In the fourth and final part of our most famous clubs in Australia series, we take a look at the popularity of the top tier of our football clubs across all four codes.
In the previous editions, I looked at some of the big football clubs in Australia along with some smaller ones as ‘special mentions’ with a description as to why they held a place in the heart of Australian sports fans.
This edition is more of a straight up list of the big hitters in Aussie sports.
This is done by examining only those metrics measurable in 2014, including: attendances, social media and TV ratings.
1. Attendances – all home ground attendances in 2014 are counted for each club. One point is earned for each thousand of average home ground attendances.
2. Social media – I counted Twitter followers for the official Twitter account of each club. One point is earned for each thousand Twitter followers.
3. TV ratings – I focused on Fox Sports live telecasts because the numbers are readily available and because all four codes are telecast on Fox. Since ratings can be measured in the hundreds of thousands, the average ratings for each club were halved, and then one point was earned per thousand units.
Final points
• The NRL and AFL get large ratings on FTA TV, so arguably they are both disadvantaged by just including Fox, but, focusing on Fox allowed comparisons to be made, and in any event, they generally come out on top anyway.
• Weighing attendances the same as Twitter followers probably disadvantages the AFL clubs because of their much larger attendances across the board. Arguably, attendances are more valuable than Twitter followers.
• I decided to include the Warriors and Phoenix clubs in the list, but only the five Australian Super Rugby clubs are included, although I include all of their home games and TV ratings (even when they play against non-Australian clubs).
On the whole, the results look quite reasonable to me.
If nothing else, it gives us a base to return to every six months to see if there are any movements between the clubs (with a full year of data).
The results
1. Collingwood Football Club – 249 points
Attendances: 61k
Twitter: 61k
TV Ratings: 254k
2. Essendon Football club – 223 points
Attendances: 49k
Twitter: 60k
TV Ratings: 229k
3. Tie: Brisbane Broncos and Carlton Football Club – 211 points
Brisbane:
Attendances: 36k
Twitter: 45k
TV Ratings: 262k
Carlton:
Attendances: 39k
Twitter: 52k
TV Ratings: 240k
5. Richmond Football Club – 202 points
Attendances: 59k
Twitter: 42k
TV Ratings: 202k
6. Geelong Football Club – 198 points
Attendances: 38k
Twitter: 42k
TV Ratings: 235k
7. Melbourne Storm – 192 points
Attendances: 15k
Twitter: 50k
TV Ratings: 254k
8. Adelaide Football Club – 187 points
Attendances: 47k
Twitter: 44k
TV Ratings: 191k
9. South Sydney Rabbitohs – 186 points
Attendances: 23k
Twitter: 43k
TV Ratings: 239k
10. Sydney Swans – 184 points
Attendances: 32k
Twitter: 47k
TV Ratings: 209k
11. Hawthorn Football Club – 180 points
Attendances: 25k
Twitter: 45k
TV Ratings: 221k
12. Port Adelaide Football Club – 174 points
Attendances: 45k
Twitter: 29k
TV Ratings: 201k
13. Fremantle Football Club – 169 points
Attendances: 37k
Twitter: 33k
TV Ratings: 199k
14. Parramatta Eels – 167 points
Attendances: 21k
Twitter: 27k
TV Ratings: 238k
15. West Coast Eagles – 166 points
Attendances: 36k
Twitter: 36k
TV Ratings: 187k
16. Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles – 165 points
Attendances: 11k
Twitter: 29k
TV Ratings: 250k
17. Tie: Sydney Roosters, Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs and Wests Tigers – 163 points
Roosters:
Attendances: 14k
Twitter: 30k
TV Ratings: 239k
Bulldogs:
Attendances: 16k
Twitter: 31k
TV Ratings: 233k
Tigers:
Attendances: 14k
Twitter: 30k
TV Ratings: 238k
20. Tie: St George Illawarra Dragons and North Melbourne Football Club – 159 points
Dragons:
Attendances: 21k
Twitter: 24k
TV Ratings: 229k
North Melbourne:
Attendances: 27k
Twitter: 28k
TV Ratings: 207k
22. New Zealand Warriors – 155 points
Attendances: 19k
Twitter: 48k
TV Ratings: 175k
23. North Queensland Cowboys – 152 points
Attendances: 14k
Twitter: 22k
TV Ratings: 231k
24. Melbourne Football Club – 151k
Attendances: 29k
Twitter: 29k
TV Ratings: 186k
25. Gold Coast Titans – 145 points
Attendances: 16k
Twitter: 24k
TV Ratings: 210k
26. St Kilda Football Club – 143 points
Attendances: 24k
Twitter: 31k
TV Ratings: 176k
27. Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks – 135 points
Attendances: 12k
Twitter: 18k
TV Ratings: 209k
28. Newcastle Knights – 133 points
Attendances: 17k
Twitter: 22k
TV Ratings: 188k
29. Brisbane Lions – 132 points
Attendances: 22k
Twitter: 23k
TV Ratings: 173k
30. Penrith Panthers – 131 points
Attendances: 12k
Twitter: 16k
TV Ratings: 206k
31. Western Bulldogs – 129 points
Attendances: 23k
Twitter: 23k
TV Ratings: 166k
32. Gold Coast Football Club – 128 points
Attendances: 17k
Twitter: 26k
TV Ratings: 171k
33. GWS Giants – 125 points
Attendances: 9k
Twitter: 24k
TV Ratings: 184k
34. Canberra Raiders – 124 points
Attendances: 10k
Twitter: 19k
TV Ratings: 191k
35. Queensland Reds – 106 points
Attendances: 28k
Twitter: 37k
TV Ratings: 82k
36. NSW Waratahs – 92 points
Attendances: 17k
Twitter: 23k
TV Ratings: 104k
37. Sydney FC – 90 points
Attendances: 17k
Twitter: 39k
TV Ratings: 68k
38. Melbourne Victory FC – 80 points
Attendances: 19k
Twitter: 32k
TV Ratings: 57k
39. Brumbies – 74 points
Attendances: 12k
Twitter: 22k
TV Ratings: 79k
40. Western Sydney Wanderers FC – 65 points
Attendances: 14k
Twitter: 22k
TV Ratings: 58k
41. Tie: Western Force and Melbourne Rebels – 64 points
Force:
Attendances: 13k
Twitter: 14k
TV Ratings: 73k
Rebels:
Attendances: 12k
Twitter: 17k
TV Ratings: 70
43. Brisbane Roar FC – 63 points
Attendances: 14k
Twitter: 18.3k
TV Ratings: 62k
44. Tie: Newcastle Jets FC and Adelaide United FC – 56 points
Jets:
Attendances: 12k
Twitter: 19k
TV Ratings: 52k
United:
Attendances: 12k
Twitter: 14k
TV Ratings: 60k
46. Melbourne Heart (Melbourne City FC) – 55 points
Attendances: 9k
Twitter: 20k
TV Ratings: 53k
47. Perth Glory FC – 48 points
Attendances: 9k
Twitter: 14k
TV Ratings: 52k
48. Central Coast Mariners FC – 47 points
Attendances: 9k
Twitter: 12k
TV Ratings: 53k
49. Wellington Phoenix FC – 44 points
Attendances: 9k
Twitter: 13k
TV Ratings: 44k
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Brian 1. The article is the most famous football cubs in Australia. 2. I've chosen three criteria which are equally comparable (indeed, which disadvantage the bigger football codes). 3. The attendances and TV ratings relate to the home and away season only. 4. The criteria are all independently verifiable. 5. The criteria are such that we can revisit it every 6 or 12 months. I'm happy for people to discuss the merits or otherwise of the criteria, but to start introducing anecdotal type evidence or speculation which is not independently verifiable, probably doesn't help a lot. And even if it was verifiable, there is a valid discussion to be had about how relevant it is in any case. In the examples in this list, the sequence correlates very closely to the annual revenues of the respective clubs, which gives me great comfort that we are in the right ball park across the board ( I accept there might be one or two anomalies). It sort of seems a bit pointless to suggest that billions of people are following the A-League clubs with great passion and vigour, but not a cent of that following is flowing into the coffers of the clubs (for some strange reason which no one is yet to explain).
Brian Orange
Roar Guru
You can leave out the international interest in the A-League if you wish, but you should state that clearly before you outline your results. However it may also make your analysis pointless and worthless and very introspective and agenda-driven.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Fussball A lot of hot air there from you - but no substance. I stated the criteria from the outset. You are free to argue the merits of that or otherwise. As for these mysterious figures from overseas - no one has come up with anything remotely verifiable.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
"as yet, no one has come up with anything even remotely verifiable as to these fabularou overseas ratings." You're kidding aren't you? Are you so insular that you think Strayia is the only country that keeps verifiable data & statistics on consumer behaviour? Unbelievable. Just because you were too lazy to look for data & the data would blow away your "AFL clubs are the most famous" agenda; doesn't mean the data doesn't exist.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Brian as yet, no one has come up with anything even remotely verifiable as to these fabularou overseas ratings. But putting that aside - look at the numbers we can verify - please, look at them carefully. You can't sugar coat these numbers - they are at the extreme end of low.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Brian are you trying to be funny? Please read the article properly.
Brian Orange
Roar Guru
This one was in the Courier Mail, which is a rugby league journal: http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/football/over-250-million-people-expected-to-tune-in-to-aleague-grand-final-on-television/story-fnk6pqhe-1226902635236
Brian Orange
Roar Guru
The A-League world wide TV ratings are more than a fantasy. The FFA have sold the rights to A-League games and finals right round the world and have recently signed up the TEN Sports Network which is based in India but broadcasts right across Asia with an average viewership of 300 million. Why do you choose to ignore this in your analysis, if you didn't, based on TV ratings world wide, the A-League clubs would fill positions one to ten in your list of Australia's "most famous" clubs.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
The official club twitter accounts have a special status and with that comes additional security. I have heard of people "purchasing" followers, I'm not really sure how that's done - but I saw nothing in the numbers of the 49 clubs to suggest anything untoward. The Storm and SFC looked a little out of kilter, but in both cases, I think it could be explained by followers being attracted to the clubs from outside of their city.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Epiquin Agreed, if the Roar eds allow it, I'll try and update at the end of this year, and do it annually thereafter.. Thanks for the comment.
Epiquin
Guest
Good list Mister Football. Hard to argue with a lot of that. There are a few surprises, such as Melbourne, but it kinda makes sense in a way. It will be interesting to revisit this list regularly and assess the movers and shakers.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@MF I didn't say there are millions of MVFC fans in China. That's as ridiculous as saying there are hundreds of thousands of GWS fans, just because GWS gets high ratings on Foxtel. What I said was MVFC's 2 matches in the ACL were reported to have had around 30 million viewers - that's equivalent to 10 AFL Grand Finals. But, you've chosen to not research that data since it will not suit your agenda = research FAIL. The criteria you've used includes "TV ratings". Your TV ratings data is incomplete for MVFC, hence the analysis is fundamentally biased. I'm surprised you didn't give all ALeague teams a rating of 0? After all we've learnt from you analysis State ARules teams: Williamstown & Port Melbourne, are more famous than ALeague clubs! PS: Twitter follower numbers are a joke. No one takes them seriously. Heck, I had to delete my Twitter account because I suddenly acquired around 100,000 Twitter followers one day - not because I'm famous, because my Twitter account got hacked & acquired fake followers.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Actually, it's not incumbent on me to do anything. I presented my criteria up front, and I did the calculations across all four competitions based on the criteria. I've said at the very start that the NRL and AFL are actually disadvantaged by me using only Fox ratings, but I have stuck with the Fox ratings for ease of comparability. People are then free to discuss the merits or otherwise of the criteria, and the list as a whole. You may make the observation that in your opinion the Victory has tens of millions of fans in China, maybe even hundreds of millions. We have noted your observation.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Mitch Re ratings, there are many of a certain persuasion who will side with you. But the people who matter, those who shell out millions of dollars in TV rights and sponsorship will most probably disagree with you.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Mitch who knows what might happen in 100 years time, but at the moment at least - the current numbers give you a pretty clear picture of things.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
If the A-League clubs were followed internationally to the extent that you believe (or fantasise about) - would not that show up in the Twitter numbers? Domestically at least, the A-League numbers are mediocre for the moment - they might improve in the future - but at present - they are mediocre.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Mitch You might want to run that argument (a bit like some sports fans of a certain persuasion run the argument that TV ratings can't be trusted because they rely on a sample). In this particular example, no one would express surprise at seeing the top 34 clubs comprised entirely of the 34 clubs from the NRL and the AFL - and that has occurred WITHOUT the advantage of including FTA ratings.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@MF "Yeh, but “it’s reported” doesn’t quite cut it in the verifiability stakes" There is verifiable data available; you've not bothered to obtain it. It is incumbent upon a person writing a research paper to obtain all the relevant information. Until all the data is available, the paper should not be published, or taken seriously. It is merely a puff piece that does not stand up to the most basic scrutiny. Even at High School level a research paper, which conveniently ignored significant data, would immediately be marked: "FAIL".
Mitch
Guest
YES statistics DO lie - LOL
Mister Football
Roar Guru
This list is specifically about 2014. Did the Glory really get bigger crowds back in NSL days than what the Suns are currently averaging? (I don't know the answer, I'd be genuinely surprised if it were true)