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Shaun Higgins of the Western Bulldogs marks in front of Nick Riewoldt of St Kilda during the AFL Round 17 match between the St Kilda Saints and the Western Bulldogs at the Docklands Stadium. Slattery Images
There is often speculation as to what sports occupy the hearts and minds of Australians. A recent Sensis (Telstra) survey conducted in September 2009 asked the question of 1,500 Australians throughout the country: who is their favourite sporting team?
The results were interesting to say the least and can be interpreted or spun to suit. But what is undeniable is that the AFL has captured more fans that anyone with 21 percent of the people surveyed nominating Australian Football (AFL) as their favourite sport.
Next was rugby league (NRL) with 12 percent, followed by cricket 11 per cent, football 11 per cent and, worrying for rugby union, they came in well down the list behind tennis and netball at just 3 per cent.
The favourite sporting teams by state were:
NSW – Sydney Swans 7 per cent
VIC – Collingwood 14 per cent
QLD – Brisbane Broncos 21 per cent
SA – Adelaide Crows 44 per cent
WA- West Coast 28 per cent
TAS – St Kilda 10 per cent
NT – Collingwood 9 per cent
ACT – Canberra Raiders 10 per cent
No State or Territory nominated any national sporting team (cricket, soccer, rugby) as their favourite team, although when asked to nominate their favourite national sporting team, the Australian cricket team came out on top.
In NSW, the Swans at 7 per cent were closely followed by the Dragons, Australian cricket team and the Bulldogs. Obviously NRL team loyalties are split.
No-one would suggest AFL is the most popular sport in NSW.
In Victoria, it’s no surprise that Collingwood are leading the pack. The Pies also came out number one in the Northern Territory and surprisingly second behind the Raiders in the ACT.
Only teams that scored above 5 per cent were listed and no non-AFL teams in Victoria made the list, which confirms the suspicion that the Swans have penetrated further into the consciousness in Sydney than, say, the Storm in Melbourne.
Essendon was low at just 7 per cent, behind Carlton, Hawthorn and Geelong in Victoria. We Bomber fans always considered it was Collingwood, then Essendon in popularity.
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October 16th 2009 @ 3:27am
Billo said | October 16th 2009 @ 3:27am | Report comment
Surveys like this can be interpreted in a variety of ways, but you can’t argue with the fact that AFL is clearly the number one favourite sport.
I’m slightly surprised that the Raiders are more popular than the Brumbies in ACT, and even that the Magpies come second there.
Rugby can’t take much joy out of this survey, it seems.
The other point of note is that the Crows came so far ahead of Port Adelaide in a two-team city.
October 16th 2009 @ 9:19am
Rodney McDonell said | October 16th 2009 @ 9:19am | Report comment
Perhaps when you consider the Power is essentially the professional version of port power in the SANFL, you’d obviously find those who support any other team in the SANFL would be reluctance to follow a SANFL inspired AFL team. Thus they choose the Crows. Only Port Adelaide Magpie fans would be more likely to follow Port Power.
October 16th 2009 @ 3:42am
Freud of Football said | October 16th 2009 @ 3:42am | Report comment
Rugby Union is below netball and tennis? Wow, I don’t think there is a way to put a positive spin on that is there?
I think SA’s 44% for the Crows is quite interesting. Obviously AFL is the major sport in the state and the state league is of a pretty good level as evidenced by the long-running SA-VIC rivalry in state of origins, they were generally pretty tight even before the AFL.
But its interesting in the fact that inside 2 decades they have taken almost half the market. Before them, Port Adelaide were the Collingwood of SA (in more ways than one), there were a lot of Norwood and Sturt fans in the 80s too. Then, the Crows managed to unite the state, a passionate AFL state which has only one other team to compete with in Port but they still managed to do so, their backroom staff should be commended for bringing in the fans the way they did, they did so by taking in players from everywhere at the start, the team resembled some what of a “best of the SANFL” for a while and this was important.
Port obviously having the tradition they had relied a lot on the Magpies but we’ve seen where its gotten them now, out in the cold, the state shuns them as they are seen as an extension of Port Adelaide, a team you either love or hate and unfortunately for the Power, a lot more people hate them than love them.
The only reason they survived this long was Alan Scott.
October 16th 2009 @ 7:13am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 7:13am | Report comment
It really does that the Crows are by far the most popular team per capita in any state or territory. Twice the popularity relatively of the Broncos in QLD and considerably more popular than the West Coast Eagles in WA.
Agree this is why Port Adelaide struggle.
Redb
October 17th 2009 @ 9:05am
Pete said | October 17th 2009 @ 9:05am | Report comment
“Rugby Union is below netball and tennis?” I think if you did the survey again in a few months time Rugby would do far better. It was conducted in Sept 2009 at a time (Tri-Nations series) when even myself, a solid Wallaby supporter, wouldn’t vote the Wallabies as my favourite team. In fact I was very angry with them. Caught up in the euphoria of the NRL final series I probably would have voted Parramatta, but I have been to far more Wallaby matches than Parramatta games.
AS JON said today “you’ll love us again when we are winning”. I expect that is partly true, but Wallaby supporters aren’t really fair weather freinds. We’ll love them agin when they show the committment that we believe went missing during the Bledisloe cup match.
Rugby won’t surpass AFL or NRL, but suggetsing that its popularity places it below netball and tennis, highlights that this sensis ‘market research’ is flawed.
Often, these companies thrown is a bit of controversy to get people talking and drum up interest in their company (sensis), not unlike FHM putting Julia Gillard or Pauline Hanson in the top 50 sexiest women in Australia.
October 17th 2009 @ 9:26am
AndyRoo said | October 17th 2009 @ 9:26am | Report comment
Survey and Australia’s population is 50% women. tennis and Netball are also on FTA a lot more than rugby and are national.
You get a lot of people that arent really into watching sport on TV that if you ask them to choose will say “tennis” (because they watch the Oz open and Wimbledon) or netball (because the play it)
October 16th 2009 @ 4:46am
Kurt said | October 16th 2009 @ 4:46am | Report comment
Interesting stuff. Personally I find these reports more meaningful when viewed over time – i.e. – what are the trends in popularity for different sports & activities. The Sweeney sports report is good for that as they have been using the exact same methodology for a number of years. So even if you dispute the exact way ‘popularity’ is calculated you can at least get a feel for the way things have changed over the years.
October 16th 2009 @ 7:02am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 7:02am | Report comment
Tasmania’s strong support for St Kilda is very evident, as is the split of support for AFL teams with 4 teams reaching 5% interest. Underlines the beleif that Tasmania already has its VFL/AFL team loyalties.
Interesting also that despite Hawthorn having 6,000 members, playing 4 games a year and literally brought the 2008 Premiership Cup to the Applie Isle they ranked behing St Kilda, Collingwood and Carlton in the hearts and minds. I’m not having a go at the Hawks here but I think it shows Tasmanians stick to their original footy team.
Redb
October 16th 2009 @ 7:22am
Freud of Football said | October 16th 2009 @ 7:22am | Report comment
While Tasmania does have its loyalties I’d imagine, like the crows, that a team based out of Hobart could unite the state and would garner the support of the Taswegians, especially if they could include some Tassie born players on the list.
This is a market that the AFL would have entered way before West Sydney if it was run by people with some sort of an idea rather than the self-serving egotistical marketing dicks that currently run the league.
As it stands I wouldn’t be surprised to see a license coming out of Tas in a few years time merging with another team, Port will stay as Port despite their troubles but Melbourne isn’t financially viable for the teams it supports, most likely another Fitzroy type scenario will popup sooner rather than later.
October 16th 2009 @ 7:27am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 7:27am | Report comment
Don’t agree, I think the criteria behind moving into Western Sydney over Tasmania is substantial.
October 16th 2009 @ 7:49am
Robbos said | October 16th 2009 @ 7:49am | Report comment
No, no let the AFL pour money into the West Sydney Roosters.
October 16th 2009 @ 9:25am
James said | October 16th 2009 @ 9:25am | Report comment
They certainly will Robbos…much to your disgust.
October 16th 2009 @ 9:24am
James said | October 16th 2009 @ 9:24am | Report comment
Tasmania wont work in short term as there is a strong North/South Rivalry….Hobart does have a bigger population, but the population is split evenly between the North and South. Apparantly no one from the south bothers to attend matched at Aurora stadium in Launceston. What is needed is the state to unite…an Aussie Rules state of 500,000 should theoretically be able to support an AFL team.
I think North is the most vulnerable out of all teams in Melbourne at the moment. But the sorting out of the MCG and Etihad deals has at least guaranteed them their short term future, and a $1 billion TV rights deal will go further for their long term outlook.
October 17th 2009 @ 6:18am
Elbusto said | October 17th 2009 @ 6:18am | Report comment
Thanks James for showing your ignorance of Tassie:
1. The population in Tassie is evenly divided in three areas – North, South and North West. Each has roughly 170000 people located in it.
2. Yes there is parochialism in Tassie, where isn’t there’ but I can assure you that literally hundreds of cars travel to Launceston from Hobart each time the Hawks play.
I got dragged along to a game by my brother (I think AFL is crap by the way) and there Southerners all over the place.
As for whether an AFL Team gets located in West Sydney or Tassie – I could not give a flying f to be honest. I think I prefer West Sydney because it will bleed the AFL dry.
February 26th 2011 @ 11:22pm
Luke said | February 26th 2011 @ 11:22pm | Report comment
May I ask what sport do you watch?,
October 16th 2009 @ 6:54am
hazey.the.bear said | October 16th 2009 @ 6:54am | Report comment
Oooh the naughty things I could do with this survey……Unfortunately I’d need all the raw data to extract all the necessary information, but it looks like they’ve done most of it already anyways. I’ve been working with the Business lecturer at the college I go to analyzing surveys and I’ve started to get the hang of processing data at all levels.
From the report, the cross-section of respondents is balanced. One thing that you haven’t mentioned Redb, is that NSW respondents were the ones who were most interested in sport (80%), which means that this could have produced a bias towards Rugby League, but didn’t. It probably wasn’t a significant difference with the other states anyway, but I couldn’t tell you (wasn’t in the report).
You also didn’t mention the dominance of League in Queensland (Broncos 21%, Aus Cricket Team 8%, Lions 7%), but that was probably a given.
Also where you said “In NSW, the Swans at 7 per cent were closely followed by the Dragons, Australian cricket team and the Bulldogs.” – I think you meant Parramatta Eels instead of Bulldogs. The breakdown in the survey shows: Sydney Swans 7%, Aus Cricket Team 6%, Dragons 5%, Eels 5%.
October 16th 2009 @ 7:09am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 7:09am | Report comment
Edit: sorry yes the ‘Doesn’t Matter’ Eels.
There is so much you can glean from the report, even my original article has been cut down considerably and I didn’t mention your point.
Plenty of stuff in there also about how important people view their chosen sport.
A lot of the survey backs up intuitive or anecdotal beleifs, however nothing is 100% accurate its just a guide.
No mention of the Socceroos?
No mention of the Wallabies?
Bloody Collingwood are a juggernaut.
Redb
October 16th 2009 @ 7:46am
hazey.the.bear said | October 16th 2009 @ 7:46am | Report comment
I was actually thinking about the whole Collingwood thing…
One thing I could probably glean from the survey data is what “typifies” a Collingwood supporter (in terms of gender, age, job, income, etc.), but I’d need the information to do so.
This could confirm once and for all if Pies supporters are indeed the bogans many of us perceive them to be….
October 16th 2009 @ 7:49am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 7:49am | Report comment
There is no mention of social demographics, however age distributions have been sought with a sample from 7 distinct age groups ranging from 14 -17 years old to 64 years and over.
October 16th 2009 @ 7:58am
hazey.the.bear said | October 16th 2009 @ 7:58am | Report comment
Awww…well that takes all the fun out of it doesn’t it?
Strange though…Usually they put these details in to get a full break-down of the survey respondents.
October 16th 2009 @ 8:01am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 8:01am | Report comment
Does a bit
October 16th 2009 @ 6:54am
Rugby 1 said | October 16th 2009 @ 6:54am | Report comment
Very poor servey 1500 people knowing the fact brumbies dominate ACT, makes me doubt this entire servey. I’m sure it gives us a very rough idea however in general wasn’t even worth writing!
October 16th 2009 @ 7:26am
Chris said | October 16th 2009 @ 7:26am | Report comment
Yeah the Brumbies thing does make me tend to doubt the accuracy of the entire survey. I live in the ACT – there is simply no way the Raiders are the more popular team. You see Brumbies bumper stickers EVERYWHERE here. The Brumbies crowd average is 5,000 higher than the Raiders (and a good portion of the crowd at Raiders games has NSW number plates).
October 16th 2009 @ 7:39am
LK said | October 16th 2009 @ 7:39am | Report comment
I agree, that is strange. Also, the Pies second in the ACT?!? There must be some sort of skewing. For what it is worth, 120 people were surveyed in the ACT.
October 16th 2009 @ 7:44am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 7:44am | Report comment
LK,
I agree intuitively I would have put support at Raiders/Brumbies 1or 2, then probably the Swans rather than Pies, but obviously Collingwood does have some support.
Redb
October 16th 2009 @ 7:52am
Chris said | October 16th 2009 @ 7:52am | Report comment
Upon seeing the sample size was 125 I am not so surprised. With a sample size like that the margin for error is simply huge (8.76% for 95% confidence).
October 16th 2009 @ 8:54am
LK said | October 16th 2009 @ 8:54am | Report comment
The Pies support in Canberra was 7% with a margin of error of 8%. Does that mean their support could be zero or even -1%.
October 16th 2009 @ 8:36am
Brett McKay said | October 16th 2009 @ 8:36am | Report comment
Further on that Chris, the Brumbies emmbership is significantly higher than the Raiders. The Raiders never got to their target of 5000 members within 2009, while the Brumbies membership dipped below 9000 for the first time since their inception bascially. Moreso, they’re tipped to rise back above 10,000 for the 2010 season.
But then if the sample was only 120 people…
October 16th 2009 @ 9:25am
Rodney McDonell said | October 16th 2009 @ 9:25am | Report comment
I’m a massive league fan, but i’d have to admit, League would play second fiddle to Union there. I’d have to question the demographics of the people who took the pole. Seeing as though it was done by telstra, you’d be hard pressed to find any bias, unless of course it’s at the every end of the people who do the surveying.
October 16th 2009 @ 9:35am
Brett McKay said | October 16th 2009 @ 9:35am | Report comment
Would the “Telstra NRL Premiership” be evidence enough Rodney??
I’m not suggesting Telstra would skew the results by the way, I’m just saying the evidence is certainly there in plain sight to allow conclusions to be jumped to..
October 16th 2009 @ 9:41am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 9:41am | Report comment
Brett,
When you look at the broad level interest across the 4 football codes: AFL 21%, NRL 12%, Soccer 11% and rugby union 3%, union is very low regardless of state borders.
Maybe union fans dont like surveys?
If anything Telstra would skew against the AFL as the primary sponsor of the NRL – dont buy the conspiracy theory though.
Redb
October 18th 2009 @ 4:47pm
Bay35Pablo said | October 18th 2009 @ 4:47pm | Report comment
You need at least 1000 for a meaningful survey in my experience. With a national survey on such a compex issue, I’d suggest you’d need 1000 per state to be sure. As they said 120 people from Canberra is far too narrow. That means they managed to find 12 people of the 120 to say the Raiders were their favourite team. Bit harder to get 100 out of 1000.
October 16th 2009 @ 6:59am
JF said | October 16th 2009 @ 6:59am | Report comment
Churnalism on the Roar? This is very dissapointing.
October 16th 2009 @ 7:16am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 7:16am | Report comment
It’s a sports interest survey feel free to spin, there is loads in the report that has not been mentioned. No sport has requested this survey it is part of a wider group of questions asked from a sample of the Australian population.
I think its a timely and relevant survey for a place like the Roar. Certainly debatable but isn’t that why we are here?
Redb
October 16th 2009 @ 7:54am
hazey.the.bear said | October 16th 2009 @ 7:54am | Report comment
Does anyone here have the ability to post an online survey? If so, it is possible that we at the Roar could reinvent this survey purely from a Roarers persective…Inputting the data and analysing the information is easy enough (I’ll just use the college puters…I’m sure I’ll be able to do it after semester or something…)
But then again, I’m not sure we’d want some of the answer to those uncomfortable questions….Otherwise, what would we talk about? It’s probably better to post about a survey from a small proportion of the population, than do the work ourselves – otherwise we wouldn’t have those blockbuster threads that we love so much..
October 16th 2009 @ 8:27am
Midfielder said | October 16th 2009 @ 8:27am | Report comment
Redb
Thanks Redb I enjoyed reading the Sensis report … the two tables I found most interesting where first (page 14) the favorite sports table… and second (also page 14) the importance of the sport to you..
The second table I found the most interesting it detailed of those that have said they identify with a sport how important the sport was to them, over three heading…. Very Important,Somewhat Important, Not Important.
Meaning I guess that the somewhat interested are for your marketers to get more interested & for other codes to target…
Take cycling only 2% of population… but 69% of the 2% rated it very important.. thus a very hard core rusted on group… whereas Baseball also with 2% of the population but has only 17% of that 2% that rate Baseball as important.
My guess is also the …”"” Somewhat interested”"”… would make up most of the crosscoders…
I would love a table with their second and third preference as well …
However good pick up Redb …. loved reading the report…
October 16th 2009 @ 8:40am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 8:40am | Report comment
cheers Mid..
Futbol/soccer has a very high ‘very important’ rating amongst its fans, as does NRL, with AFL not has high, but still equal when both very important and somewhat important are added. Rugby union would be worried about the high 25% not important result.
It maybe a clue as to potential ‘crosscoders’ but the question was “How important is THAT sport in your life?”
Could it be the battle for survival has created a higher core of committed soccer fans, similar to the “RL won’t die” perception that has led to a “man the cannons” mentality amongst its fans – rusting them on as a result?
Also further down on page 14, the table “Average number of times attend favourite sport”, was interesting to see basketball fans go up to 12 times compared to Soccer 9 games and AFL 7 games.
Redb
October 16th 2009 @ 9:09am
Chris said | October 16th 2009 @ 9:09am | Report comment
I might add that AFL and NRL aren’t actually sports but competitions.
October 16th 2009 @ 9:38am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 9:38am | Report comment
I think everyone gets the idea though.
October 16th 2009 @ 8:45am
Pippinu said | October 16th 2009 @ 8:45am | Report comment
Mid
there’s no doubt in my mind that the second preferences would see stacks of interest in both the Socceroos and A-League clubs.
In Melbourne, I suspect the Victory would emerge with a pretty big figure (although it would be interesting as to who would get that 2nd vote out of the Socceroos and Victory)..
If you follow Collingwood, for example, you aren’t going to put another AFL club as your second preference!! (and that pattern would replicate itself in NSW – although there are 3 A-League clubs there).
October 16th 2009 @ 9:25am
Chris said | October 16th 2009 @ 9:25am | Report comment
I’d suggest that a lot of AFL/NRL fans would have the Australian Cricket team as their second preference – and vice versa.
October 16th 2009 @ 9:35am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 9:35am | Report comment
That’s right and in SA, QLD and NSW the Aust cricket team registered more than 5% in its own right. Yet none of the national teams (socceroos or wallabies) made as a first choice favourite team.
The table on page 15 asked to nominate a national team – the only team that got above 5% was the cricket team.
Redb
October 16th 2009 @ 8:33am
Jay said | October 16th 2009 @ 8:33am | Report comment
I would hardly call a pool of 1500 a compelling sample.
There was another poll similar to this which suggested swimming was our national support – please!
October 16th 2009 @ 8:44am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 8:44am | Report comment
My original title for this article was obvously too wordy ” National hearts and minds are split, but AFL has 1 in 5″
It wasn’t a survey of the ‘national’ sport, but what is the favourite.
Redb
October 16th 2009 @ 8:48am
Pippinu said | October 16th 2009 @ 8:48am | Report comment
Jay
It always depends on how the survey is worded, as redb says, this one is about favourite sports and clubs.
But if you ask: what sport/activity to do you participate in?
Then the answers come back as: walking, running, swimming, cycling, etc.
Soccer squeezes into the top 10 – but no other football codes get within coo-ee of these sorts of results.
October 16th 2009 @ 8:37am
Pippinu said | October 16th 2009 @ 8:37am | Report comment
redb
thanks for the heads up – this sort of stuff is always an interesting read.
If we sit back and think about it, there aren’t any real surprises.
Collingwood’s support in Victoria, where there are a dozen top level professional football teams (incl the Victory and the Storm) is massive at 14% – but – Collingwood IS massive (they’re just hopeless at the same time).
In NSW, we already know that League is big, but we also know that interest is a bit diluted by rugby and soccer, followed by aussie rules. The Swans figure looks high, but we have to keep in mind that there are 10 League clubs getting 3 to 6% in support each, the Swans are simply there by default. Also, it’s possible that population centres like Albury and Wagga skew the result a bit towards the Swans (not sure).
Collingwood in the NT? I imagine Essendon isn’t far behind. Once again, Collingwood is big – it has a presence all over Australia, as we see in the results from Canberra.
Raiders bigger than the brumbies in Canberra? It’s wrong to look at the attendances and assume that the Brumbies are at least equal. The Raiders have been there for 27 years, had some succesful periods, and League dominates the FTA sport in Canberra (along with the ABC on the radio). It doesn’t surprise me in the least that in such a survey, the Raiders will come out ahead of the Brumbies, but I would have expected the Brumbies to at least equal Collingwood’s level of support (don’t forget, this isn’t paid up support, it’s just ticking a box on a form).
St Kilda in Tassie? I would have guessed it myself – the Saints are huge in Tassie – goes back to when they won their one and only premiership with 4 or 5 Taswegians in the team.
Crows in Adelaide at 44% – it’ a case of understanding the football market in Adelaide – pretty much everyone who doesn’t follow the original Port magpies are going to follow the Crows in the AFL (and keep their original SANFL club).
It’s different in Perth because neither the West Coast or Freo emanate from WAFL clubs (and Freo has a large identifiable catchment area) – but no surprise that West Coast has the jump because they were first, and had won two premierships by the time Freo joined.
As for the Socceroos, it confirms what we already know – they have a massive level of interest, especially as we approach the WC – but when it comes to favourite teams – clubs will always dominate – always – no contest.
October 16th 2009 @ 8:41am
Brett McKay said | October 16th 2009 @ 8:41am | Report comment
Pip if you were involved in the marketing dept within the Tasmanian Govt, would you be wondering if the Govt sponsorship is going to wrong club now??
October 16th 2009 @ 8:54am
Pippinu said | October 16th 2009 @ 8:54am | Report comment
Brett
Difficult question – after the 2008 season, the Tassie government would have been more than pleased with its exposure, and would have viewed it as money well spent.
The other aspect is that it’s a proper sponsorship deal, so the Government instrumentality that’s involved would be looking at it from the point of view of marketing the state – not from the point of view of placating its own population and backing up local allegiances.
But in truth – I don’t really know how the Hawthorn deal came up – it was probably just a question of timing, and nothing more.
If Hawthorn were to look at the question for the very first time of playing games out of Melbourne today (with its 50,000+ membership) – they would not be entertaining playing games out of Tassie.
October 16th 2009 @ 9:45am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 9:45am | Report comment
Hawthorn have been an unqualifed success for Tassie I’m sure they don’t want their money back even though a few months back the Tassie Govt was interested in shopping around for other teams to play there.
Redb
October 16th 2009 @ 8:56am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 8:56am | Report comment
Pip,
I reckon most of the survey is pretty close to the mark. Obviously the Brumbies result in ACT should be questioned as should the Essendon result, I’d very suprised if Collingwood had twice the fans of Essendon but it is obviously considerably higher.
It does show that the Swans and Lions have developed a niche in their markets that excludes expats, if your an expat your number one favourite AFL team would generally still be your original Collingwood, Essendon or Adelaide.
Redb
October 16th 2009 @ 5:00pm
Freud of Football said | October 16th 2009 @ 5:00pm | Report comment
Collingwood don’t have twice as many fans as Essendon. When you have a survey with a relatively small pool of people and such a broad range of answers then the results are never going to be accurate.
October 16th 2009 @ 9:29am
Chris said | October 16th 2009 @ 9:29am | Report comment
Pip – if you had ever spend 30 minutes in Canberra you would realise just how flawed this survey is! As a fan of both Raiders and Brumbies I can assure you that the Brumbies support here annihilates the Raiders. Walking around you would probably see three Brumbies jerseys for every Raiders one (allthough partly because there are as many NRL fans here that don’t support the Raiders as do).
October 16th 2009 @ 9:48am
Pippinu said | October 16th 2009 @ 9:48am | Report comment
Chris
I know the Brumbies are big – but I can only repeat – this isn’t a survey of the number of memberships, or attendances, or merchandise sales – it’s a survey across the general population about naming your favourite club.
What happens with these sorts of surveys is that people who don’t have a strong interest end up getting mixed up with people who have a strong interest in sport – so someone who has never, ever attended a live game gets asked: who is your favourite club – and you’re in Canberra, and you know about the Raiders, you can remember Mal Meninga and Laurie Daley, you listen to ABC radio on Sunday arvo, you watch the occasional Friday night game on FTA, and that person is just as likely to tick the Raiders as anything else.
That’s all it means – across the general Canberra population – there is probably more recognition of the Raiders than the Brumbies.
But when it comes to committed fans who put their money where their mouths are – the Brumbies are ahead of the Raiders.
October 16th 2009 @ 10:03am
Chris said | October 16th 2009 @ 10:03am | Report comment
It’s possible – but all this survey proves is that of 120 randomly selected people in the ACT 8 chose the Raiders and probaby 4 or 5 chose the Brumbies. Lies, damned lies, and statistics!
October 16th 2009 @ 10:07am
Redb said | October 16th 2009 @ 10:07am | Report comment
maybe…
but 12 chose the Raiders, 8 chose Collingwood, less than 6 chose the Brumbies.
October 16th 2009 @ 6:06pm
Chris said | October 16th 2009 @ 6:06pm | Report comment
I think your maths might be a tad off – 7×1.2 isn’t 12.