Average crowds for the regular season are listed below. These figures do not include finals, international friendlies or AFC Champions League matches.

Team Crowd average
2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11

Adelaide United 10,947 12,162 12,697 11,712 10,765 –

Brisbane Roar 14,785 16,465 16,951 12,995 8,650 –

Central Coast Mariners 7,899 9,828 12,741 10,465 7,430 –

Coast United – – – – 5,392 –

Melbourne Heart – – – – – –

Victory 14,158 27,728 26,064 24,516 21,105 –

Newcastle Jets 8,912 11,442 13,209 9,729 6,358 –

New Zealand Knights 3,909 3,0141 – – – –

North Queensland Fury – – – – 6,723 –

Perth Glory 9,734 7,671 7,596 7,942 9,205 –

Sydney FC 16,669 14,999 16,373 12,375 12,987 –

Sydney Rovers – – – – – –

Wellington Phoenix – –1 11,683 7,193 8,965 –

Whole season 10,955 12,927 14,610 12,180 9,796

LOL

yep – - it’s super important to upgrade the tennis centre for a 2 week period each year (and it sees more action hosting music concerts), and building a nice to have but not needed square ended stadium…………..meanwhile………..the trains can’t run when the temp is over about 32.5…………heck………even the construction workers keep going until it gets to 35!!

So – the irony that the sports precinct with so much money invested into it – - sits grandly overlooking the Jolimont rail yards………’cos moving 300-400K people a day is far less important!!!

I heard the other day about how the old Hitachi trains (with windows that opened) had their destination scrolls inclusive of Melton, Sunbury and East Doncaster……………sadly………those lines/extensions never got done………….but………..we got a tennis centre.

What that does illustrate is that even having the tennis centre, and the F1 GP…………they’ve soaked up a huge amount of Govt funds………..and the return? Maybe a couple of decent trams stop upgrades near to those venues.

One wonders how hosting an Olympics or FIFA WC might also be wasted??? (no doubt they’d find a way – forgive me for being cynical on this topic……….but………again, that we’ve hit the 21st century, and only now are they duplicating the rail bridge over the Merri Creek at Clifton Hill………so close to the CBD – - – basically says it all).

Master -

KB and Norm had a love triangle with Doris………………Dave is thought by some to be the offspring.

Are you Koala Bears Love Child

yeah I had no idea Melbourne Park had become all of sudden out of date and not state of the art. $320M for a makeover. the MCG has just emerged from refurb, so yet again the precinct will look different in 3 years. It proably needs a few pubs or bars in the area like Telstra Dome. We’ve got to the footy and a few occasions the soccer in a boat, moor at the Docklands, find good a restuarant or pub (depending on the company) and then head in for the game.

Redb

and nor surely – - would a national basketball league cease to exist…………but, gee…………along the way it can be a bumpy ride.

btw – - why wouldn’t Australian Football League followers discuss football??????

Dave -

too late………….we’ve broken the 700 barrier and there’s still the round 21 totals to consider for the final wrap up.

Super 14 is early in the year from memory and HAL later in the year so each could do it. Certainly perhaps the new Hearts might think think it worth a shot to double up….or maybe they will be too busy trying to establish their own identity…not sure.
Could supporters spend all afternoon and evening watching games?? As you say perhaps TAXI would be needed. l certainly would be interested in seeing a Rugby (union or league) game at the new stadium.
l’ve said it before but the sports complex in and around Swan St/ Brunton Ave is the best that l know of…sounds like the Tennis Centre will also be getting a significant upgrade…geez anyone would think sports dominates Melbourne!!!

MC

This is the 698th post on your blog…sorry but no more from me here as l dont want you to beat my record of over 700
Cheers

I don’t really like AFL & would really struggle to put up a great arguement on why I don’t like the game because I know so little about the game.

i do know that the HAL don’t get the big crowds they do in Europe. I do know that the AFL does get get the big crowds as they do in Europe (bearing in mind that is it comparing the AFL to the EPL, but the EPL teams have many other competitions to compete in). But does that make me prefer the AFL to the HAL, no.
Football is played in every country in the world, Aussie rules is played in 1, does that make the Aussie rules supporter like Football better, no.
We are a resilant lot, us football fans, if the HAL cease to exist, we would go back to following EPL, La Liga, The Argentinian league. If the Socceroos failed to qualify for the WC, we would start to follow again the country which we most afillate with, whether that be our heritage or thru players we follow in the national competitions we follow.

But guess what, we won’t cease to exist, because the base is already there & there are vehicles to entice the bandwagons like the asian club championship the Asian cup & the World cup. Football in this country will grow.

Nuh!!! soitainly not!

How did the crowds compare??
How did the ratings for state Cricket ( 4 dayers) rate v HAL??
How did state one dayers rate vs HAL???
You sound thrilled that finally state Cricket has a version (3rd try) that someone watches and good luck to them.

MC

l have no problem with the AFL move to bigger and safer grounds. However Ess certainly didnt leave WH because they were packing it out every week though as MOD claims. In fact not too many of the suburban grounds were getting capacity crowds at all. Attendances at AFL during the mid/late 80s had slumped significantly. Haw and Fitz crowds at PP were poor, less than 10,000 sometimes.
The AFL left the suburban grounds late 80s/ 90s because they were too much upkeep, not totally safe and they knew they could use AFL Park and MCG more often for games and save money. l remember some games for ESS v Bears at WH, the crowds were pretty poor, low teens if that from memory/barely half full.
The changes have certainly worked well for the AFL and good luck to them.

the ‘rule’ this year has been contraction………..even for the exception above……….

……..with the only exception being Perth Glory …………. because of one exceptional attendance (12K, first crowd above 10K since V1, and happened to be across the holiday XMAS/NY period………..most statistical analysis would suggest removing it from the sample set for overly (positively) skewing the mean.

Heard of MV and there crowds at OP?????????????

don’t forget – - the NSL had 13 teams in the last season. However, it was in wind down contraction mode………..people couldn’t disown it fast enough. 13 teams played 24 games each. 5 Sydney teams, only 2 from Melb/Vic and no Canberra.

16 teams back in 99/2000. 16 teams were playing 34 games each. 3 teams from Melb and one from Gippsland (regional Vic), was it 5 teams from Sydney, 1 from each of Wollongong, Newcastle, Canberra,
1 then from NZ, Perth and Adelaide and Brisbane.

Perhaps the main problem was that half of the league was drawn from NSW, 5 of 16 from Sydney….reducing to 5 from 13 from sydney………..how the heck would you ever expect decent attendance averages!!!!!!!

They were getting crowds of 15-20K for the finals in Perth and Adelaide, and yet Parramatta couldn’t crack 10K for a hosted home GF in 99/2000.

- – - so, I reckon you need to account for the fact that the NSL had too many Sydney teams!!!!

The reality is that the NSL was TOO MUCH Sydney/NSW dominated………that was it’s burden………and there are those who covet turning the HAL into a franchise ridden version of the NSL — how many of our Murray-Tweed bounded friends have tried to model future versions of the HAL with WOllogong, Canberra, and west Sydney……at least.

The best thing the HAL is doing (although the 2 at once time frame is confounding) is to increase the QLD contingent and ignore NSW………but, that’s because they’re still trying to ‘grow the game’ rather than service what SHOULD be the support base.

re stadiums – - in effect – - yes, obviously,

because

A. you need the broadest access

and

B. you need the greatest capacity

Back in the Suburban days, AFL clubs would’ve been much higher attendance to capacity for their suburban grounds – - i.e. 18,000 at a 20K venue is 90% but 33K at a 60K venue is just over 50%.

People disliked the VFL/AFL practice at the time of closing old venues………but……..it’s better for MORE people than it’s not. That and there were too many old grounds, old facilities, fire hazards etc………millions and millions of dollars have been saved via that process. It’s far cheaper to maintain a training venue than a playing venue.

btw -
you forgot your emoticon…….

that match is totally irrelevant.

North Melb (the team that snubbed the GOld COast) hosting a home game against West Coast EAgles………….

yep, I’d like to see what Melbourne Heart hosting Perth GLory on the Gold Coast would attract?? (and that’d be without the baggage that the North Melbourne-Gold Coast community relationship was carrying at the time).

Frankly – I was surprised that anyone turned up – - obviously there were a few thousand fans of North and West Coast on the Gold COast (living or visiting) who were willing to turn up – - – all other Aust Footy fans and advocates for the Gold Coast stayed away as a protest. So – - – if that’s the best you can do to compare to…………….it ain’t saying much on your behalf!!!!!

emoticonvivially yours,
MC

I agree the new stadium will be excellent. Looking forward to a Melb Super 14 team I can support. One of the first things a Super 14 team and Melb Victory should do is setup double headers with the AFL. (when there is cross over). Spend the day going to footy(s) within that magnificent sporting precinct. probably need a taxi home though

Redb

On your previous point Re. AFL suburban grounds. The reason they moved games to MCG and Telstra Dome was because the suburban grounds COULDN’T HOLD THE CROWDS safely. On the account they were to big. No a problem the A-League is confronted with

The only fair comparison is if HAL had equal games with the NSL. A-league had 50% more crowds aggregate then the NSL with almost half as many games. Only then can we have a true comparison between the A-league and NSL. If the average was maintain over the same length of the NSL the aggregate may be a lot bigger (around 170K although as MC has pointed out you would expect the crowds to drop off towards the end but it would still be a larger margin so you probably expect somewhere between 120 to 160K if A-league had the same amount of matches as the NSL)

By the way 900000 (true figure is 920220) for the first season of the Aleague
It was 110K for the 2nd season, 120k for the 3rd season

If the average 11,937 is maintain for the last round of the A-league then this year would be 100K for this year

Last thing – the crowds we get for the A-league are mostly new supporters of the game. MOst of them aren’t NSL supporters as they have boycotted the A-league (don’t believe me, just go around old NSL or other soccer forums).

So yes I do believe there is real traction with mainstream Australia. 50% increase aggregate crowd in half the amount of games of mostly non-NSL supporters is a real success.

Here’s a FACT for you, not classic A.S.S. dribble.

KFC 20/20 cricket had near on triple the ratings of that of the highest rating A-league games over the past 2 rating periods

Justify that !

” Ofcourse the 1st game, against the Roar no doubt, will attract 20,000. It will be pronouced as the dawing of a new era.
By week 5 it will be down to around to a tad over 10,000.”

Gee l hope they dont drop down to the level of AFL crowds on the GC… you know 6-8,000 with lots of freebies thrown in!!

Ahhhh is that why the AFL switched from 8 suburban grounds to 2 venues in the city….brilliant thinking!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we can discount 25% of AFL attendances????????

GCU have a great opportunity to gain a foothold;
1. They have a Billionaire owner who will pull out all stops to ensure they are successful
2. They will get plenty of media due to outspoken views of Palmer and his coach Bleiberg
3. They will play at a near new, rectangular stadium capacity of 27,000 perfect for watching football.
4. Football has very high participatory rates on GC so they have the base of a pyramid to start working with
5. They have bought a high profile current Socceroo in the prime of his career. He will be the highest earning footballer of any code in Oz
6. The club themselves will have set as a target at least 20,000 crowds and the first game would expect to be a sellout.
7. They have picked up some of the better HAL players from this season including top scorer Smeltz from WP and so should be able to play a good attacking brand of football.
8 No competition from other sports in Summer (do they state Cricket games on the Coast?)
9. Huge growing population of the region.
10. they also want to represent the region internationally (1st game at the Birdsnest in Beijing, ACL, prestigious friendlies)

Not saying it will be easy for them but they have a great chance to impart a big footprint on the GC.

Interesting to see those aggregate numbers. 900K HAL Vs 600K NSL

I firmly believe that playing in the best stadiums available, you get an extra 25% to a game. Based on this assumption the aggregate crowds are up only approx 10-15% in the HAL as compared to the NSL.

Supports my view that soccer, regardless of all the hype from the media (who have a vested interest) has gained very little real traction in Australia

Ofcourse the 1st game, against the Roar no doubt, will attract 20,000. It will be pronouced as the dawing of a new era.

By week 5 it will be down to around to a tad over 10,000.

Excuses will begin to fly thick and fast. OH the swell was pumping at Kirra, Paris Hilton was in town, Showers threatened etc.

You know the drill

It is possible that crowds could drop away. That’s probably why when FFA decided to expand they wanted to compress it all to the same time frame in the peak holiday period rather then making the A-league longer. This may prevent the drop away.

Again we have to wait see what happens.

Sorry mate. No it’s A.S.S. (Australian Soccer Syndrome)

Still taking your Med’s. I’m sure fantasy land is nice but trying living int he real world.

20,000 at the Gold Coast, wow. Don’t worry pal I’ll be waiting next season to put another big cross next to another failured prediction of yours.

Cant’ even get 20,000 in Brisbane but you expect the Gold Coast to get 20,000. Enough said

are you comparing MVFC to Green Gully,

or to Heidelberg,

btw – - the longer the season – - the more likely that the cellar dwellars will fall away sooner – - we know the dangers of the absence of a P&R…….

….and a longer season would see greater overlap with NRL/AFL/Super14s…………back into the territor occuppied by the poor old NSL.

Presently for V4, we’ve seen that the peak time for the HAL is the XMAS/NY ‘peak holiday’ period. Expanding further away from this time might not have the effect you’re hoping for.

Dave -

aha!!!! good to see – - a recognition that the folk with sports blinkers on in Melbourne ARE NOT the apparently (according to some theorist bloggers from interstate) insular Australian Football folk…………but, more likely the soccer snobs………(master…….is that : Australian soccer snobs??)

Dave & Master -

20K for the Gold Coast – - you’d almost expect/hope for that up front……their first home game really should………….how many promotional tickets are given away as part of whipping up a local media frenzy……who knows. For the long term average, that’s another question entirely.