How much Collingwood do we all need?
Roar Rookie By JordanSMarshall, 4 May 2012 JordanSMarshall is a Roar Rookie
Collingwood star Dane Swan (Slattery Images)
Related coverage
- Western Bulldogs news
- Collingwood Magpies news
- AFL news
- Toyota Premiership news
- Western Bulldogs news
As a Collingwood supporter, I love the fact that my team’s matches are frequently broadcast. But, as a fan of the game, I can’t help but wonder whether a more shared coverage from Channel Seven would serve everybody better?
Channel Seven’s key aim is to get ratings and that’s not surprising. It is about selling advertising space and making money.
But the ethical principles of media coverage balance should come into play.
You only need to look at next week’s programming guide to see that the big teams dominate.
The four free-to-air games feature Hawthorn, Geelong, Carlton and Essendon, probably four of the five biggest Victorian teams.
The fact that the network is perpetually promoting the already strong clubs means that others are falling further behind in terms of media share.
Look at the Bulldogs last year. Up until round 16 they only had four games on free-to-air broadcast.
This means that they are not being given the opportunity to connect with the mass audience like other teams are, and ethically they deserve this privilege.
In a perfect world, each club would have the same number of games broadcast by Channel Seven, but that’s never going to happen.
What I hope for is that they at least consider making the disparity a little less obvious.
Looking to join The Roar team? We're searching for an experienced Group Sales Manager to lead our team in Sydney. Yes, this does mean you get to work with the site all day long! If you're a digital media sales star, we want to hear from you. Apply now.
Passionate about your AFL? Then sign up to The Roar's brand new daily AFL email, delivering Roaring articles directly to you day-in, day-out. You'll love it!
Click here to join now!
May 4th 2012 @ 2:58am
Cameron said | May 4th 2012 @ 2:58am | Report comment
There is a disparity between the most popular sides and the least popular, esp when it comes to Fiday Night football.
It is less obvious in AFL than NRL, where you have the Brisbane Broncos, a one team town in a league heartland city, play on free to air TV virtually every Friday night.
May 4th 2012 @ 6:03am
ManInBlack said | May 4th 2012 @ 6:03am | Report comment
and thus the need to centralise revenues and distribute fairly given the massive leg up these sides get regarding exposure and value to sponsors.
As a North fan – we’ve certainly been dudded year after year on big games, Friday nights etc etc.
Although – ironic that people whinge about our ‘soft draw’ – - given that we’ve so far this year played Essendon (lost by 2 pts), Geel (beat ‘em) and Sydney (at SCG). That’s 3 very tough matches. Oh yeah, Suns and Giants which is part of the method by which the AFL buries us in TV oblivion.
May 4th 2012 @ 6:42am
Cameron said | May 4th 2012 @ 6:42am | Report comment
The two games against GC and GWS are also a virtual pass to push NM into the finals, so I wouldn’t complain too much
May 4th 2012 @ 6:19am
The_Wookie said | May 4th 2012 @ 6:19am | Report comment
See where your tv rights go if you dont have popular clubs on. What business in their right mind is going to accept low supported clubs that will afffect it. Not to mention antisiphoning legislation now requires the best games to be on FTA.
As James Brayshaw saidf, you want a better deal, be better.
May 4th 2012 @ 7:28am
Norm said | May 4th 2012 @ 7:28am | Report comment
I go to as many matches of my team as possible, incl interstate. However, when I am in Melbourne I will go to any other games being played that W/E. That’s when I get to enjoy the skills & athleticism of the game, devoid of the passion to win & the exasperation of bloopers by my players. Watching big games on TV is the icing on the cake
May 4th 2012 @ 7:36am
ChrisH said | May 4th 2012 @ 7:36am | Report comment
Can’t beat economic rationalism on this one, so I decided to go with it and get a Foxtell subscription. Must admit, for $60 a month it’s paying off in spades. No adds, all games and I don’t have to head up to the pub and spend $30 nursing a couple of pints throughout whatever game I’ve wanted to watch that wasn’t on FTA. Still haven’t rid myself of McAvaney though.
May 4th 2012 @ 11:01am
Redb said | May 4th 2012 @ 11:01am | Report comment
These are clubs with the biggest fanbase and therefore highest TV ratings potential. At the moment especially they are competitive to boot.
May 4th 2012 @ 11:09am
The Cattery said | May 4th 2012 @ 11:09am | Report comment
Jordan
I note you mentioned the bulldogs. They actually play Collingwood tonight for one of two Friday night games that they will play this season.
Unfortunately, if they get pumped, many will be able to say: well, that’s why they’re only getting two Friday night games.
May 4th 2012 @ 11:43am
brendan said | May 4th 2012 @ 11:43am | Report comment
This assumption in football that we can create an even playing field for all teams is a fallacy..I dont barrack for Collingwood but good luck to them every other Melbourne side wants a home game against them at the g to boost there bottom line.Is there any other suburban club in the world that has the per capita support they do ? There not a patch on the mighty Cats but the maggies do wonders for the game and they and there supporters are the essence of footy.
May 4th 2012 @ 12:21pm
me, I like football said | May 4th 2012 @ 12:21pm | Report comment
All non Victorian clubs get all FTA games into their home state so it’s nor really an issue outside Victoria. But for Victorian Clubs I would like to see an agreement that the amount of games you won in the previous H&A season is the amount of games shown on FTA the next as a minimum.
May 4th 2012 @ 2:51pm
Nathan of Perth said | May 4th 2012 @ 2:51pm | Report comment
Which is a pretty good system.
May 4th 2012 @ 2:02pm
ItsCalled AussieRules said | May 4th 2012 @ 2:02pm | Report comment
Without Collingwood, the AFL average attendances would halve and the ratings drop by about the same – approaching NRL and A-League levels. Vists by Collingwood interstate also boosts interstate clubs attendances and ratings.
Economic rationalism and the wishes of advertisers and broadcasters dictate what organisations do.
Not sure why this would be a problem for a Collingwood fan – you get to see more of your team and your club gets more money to buy better players etc.
It does bias the competition to Victorian clubs though because they are the ones who get the most number of “home” games at Etihad and the MCG as is shown by the dominance of Victorian clubs in the competition lately. Its not a level playing field.
May 4th 2012 @ 2:15pm
The Cattery said | May 4th 2012 @ 2:15pm | Report comment
Collingwood has around 70,000 members out of around 650,000+ members, a bit over 10%. That’s good, and they are undoubtedly the biggest sporting club in Australia, but in no way does that represent half of all attendances or ratings.
May 4th 2012 @ 3:00pm
Ian Whitchurch said | May 4th 2012 @ 3:00pm | Report comment
ICAR is entitled to his own opinions. He isnt entitled to his own facts.
If Collingwood didnt exist, then you’d be saying the same about Carlton, Essendon or Richmond, depending who was going well this year.
http://stats.rleague.com/afl/crowds/2011.html
May 4th 2012 @ 11:15pm
ItsCalled AussieRules said | May 4th 2012 @ 11:15pm | Report comment
From that website, for 2011,
Collingwood avge = 61,488
If you take out Collingwood’s attendances including finals, AFL avge = 31,246
which is about half of 61,488.
Also from that website, AFL avge attendances 2012 = 34,765
which is the lowest AFL game average attendance since 1998 = 34,768
That must be a disappointment to Demetriou and the AFL.
Lucky we didn’t win the right to host the FIFA WC Finals, or it would be the end of AFL as we know it.
May 4th 2012 @ 11:35pm
Ian Whitchurch said | May 4th 2012 @ 11:35pm | Report comment
West Coast had more people to games than Brisbane Broncos did in 2011, and they share their town with Fremantle … and spotted News Corps Brisbane subsiduary an extra game.
As far as the A-league goes, the worst crowd in the AFL in 2011 was Gold Coast with a 19k average.
This was 4000 better than the average crowd of the best A-League team, the Melbourne Victory.
So, be still my beating heart on a crowd average of 34 768. Oh. Noes. What. Shall. Vlad. Do.
May 5th 2012 @ 12:02am
Fabio said | May 5th 2012 @ 12:02am | Report comment
The highest home crowd West Coast got last year was 42,803 for a semi-final. The Brisbane Broncos got 50,859 to a regular season match at Suncorp.
You’re not the only one who can cherry pick statistics to serve an agenda….
“As far as the A-league goes, the worst crowd in the AFL in 2011 was Gold Coast with a 19k average.”
You should try and get maximum traction out of the statistic whilst you still can. GWS is gonna blow it out of the water!
May 5th 2012 @ 8:26am
Ian Whitchurch said | May 5th 2012 @ 8:26am | Report comment
Fabio,
Its the week-in, week-out grind that counts – not an excellent one-offs, its whether you can reliably deliver.
GWS is a twenty year project. Like the Swans, the crowds may well average eight or nine thousand this year, and then in twenty years the ICARs and Qgirls (*) will be going neener neener neener, your average crowds are down to 27 000.
(*) What is it about trolls and acronyms ?
May 5th 2012 @ 8:37am
The Cattery said | May 5th 2012 @ 8:37am | Report comment
Fabio
silly to accuse anyone of cherry picking AFL attendances – they are big man – big.
To sustain a 34k average with 9 games per round, including two new low drawing teams , is a mighty effort.
In the case of GWS, all they need to do is increase their fan base by 100 per annum for the next 150 years, and we can then call that a success.
May 5th 2012 @ 5:00am
Cameron said | May 5th 2012 @ 5:00am | Report comment
ICAR
With the new expansion teams in the AFL that are based in non-traditional AFL areas, average attendences were always going to go down this year.
And no, it is not really a disappointment to the AFL as it is an expected result. You quote that without Collingwood home attendences the average of the League would go down. This is true, but it is not as big an affect as you see in the NRL when you take the Broncos home attendence average of 33209 for 2011 from the overall figure, because every other NRL side has an average home crowd in the teens.
May 4th 2012 @ 6:43pm
BigAl said | May 4th 2012 @ 6:43pm | Report comment
p.s. love your Icon ! – can just see you wetting yourself over it…
May 4th 2012 @ 11:27pm
ItsCalled AussieRules said | May 4th 2012 @ 11:27pm | Report comment
BigAl,
the AFL and NAB gave those chimps $20 NAB bank accounts and an AFL kit bag for free to play Auskick.
Now AFL is the biggest game in Botswana.