The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Aussie Rules still our favourite spectator sport

Roar Guru
11th January, 2011
Advertisement
Roar Guru
11th January, 2011
94
4632 Reads

Just before Christmas, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the results of an extensive survey they did on our attendance at sporting events. The results offer a fascinating insight into our spectating habits and also pose some questions as to why they are so.

The information was not gathered from any sporting bodies or official crowd numbers, rather from analysis of over 14,000 surveys completed at private residences in the ABS ‘Multipurpose Household Survey’.

It asked how many times the respondent had attended or competed in a sporting event over the past twelve months, excluding school or junior sport.

So what were the results?

Here they are:

Australian Rules is our favourite spectator sport
2.8 million Australians aged 15 years and over attended an Australian Rules game during 2009-10 – and many of these fans went to a number of games. It has nearly a million more spectators then the next closest sport – horse racing. Australians clearly love to watch the big men fly.

The Barassi line is no beat up.
Australian Rules is the number one sport in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania but not in Queensland and New South Wales, where it is fourth and fifth respectively. Rugby league is the clear number one in both those states but languishes elsewhere. (Victoria seventh, WA tenth, SA and Tasmania both twelfth).

Horse and motor racing loved nationwide
While the number one sports are our beloved ball codes, close behind in every state and territory is horse and motor racing. This is especially surprising since official attendance at some of these events have allegedly so often been filed in the ‘fiction’ section (V8 Supercars, I’m looking in your direction).

Advertisement

Football rose as cricket and rugby fell
The report compares a similar survey in 2005 and identifies changes, in particular an increase in attendance at football matched by a decline at the cricket and rugby. Football is especially popular in NSW, where it’s the third highest attended sport, and any gloom for rugby is lightened by the fact it is number one in the ACT.

It’s all about rich young country folk
When the ABS looked at the most frequent attendees at sporting events, they found that the younger you are, the more you go, with attendance declining with age.

A similar trend was found with income, with the higher the income the greater the attendance. Finally, people who live in regional areas reported more attendance then those living in our big cities. This last stat was particularly surprising when you contrast the variety and quantity of great sport in our capital cities to what is on offer in the bush.

Northern Territory: Where sport is king
Approximately 38 per cent of New South Wales residents attended a sporting event as a participant or spectator last year.

This rate increases in each other state and territory up to the ACT at 49 per cent, Victoria at 49.5 per cent, and our new home of sport, the Northern Territory, where 59 per cent of the residents went to watch at least one sporting event during the year. Across Australia the figures was 48.8 per cent, which really underlines the pivotal role sport plays in our lives.

The fillies are at the fillies
Most sporting events are a place full of blokes, with about twice as many males to females at Australian Rules, league, union, football, cricket and motorsports.

If you want to see more ladies, you could start by going to the netball or tennis, but your best option is to go to the horse racing, attended by huge numbers of the fabulous and much sort after 18-34 year-old demographic!

Advertisement

Our most hardcore fans are at the court
Finally, the sport which boasts the greatest number of spectators who go multiple times is netball. A staggering 40 per cent of their spectators report attending more then six games in a year, more than the fans of any other sport.

Even more impressive is that it this highest level of repeat fans amongst both female and male fans. Tennis, racing and cricket have the highest percentage of fans that only attend once a year.

There is a lot to ponder and plenty to talk about with this report.

close