Giants’ paltry crowd numbers an ‘embarrassment’ amid record AFL crowd numbers

The Giants have been slammed for their paltry attendance figures on what should have been a ‘character-defining’ day for the club.

Toby Greene, GWS, and Giants Stadium during Round 1, 2023 against Adelaide.

After a bumper first round for attendances in the AFL, questions are being asked of the consistent exception holding back the best-attended sport in the country: the Greater Western Sydney Giants.

Despite a membership base bigger than the competition’s other expansion club, and with a sporting catchment as large as their cross-town rivals the Swans, the Giants continually fail to attract significant crowds.

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In a round where the first two AFL games alone beat out the entire first round of NRL attendances, the Giants only managed a measly 8,169 at Giants Stadium.

The expansion club have never averaged a season where half their ground at Homebush was filled, despite the AFL pouring over $200 million into the project.

The league’s attempt to venture into traditional rugby league heartland seems to have fallen flat, with the code favoured by white-collar families and young professionals in Sydney’s east, north and inner-western suburbs that subsequently support the Swans.

Social media was aghast at the crowd size, especially compared to the record numbers in Victoria at the MCG to see hometown teams start their season and the ongoing debate about the requirements for a 19th club based in footy-mad, but sparsely-populated Tasmania.

According to Twitter statistician @sirswampthing, 291,473 people packed into the MCG for the first round of the 2023 season, the largest VFL/AFL attendance for any round at the ground, smashing the previous mark by precisely 60,000.

After two games this #AFL season the total crowd attendance is 174,697

The entire Round 1 NRL attendance was 147,836

📸 @[e-mail]/u58PNhTqtG

— Nick Quinn (@Quinny_1) March 17, 2023

“How pathetic is that Giants crowd for the first game of the year – move them to Canberra,” said one social media user.

“Is the AFL looking at this crowd for the Giants home game opener?” asked another.

“Looks to me that Tasmania wants an AFL team and Sydney really didn’t need two,” he said.

“Tasmania Giants, perhaps?”

“That crowd was f**king embarrassing, that’s A-League-like,” wrote another.

“Can’t use the heat as an excuse either when you have the (Canterbury Bulldogs NRL) game in the exact same conditions sell out,” they said.

Harry Himmelberg (top) got up for a huge screamer, sitting for what seemed like an eternity. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/AFL Photos/Getty Images)

Tom Green was red-hot in the heat, racking up a career high 37 touches. (Photo by Matt King/AFL Photos/Getty Images)

Others referenced the historically poor turnout at Giants home games, with one saying “(the) Giants couldn’t get a crowd when they were winning, I don’t know why I’m surprised.”

It is a sad state of affairs for a club whose on-field fortunes have not always reflected their supportership, and with the club’s 106-90 win over Adelaide described by Fox Footy as “character-defining”, the fact that it came in a largely empty stadium should be of concern to the AFL.

“That’s one of the best Giants wins I can remember,” said ABC Sport’s Brett Sprigg.

“47-pt turnaround with a one man bench in scorching conditions to make Adam Kingsley a winner on day one. Huge.”

Despite the league being insistent on trying to capture a slice of the roughly 2.5 million people that populate Sydney’s greater west, the league additionally does itself no favours when it comes to the things that matter in putting bums on seats.

The Giants were scheduled to open their season against the Adelaide Crows at Homebush at the peak of a suffocatingly hot Sunday afternoon in mid-March, raising eyebrows across Sydney.

A crowd of 8,169, hiding in the shade, at the Giants' Round 1 clash against Adelaide. Picture: Twitter

Apparent temperatures at Olympic Park reached 34.7 degrees Celsius at 1pm for a scheduled 1.10pm first bounce, so it was no surprise that Giants Stadium was less than a third-full, with an attendance of 7,012 recorded, later amended to 8,169.

March is typically the third-warmest month of the year in Sydney, with average maximum temperatures being the same as December, the height of cricket season.

Despite the heat, generally much worse in Sydney’s west than in the east where the Swans train and play, the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs packed out their traditional home at Belmore Oval, with 16,404 fans watching their win over the Wests Tigers.