe. No worries about growth. They feel secure in their place in the Australian sporting landscape. No need to release week 1 fixtures when rival codes are playing their biggest game in 20 years.

 

[kirky]

Just try and hang there till the next Crows flag, likely in the 2030s at the earliest.

Oh I would like to get to my 100th birthday in 2061 but by then I’ll probably be incontinent, rambling and wondering when the aliens are coming.

Then again I’ve already got two of those already.