57,000 tickets sold to Swans, NRL final
Related coverage
Ticket sales for ANZ Stadium’s cross-code finals bonanza slowed on Thursday, as the AFL aimed to draw a record crowd to Friday night’s preliminary final at the venue.
On Thursday night, the AFL said 57,000 tickets had been sold to the Swans’ clash with Collingwood.
An NRL spokesperson said the league had moved the exact same number to Saturday night’s grand-final playoff between Canterbury and South Sydney.
The biggest crowd for any AFL game outside of Victoria is 72,393, which attended the round 21 fixture between the Swans and Magpies in 2003.
“It is (a different venue when a big crowd turns up),” Swans coach John Longmire said on Thursday.
“It’s fantastic to be able to have that sort of crowd out there … it’s a great opportunity for the players to play in front of a big crowd.”
The updated figures show 3000 tickets were sold on Thursday to the AFL fixture – and only 6000 NRL tickets were moved on the same day.
Regardless, the two finals are set to be the western Sydney venue’s biggest weekend of sport since the 2000 Olympics.
The weekend’s combined attendance is set to comfortably outdo the most recent time the ground hosted back-to-back preliminary finals.
In 2006 over 60,000 fans went to the Swans-Fremantle AFL clash and a little over 40,000 attended St George Illawarra’s NRL match against Melbourne.
Depending on what figure the AFL delivers on Friday night, the ARL Commission will be desperate to better it the following night, particularly with many factors in their favour.
The top priced tickets to the AFL clash ($160) are double that of the NRL ($80).
Even the cheapest tickets to the AFL in the upper reaches of the spacious ground are twice as much ($70) than that for the 13-man game.
Given the disparity in ticket prices, even remotely similar crowds would mean a comparatively much larger financial windfall for the AFL.
© AAP 2013- Explore:
- AFL, NRL, Rugby League
September 21st 2012 @ 8:12am
Redb said | September 21st 2012 @ 8:12am | Report comment
Whatever the crowd it will be 55,000 plus and that’s a far cry from the lowpoint of 19,000 who watched the Swans in the rain in the 2008 elim. Since then the Swans pulled 41,000 against Carlton so I guess the much trumpeted ‘end of AFL in Sydney 19,000′ was never a reliable barometer anyway.
A monster crowd with two big tribes gives Sydneysiders a glimpse of the blockbuster type atmosphere we regularly experience at the MCG. Awesome.
September 21st 2012 @ 9:55am
oikee said | September 21st 2012 @ 9:55am | Report comment
You should watch a couple of superleague games you want to experience passion and atmosphere. Nobody beats the poms, nobody.
Their culture of the singing as one voice is like angels in heaven. Something to experience before you meet the guy upstairs.
You will get to hear it next year, the lions on tour.
The Snowman made number 1 for good reason. Voices like choir boys.
September 21st 2012 @ 8:15am
Phelpsy said | September 21st 2012 @ 8:15am | Report comment
I would say 57 000 is already a win for the afl. Could you imagine a nrl final the same in Adelaide , Melbourne, or Perth. The fact they are even seen as a competitor is a win for afl in Sydney ! The fact they are anywhere near the crowd a nrl crowd may get is amazing . Even more so that it gets all this print and air time. Score 1 afl me thinks . Also , go storm !! That’s a win for nrl
September 21st 2012 @ 8:23am
Anthony said | September 21st 2012 @ 8:23am | Report comment
Phelpsy – you are on the mark there. This scenario (let alone the code war rhetoric that goes with it) would not happen in Melbourne, Adelaide & Perth. The question is: Is it because it is NRL or is it because it is Sydney?
September 21st 2012 @ 8:45am
Billo Boy said | September 21st 2012 @ 8:45am | Report comment
I agree Anthony but most Sydneysiders will tell you that what the media says or chooses to make a story isn’t necessarily what Sydneysiders are thinking especially when it comes to rugby league. More likely it is what some media organisations think is a good way to pick up readers or clicks.
As the Roar story above says the AFL outdrew the NRL in Sydney n 2006 by a massive 33% and the world didn’t shift on its axis as a result.
The real story is that offered by Craig Bellamy today in the Australian where he points out that NRL fans haven’t got the same desire or habit to attend games as AFL fans. Doesn’t mean NRL fans are less passaionate supporters, it just means they are different about how they support their team. In league attendance isn’t proof of how passionate you are about your club. In AFL it is.
All it proves is not that Sydney and Melbourne are different nor that one code has a better game to watch than the other, but that AFL and NRL fans are different.
September 21st 2012 @ 9:05am
Brewski said | September 21st 2012 @ 9:05am | Report comment
I would say that if the average NRL fan, does not have the same desire to attend games, and support there team, then they ARE less passionate supporters.
There is no other way to interpret this.
Sydney is the center, and the protaganist of the code war, for one very simple reason, they do not match the passion of the general AFL fan, and have a chip on their shoulder.
September 21st 2012 @ 6:56pm
Punter said | September 21st 2012 @ 6:56pm | Report comment
“Sydney is the center, and the protagonist of the code war, for one very simple reason, they do not match the passion of the general AFL fan, and have a chip on their shoulder.”
Why is then that when I talk to football fans done in Melbourne who care little for AFL, generally have a greater dislike for AFL than NRL. Yet the football fan in Sydney who also care little for NRL, generally also have a greater dislike for AFL than NRL.
Protagonist maybe?
Channel 7 mistreating football
SEN no longer calling football games in AFL off season
WC bid
Need I go on? I think most can see who is the code war protagonist.
BTW, very jealous of your crowds!!!!
September 21st 2012 @ 7:12pm
Breezy said | September 21st 2012 @ 7:12pm | Report comment
Simple reason for the dislike Punter. It’s jealousy. Fans of other codes hate the AFL for their take no prisoners attitude. Hate it, but deep down they admire it.
September 21st 2012 @ 10:46pm
Punter said | September 21st 2012 @ 10:46pm | Report comment
Hate is such a horrible word, to hate you have to care!!!!
September 21st 2012 @ 9:06am
Australian Rules said | September 21st 2012 @ 9:06am | Report comment
Good comment Billo.
Though I disagree with one point. Without trying to be provocative, I think NRL fans ARE less passionate about their team…or maybe there’s just less of them than what there are for AFL clubs.
Crowds and memberships are the 2 clear indicators of fan support. Watching on telly may demonstrate interest, or habit – but not passion.
September 21st 2012 @ 9:29am
Brewski said | September 21st 2012 @ 9:29am | Report comment
You can get pretty passionate watching on tele, but as wat says going to all the effort and cost of attending games is a measure of passion.
September 21st 2012 @ 9:14am
Wat said | September 21st 2012 @ 9:14am | Report comment
Pull the other one. It’s obvious that going to all the effort and cost of attending games is a measure of passion. How much inconvenience you have to go through is a direct measure of how much you care. If your kid was playing, would you be at the ground or show your love by staying home at watching them on TV?
September 21st 2012 @ 9:45am
Redb said | September 21st 2012 @ 9:45am | Report comment
Im biased but AFL is by far the better game live .
September 21st 2012 @ 10:08am
Tiger said | September 21st 2012 @ 10:08am | Report comment
Yes you are biased! Have you ever been to a rugby league game?
September 21st 2012 @ 10:38am
Redb said | September 21st 2012 @ 10:38am | Report comment
Yep.
September 21st 2012 @ 1:13pm
Pot Stirrer said | September 21st 2012 @ 1:13pm | Report comment
Only AFL fans think that.
September 21st 2012 @ 3:05pm
micka said | September 21st 2012 @ 3:05pm | Report comment
Only fans of other codes disagree… And seeing as AR fans turn up in far greater numbers it would stand to reason that more peopel who attend live games are of the opinion that AR is a superior game to watch live…
As they say, the proof is in the pudding.
September 21st 2012 @ 3:30pm
Rough Conduct said | September 21st 2012 @ 3:30pm | Report comment
The proof is that after 150 years, no one outside certain parts of Australia could give a stuff about the sport. It is a dog’s breakfast, simply awful to watch live or on tv, the popularity is a cultural thing – that is it.
September 21st 2012 @ 3:35pm
Breezy said | September 21st 2012 @ 3:35pm | Report comment
Who doesn’t give a stuff about the game? This week must have been tough for guys like you. You must have been preying for rain in Sydney. I’m sure you have been monitoring the ticket sales, and each 10,000 sold would have been like a kick in the guts.
September 21st 2012 @ 3:58pm
Rough Conduct said | September 21st 2012 @ 3:58pm | Report comment
Um….the rest of the world, and the majority of two of the biggest states in Australia! I couldn’t care less about the crowd that the Swans get, good on them if they get a good crowd, nor am I a Sydneysider or RL fan! I just cannot stand the AFL hubris, you actually believe your own hype, it is a big incestuous cycle of hype driven from the Melbourne media, Channel 7 and AFL HQ, then eagerly lapped up by the subordinate AFL punters. You are all telling each other how good you all are, completely oblivious to the fact that no one outside “AFL World”, could possible care less about the sport.
September 21st 2012 @ 4:11pm
TC said | September 21st 2012 @ 4:11pm | Report comment
RC
I am always fond of saying: why lower ourselves to the standards of the rest of the world?
Let us lift them to our standard.
TC
September 21st 2012 @ 4:28pm
Phelpsy said | September 21st 2012 @ 4:28pm | Report comment
“majority of two biggest states” which ones are you referring here to – Victoria and NSW or W.A and QLD??
Remember the Barrisi line and gold Coast has a decent AFL following too.
September 21st 2012 @ 5:21pm
Rough Conduct said | September 21st 2012 @ 5:21pm | Report comment
TC, how’s that plan going? Long term vision I suppose?
September 21st 2012 @ 5:23pm
Breezy said | September 21st 2012 @ 5:23pm | Report comment
TC – I bet you’re a Union fan then. I was in the Gold Coast last weekend, and the head of Rugby Union was practically begging people to turn up to see the Wallabies play Argentina. They ended up getting 22k, and this was after they hadn’t had a test for about 4 years. RL might be king up north, but footy holds its own against all others.
September 21st 2012 @ 5:25pm
Rough Conduct said | September 21st 2012 @ 5:25pm | Report comment
“Two OF the biggest states”, as in two of the three biggest (most populous) states, you know NSW and QLD? We all clear now?
September 21st 2012 @ 6:03pm
Rough Conduct said | September 21st 2012 @ 6:03pm | Report comment
Breezy, you honestly think that Rugby people gauge the legitimacy of their sport by crowd numbers? You obviously know nothing about the sport, test Rugby in front of 22 people let alone 22K is stll a more meaningful contest than the suburbs of Melbourne or the other contrived organisations battling it out in ‘our’ folk game, no matter the crowd.
September 21st 2012 @ 6:18pm
Australian Rules said | September 21st 2012 @ 6:18pm | Report comment
In theory you’re right RC – international Tests *should* have more meaning behind them…
But in this case, “meaning” might be literally in the eye of the beholder.
The ratings for the Aus v Arg game were woeful and 22k is a very small crowd for a Test. Arguably, the Haw v Coll final (albeit just a provincial “folk” game) actaully *meant* more to the majority of people, given it drew a crowd of 90,000 and had over 1.5M viewers.
Horses for courses.
September 21st 2012 @ 6:19pm
Breezy said | September 21st 2012 @ 6:19pm | Report comment
Rough Conduct – you can think that if you want but you are only lying to yourself. Interesting that fans of RL, Union and soccer always say that the crowds don’t matter, but as soon as they get a decent one, you can’t stop them crowing about it.
September 21st 2012 @ 6:34pm
Punter said | September 21st 2012 @ 6:34pm | Report comment
RC, don’t you understand it’s attendances & that is how we tell which the best sport, it’s Friday night, difficult for interstate travellers, the cost is twice as much, why does AFL get such big crowds!!!
September 21st 2012 @ 6:36pm
Punter said | September 21st 2012 @ 6:36pm | Report comment
Breezy, of course, we crow about it, but we don’t go about telling everyone we have the best game because we pulled a large crowd.
September 21st 2012 @ 7:00pm
Breezy said | September 21st 2012 @ 7:00pm | Report comment
Punter – that’s because you struggle to pull in a big crowd regularly. Your game is played all over the world, but there are probably only half a dozen countries that manage decent crowds.
September 21st 2012 @ 10:45pm
Punter said | September 21st 2012 @ 10:45pm | Report comment
Breezy, that may be the case, but it’s 5 more than AFL. This is the issue with an int’l sport, we all just want to see the best. However, whenever the best do travel, the crowds come do come out to watch in all the countries, Australia included.
September 21st 2012 @ 9:52am
TC said | September 21st 2012 @ 9:52am | Report comment
The most incredible thing about this story for me is that the record remains a home and away game back in 2003 – two years BEFORE the Swans won the flag.
To be honest, nine years on, we should be expecting the same two teams to get near that crowd for a preliminary final.
Having said all that – the price of the tickets still blows me away.
TC
September 21st 2012 @ 10:05am
Brewski said | September 21st 2012 @ 10:05am | Report comment
The price of a H&A ticket, is affordable for pretty well everyone, indeed membership is even cheaper.
I thought this game would struggle at 40,000, but i think the AFL has the Sydney theatre goer pegged, but i also think the AFL has gouged the real fans in this instance.
Having said that, the price of a H&A membership is very good, and the amount of adults that slip through on adult tickets etc, would be IMO quite large, and the AFL do not really Police this.
September 21st 2012 @ 10:10am
Tiger said | September 21st 2012 @ 10:10am | Report comment
Let’s not forget the swans had their lowest average crowds in a decade and didn’t fill the reduced capacity scg once this year! Their tv ratings are pretty much non existent as well! It shows that sydneysiders don’t mind jumping on a bandwagon!
September 21st 2012 @ 10:39am
Redb said | September 21st 2012 @ 10:39am | Report comment
Incorrect. The Hawks game for one completely sold out.
September 21st 2012 @ 10:39am
Peter said | September 21st 2012 @ 10:39am | Report comment
That is wrong. Sydney vs Hawthorn was a sellout.
The stands were packed!!
Dont let the truth get in the way of a good story though…
September 21st 2012 @ 11:03am
Dingo said | September 21st 2012 @ 11:03am | Report comment
There is no denying the increase in popularity of the great game, but the tv audience for the Swans/Crows game was truly staggering.
975,000 million people watched the game on Channel Seven, that’s right, NINE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE THOUSAND MILLION or put another way 975,000,000,000. Impressive stuff.
I’m not making this up, this is a fact. (Sort of an uncle Roy type of fact)
“Saturday’s second qualifying final (an afternoon game) in which Sydney beat Adelaide was watched by 1.309 million people (975,000 million people on Seven’s main channel and 334,000 on pay-TV).”
http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/09/11/afl-beats-rugby-league-in-tv-head-to-head/
September 21st 2012 @ 11:07am
Nathan of Perth said | September 21st 2012 @ 11:07am | Report comment
Haha
Hyper-typo!
September 21st 2012 @ 1:20pm
Dogs Of War said | September 21st 2012 @ 1:20pm | Report comment
Looks like Channel 7 is very popular around the world now.
September 21st 2012 @ 3:09pm
Chris said | September 21st 2012 @ 3:09pm | Report comment
AFL is by far a superior game to Rugby League. Rugby Union is also far better than Rugby League. One thing I think would improve AFL even more so, is having 15 players only. When the ball is loose there are far too many people there and it gets very untidy. Removing a few players would force those remaining to spread out more, therefore creating less clutter.
September 21st 2012 @ 3:21pm
Phelpsy said | September 21st 2012 @ 3:21pm | Report comment
True, I think 16 is a good number. Concentrates the talent pool also.
September 21st 2012 @ 3:21pm
BigAl said | September 21st 2012 @ 3:21pm | Report comment
Excellent idea – I have often thought so myself, would also reduce the cost of fielding a side.
As a tribute to the founding fathers (VFA R.I.P.) could be set back to 16 ?
September 21st 2012 @ 3:28pm
Titus said | September 21st 2012 @ 3:28pm | Report comment
I would agree with that, it can be terribly scrappy and stop start, although that could possibly make the game ridiculously easy.
Wouldn’t it just be teams taking turns to kick goals? Or maybe the behind would come into play.
September 21st 2012 @ 3:45pm
Chris said | September 21st 2012 @ 3:45pm | Report comment
A trial period would certainly be needed to see how it plays out but I do think it would be worth a go. I should say that I am a New Zealander and have only recently taken an interest in AFL and am unsure of all the rules. That area of play did stand out to me as an area that could be improved though.
September 21st 2012 @ 4:08pm
TC said | September 21st 2012 @ 4:08pm | Report comment
Chris
as an NZer, and presumably, a rugby enthusiast, you understand the concept of the ball being live and being in contest.
In short, in Australian Football, there is a lot of freedom to get to the ball, to try and win it, to out-body and out-position your opponent in doing so.
In fact, in a game of Australian Football, the football is in dispute for a much greater percentage than any other form of football.
That’s not to say that’s good or bad, it’s just a distinctive part of Australian Football. Some people are attracted to that aspect, and others are not, which is fine. But I don’t think any fan of Australian Football would ever want to see the diminution of the principle that the ball is there to be won by the better team/player.
Personally, I too would prefer to have the game a bit more open than clogged up, but, whether a game is open or clogged is dependent on how teams are coached to play, and, the fitness and strength of the players involved.
Stronger bodies can follow a game plan that encourages congestion.
Leaner running types will try and manufacture a game plan that gets the ball out into the open.
In the both cases, the fitness demands are extremely high at this level of footy. The typical ground is huge by the standards of other games, the area that needs to be covered in either game plan is immense.
The point is that you can see both types of game plans, and coaches and players currently have the freedom to play the game in the manner that they prefer, and it’s very, very dangerous to pursue courses of action that change rules to get a specific outcome in terms of the appearance of the game.
You would be aware that rugby fans discuss similar concepts right here on the Roar, that is, the extent to which rules can be changed in a significant manner to produce a more attractive game (when many fans will actually be happy with the style of play that others are trying to stamp out).
It’s not such a straighfoward question.
TC
September 21st 2012 @ 4:15pm
Chris said | September 21st 2012 @ 4:15pm | Report comment
Yes, you are right, it was purely a thought I had after recently having started to watch the game. They are my initial thoughts on what I thought would make it more attractive to me. That, as you say, doesn’t necessarily concur with what others think, Quite probably it doesn’t.
There is also the issue of what other implications a change, as dramatics as reducing the amount of players, may have. It would be good to see a trial at least.
September 21st 2012 @ 6:53pm
Dingo said | September 21st 2012 @ 6:53pm | Report comment
Definitely worth a trial in the pre-season comp, which is where the AFL usually implements any rule changes to see how they work.
I would really like to see it in that comp and would be equally happy to see them get rid of the 9 point goal that they have used for a few years now.
I doubt very much if it will ever become permanent though, one thing is for certain, Australian Football fans do like the history and traditions of our game and we are reluctant to change too much about it.
Also by reducing the numbers of players on the ground it could open up another can of worms, such as constant end to end play much like basketball but on a much bigger scale. That might appeal to some people.
September 21st 2012 @ 8:00pm
Ballymore said | September 21st 2012 @ 8:00pm | Report comment
Not an AFL fan, so please forgive my ignorance. But what is ANZ stadum like for AFL? Do the fans have the same aversion to it as fans of rectangular codes do?
September 21st 2012 @ 10:38pm
Phelpsy said | September 21st 2012 @ 10:38pm | Report comment
How many turned up in the end ???