I think the numbers are down by about one thousand.

I would not read too much too much into the numbers.

Of course posters like these two above only chime in when the numbers are down, you will never hear from then say next year when surprise surprise, Adelaide Crows memberships go up along with their success and outlook.

Port Adelaide’s future is in its own hands, its laughable to think a NRL club will have any bearing. The Storm despite all its ‘success’ has not made a dent on 10 AFL clubs in Victoria.

One thing is for certain, and if these two posters were honest, the Adelaide Crows is by far the biggest ticket in town, any talk of stadium development will come down to them first and foremost, not a couple of small franchise teams from other sports.

The Crows were always going to succeed, but Port could have only done so by joining the AFL prior to the entry of a broadbased club. By joining afterwards they were always going to be playing second fiddle.

I follow the power over the crows but follow doesnt mean I want to be a member.

Fine weather and a fresh start probably always helps draw out the punters too for R1.

“The AFL has invested HEAPS in grass roots”

Yep, when some people say GC and WS will fall over they might be forgetful of the fact that the AFL is willing to plough loads of cash into these markets, specifically into junior development – a long term approach to effectively creating a market.
It’s that old Jesuit saying, “Give me the child until he is seven …”

With so much cash in reserve, it can afford to go the distance – a war of attrition, so to speak. It’s not distracted like the NRL, which is fighting on 3 fronts – the AFL for national dominance, football/soccaaaaa for Sydney, and Continental Union for players.

There’s always so much talk from sports commentators and the media about drinking culture threatening code and club viability. As if. People will always excuse any rudeness that comes from their sports idols.
The true barometer of health always comes back to financesl. Of all the codes in this country the AFL is top of the heap, with a strong cash position and great cashflow. The likes of the ARU’s JON must be envious.

not bad given head to head in town with the F1 GP. Also, on Saturday, a lot of local footy was kicking off with practice matches, along with being such balmy autumn weather (mid/high 20s). No shortage of things to do, so, basking in the sun at the ‘G was only so high on the priority list!!

RfromH -

very true re the AFL not getting too carried away during the good times. Part of that evidenced in the ratio of game revenue paid to players being less than that of the NRL. (smaller pool of money in NRL too). The AFL has invested HEAPS in grass roots, and also put away a future fund (which they also pulled out into cash before the ‘GFC’ hit, and so, in real terms, the AFL is in a super strong position on that front).

Even though it’s only round 1, it’d be fascinating to see a St. Kil. v. Footscray(WB) GF.
With each having a history of chronic underperformance , you’d have to ask “Who the bloody hell could win it?”

Adelaide United may be saved afterall … http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,25260547-5006373,00.html

Despite the perilous financial times we live in, the AFL and it’s clubs – even Port – appear to have planned wisely and largely protected themselves with their membership bases – a luxury NRL and HAL clubs would love to have. The AFL clubs have worked hard when times were good and mitigated government risk to revenue (eg. NRL clubs and pokies revenue) and private ownership risk to revenue (eg. Adelaide United). If AFL clubs can clear more at the gate they’ll be laughing.
Say, I wonder whatever happened to that Sheikh who was going to plough money into a Tasmanian HAL team.

AFL attendances first round 2009 was 349,000 the fifth highest of all time. I would say the Collingwood MCG crowd was a little soft at 41K, they ave about 55K, but it was telecast live.

Overall attendance will be down this year from time to time but not dramaticially. Interestingly with both Adelaide teams winning their rivalry is set to re-ignite.

Redb

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,25250878-5000940,00.html

“Football Federation Australia may be forced to take control of the club after their owners admitted they were looking for new investors. It’s understood owners Bianco Constructions are experiencing difficulties and may be forced to hand in their A-League licence.”

AFL attendances may wane a little this season, but it is a far more established competition with greater market clout than the HAL. Start-ups and mid-caps always get crunched the hardest in market downturns – the same goes for the world of sport.
The Victorian clubs will generally still do well, feeding off one-another’s rivalry. And the AFL stands to benefit from a resurgent Carlton – the club that thinks it is born to rule. Gotta hate that.

The AFL’s strategy of spreading into NSW and Qld. is what it needs to do. 2 AFL states – SA and Tas. – are ‘rust belt’ states with anaemic economies and demographics. NSW and Qld. hold 55% of the Oz population with more robust economies. Little wonder Tassie’s AFL bid has all but been laughed off by the AFL.

if making a profit were the requisite, then the Hyundai A-League would not be in existence……..and they are all privately owned franchises!!!

AFL clubs aren’t in it for making profits.

Reality is in a 16 team competition in a single division, you will always have clubs that with a down year and for whatever reasons, find balancing the books difficult. The capacity to pull out of that within 12 months or 24 months in this case is severely dented by a GFC. The AFL must be willing to support such clubs if required – - but, the AFL has generally ensured that clubs have decent business plans and aren’t just throwing good money after bad.

In my living memory I have NEVER seen the Crows crowd drop off.

Please support your statement with some sort of evidence, eg. which year

C’mon the Power.

4) the actions of many Port supporters keep fringe fans and family groups away.

5) the Port Adelaide supporter base isnt like it use to be and I dont think the club gets that. 30 years ago Port Magpies fans genreally all lived near Alberton and worked on the docks or in plants down that way. A big portion of the gen x and y fans are professionals who live in areas all over the city – these types (I know many) may go to the Showdown but thats really it.

1) their coach has about as much public appeal as Adolf Hitler.

2) in the early days they had several off field issues that didnt help them.

3) the bond with the old skool Alberton crew isnt as strong as most people think. Sure there is something there but many of our family friends, who have been to every Port game since they were 5 years old, have stopped going to the AFL becuase they say the AFL section (players, coaches etc) really want nothing to do with the traditions of the club.

The ground thing isnt or shouldnt be an issue as Footy Park is a few k’s from the Port heart land.

Soccer taking over in Adelaide? you are kidding me arent ya?

the West Sydney is a double pronged thing. TV plus grass roots growth.

If it was all about TV, the AFL wouldn’t have been investing so much money, time and effort at the grass roots level.

The results remain to be seen in absolute terms. Alot of the more tangible results (i.e. recruits/draftees) are still in the nurturing stage.

It’s a long term thing. It’s easy to talk about TV money in the short term, but, we know that that money would simply be absorbed back into the NSW grass roots development. It’s not as if the money goes to line the pockets of private citizens (i.e. club/league owners). And, the AFL players are actually paid less in relative terms than are the NRL players. So much more of AFL revenue is ploughed back into the game beyond the elite level. That isn’t likely to change in the short/medium term.

Foxtel – the main problem for NRL is that Foxtel kicked off with the RL (C7 was going the footy path). The pay tv market in the RL heartlands is the most mature pay tv market in the country. Fox aren’t too fussed about ‘ratings’ (i.e. advertising revenue), they are fussed about new business – and the AFL states promise the most new business as well as AFL followers in the RL states. How long that level of ‘potential’ lasts such that it dictates such a spend? Who knows.

Does anyone really believe a team in tasmania should wait for an AFL team whilst a team in West sydney gets one first?

Its all about TV revenue people. Fox Sports even mentioned that the reason the AFL gets more money than the NRL is because it has the potential to be seen by more people.

PS maybe the Tasmania AFL bid team can get the phone number of the saudi sheikh who is supposedly bankrolling the Tasmania A-league bid.

I reckon the new stadium will certainly do a lot to increase the Storm’s support, especially when it first opens (remember the huge numbers that went to games at the newly opened Olympic stadium? a bit different, but it’s a similar effect)

Two teams must remain in Adelaide – the AFL has to avoid a situation similar to what has arisen with the Brisbane Broncos (basically outstripping every other club in terms of size).

M.C just have to mention the storm game the other nite, nice crowd and they went home happy. They must all be looking forward to get into the new stadium, they will think all their X.Masses have come at once.

mostly because,

A. we don’t have a regular evenly balanced home and away fixture, so, playing Collingwood at home is a major benefit, especially in Melbourne.

B. clubs can move around venues which has included ‘selling’ games interstate for better financial returns for far lesser crowds. Alternatively, the Swans average can be varied drastically depending on games a Homebush.

C. some clubs when doing well, have the major issue of limited capacity, obvious examples include in Perth and Geelong.

It’s not like measuring the HAL for example where the main variation is 11 or 10 home games.

At any rate, the clubs that fell away last year mainly did so after ‘pulling the pin’ earlier than normal. Port was an obvious example, they had a very unlucky start, kept losing, got injuries and progressively ‘retired’ players for the season – - no surprise their crowds fell away and even only had a so-so ‘showdown’ crowd.

The AFL are smart with their fixturing to get in all the Coll vs Carl vs Ess vs Rich and even Haw vs Geel in the GF replay – early in the season, it gives a major boost to the crowds.

North won’t be playing 3 games at Cararra this year – that’ll help the North crowd average, but, not the financial bottom line!!! It’s madness that!

At any rate – it could even be another record year? It all depends how long until the bottom 6 teams have really fallen away and who is in that group. If there’s still 8 teams battling for 5th to 12th around round 20, then all the better.

I diasgree on footy crowds, i think they’ll soften in 2009, in fact for some clubs they were already down in 2008, but a significant drop is unlikely.

Here’s a few reasons to ponder:

1. Collingwood, Carlton and Richmond (3 of the big 4 Vic clubs) are top 8 contenders with Hawthorn matching those big clubs in terms of membership and support. West Coast, Adelaide and Brisbane are likely to have buoyant years, Swans will do Ok at the redeveloped SCG if Barry Hall fires up. Therefore most of the big clubs are in for a good season.

2. Club membership is actually higher this year than last, in some cases substantially up not down.

3. In hard times, the footy is still a relatively cheap entertainment option especially as a club member.

Redb

perpetuating blog hear say, I thought someone had disputed that stereotype.

but I like your final point.

They are the POOREST supporters in the league!!!!!

Australian’s up to the early 1990′s lived a relatively frugal existence. Its the main reason football crowds were smaller than they are now.

But with an expanding economy and credit card debt running rampant, EVERY supporter can go to the football on a regular basis.

But it appears Port Adelaide supporters have not reached this threshold of ‘affluence’.

My advice to everyone is, watch when the economy goes down the gurlger and you will see that all the other clubs attendacnes will drop significantly, EXCEPT Port Adelaide’s!!!

“I would have stuck with my VFL side, Essendon”

I knew were a good bloke, there’s still time to join us at Bomberland.

Redb

Oh well, the good news is I can hit the ground running from day one.

I’ll start with the Nix – no youth team – ok squad to begin with – very challenging – and I have access to some decent youth team squad members!

True though – they need a team, and perhaps need a time frame to build towards.