AFL 2023: Gather Round ticket sales, who’s travelling to Adelaide, targets SA must hit
The AFL have revealed what it will take for Adelaide to keep Gather Round for years to come, plus we look at the full breakdown of ticket sales and which games will sell out.
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The AFL says it is determined to make Gather Round an annual fixture and is open to Adelaide hosting the event again if the state follows through on spectacular attendance estimates.
The league’s commercial boss Kylie Rogers told News Corp on Monday the AFL would weigh the “vibe” of the new event and attendances in deciding upon the future of the event.
Already 180,000 tickets have been sold with four sellouts and two more games likely to sell out in coming days.
Adelaide-Carlton, Brisbane-North Melbourne and the Essendon-Melbourne/Port Adelaide-Western Bulldogs double header at the Adelaide Oval are sold out.
But the league has urged club members who booked free Gather Round tickets to hand back tickets via Ticketek if they have decided against attending so the league can maximise “bums on seats”.
About 60,000 fans will travel across the border from rival states including 20,000 from Victoria with Carlton fans having bought the most tickets of non-SA fans ahead of Collingwood, Geelong and Richmond.
Rogers said on Monday the league was already confident the event, borrowed from the NRL’s Magic Round, would be an annual fixture given fan demand.
“We have every intention of Gather Round being an annual feature in the fixture for many years to come but we have to put our best foot forward, have a great week and review everything after that,” she said.
“There is a whole long list of criteria we will judge to determine whether it is successful but it will include attendances and the vibe and energy around Adelaide as deciding factors.
“We know so many people are travelling over from it and a lot of people from Victoria are driving or taking the train, so whether that becomes an important factor will be something we go through in the post-event review.”
Rogers said the league was determined to maximise the “show rate” of games so sold-out contests had as many fans attend as possible.
“If anyone’s plans change and they have a ticket they can get a refund through the Ticketek app. If members have free passes they can go to the Ticketek app to give them back. We have four sellouts and will have another one or two by tomorrow. We want to have every bum on every seat and we want people to enjoy the free footy festival and enjoy the game at Mount Barker and then we can sit down and consider does Adelaide deserve it again or do we start to do a road show?”
The AFL and South Australian government have not disclosed the amount handed to the league under the state’s major events budget.
But given each club was handed $500,000 and each playing list $200,000 to add another round to the season — adding up to $12.6 million in base costs alone — it likely cost South Australia well over $15 million for the event.
While West Australia will be desperate to be involved in coming seasons the league would have to weigh the likelihood of interstate fans buying costly flights to fill the stadium.
Adelaide has already logged well over 90 per cent occupancy rates for its hotels across next weekend in an economic boom for the state’s economy.
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