‘Blow your mind’: Tasmania Devils break record in 24 hours, put AFL clubs to shame

The AFL’s newest expansion team has already broken a league record, with the staggering figures leaving establishment clubs for dust.

Matthew Sullivan

2 min read

March 20, 2024 - 3:08PM

Nick Riewoldt hits back hard at critics of the Tasmanian AFL launch

The Tasmania Devils won’t join the AFL until 2028 but the appetite for Aussie Rules in the Apple Isle has already received a staggering endorsement.

The name, colours, logo and jersey for the AFL’s 19th team were unveiled on Monday to widespread praise.

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The only criticism of note came from those who wished the Devils logo was on the centre of the jersey instead of the traditional map of the Tasmania.

Just two days after the club’s official launch, AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon revealed on Wednesday there were already 121,000 founding members of the Tasmania Devils.

It’s a remarkable sign of the insatiable interest in Tasmania’s new AFL team, especially given the island state’s population was 541,000 as of 2020.

The ‘founding memberships’ cost $10, a token amount that’s significantly less than official AFL club memberships.

Nonetheless, the Devils’ early membership count has them already on top of all current 18 AFL clubs with the most members.

Last season, Collingwood had 106,470 members as one of three clubs with more than 100,000 members.

By point of comparison, expansion clubs Greater Western Sydney and the Gold Coast had 33,036 and 23,359 members respectively at the end of 2023.

The Tasmanian Devils were unveiled this week. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Fans are loving the Devils logo. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Richmond legend Jack Riewoldt, who grew up in Tasmania and is championing the new team, said the membership figures were phenomenal.

“I’m going to blow your mind,” Riewoldt told Nine’s Today on Wednesday.

“We ticked over 100,000 last night at 6:30pm. Crazy stuff. So in a mere 24 hours we’ve had 100,000 people jump on.

“They’ve got a membership, they’ve got a bumper sticker. A digital membership in their phone. For ten bucks. And we urge people to jump on. It’s been phenomenal. We had forecast hopefully to get to 40,000 by the end of October. And I think we had 40,000 within the space of an hour.

“So, certainly the board and the few employees that there is, are sort of on cloud nine.”

Jack Riewoldt said the membership numbers were astonishing. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The team’s entry into the league is still contingent on a new, 23,000-seat roofed stadium being built at Hobart’s Macquarie Point, which has become a point of contention heading into this weekend’s state election.

The incumbent Liberal Party is fully behind the current stadium plan while Labor wants to renegotiate with the AFL, believing the state has been forced into an unfavourable deal, and proposed the team beginning life playing at smaller venues Blundstone Arena (Hobart) and UTAS Stadium (Launceston).

t is also unclear whether the stadium will be ready for the planned 2028 entry date. The AFL’s agreement with Tasmania says the stadium must be 60% built by October 2027 or else the team’s entry can be pushed back a year; the venue must be ready by December 2030 or the deal can be ended.

The team could also begin play at the existing venues used by North Melbourne and Hawthorn for AFL matches before opening the Macquarie Point venue in 2029.

A concept image of Hobart's proposed stadium at Macquarie Point — the design is yet to be finalised. (Supplied: AFL) Tasmania AFL Tasmania Devils AFL stadium

2023 AFL CLUB MEMBERSHIP LADDER

1. Collingwood – 106,470

2. West Coast Eagles – 103,275

3. Richmond – 101,349

4. Carlton – 95,277

5. Essendon – 86,274

6. Geelong Cats – 82,155

7. Hawthorn – 80,698

8. Melbourne – 70,785

9. Adelaide Crows – 68,536

10. Sydney Swans – 65,332

11. Port Adelaide – 64,041