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I love football and can’t imagine my life without it, but the whole exercise of going to a game and supporting my team is quickly being outweighed by the inconvenience and exorbitant prices.
Stadium deals are crippling teams unable to draw crowds larger than 20,000 people and the AFL are doing very little to persuade me to get off the couch.
While the atmosphere of a blockbuster clash or a historical rivalry will draw fans through the gates, regardless of influencing variables, it is the dead rubber fixture fillers which are the bane of AFL clubs.
The past decade has been marvelous for the AFL in financial terms to become Australia’s most financially secure league but this is not reflective of the wider AFL community.
Traditional blue-collar fans have been hit hard from economic turmoil and the cost of living increases have not been reflective of the job market across the majority of this past decade.
As someone who attends maybe half a dozen games per year, the cost of the exercise is leaving me disillusioned and of the belief the number of games I attend annually will only decline as I get older.
For a game at the MCG, an adult ticket will cost at minimum $36 to sit on the ground floor with a general reserved seat where the atmosphere is best soaked up and the view is good.
General admission tickets are $20 but you are required to sit on level three and seats are first come first served.
Then factor in getting to the game and back. I once drove to the game and after that, I decided never again.
Parking a car there costs $10, which is very reasonable but the amount of time it takes to exit the car park is not. Catching the train is more convenient, better for the environment and more responsible.
Metro have given the AFL an enormous boost by making daily public transport on weekends $3.50 for adults, so that covers getting to the game and back.
Catching the train to the football is a big part of the experience because it’s rare to find a common interest amongst people in such a confined area.
When teams are announced and Joe Blow echoes the late changes, murmurs begin in the build-up to the game.
A typical AFL game will last three hours from the time you take your seat to the time you head for the exits. In those three hours, a man gets hungry! Thirsty too!
Well organised individuals can be spotted with their ham sandwiches and juice boxes but the greasy boxes of fried food, scorching hot meat pies and plastic cups of beer are all ingrained into what I know as ‘the footy experience’.
Throw in the foul mouthed old lady sitting two rows in front of you and nothing less was expected.
Over three hours, two beers at $6.60 a pop would be considered responsible (not just to your wallet) but budgeting for four is more realistic. (The food and drink prices used in this article are from the 2012 AFL season.)
A bucket of chips normally suffices as a mid-game snack and if one bucket is enough to satisfy you over three hours, $5.30 isn’t too bad.
If you need a meat pie to warm the hands or just want to be traditional, it’s another $4.50.
A ‘football’ dinner would comprise of a bucket of chips and meat pie for $9.80. When dining out, you’d be lucky to find a meal for that much.
Throw in the two beers and you’ve spent $23.00 on dinner, which doesn’t actually sound too bad. Once you factor in the $39.50 it took to get access to that meal, it’s a bit worse.
If you factor in an additional two beers, the cost of dinner and drinks balloons out to $36.20. And this is under the assumption beer is your poison. Wine is $8.90 per glass and mixed spirits are $9.50.
So over the course of a three hour game, the cost of the football experience for one person is:
Admission: $36.00
Transport: $3.50
Food and drinks: $36.20
For $75.70 I can experience the thrill of a live AFL game while appreciating the atmosphere and experience.
It’s nice to get out of the house and spend a day with the boys at the footy, but it’s a costly exercise.
The worst is when you do all this and you get a bad game off football.
The ability to watch every game live from the comfort of our homes, which are resistant to harsh weather and resistant to wallet-draining food prices, has become a bit too convenient.
It’s no wonder stadium deals are crippling the smaller clubs.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.