Collingwood fans hoping to counter the cold weather on Friday night with the collective body heat of 80,000 members were left wanting.
Only 20,320 spectators showed up to watched a dour but rare win over Fremantle at the MCG – the lowest black and white crowd at the venue since 1940.
Melbourne enjoys boasting about its status as the ‘sporting capital of the world’ and of course being the location of the colosseum that is the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It’s the ground that pushes 100,000 spectators at the biggest sporting events in the country, whether it be football, cricket or even the rugby codes.
Despite the huge figures at big events, Victorian sports fans – football fans in particular – should take flak for being as fair weather as any in the country.
Friday’s game, despite its favourable time slot, contended with enough variables for it to be an anomaly. These variables included bad weather, transport interruptions and as much hype as a mid-table Premier League match in May.
However, fan engagement has been on the map for years in the AFL, particularly in Victoria. Gillon McLachlan focused on fan engagement in his first year as CEO, pledging to reduce the price of food at games, and bring back post-match kick-to-kick.
Despite McLachlan’s efforts, fan engagement remains an issue. Rohan Connolly in The Age contended that Victorian crowds have dropped off as a result of modern TV coverage. But the answer lies not with the television audience or even the strange disdain among fans for the state’s smaller venue, Etihad Stadium.
No, the reason for dwindling crowds is simply that fans of the traditionally big teams don’t show up when they’re losing.
No matter how much supporters like to rib their rivals for fairweatherdom, Victorian fans, particularly the traditional ‘Big 4′ teams – Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon and Richmond – can’t escape falling attendance when the team is out of form.
The chart below demonstrates a strong correlation between the team’s form and the crowd numbers.
You might be thinking: “Duh. Of course numbers drop off when the team isn’t doing well.” But that’s just the point – Victorian fans shouldn’t need to hide behind the typical excuses of playing at the maligned Docklands or blaming the AFL because they didn’t want to watch their team play out a probable dead rubber.
Fans aren’t disenfranchised because meat pies are a few bucks too much beyond a reasonable price, they’re disenfranchised because, for the most part, their teams haven’t been challengers. That has been the case for all but one Big 4 team in the last decade.
The year Victorian crowds peaked was when the Big 4 had its highest mean finishing position in the last decade as Collingwood, Essendon and Carlton all made the top eight No surprise this year that as the finals hopes of all four teams have disintegrated, that Victorian attendances as a whole are headed for a decade low, only slightly scraping above the previous low 2014 figures halfway through the season.
With all early season hope faded, the number will only get lower.
It might be time to say that there’s less wrong with the AFL’s administrative decisions and their impact on fan engagement, and more wrong with the footy being played by the teams with the biggest fan-bases.
It’s not too hard to suggest that if the Big 4 teams were currently flag contenders, then attendances would skyrocket as large numbers of dormant fans would be flock to see the spectacles.
Sport lives and dies by its entertainment factor and the emotional engagement of fans. When three out of the four traditionally large supporter bases in this state have faced over a decade of negative emotional payoff and mostly dour performances, it’s easy to see why people have stayed away.
Bob Brown
Roar Guru
From the same website, average attendances this year 33,016 are actually lower than 19 years ago in 1997 - 33,197.
Tricky
Guest
"I doubt the AFL will ever return to the heady numbers of 2006" Actually I just looked at the crowd figures for that season, last years and the highest on the afl tables this includes all finals including the gf.(obviously not this year as the numbers aren't complete yet) 2006: 6736234 2010: 7146738 2015: 6971859 Steadily since the mid 90's the numbers have been 6million plus and 7 plus on 4 occasions, of course to back up the author 2010 so far has been the highest in history followed closely by 2011. http://afltables.com/afl/crowds/summary.html
Mongo
Guest
You have too high expectations - the NRL blockbuster on a Saturday night with no traffic problems at ANZ stadium in perfect weather drew 15K and no-one was complaining. The big Vic teams are struggling - end of story
Dylan Waghorne
Roar Rookie
Perhaps you should read the fifth par and then perhaps the whole thing or don't comment at all.
Pope Paul VII
Guest
Which was also very chilly. 10K not bad for GWS. Pretty vocal Carlton contingent as well.
Liam
Guest
This a LOT.
Josephine
Roar Pro
I didn't even read the whole article, I stopped with the first few lines. I was at the game on Friday night but can you really blame the people that weren't? It was bitterly cold and started raining. Considering lots of people come as a family I certainly wouldn't want to bring my children out in that weather. it doesn't question the fans support it just questions their common sense. Believe me if I didn't have social club tickets, I think I would have gathered being rugged up in a warm house.
Josephine
Roar Pro
I didn't even read the whole article, I stopped with the first few lines. I was at the game on Friday night but can you really blame the people that weren't? It was bitterly cold and started raining. Considering lots of people come as a family I certainly wouldn't want to bring my children out in that weather. it doesn't question the fans support it just questions their common sense.
Macca
Guest
Christo - "So 20k for a Collingwood game is no problem, but 10k at a GWS game is?" In a word yes. Collingwood played Fremantle - the 4th lowest drawing club in the AFL this year - GWS played Carlton the 7th highest. Collingwood is well out of Finals contention, GWS is pushing for top 4. Collingwood played at night in Freezing conditions and persistent rain - GWS played in the twilight in pretty reasonable conditions. Collingwoods attendance was 32k down on its home game average for the year (61%), GWS's was just 2k down (16%).
clipper
Guest
Well, this may be the problem - freezing cold and raining - couple weeks ago when it was raining and cold, the Roosters / Wests game got 3622 - both teams not doing well, like Collingwood and Freemantle. 20k doesn't look too bad in comparison.
Sam Walker
Roar Guru
It is not just the big 4 teams that are not filling stadiums, I run a small competition on crowd numbers for a particular set of games each week (Etihad is usually a focus for crowd attendance) and in recent weeks even the games at Domain and AAMI have drawn lower numbers than when we first started the comp. The SA teams are the ones that usually fill out the stadium but even they have had some lower than expected numbers (doesn't help when between the AFL, the stadium and the teams they have conflicting numbers). Now as far as winning makes members go it probably is spot on the money, West Coast and Fremantle were always selling out last year or close to it and this year they have much lower numbers and they are not sitting atop the ladder like last season. Despite what some might like to think of course the weather plays a big part in it and considering in recent weeks we have seen some of the worst weather in Australia for a while it is understandable. Have a look at this little piece below. Fremantle vs Richmond: 40000+ tickets sold, actual crowd: 20,184 Sydney vs Melbourne: 30000+ tickets sold, actual crowd: 19,086 Adelaide vs North Melbourne: Sold out 50000+ tickets sold, actual crowd: 37,890 GC vs Sydney: 10000+ tickets sold, actual crowd: 4,368 So people are not showing up on the day because of either the weather or they just have something else better to do (which if you have already paid for something why would you all of a sudden have something better to do).
Cat
Roar Guru
Buy one get one free is great if it convinced 2 people who wouldn't normally go, to give it a chance. What often happens though is two people who do normally go just pay for one ticket instead of two.
Christo the Daddyo
Guest
So 20k for a Collingwood game is no problem, but 10k at a GWS game is? Collingwood has over 100 years of history,80k members, plays at a 100k capacity stadium and Melbourne is the self-proclaimed sporting capital of the world. GWS is in its 5th year, have 13k members and plays at a 20k capacity stadium in a part of Sydney that barely knows AFL exists.
clipper
Guest
Bob, that isn't always the solution. When the Gold Coast Titans had a buy one get one free offer to a number of their games, the crowd average hardly moved very far up. Its all very well giving away tickets, you still have to get the fans to come, and it may also backfire when loyal members have given up their hard earned cash, only to find walk ups can get in for nothing.
Samuel Laffy
Roar Guru
When the AFL stops attacking us with 'Kiss-Cam', 'Dance-Cam', 'Goal-Celebration-Cam', 'Tag yourself on Instagram to get on the big screen', and music blared in every conceivable break in play they might find that people will actually show a bigger interest in the game - rather than being treated like 3 year olds who apparently can't concentrate on ONE thing for more than 30 seconds, and who need 'urging on from the ground announcer' to create atmosphere. I'll give them one development which works - letting fans have a kick on the ground after the game.
Cat
Roar Guru
I think one major factor being overlooked is the rapid decay of Melbourne mass transit. The last several weeks all the car parks around the MCG have been closed and for many the massively overcrowded, perpetually late and poorly managed metro system is just not an option. Since Metro took over for Connex and Myki has been fully implemented you now have 40-90k people trying to jam through 12 validators into Richmond station after a game. (They used to just turn them off/open them up to let traffic flow) In round one it was such a mess that by the time I got through the crowd and into Richmond station all 3 'footy specials' had come and gone. I had to instead take a train to Flinders, get off, find a city loop train to Southern cross, then wait 81 minutes for the next Waurn Ponds v-line train to show up. Finally 3 1/2 hours after the final siren I was on a sardine can disguised as a train heading home and left to stand for the next 45 minutes until my stop. So what is normally a 30-35 minute train ride turned into a 4+ hour ordeal. If I wasn't a diehard Geelong supporter that trip alone would put me off attending more games.
Reservoir Animal
Guest
Crowds were far lower in the VFL suburban ground days. Partly because the state of the outers in some grounds made the experience undesirable for women and children.
Perry Bridge
Guest
and when many clubs have 40,000 plus members - it's more about satisfying the catering contracts to encourage walk up attendees who even if free at the gate will likely put cash across the food counter.
Brad
Guest
I agree, everyone complains about it but I have been to 3 games in the last year (from tassie) and I think its great. Easy to get to, plenty of food/ toilets. You get a but ripped off but we bring a few snacks then just get one hot thing so its not that bad. No rain is the best bit
AR
Guest
Bob, whilst I'm not sure the AFL needs to do much more in Vic/SA/WA/Tas, free tickets can certainly encourage non-rusted on supporters to attend. And if done carefully, it can have a positive lasting impact. This is something the FFA is slowly learning with the ALeague. This season alone, the FFA made available thousands of free tickets (usually under a "kids go free" initiative in January). Melb City regularly offers a "2 for 1" ticket policy, and other clubs such as SFC have regular ticket giveaways. If a sporting organisation can afford it, why not?