Toast The Big 4 all getting over a million people through the gate in season 2024

[What else we can do]

I think they will lose it anyway. The whole state will switch to the local team and they need to so it has a chance to be profitable.

The 3m a year the Tassie government gives them will be hard to replace, although that will be offset with 3 extra home games with 2-3 times the amount of fans in Melbourne.

They will lose it but Hawthorn is a national brand like the Blues,Bombers and Pies. Not sure what the future holds but limiting those clubs to just Vic might lose that national support we built. I'm happy for the Blues to play some games interstate and sustain our support Australia wide.

 

[Ralll]

We won't be getting 1mil next season lol.

 

[Dazb86]

Well done Carlton for being the only club out of the big 4 to make it to finals.

 

[windyhill]

The reason why hawthorn landed in Tassie is their crowds were abysmal. Why not cash in with huge sponsorship and get a second home ground. Very smart. They barely lost during their flag years. Very smart.
But let’s face it, one big reason was the shizen crowds they were attracting.

 

[SSSSSS]

Wonder what the impact was due to the fixturing of 2024 Thursday and Friday night games? Richmond did well with only two of the coveted slots.
8 – Carlton, Collingwood
7 – Brisbane
6 - Adelaide
5 - Port Adelaide, Western Bulldogs, Sydney Swans, Melbourne
4 – Essendon, Geelong, St Kilda
3 – Fremantle
2 – Richmond, North Melbourne
1 – GWS Giants, Gold Coast Suns
0 – Hawthorn, West Coast Eagles

It's criminal that we played 0 and GWS played the 1.

Two exciting attacking teams. Instead we have to sit through 4 games of Richmond and North dross.

 

[Hawkk]

The reason why hawthorn landed in Tassie is their crowds were abysmal. Why not cash in with huge sponsorship and get a second home ground. Very smart. They barely lost during their flag years. Very smart.
But let’s face it, one big reason was the shizen crowds they were attracting.

When though?

In the five years leading up to going to Tasmania (1997-2001) Hawthorn had the largest non Big 4 crowds, it did dip a lot in 2003-04 (leading up to 2006) but it has been consistantly larger ever since. That said their crowds are now substantially larger than pre 2008 - for example, in 2007 their third largest crowd (ever) was 55,019, in 2024 they have six games larger than that number, five more than 65,000 and four more than 74,000.

It did draw two very poor Docklands attendances against the Dockers in 2000 and 2001 though.

I don't think you can underestimate the perception help of four fewer games per season with a sparse MCG or Docklands. Not only was Tasmania a reliable major sponsor that almost auto-renewed such was its benefit, there are now 82 games over 20 years which don't immediately scream 'empty stadium' whenever you see highlights. In one of the Jake Stringer threads there was a highlights package of his 2015 footy and it was alarming and depressing to see how many of the highlights came in front of poor looking crowds at Docklands. Even if the raw number had been bigger playing in Melbourne, the aesthetic of Hawthorn playing in Tasmania against primarily the WA and QLD teams, North and the Bulldogs has helped perception massively.

Never mind that there is a decent chance those 17 games against North and the Dogs may well have been us "home" at Docklands with little chance of the 12-5 record we've enjoyed from playing them in Tassie.

The problem is that we still play these games in Melbourne - in 2012 we played 5 of 7 MCG home games against non Victorian clubs.

Tassie has led the AFL to schedule us in a lot more away games against Essendon and Carlton (which gives us more Melbourne games than North Melbourne) but it does bias the fixture.

It is true that we regularly play the WA, Qld teams in Tassie plus NM and the Dogs, however our Melbourne based home crowds against these teams (since 2006):


Brisbane - 35,003 (including one at Docklands)
Gold Coast - 27,528 (including one at Docklands)
North Melbourne - 41,927
W Bulldogs - 44,277 (including one game at Docklands)

None of those are bad at all. We have played between 3-5 Melbourne home games against these teams over the last 15 years - the same amount as we've played Carlton.

Apart from Coll, Ess and Melb (bizarrely) every team has played in Launceston.