Crowds up, membership up and television ratings down paint interesting picture for AFL

AUSTRALIAN football is loaded with debate on the “look of the game”. But some key indicators suggest the game is still entertaining the masses where it counts most

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HOW is this AFL season tracking?

There is no shortage of key performance indicators to tell of public appeal at a time when there is an uneasy feel about the “look” of the Australian game.

CROWDS

The 117 home-and-away games played up to last night’s Richmond-Sydney match, the average attendance was 35,141 - up 3.3 per cent on last year’s full-season mark of 34,010.

This is heavily linked to events in Perth.

West Coast, with a new stadium and hot form, has lifted its average home crowd to 53,370 - up from 36,751 at the smaller-capacity Subiaco Oval.

The league leader remains AFL premier Richmond with 57,162 at home games.

So the fans are prepared to give up their time and money to watch AFL matches - a win for the AFL.

Much is made of the 40,751 at the Port Adelaide-Melbourne game at Adelaide Oval on Friday night. This ranks as the third-best crowd in Friday Night Football this season in games involving a team travelling across a state border.

Remarkably, the second best-attended Friday Night Football clash this season is at Adelaide Oval - 45,495 for the Crows-Collingwood game. There is just one 50,000-plus crowd in the premier timeslot this season - 68,548 with Carlton-Collingwood at the MCG in round 3.

By contrast, two Thursday night games - the season-opener between Carlton and Richmond and last week’s West Coast-Essendon match - have crossed this mark.

Richmond supporters at the MCG

MEMBERSHIP

The AFL is to rewrite the record books this season by lifting league and club membership levels to one million. The preliminary figures reveal 180,000 new members this season - another strong indicator of public support.

AFL premier Richmond again leads the way with 96,000 members - and this figure will hold up with the league’s official audit that will strip other AFL clubs of their inflated numbers with free digital membership.

The Tigers could become the first sporting team in the southern hemisphere with 100,000 members - beating Collingwood to this impressive mark.

TELEVISION RATINGS

Here the AFL has a problem - and a major one considering television ratings need to rise to encourage the networks to boost the record $2.508 billion deal when the rights are next sold.

At the end of round 10, all television measures across the five mainland capital cities were down. Average ratings in Melbourne on Channel Seven had fallen from 298,000 last season to 237,000.

In Adelaide, the figure had dropped from 115,000 to 89,000 - less than the Perth figure for the first time since 2012.

The AFL could always spin this drop by suggesting new venues - particularly the new Perth Stadium and Adelaide Oval - have lured fans from the televisions in their loungerooms to buy tickets.

AFL general manager of clubs and broadcasting Travis Auld last week noted there are “swings and roundabouts” in the indicators every season.

“Our attendances are very good; club membership and participation is very strong, and we always knew the first part of the season presented challenges in terms of fixture and broadcast,” said Auld, noting the Commonwealth Games at the start of the season challenged ratings.

“Our long-term goal is to have the most number of Australians enjoying our game as they choose - with their family in the stadium, watching at home, participating at community and junior level, or as paid-up club members.”

The game might not be as bad as many say.

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