2025 Attendances

[The_Wookie]

11.12.2024

Gather Round tickets snapped up in record time


The AFL is pleased to announce that more than 195,000 Gather Round…Festival of Footy tickets have sold… with five of the nine games sold out, 20,000 more than this time last year.

Member on sale on Tuesday saw a significant uplift in demand for tickets this year, selling more than 100,000 tickets in the first four hours, in comparison to the same amount in 24 hours last year.

This year there are an extra 47,000 tickets on offer for fans with the two Saturday matches being ticketed separately.

Tickets still remain for Collingwood vs Sydney Swans on Friday night, Carlton vs West Coast on Saturday afternoon, Melbourne vs Essendon on Saturday night and a very limited number of restricted view tickets and tickets for the Pepsi Collective for Port Adelaide vs Hawthorn on Sunday evening.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said it was clear Gather Round momentum was not slowly down.

“The demand for tickets this year was significantly higher than the first two Gather Rounds, with more than 195,000 tickets being purchased in the first two days,” said Mr Dillon.

“A ticket to the matches at the Barossa Park was always going to be one of the hottest tickets in town and the fans have certainly illustrated that by selling out both matches so quickly.”

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said: “Gather Round continues to exceed all expectations.

“We are honoured that so many footy fans from around the country are making the commitment to travel to our beautiful state to experience this event like no other.

“They’ll be truly welcome.

“If you haven’t got a ticket already – get in quick!”

Tickets for the remaining matches can be found here.

 

[____]

Just going to point out that the NRL’s Magic Round only has ~155,000 tickets available for sale.

3 days of games at the ~52,000 Lang Park, for which a ticket gives you entry for all the games on that day. 2 games on Friday night, 3 games on Saturday and 3 games on Sunday.

There are other ticketing options, such as multiple day passes, but there is no option for only one game on a day. The stadiums are not cleared out of spectators after each game.


In comparison, the AFL’s Gather Round has ~300,000 tickets available for sale. Each game requires an individual ticket, and stadiums are cleared out at the end of the game.

5 games at the ~52,000 Adelaide Oval, 2 games each at the ~10,000 Barossa Park and Norwood Oval.

That's the whole point of magic round though, your tickets is the ticket for all the games that day, and you can watch every minute of every game. That's why the cheapest adult ticket is $49 (for a single day pass), that's why there's no free tickets for members or fans and that's why it always sells out (I'm not sure of the cheapest prices for the multi day passes). The only thing members get is priority access to purchase a ticket, or a multi-day pass (just like how AFL/NRL club members get priority for their teams finals). The cheapest kids ticket for NRL magic round is $39. The cheapest adult ticket that's not a freebie for gather round is $35, and the cheapest kids ticket that's not a freebie is $10.

I don't have the financials but I'm willing to wager the NRL makes more in ticketing revenue from magic round than the AFL does with gather round.

Sure the AFL could say they sold more tickets, but how many tickets are actually paid and how many were freebies. I have a screenshot from the last page proving that I was able to get four free tickets to Melbourne v Essendon a few days ago. Say what you want about magic round but no chance you can go on Ticketek and get a free ticket to any of magic round games this year (last time I checked 6/8 games are completely sold out and 2/8 games have non-alcoholic or single seats remaining).

 

[PonsfordMagpie]

After Round 4.

HOME CROWDS
Club (# of home games played) = Total (Average)

• Collingwood (2) = 145,340 (72,670)
• Richmond (2) = 122,587 (61,294)
• Western Bulldogs (2) = 112,433 (56,217)
• Carlton (2) = 107,629 (53,815)
• West Coast (2) = 99,821 (49,911)
• Hawthorn (2) = 94,756 (47,378)
• Adelaide (2) = 89,496 (44,748)
• Fremantle (2) = 85,373 (42,687)
• St Kilda (2) = 77,810 (38,905)
• Sydney (2) = 75,216 (37,608)
• Essendon (2) = 71,802 (35,901)
• Port Adelaide (2) = 71,543 (35,772)
• North Melbourne (2) = 60,723 (30,362)
• Brisbane Lions (2) = 57,978 (28,989)
• Geelong (2) = 55,769 (27,885)
• Melbourne (2) = 47,784 (23,892)
• Gold Coast (1) = 16,211 (16,211)
• GWS (2) = 28,479 (14,240)

HOME AND AWAY CROWDS
Club (# of games played) = Total (Average)

• Carlton (4) = 269,696 (67,424)
• Collingwood (4) = 242,615 (60,654)
• Essendon (3) = 152,537 (50,846)
• Richmond (4) = 201,076 (50,269)
• Western Bulldogs (4) = 198,818 (49,705)
• Hawthorn (4) = 197,801 (49,450)
• Fremantle (4) = 164,034 (41,009)
• Port Adelaide (4) = 159,939 (39,985)
• St Kilda (4) = 154,996 (38,749)
• Adelaide (4) = 152,395 (38,099)
• Sydney (4) = 151,053 (37,763)
• North Melbourne (4) = 141,640 (35,410)
• West Coast (4) = 139,064 (34,766)
• Brisbane Lions (4) = 135,462 (33,866)
• Geelong (4) = 120,398 (30,100)
• Gold Coast (3) = 87,249 (29,083)
• Melbourne (4) = 106,949 (26,737)
• GWS (4) = 65,778 (16,445)

 

[smasha]

Looks like an unbelievable number of Brisbane supporters at the MCG

Richmond home game.
42 and a half ,brilliant for a bottom four team.

 

[Angus Young]

It’s typical to the AFL strategy of ‘price em low and watch em grow’ strategy to bums on seats. NRL tickets are often much more expensive than afl tickets, sometimes double for regular GA seats. AFL also has constant give aways in western Sydney and Gold Coast, many of the gws crowds are either not paying or paying cheap as chips for tickets. The NRL doesn’t discount tickets like the AFL does.

It’s a lot more cost effective to take your family to an afl game every other week where Ga tickets are 23 bucks verse GA tickets being 40-50 bucks.

LOL. LOL and LOL

Cool story.

 

[ep12]

Richmond home game.
42 and a half ,brilliant for a bottom four team.

Two things can be correct. 42.5K was a good crowd, there were also a lot of Brisbane supporters in the ground.
And also, Richmond still claim to have 100k members and should be able to bring 30k of their own to games even if they are bottom four.

 

[dave10]

Two things can be correct. 42.5K was a good crowd, there were also a lot of Brisbane supporters in the ground.
And also, Richmond still claim to have 100k members and should be able to bring 30k of their own to games even if they are bottom four.

That’s not realistic though. In reality, all the big 4 clubs draw regularly <30,000 crowds in the years / eras they’re performing poorly on field. Richmond is no different.

 

[Hot Dogma]

It’s also the case in Melbourne. GA tickets for Storm $45, or $27 MCG GA

And those GA tickets are at the back of level 4, behind the goals. Meanwhile anywhere on the ground level is $90+ and level 2/2a are $140+ for many Collingwood games. Nice try though.

 

[ep12]

That’s not realistic though. In reality, all the big 4 clubs draw regularly <30,000 crowds in the years / eras they’re performing poorly on field. Richmond is no different.

Nah won't be copping that. Excluding Marvel home games, Carlton/Collingwood/Essendon/Richmond should all be getting close to 30K at home games at interstate sides at the MCG. There will be outliers when its raining/freezing/windy/terrible time slot and thats ok. Just having a quick look back at Carlton in 2014, they were still able to get 32k at the G against Adelaide and even 29k at marvel against the eagles.

And I would make the same argument that Melbourne shouldn't drop below 20k at the G and generally we don't anymore ( i get we had the two games last year that are 16/17k but that takes into account the bitterly cold Saturday nights

Going back to 2009 when Richmond were bottom 4, they were still pulling over 30K at the G, same as Carlton in the 2014 period, Collingwood haven't really been in bottom 4 in the modern era (excluding a covid season) and Essendon tend not to play home games against interstate sides at the G (its 1 a year isnt it now?). 2016 Essendon can be ignored I reckon.

 

[Wizard]

After Round 4.

HOME CROWDS
Club (# of home games played) = Total (Average)

• Collingwood (2) = 145,340 (72,670)
• Richmond (2) = 122,587 (61,294)
• Western Bulldogs (2) = 112,433 (56,217)
• Carlton (2) = 107,629 (53,815)
• West Coast (2) = 99,821 (49,911)
• Hawthorn (2) = 94,756 (47,378)
• Adelaide (2) = 89,496 (44,748)
• Fremantle (2) = 85,373 (42,687)
• St Kilda (2) = 77,810 (38,905)
• Sydney (2) = 75,216 (37,608)
• Essendon (2) = 71,802 (35,901)
• Port Adelaide (2) = 71,543 (35,772)
• North Melbourne (2) = 60,723 (30,362)
• Brisbane Lions (2) = 57,978 (28,989)
• Geelong (2) = 55,769 (27,885)
• Melbourne (2) = 47,784 (23,892)
• Gold Coast (1) = 16,211 (16,211)
• GWS (2) = 28,479 (14,240)

WCE had the home derby so that number is inflated based upon that and the small sample size.

 

[Angus Young]

And those GA tickets are at the back of level 4, behind the goals. Meanwhile anywhere on the ground level is $90+ and level 2/2a are $140+ for many Collingwood games. Nice try though.

The poor guy is so triggered, clutching at straws looking for anything.

 

[Rouel_14]

Two things can be correct. 42.5K was a good crowd, there were also a lot of Brisbane supporters in the ground.
And also, Richmond still claim to have 100k members and should be able to bring 30k of their own to games even if they are bottom four.

Richmond claim to have 85,000 members, not 100,000.

If you are going to have a pot, at least fact check.

 

[Hawkk]

Nah won't be copping that. Excluding Marvel home games, Carlton/Collingwood/Essendon/Richmond should all be getting close to 30K at home games at interstate sides at the MCG. There will be outliers when its raining/freezing/windy/terrible time slot and thats ok. Just having a quick look back at Carlton in 2014, they were still able to get 32k at the G against Adelaide and even 29k at marvel against the eagles.

And I would make the same argument that Melbourne shouldn't drop below 20k at the G and generally we don't anymore ( i get we had the two games last year that are 16/17k but that takes into account the bitterly cold Saturday nights

Going back to 2009 when Richmond were bottom 4, they were still pulling over 30K at the G, same as Carlton in the 2014 period, Collingwood haven't really been in bottom 4 in the modern era (excluding a covid season) and Essendon tend not to play home games against interstate sides at the G (its 1 a year isnt it now?). 2016 Essendon can be ignored I reckon.

Membership is meaningless. And here is why…

Richmond had 98,000 members last year but drew 4 MCG games and 1 Marvel game under 35,000 - (34,500 v the Suns, 19,000 against the Giants, 32,000 against Freo, 22,000 against the Saints and 30,000 against Port).

That’s no knock on the Tigers, they finished last but those crowds are no different to what they drew the last time they won the wooden spoon in 2007 (27,326 v Eagles, 28,044 v Lions, 33,383 v North and 22,395 v PA)

That’s despite having about 70,000 less members - and Melbourne gaining about 1 million new residents over the past 15-20 years. There are heaps of sub 30,000 games involving those four clubs since 2022 alone.

And it’s not just the Tigers, it applies to every club.

At the MCG, those clubs have drawn heaps of sub 30,000 crowds since 2022 —

Richmond v GWS 19,040 (2024)
Carlton v Gold Coast 29,602 (2023)
Richmond v Gold Coast 28,293 (2023)
Richmond v Port Adelaide 21,757 (2022)
Richmond v GWS 28,813 (2022)
Collingwood v Gold Coast 28,916 (2022)

And at Marvel —

Essendon v Port Adelaide 25,114 (2025)
Richmond v St Kilda 21,375 (2024)
Essendon v GWS 28,815 (2023)
Essendon v Port Adelaide 20,568 (2022)
Richmond v Gold Coast 23,664 (2023)
Essendon v Nth Melb 29,594 (2022)
Richmond v Fremantle 23,539 (2022)
Richmond v Nth Melb 22,666 (2022)
Essendon v Gold Coast 23,485 (2022)
Carlton v Adelaide 25,376 (2022)
Essendon v Fremantle 23,938 (2022)
Collingwood v West Coast 25,897 (2022)
Essendon v Adelaide 24,906 (2022)

The floor attendance for all Melbourne clubs have not changed for 30-plus years - they have got worst. And that’s despite the Giants having more members than Carlton had in 2008!

It’s early days but there does seem to be a bit of a spike in the crowds this year - with the Melbourne, Richmond and North crowds about 30 per cent higher than past years and it’ll be interesting to see if it continues.

 

[mrherman]

Both expansion clubs are growing fast on the smaller Melbourne clubs on social media. What’s clear (as above) is that the Gold Coast Suns have a lot more potential than the Giants to grow their home game attendance.


Facebook

1. Collingwood 420,000
2. Essendon 357,000
3. Hawthorn 356,000
4. West Coast 339,000
5. Carlton 321,000
6. Richmond 319,000
7. Adelaide 292,000
8. Sydney Swans 282,000
9. Geelong 252,000
10. Fremantle 236,000
11. Brisbane Lions 234,000
12. W Bulldogs 217,000
13. Port Adelaide 216,000
14. St Kilda 211,000
15. Melbourne 196,000
16. North Melbourne 162,000
17. GWS Giants 136,000
18. Gold Coast Suns 116,000


TikTok

1. Collingwood 298,700
2. Hawthorn 283,600
3. Geelong 233,100
4. St Kilda 214,300
5. Richmond 179,500
6. Sydney Swans 167,400
7. Essendon 147,300
8. Brisbane 134,100
9. Adelaide 128,300
10. Western Bulldogs 124,800
11. Carlton 111,100
12. GWS Giants 100,300
13. Melbourne 93,500
14. Port Adelaide 88,000
15. North Melbourne 84,400
16. Fremantle 76,000
17. Gold Coast 74,500
18. West Coast 64,100

Twitter

1. Collingwood 161,800
2. Adelaide 161,300
3. Essendon 147,500
4. Carlton 129,700
5. Port Adelaide 113,500
6. Richmond 113,700
7. Hawthorn 106,700
8. Sydney Swans 105,700
9. West Coast 102,700
10. Brisbane 100,100
11. Geelong 96,100
12. Fremantle 91,800
12. St Kilda 88,900
13. Port Adelaide 82,000
14. North Melbourne 78,700
15. Western Bulldogs 75,100
16. Melbourne 74,000
17. GWS Giants 69,100
18. Gold Coast 62,100

Instagram

1. Collingwood 409,000
2. Richmond 320,000
3. Carlton 306,000
4. Hawthorn 303,000
5. Essendon 271,000
6. WCE 264,000
7. Geelong 254,000
8. Sydney Swans 253,000
9. Brisbane Lions 221,000
10. West Bulldogs 203,000
11. Adelaide 197,000
12. Fremantle 185,000
13. Port Adelaide 172,000
14. Melbourne 162,000
15. GWS 160,000
16. St Kilda 157,000
17. North 143,000
18. Gold Coast 118,000

If Opening Round has helped attract more attention to these clubs (and both have the fastest growing profiles over the past decade) than it has been a huge success in my books.

The role of the Giants and Suns are not to be big top 6-8 clubs (that will be the Lions and Swans in time) it’s to give the AFL a second game in Queensland every week. On these numbers I think they will get there.

it would be interesting to see the followers over the years since the inception of each social media platform. would be interesting to see how bandwagon supporters work

 

[Walshawk]

The two Saturday games @ AO look like they will also be sold out today.

 

[RonnieRaven]

First two still TBC, but both looked to be about what you’d expect.

41,491 for Dockers vs Dogs at Optus. Another great Freo crowd. It’s so good that they just consistently get >40k every week these days, regardless of opponent.

And the Sunday graveyard shift fixture

 

[dave10]

Membership is meaningless. And here is why…

Richmond had 98,000 members last year but drew 4 MCG games and 1 Marvel game under 35,000 - (34,500 v the Suns, 19,000 against the Giants, 32,000 against Freo, 22,000 against the Saints and 30,000 against Port).

That’s no knock on the Tigers, they finished last but those crowds are no different to what they drew the last time they won the wooden spoon in 2007 (27,326 v Eagles, 28,044 v Lions, 33,383 v North and 22,395 v PA)

That’s despite having about 70,000 less members - and Melbourne gaining about 1 million new residents over the past 15-20 years. There are heaps of sub 30,000 games involving those four clubs since 2022 alone.

And it’s not just the Tigers, it applies to every club.

At the MCG, those clubs have drawn heaps of sub 30,000 crowds since 2022 —

Richmond v GWS 19,040 (2024)
Carlton v Gold Coast 29,602 (2023)
Richmond v Gold Coast 28,293 (2023)
Richmond v Port Adelaide 21,757 (2022)
Richmond v GWS 28,813 (2022)
Collingwood v Gold Coast 28,916 (2022)

And at Marvel —

Essendon v Port Adelaide 25,114 (2025)
Richmond v St Kilda 21,375 (2024)
Essendon v GWS 28,815 (2023)
Essendon v Port Adelaide 20,568 (2022)
Richmond v Gold Coast 23,664 (2023)
Essendon v Nth Melb 29,594 (2022)
Richmond v Fremantle 23,539 (2022)
Richmond v Nth Melb 22,666 (2022)
Essendon v Gold Coast 23,485 (2022)
Carlton v Adelaide 25,376 (2022)
Essendon v Fremantle 23,938 (2022)
Collingwood v West Coast 25,897 (2022)
Essendon v Adelaide 24,906 (2022)

The floor attendance for all Melbourne clubs have not changed for 30-plus years - they have got worst. And that’s despite the Giants having more members than Carlton had in 2008!

It’s early days but there does seem to be a bit of a spike in the crowds this year - with the Melbourne, Richmond and North crowds about 30 per cent higher than past years and it’ll be interesting to see if it continues.

I agree. Truth is, in down years fans don’t go to games and all the big clubs draw sub 30k crowds. It’s just the facts. And they will again in future.

I think the spike in crowds in Victoria st least is more an MCG thing which imo is in part driven by provisional access into the MCC and this reserve being much more crowded for almost every game. I’d say this factor alone is contributing 1-5k in additional patrons per game in probably all but the very worst encounters. Then there’s basically free entry on GA memberships etc.

But truth is, when your team is travelling poorly, the crowds will drop off. Only thing in Tigers favour this year is they’re witnessing great talent and are probably seeing a bright future in 4-5 of their high drafting picks. But when the weather gets cold and wet, and if the losses are heavy, the crowds will drop away in Winter. That’s life I suppose!

 

[Fletched]

Went to AFL table richmond 2007 home crowd average 38255

2024 Richmond home crowd average 44403

That's a big difference

also overall mcg crowds of 23 and 24 are 8000 average higher than the years of 2019 to 2009

 

[Hawkk]

Went to AFL table richmond 2007 home crowd average 38255

2024 Richmond home crowd average 44403

That's a big difference

also overall mcg crowds of 23 and 24 are 8000 average higher than the years of 2019 to 2009

To be fair, 2007 predated ANZAC Eve and was the early days of Dreamtime at the G (both Richmond home games last year).

They also had the Martin’s 300th against Hawthorn which drew 30,000 more than a normal Tigers-Hawks game.

If you compare 2007 to 2024, Dreamtime and the Melbourne games drew 61,837 and 46,161 (compared to 79,539 and 72,840). And they didn’t have a home game against the Hawks - but played the Pies (49,550). They also played 2 extra home games at Marvel (8-3 instead of 10-1)

That alone would go a long way to close the gap between the years.

The big jump in crowds have been for the blockbusters (Season Opening vs Carlton (up from 59,847 (in 2007) to 83,881 (2024 - both away), Melbourne, Essendon and Hawthorn (41,770 in 2007 compared to 92,911 and 58,342 last year)

Interestingly the only high drawing fixture that went backwards was Richmond v Collingwood (down from 70,569 and 49,550 to 58,342) but that probably had to do with the late season game. And they played Geelong at Kardina Park in both years.

Take out the games between the six MCG co-tenants and the crowds have not moved at all since the mid 2000s. At least at the MCG.

 

[Fletched]

"Take out the games between the six MCG co-tenants and the crowds have not moved at all since the mid 2000s"

Your picking and choosing then to prove a point

Basically ignore the main growth area in Victoria then Victoria hasn't grown

 

[mrherman]

"Take out the games between the six MCG co-tenants and the crowds have not moved at all since the mid 2000s"

Your picking and choosing then to prove a point

Basically ignore the main growth area in Victoria then Victoria hasn't grown

you have added start up expansion teams, GWS & GCS that will have low at best crowd bases to begin with

 

[dave10]

Went to AFL table richmond 2007 home crowd average 38255

2024 Richmond home crowd average 44403

That's a big difference

also overall mcg crowds of 23 and 24 are 8000 average higher than the years of 2019 to 2009

What if you took out the additional 30-40k from the Dusty game in this figure? And Dreamtime is a bigger game now, guaranteeing bigger crowds than back in 2007.

Point us, you can’t just take data without looking into it and adding context. Always!

 

[Fletched]

What if you took out the additional 30-40k from the Dusty game in this figure? And Dreamtime is a bigger game now, guaranteeing bigger crowds than back in 2007.

Point us, you can’t just take data without looking into it and adding context. Always!

If dreamtime is bigger that means there has been growth why would it be excluded?

There were 47 games in 23 and another 47 in 24 at the mcg averaging 58000, this is clearly far higher than any other period before

 

[What else we can do]

"Take out the games between the six MCG co-tenants and the crowds have not moved at all since the mid 2000s"

Your picking and choosing then to prove a point

Basically ignore the main growth area in Victoria then Victoria hasn't grown

You can pick and choose but you also need to look at it from all angles to get a clearer picture.

 

[Hawkk]

If dreamtime is bigger that means there has been growth why would it be excluded?

There were 47 games in 23 and another 47 in 24 at the mcg averaging 58000, this is clearly far higher than any other period before

You’re missing the point.

MCG attendances are larger now than in 2007 - but thats largely because the blockbuster crowds (those that were drawing 50,000 plus, now draw 65,000 plus).

But the lower drawing games - those that don’t feature co-tenants (and Geelong) have not grown much over two decades. And that’s despite membership now being 2-3 x larger than they were at the time.

As I said there are plenty of examples where clubs with 80,000, 90,000 and 100,000 plus members draw less than 30,000 to games

 

[Fletched]

You’re missing the point.

MCG attendances are larger now than in 2007 - but thats largely because the blockbuster crowds (those that were drawing 50,000 plus, now draw 65,000 plus).

But the lower drawing games - those that don’t feature co-tenants (and Geelong) have not grown much over two decades. And that’s despite membership now being 2-3 x larger than they were at the time.

As I said there are plenty of examples where clubs with 80,000, 90,000 and 100,000 plus members draw less than 30,000 to games

Yes people pick out the games they want to see, its a long season

However it's clear there is overall growth in the post covid era to pre covid era

With any club roughly 1/3 will always be there, 1/3 will come sometimes and 1/3 will never show up