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Have we seen the last of Sunday night footy?
Andrew Kennard
Roar Pro
1st July, 2014
8
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Andrew Kennard
Roar Pro
1st July, 2014
8

The AFL in its wisdom decided to risk playing a high-profile game on a cold Sunday night and see what the response was like.

The turnout? Not particularly great. A crowd of 40,000 turned up for the match, which was below average according to Eddie McGuire. What does this all mean?

Much has already been said on this topic, but I thought I would wade in with my two cents, even though I don’t know a lot about AFL. But my knowledge of other sports gives me an opinion on the crowds and ratings debate.

State of Origin is soon to be played at the MCG, Super Rugby is expanding to Argentina and Japan and cricket has announced a day-night test to be played next year. Australian sports at the moment are in experimental mode as they battle for the viewer dollars, whether on TV or at the ground.

I think it is a classic battle between differing priorities. There are many stakeholders in the game – the fans, the players, the clubs, the AFL, the broadcasters and others I can’t think of right now.

It is the relationships between these priorities that define how the game will be played and viewed.

Imagine you have a choice to grow the game or to consolidate it. An ‘attendance’ system would see the biggest clubs play each other in the biggest venues at the highest attended timeslot – and crowd figures would probably be very high.

A ‘growth’ approach would allocate clubs, times and venues with the objective of ensuring every club received the fairest of time-slots and venues to ensure fair remuneration. There are advantages and disadvantages with both and the competing objectives can leave us stuck in the middle sometimes. Luckily the designers at AFL HQ are pretty smart chaps and take into account both ‘attendance’ and ‘growth’ into the draw.

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But where does that leave us on the Carlton-Collingwood match last Sunday? Compare the 40,000 that attended the Carlton-Collingwood match with the 28,500 that attended the St Kilda Richmond game the previous day. By reversing those two matches it is not a far stretch to assume that those 28,500 fans could have been made up through ticket sales for the Saturday afternoon Carlton versus Collingwood and thus ‘better’ for the AFL if only one lonely spectator had turned up on Sunday.

Certainly not better for St Kilda and Richmond, but overall the numbers attending AFL matches that weekend would have been higher – once again assuming the crystal ball was right.

What was the thinking behind that decision? Probably the growth side of the model, you take a small hit here to encourage the growth of the game, a calculated risk to get a foothold in the door of Sunday night sport. If the AFL can retrain the way we enjoy the sport they stand to make more money.

However, did it work? The result was neither particularly encouraging nor discouraging. A crowd of 40,000 is a good number for a cold Sunday night, but poor considering historical figures. The crowd was not bad for an unimportant game in the grand scheme of ladder position, but not very good for a traditional local derby.

Without TV figures it is hard to say conclusively, but if I was a consultant to the AFL, I would definitely recommend having another go and hope for a warmer night.

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