AFL bucks trend of dwindling crowds

A turnaround in the fortunes of Carlton and Brisbane has helped the AFL defy a downturn in attendances across several sports.

The biggest crowd of the year watched Richmond take on Brisbane at the MCG on Sunday. Picture: AAP

A turnaround in the on-field fortunes at Carlton and Brisbane Lions have helped the AFL defy a downturn in attendances across several sports in Australia and around the world, posting its third consecutive season of rising crowds.

Figures provided by the league showed it to be the fourth biggest attended major sports competition in the world, with the recently completed 2019 home-and-away season attracting an average 35,108 per match, to put it behind only the National Football League in the US (67,042), soccer’s German Bundesliga (43,458) and the English Premier League (38,130).

Total crowds for this year’s AFL season reached 6.95 million, up from 6.89 million in 2018, with Richmond leading the way with the highest home-game average of 59,994, the second-highest for the Tigers in their history and the fourth highest of any team in AFL history.

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan told The Australian the league was buoyed by the performance of the interstate teams, with defending premiers West Coast achieving their highest-ever average of 53,515 for home crowds and Brisbane, who finished second on the ladder and will host a qualifying final Saturday week at the Gabba, recording a 34 per cent increase for their best result since 2010 by averaging 24,741 per home match.

“I think Brisbane is the story of 2019. The broader picture to that is you have teams like Carlton also having a big increase in their crowds, and they are both about teams that have done it tough for a while and then turning it around,” McLachlan said.

“For Brisbane, it is a credit to the leadership of (coach and general manager of football) Chris Fagan and David Noble up there and with Carlton there is that excitement of the team stringing some wins together under their new coach as well.”

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Crowds for Carlton, under new coach David Teague, in particular surged during the second half of the season. The Blues attracted their fifth largest average home crowds of all time, 46,755 per game, representing a whopping 47 per cent increase from 2018.

Seven of the top eight rounds ever have come in the past two seasons and the average attendance of 53,701 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which will play host to minor premiers Geelong’s qualifying final clash against Collingwood on Friday week, was the second highest ever

However, only seven of the 18 clubs in the competition increased their average home attendances during 2018, including finalists Collingwood, Essendon, GWS Giants and the Western Bulldogs.

But McLachlan pointed out that the league had still increased its overall attendances despite clubs taking matches away from their usual home grounds to more intimate and neutral arenas.

“We’re doing that at a time as well when we’ve taken games to Ballarat and you’ve got eight games in Tasmania and also places like Alice Springs. So we’ve gone to smaller venues but still recorded that increase, so we are very happy,” he said.

“It’s been a fantastic year for crowds and also TV ratings, so we are very happy about that. The ratings and record attendances are a credit to our clubs for working hard at getting people to the grounds, and it also shows the evenness of the competition.

“When people know the games are going to be close or their team has a good chance of winning, they will go along.”

Seven West Media, the parent company of the Seven Network, said in its annual report last week that ratings for its AFL fixtures were up about 10 per cent this year.

McLachlan also played down concerns about Geelong having to play their final at the MCG, which will be the only game played in the AFL’s Victorian heartland in the first weekend of September.

“We are a national competition and to have Brisbane and West Coast hosting games in the first week shows that, and you’ve also got GWS making the finals for the fourth consecutive year as well,” he said.