AFL audits Adelaide Oval crowd figures to revise Port Adelaide and Crows attendances

STOP the presses! The rewrites of Adelaide Oval’s attendance records this season have been wiped out by an AFL audit.

STOP the presses! The rewrites of Adelaide Oval’s attendance records this season have been wiped out by an AFL audit.

The Adelaide Football Club’s honest claim to hold the Oval’s best AFL crowd outside Crows-Power Showdown is gone. The 53,455 signalled on the video scoreboards during the Adelaide-West Coast match in round 22 has become 52,460 after the league’s recount of the tickets.

The best non-Showdown crowd at the Oval remains from last season — 52,505 in the round 22 Friday Night Football clash in which Port Adelaide hosted Carlton.

The AFL’s audit found some Adelaide Oval staff who were counted at the turnstiles should not have been in the final tally for Crows and Power games this season.

One rewrite of the Oval record books does remain intact. Port Adelaide’s hosting of the Crows in the second Showdown in round 16 this season — the tribute match to Phil Walsh — is the best-attended AFL game at the Oval: 53,518.

On match day, the figure presented by the Stadium Management Authority was 54,468.

Stadium Management Authority chief executive Andrew Daniels explained the difference in the game-day and AFL audited figures saying: “Everyone who attends Adelaide Oval on a game day is required to scan in for security reasons. This includes Adelaide Oval staff, media, AFL representatives, security and, of course, patrons.

“As the manager of the Oval, it is our responsibility to record and report the total number of people within the stadium, and it is that number which is provided to the AFL.

“This has been a consistent policy that has applied to every AFL game played in SA since 1991.”

The Crows-hosted Showdown in round 5 has been revised to 49,617 after the crowd was listed as 49,735 on the scoreboard.

The Advertiser today secured the official AFL audit of the Adelaide Oval crowds. The figures reveal, outside the two Showdowns this seasons:

BEST CROWS CROWD: 52,460 against West Coast in round 22.

BEST POWER CROWD: 49,831 against Hawthorn in round 4.

SMALLEST CROWS CROWD: 41,715 against Gold Coast in round 17.

SMALLEST POWER CROWD: 32,436 against Greater Western Sydney in round 20.

TOTAL CROWS CROWDS: 464,870 in 10 games (compared to 528,508 in 11 matches last season).

AVERAGE CROWS CROWDS: 46,487 in 10 games (48,046 in 11 last season).

Adelaide played just 10 home games at the Oval this season because its round 14 clash with Geelong in early July was cancelled as the league mourned Walsh’s death.

TOTAL POWER CROWDS: 472,220 in 11 games (compared to 488,006 last year, not including the home final against Richmond that drew 49,886).

AVERAGE POWER CROWDS: 42,929 in 11 games (compared to 44,364 last season).

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THE NUMBERS

Revised Adelaide Oval attendance figures for AFL home-and-away season this year. (Original Stadium Management Authority figures in brackets.)

CROWS

ROUND.......OPPONENT.......CROWD

22..................West Coast..........52,460 (53,455)

5....................Port Adelaide......49,617 (49,735)

19..................Richmond............49,116 (50,094)

12..................Hawthorn.............49,108 (50,023)

21..................Brisbane...............46,609 (47,527)

1....................N Melbourne........45,607 (46,491)

9....................Fremantle.............45,009 (45,918)

3....................Melbourne............42,834 (43,713)

7....................St Kilda................42,795 (43,532)

17..................Gold Coast...........41,715 (42,656)

14..................Geelong................cancelled

TOTAL: 464,870

AVERAGE: 46,487

POWER

ROUND......OPPONENT.........CROWD

16................Adelaide................53,518 (54,468)

4..................Hawthorn..............49,831 (50,675)

2..................Sydney..................48,907 (49,765)

11................Geelong.................46,140 (47,058)

15................Collingwood..........44,496 (45,418)

8..................Richmond..............44,451 (45,268)

10................W Bulldogs...........40,907 (41,813)

23.................Fremantle..............37,922 (38,633)

6..................West Coast............37,635 (38,850)

18................St Kilda.................35,977 (36,850)

20.................GWS.....................32,436 (33,281)

TOTAL: 472,220

AVERAGE: 42,929

Source: AFL