Play Nice Which club has the biggest supporter base? Collingwood, Richmond or West Coast?

[The Falcon Strike]

rubbish !!!

Ok - you found me out

btw your avatar reeks

Yeah normally I'd agree - but for 6 weeks I'm keeping it. Life > Football

 

[Baird]

collingwood > essendon > west coast >>> richmond

 

[Soberian Tiger]

destroyed Collingwood in home attendance’s yet Richmond only averaged 900 more per home game then Collingwood. In 2010 Collingwood averaged 13,000 more then Richmond now that is being destroyed

I liked the club-specific spelling of 'than.'

For the record, I voted Collingwood. They have more supporters. And more trouble spelling.

 

[mightymouse75]

In all seriousness, I don't know a whole lot about West Coast's supporter base. I know that Collingwood have a bigger supporter base than Richmond owing to the fact that they have a stronger nationwide presence.

I imagine a large proportion of Western Australian AFL fans would follow West Coast. If there were no waiting lists, then I'd have thought that they would have the biggest membership.

They also have a large interstate following with all their sleazey expats

 

[Numero Uno]

They also have a large interstate following with all their sleazey expats

cry harder slime

 

[Port Adel Proud]

Collingwood bigger than Geelong in WA and proof was in the pudding Thursday night.

Breathtakingly lacking in logic.

 

[Dazzler9]

Breathtakingly lacking in logic.

How so?

 

[Rooboys Rool]

Apologies if this has been covered previously here or elsewhere on the main board, but I'm wondering if there is enough support for AFL in WA to warrant a 3rd team for the state at some point.

So I guess mostly interested in West Coast and Fremantle fans' views - if a new team was to come into the AFL, for example called Perth, do you think it would be successful? Or is it too late i.e. everyone is already behind West Coast and Freo, so any new team wouldn't get enough support?

I think I've heard it can be difficult to get tickets to a game in Perth, even with the new stadium - would some/enough fans support a new team just so they could get to go the the footy more often?

Anyway, it seems a new team will be a long way off now due to Coronavirus and Perth probably isn't in the AFL's plans for a new team, but I always thought that Perth with a footy mad population of 2m+ should be able to accommodate a 3rd team. Interested in your thoughts on that.

 

[Obzerva]

Apologies if this has been covered previously here or elsewhere on the main board, but I'm wondering if there is enough support for AFL in WA to warrant a 3rd team for the state at some point.

So I guess mostly interested in West Coast and Fremantle fans' views - if a new team was to come into the AFL, for example called Perth, do you think it would be successful? Or is it too late i.e. everyone is already behind West Coast and Freo, so any new team wouldn't get enough support?

I think I've heard it can be difficult to get tickets to a game in Perth, even with the new stadium - would some/enough fans support a new team just so they could get to go the the footy more often?

Anyway, it seems a new team will be a long way off now due to Coronavirus and Perth probably isn't in the AFL's plans for a new team, but I always thought that Perth with a footy mad population of 2m+ should be able to accommodate a 3rd team. Interested in your thoughts on that.

Interested to know what area of Perth it would represent and who its supporters would be.

Given both the Dockers are Eagles were created teams rather than a legacy team stepping up (ie Port Adelaide), if you haven't jumped on to one or the other at this point not sure who would be jumping on the 3rd option.

As far as geography goes, if you very generically said West Coast as north of the river, and Freo as south of the river (I know, am being very broad), where is the 3rd team representing?

There may be the overall population to support a 3rd team, but just not quite sure where these supporters would come from, eg how is a new team going to peel off Freo supporters to the new team.

 

[Dr Awkward]

Interested to know what area of Perth it would represent and who its supporters would be.

Given both the Dockers are Eagles were created teams rather than a legacy team stepping up (ie Port Adelaide), if you haven't jumped on to one or the other at this point not sure who would be jumping on the 3rd option.

As far as geography goes, if you very generically said West Coast as north of the river, and Freo as south of the river (I know, am being very broad), where is the 3rd team representing?

There may be the overall population to support a 3rd team, but just not quite sure where these supporters would come from, eg how is a new team going to peel off Freo supporters to the new team.

Maybe you upgrade whoever the biggest club in the WAFL is.

That being said, we can't have more than 18 clubs atm imo.

 

[Rasha]

West Coast are relatively small outside WA.
Collingwood are big Australia wide.
Richmond are the biggest club in Australia though.

 

[bzparkes]

West Coast are relatively small outside WA.
Collingwood are big Australia wide.
Richmond are the biggest club in Australia though.

I've lived in every state bar SA and I've only met 3 Richmond supporters outside of VIC.

Grew up in Tas and when the Hawks first started playing there, going to their games was like going to a WCE home game - far outnumbered them until more locals started supporting Hawthorn. A good strategy by them. West Coast were massive in Tassie before Hawthorn moved in.

Lived in Sydney for a while, anyone who followed AFL went for Swans or Geelong in the office.

Living in Brisbane, most people follow the NRL, more so than Sydney in my experience, but the people who do follow the AFL either go for Brisbane, are WA ex-pats or have a loose interest and don't really follow anyone.

I met ONE Richmond supporter here and only found that out last week after working with this person since last year.

Worked with a few in Vic but it was a pretty even distribution between Tigers, Pies, Bombers and a couple of Bulldogs' and Saints' fans with the odd Geelong one. This was working on the Mornington Peninsula.

I've only known 2 each of Melbourne and North supporters in my entire life...

Richmond are big but don't seem to exist much outside of Vic.

I'd say you're more likely to run into Collingwood or Essendon supporters interstate though I'm sure that'll change over the next decade or so now that they're successful again.

 

[Do the Dew]

I've lived in every state bar SA and I've only met 3 Richmond supporters outside of VIC.

Grew up in Tas and when the Hawks first started playing there, going to their games was like going to a WCE home game - far outnumbered them until more locals started supporting Hawthorn. A good strategy by them. West Coast were massive in Tassie before Hawthorn moved in.

Lived in Sydney for a while, anyone who followed AFL went for Swans or Geelong in the office.

Living in Brisbane, most people follow the NRL, more so than Sydney in my experience, but the people who do follow the AFL either go for Brisbane, are WA ex-pats or have a loose interest and don't really follow anyone.

I met ONE Richmond supporter here and only found that out last week after working with this person since last year.

Worked with a few in Vic but it was a pretty even distribution between Tigers, Pies, Bombers and a couple of Bulldogs' and Saints' fans with the odd Geelong one. This was working on the Mornington Peninsula.

I've only known 2 each of Melbourne and North supporters in my entire life...

Richmond are big but don't seem to exist much outside of Vic.

I'd say you're more likely to run into Collingwood or Essendon supporters interstate though I'm sure that'll change over the next decade or so now that they're successful again.

Using your logic: Me personally, I’ve never met a WC supporter - therefore they must have very few fans if any.

Complete lunacy.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[YeOldTiger]

I suspect Coll have more supporters but we definitely have more front teeth.













Blah blah show myself out...

 

[Tackle Bag]

Eagles are a financial powerhouse, Collingwood and Richmond don’t come close.
They have a huge base given they were the first side in W.A.

There really is a good argument in my opinion for a 3rd side in W.A.

It may take a generation to establish itself but the market is large enough.

 

[Scotland]

Does it really matter how 'big' any club is outside its home state? No AFL team is Manchester United or Liverpool etc. If WC play at the MCG or Collingwood play in Perth the stadium doesn't suddenly go from half full to full because of the away team. If Collingwood and Richmond had as much support as some fans suggest they'd get 70-80k+ a week regardless who they were playing. They don't. They generally get somewhere 25-40k as a base depending on opponent, venue, time slot, how the team is performing etc. Collingwood vs Geelong in a full capacity Optus Stadium the other week wouldn't have got close to full.

I think the AFL is happy with two teams in WA, SA, Qld and NSW. Gives one game in each state each week of the season and is easy to manage in the fixture.

 

[Rasha]

Eagles are a financial powerhouse, Collingwood and Richmond don’t come close.
They have a huge base given they were the first side in W.A.

There really is a good argument in my opinion for a 3rd side in W.A.

It may take a generation to establish itself but the market is large enough.

Richmond have the greater supporter base than Collingwood and West Coast though.

 

[megadeth92]

West Coast are the Man City of the AFL. Lots of money, but a soulless franchise club with no history.

Richmond and Collingwood are the Liverpool and Man United of the AFL. The true powerhouses with prestige, history and tradition.

As for supporter bases, my guess is Richmond, but who knows? West Coast occupy a whole state with only one other club. Their geographical position is another advantage WCE have in the AFL. Imagine if Richmond and Collingwood were the only two clubs in Victoria. Wowee.

Collingwood are more like Glasgow Celtic and have Irish-Catholic roots too if you go back far enough into the history.

 

[Yoey]

What people forget is that in 1995 a good third of Eagle supporters left to follow the purple taint.

 

[PetterdHoisted]

why is this even being debated re. collingwood and Richmond? For god's sake BF, we have been fortunate to have an objective measure of this in the last 3 years. It's in the book.

A new team in the AFL in GWS that has near-zero supporters and played at the MCG in finals against Pies and Tigers
-huge drawing games, every motivation to be there for every Pie and Tiger fan
-5k GWS fans present at best, no bias regarding the number of MCC/AFL members present, so crowd numbers reflect *as best as will ever be possible* the degree of support for each club.

Result: Pies got, what 75k and 85k to a semi and a prelim, Tigers got 95k to a prelim

That's it. Over. I could bring up the fact that membership numbers between the two clubs fall in Richmond's favour by a similar percentage, but I don't need to. The cleanest proof we will likely ever have is in the attendance to those games. I doubt another team as poorly supported as GWS will ever brought into existence again.

So, the only possible interesting question in this thread is:
If WA had a 100,000 stadium and got a home prelim against GWS, how many would they draw?
I reckon they would run Richmond very close.

 

[HTT]

why is this even being debated re. collingwood and Richmond? For god's sake BF, we have been fortunate to have an objective measure of this in the last 3 years. It's in the book.

A new team in the AFL in GWS that has near-zero supporters and played at the MCG in finals against Pies and Tigers
-huge drawing games, every motivation to be there for every Pie and Tiger fan
-5k GWS fans present at best, no bias regarding the number of MCC/AFL members present, so crowd numbers reflect *as best as will ever be possible* the degree of support for each club.

Result: Pies got, what 75k and 85k to a semi and a prelim, Tigers got 95k to a prelim

That's it. Over. I could bring up the fact that membership numbers between the two clubs fall in Richmond's favour by a similar percentage, but I don't need to. The cleanest proof we will likely ever have is in the attendance to those games. I doubt another team as poorly supported as GWS will ever brought into existence again.

So, the only possible interesting question in this thread is:
If WA had a 100,000 stadium and got a home prelim against GWS, how many would they draw?
I reckon they would run Richmond very close.

72k to the SF and 78k to the PF
Meanwhile Richmond drew 77k to a R23 game against Brisbane.

 

[Goosecat]

Apologies if this has been covered previously here or elsewhere on the main board, but I'm wondering if there is enough support for AFL in WA to warrant a 3rd team for the state at some point.

So I guess mostly interested in West Coast and Fremantle fans' views - if a new team was to come into the AFL, for example called Perth, do you think it would be successful? Or is it too late i.e. everyone is already behind West Coast and Freo, so any new team wouldn't get enough support?

I think I've heard it can be difficult to get tickets to a game in Perth, even with the new stadium - would some/enough fans support a new team just so they could get to go the the footy more often?

Anyway, it seems a new team will be a long way off now due to Coronavirus and Perth probably isn't in the AFL's plans for a new team, but I always thought that Perth with a footy mad population of 2m+ should be able to accommodate a 3rd team. Interested in your thoughts on that.

There wont be a third team until Freo has won a flag or two, that should give you some idea of the time-frame realities for a third WA side.
The AFL market and income is unlikely to be increased by any great margin through the introduction of a third team in WA at this stage. It would in reality draw many existing members away from the two existing clubs and frankly Freo are not in a position yet to guarantee a successful outcome from such a further challenge. You certainly wont hear either existing teams power-brokers supporting such a 3rd team position. I don't think the AFL are in any hurry regarding establishing a third WA side in a state where they pretty much have the majority of sporting income already sewn up. The greatest growth potential and ability to pull in actual new fans and income generation is to be found elsewhere.

 

[PetterdHoisted]

72k to the SF and 78k to the PF
Meanwhile Richmond drew 77k to a R23 game against Brisbane.

there you go, I was generous to the Pies.

I am not saying Pies weren't a huge club 30 years ago, they were. I'm on record as to the reasons for their -not decline in support, but failure to grow as fast as other clubs like Richmond and being overtaken. It all stems back to McGuire's corporatization of the club, leaving Collingwood, trashing Victoria Park on the way out etc. In fact I have agitated for Pies supporters to do something on here, but they seem completely passive.

The Tigers have struck a much more balanced path in courting corporate finance for stability, but staying in their traditional heartland of Richmond and at Punt Rd, and thus not disenfranchising their old working class supporter base.

I don't see it changing until there is change at the top at the Pies, I honestly believe their hierarchy wouldn't care if they disenfranchised another 50k Pies supporters, if it meant they could secure more Emirates/Lexus marquee sponsorship deals. I think it's a bit sad the path they have taken, but we all know money talks.

 

[Guju]

Thread has turned to garbage with one set of supporters just trolling now.

 

[gopies1981]

there you go, I was generous to the Pies.

I am not saying Pies weren't a huge club 30 years ago, they were. I'm on record as to the reasons for their -not decline in support, but failure to grow as fast as other clubs like Richmond and being overtaken. It all stems back to McGuire's corporatization of the club, leaving Collingwood, trashing Victoria Park on the way out etc. In fact I have agitated for Pies supporters to do something on here, but they seem completely passive.

The Tigers have struck a much more balanced path in courting corporate finance for stability, but staying in their traditional heartland of Richmond and at Punt Rd, and thus not disenfranchising their old working class supporter base.

I don't see it changing until there is change at the top at the Pies, I honestly believe their hierarchy wouldn't care if they disenfranchised another 50k Pies supporters, if it meant they could secure more Emirates/Lexus marquee sponsorship deals. I think it's a bit sad the path they have taken, but we all know money talks.

And yet Collingwood were first in attendance’s in 2019! Collingwood yet again are the only club to draw 1.2 million during the home and away season 6 times including 1.3 million in 2010!! Have Richmond done this? No