AFL in meltdown over Gather Round spinning wheel of death

AFL fans have been left up in arms after the biggest show of the 2024 regular season instantly descended into a farce.

The Gather Round ticket problem has fans up in arms. Photo: Twitter, @jbabz84 and Brett Hartwig, News Corp.

Footy fans are in up in arms after the AFL’s Gather Round ticket release descended into a farce this week.

The second instalment of the hugely successful 2023 event created record interest when tickets went on sale this week.

The fixtures for the festival round of football — where all 18 teams will play out of South Australia — from April 4 through to April 7 were released last month.

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Tickets for three of the blockbuster matches have sold out in record time — including the opening match of the weekend between the Crows and Melbourne at the Adelaide Oval.

The AFL announced on Tuesday more than 100,000 tickets were sold during the 24-hour priority window for AFL and club members before tickets were made available to the general public.

Collingwood players with Nicky Winmar before their Gather Round match at the Adelaide Oval. Pic: Michael Klein.

The suburban stadium clashes at Norwood Oval — Brisbane against North Melbourne and Richmond against St Kilda — have also sold out.

Many footy diehard fans missed out on the seats they wanted — and vented their fury after wasting their time on the Ticketek website.

It was so nice, we had to do it twice 🔁

Gather Round in South Australia, round four, 2024: https://t.co/zpq9akrEuIpic.twitter.com/nP2eKR3J18

— AFL (@AFL) November 12, 2023

Footy fans on Twitter and Reddit claimed they had been left waiting in the Ticketek “lounge” for more than an hour before striking out on tickets.

Others have claimed they received error messages stating that their special membership codes were not valid — and thus were unable to purchase tickets during the special window.

The Adelaide Advertiser’s editor at-large Paul Starick described the Ticketek system as a “spinning wheel of death”.

After all that, I can’t even get my seat, let alone my bay 🤷🏽‍♂️ @Adelaide_FChttps://t.co/1WRsjVNuSM

— John (@jbabz84) December 11, 2023

.@Ticketek_AU got in at 12pm yet your system told me my AFL Gather Round barcodes were invalid.

I then refresh and at 12:01pm all tickets are sold out.

How is this possible?

— Jeremy (@JemBeano) December 11, 2023

It would be cheaper to fly to South Australia and watch the AFL Gather Round games in a pub than have to deal with @Ticketek_AU#AFL#GatherRound

— Shaegan Vishal  (@shaeganvishal) December 11, 2023

Every second in the Ticketek lounge my anger increases #AFL

— Leonardo Puglisi (@Leo_Puglisi6) December 11, 2023

Ticketek on Tuesday night responded to the backlash with a spokesperson telling news.com.au: “The demand for Gather Round tickets for the 2024 AFL season has grown significantly in the Event’s second year, with demand up by over 130 per cent from 2023.

“During the pre-sale, we had over 20,000 customers in the Ticketek Lounge to purchase tickets for Gather Round. Customers spent on average 6 minutes in the lounge.

GWS vs Hawthorn at Norwood Oval. IMAGE/Russell Millard

“The General Public on sale commenced at 12pm ACDT today (Tuesday). Ticket sales peaked at just under 3,000 tickets per minute, which is in line with the fastest AFL on sale to date, and consistent with the demand for recent touring artists Taylor Swift and Coldplay.”

The league has made changes to the 2023 Gather round format with two matches to be played in the Adelaide Hills in 2024.

Hopes of taking a game to the iconic Barossa Valley wine region fell apart earlier this year, prompting the league to turn back towards the sole game played in Mt Barker in 2023.

The AFL will next year play two fixtures at the country football ground, featuring Sydney, West Coast, Gold Coast and GWS.

The AFL in April announced Gather Round is staying in Adelaide for three more years with former CEO Gillon McLachlan striking a deal with South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas.

With the host city being widely applauded for its stellar job of creating a party atmosphere in the City of Churches, there was almost no opposition to the “Magic Round” concept returning to Adelaide for the foreseeable future.