How much Collingwood do we all need?

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.

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 ?

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.

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!

From the point of the competition, once this happens it can become self-sustaining - clubs who dont get FTA coverage cant get as much sponsorship, leading to lower football department expenditure and so on. Cronulla and Canberra in the NRL are an example of this, and the A-League as a whole, who are crippled by their lack of any games on FTA. Therefore, to keep long term competitive equality, either opportunities to go on FTA or other revenue are going to need to be shared.

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.

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.

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.

p.s. love your Icon ! - can just see you wetting yourself over it...

brendan great club? let's not go too far!! :)

You can expect Channel 7 to continue to feature Collingwood, Geelong, Essendon and Carlton on free to air in Melbourne because they are currently doing well and have a big supporter base. I agree it's "unfair" to supporters of the other clubs, but it's a commercial reality. If/when Collingwood go off the boil and are languishing once again around the bottom of the ladder, you'll see less of them I'm sure. And when North Melbourne and the Bullies demonstrate they can once again pull a viewing audience, they'll get more airtime on free to air. Such is life.

Your last sentence the Cattery is why Collingwood are a great club even near the bottom of the ladder they still draw big crowds and boost the AFl's bottom line.In 1984 I worked at the show the day after Essendon thumped them in the prelim the Collingwood stand outsold the Afl stand there fans are numerous and loyal.Having done my good samaritan act i will add running up to the MCG last year after we beat them in the G/F was pure joy.

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

Which is a pretty good system.

Ever since Collingwood won a record four premierships in a row from 1927 to 1930, Collingwood has been big news. Since then, every couple of decades, something happens to ensure the legend and mythology keeps growing - and no doubt it's good for the game. It's Collingwood versus Melbourne, in Rd 10 of 1958, the year Collingwood stopped Melbourne from equalling its record, that still stands as he highest home and away crowd on record of 99,346. And in the famous 1970 grand final, when Carlton came from behind to defeat Collingwood, 121,696 turned out to watch, a record to this day. But here is an interesting bit of trivia for you all, that I learned after Round 1 this year when we nearly broke the all time attendance record for a round. That attendance record stands 367,974 (average of 45,997 across 8 games) and happended in the last round of the 1998 season, when North and the Western Bulldogs were 1 and 2, Carlton, Hawthorn and Collingwood were towards the lower end, and Essendon and Richmond finished 8th and 9th respectively, and these were the crowds for that round: North vs WB 68,050 Geelong vs Essendon 61,089 Melbourne vs Richmond 76,387 Hawthorn vs Fremantle 39,735 West Coast vs Adelaide 37,388 Sydney vs Collingwood 35,814 Port Adelaide vs Carlton 34,518 Brisbane vs St Kilda 14,993 No blockbuster games amongst that lot - just solid attendances right through except for one game (Brisbane finished bottom that year). The lesson - the big teams are important - but don't think for one minute that the competition will suffer the day Collingwood returns to the bottom.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.