AFLW: League may miss its average crowd target and chance to expand to a 12-game season

The AFLW crowd average is currently sitting below the target required to extend the season to 12 games, with a significant boost needed for the remainder of the year.

Paige Scott of the Bombers thanks fans during the 2023 AFLW Round 07 match between the Richmond Tigers and the Essendon Bombers at IKON Park on October 14, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

AFLW is tracking below its agreed games-trigger crowd target and is in danger of missing the chance to expand to 12 games next season.

The recently-signed new joint collective bargaining agreement reveals that if the average attendance throughout the 2023 season is 3,500 or higher, next year’s competition will consist of 12 home and away matches, up from 10 this season.

The current crowd average across the first seven rounds of this season sits at 2,642 meaning a lift of at least 858 people to the average crowd is needed over the final three rounds and finals to secure the boost.

The season will increase to 11 games next season regardless of crowd numbers.

This season’s average figure is slightly up on the combined average across the two seasons staged in 2022, where the average crowd sat at 2,358.

The highest-attended game so far this season was the Round 1 Showdown clash between Adelaide and Port Adelaide at Norwood Oval which drew 8,722.

Attendances at the AFLW would need to increase for the season to expand to 12 games next year. Picture: Getty Images

The biggest crowd drawn in 2022 was the Showdown — Port Adelaide’s first in the competition — which drew 20,652 at Adelaide Oval.

The lowest crowd this season came between GWS and West Coast in Round 6, where just 927 supporters attended.

Under the 182-page deal — which has been seen by this masthead — if a venue capacity for an AFLW match is less than 3,500, for example at Punt Road Oval where capacity is 2,900, and attendance reached 90 per cent of the venue capacity, the figure will be deemed as 3,500 towards determining the season average.

The 2025 season is slated to consist of 12 home and away games.

If for any of the 2024, 2025 or 2026 seasons the average attendance is 6,000 or higher and the average television audience is 100,000 or higher — metrics obtained relative to the 2018 season of AFLW — the remaining seasons of the deal, which runs until 2027, will be 14 home and away games.

Crows players celebrate with fans after a win. Picture: Getty Images

League general manager Nicole Livingstone said last week that the AFL would crunch the numbers at season’s end.

“We continue to invest heavily into the experience of coming to the football and if you’ve been to an AFLW match this season, you will understand not only is it an amazing treat on-field but off-field as well,” she said

“We’ll review the metrics and the data at the end of the year. Obviously we’re ticketed now, so everything is able to be researched and looked through from a data point of view.

“We’ll continue to work really hard to grow the audience.”