16,782, figure on ultimate a league

Absolutely pathetic.

32k for the third derby last season.

The new regime has "saved" the league again !

Agree there shocking derby attendance figures.

I mean I agree to pathetic but last season third derby was Victory hosted, always gonna be bigger if Victory host in comparison with City. But still should be a very minimal getting into the low 20k mark for this match.

7k in Perth 

Only 15k turned up, even though it was free to go.

Still decent for Mickey Mouse footy, would have rated through the roof on 7 as well.

The AFL has had no live AFL game since GF in Sept anywhere in the world, that's 5 months ago. Just mind boggling, shows how small the sport really is.
If I had no live football to watch in 5 months, I'd be outta of my mind.

It's sad that someone would compare a free AFL game (1st in 5 months) in a AFL crazy city to a football game.

Now that they've ruined the Melbourne derbies by having too many of them in a single season in such a short space of time, the Sydney derbies are next

The FFA appear to be tearing this league down one brick at a time

Friday night's attendances can only be described as disastrous.

We are heading rapidly towards an all time low season average. We have are talking about clubs shedding half of their support from 5 years ago. 

I wouldn't call it disastrous, but if 16k ends up representing our new highs for the season, it means we are going to end up with under 10k averages on a permanent basis

If two Melbourne teams who have a membership base on almost 40k between them can only muster up 16k on the night I think we can call it disastrous.

The 40k base people actually invested and interested in the game and they’ve given it a miss.

there are so many different types of memberships these days, it's very dangerous to draw conclusions on the membership numbers

Sydney game postponed.

I don't know why so many people are alarmed by low attendances this season, and the past 3 or so. It amazes me how people expect more fans to come while at the same time complaining about the way the game has been run. 

The FFA knew very well that fans didn't want VAR. They brought it in against the wishes of the majority of fans. And the worst thing about it is that they still get many decisions wrong, even though with VAR it is impossible to get it wrong if you're an unbiased and honest referee. 

The FFA know very well that the best day to play a big rivalry game, or derby is on a Saturday for blindingly obvious reasons. The FFA has moved many of these games unnecessarily to either Friday night, or Sunday arvo, and in some cases unbelievably Sunday evenings. 

Promotion for the game in the last couple of seasons has been non existent, it's fair to say that those fans attending these days are all coming based off word or mouth. 

Active support throughout the whole league has been killed by FFA. Active support was the most effective form of advertisement for the league which came with a zero price tag attached to it. And Gallop and FFA ripped it apart. 

I won't even bother talking about the expansion process and the teams selected but clearly this was another problem where again the FFA went against what most fans wanted in regards to which region or city should have been included. 

With all this in mind it is a miracle that we still average around 10k for the season. If anything these numbers make me even more confident that if the league is run the way it should be, then we have nothing to worry about. 

Playing in suitable stadiums for each club, picking the right clubs for expansion and not waiting 10 years to fucking do it, having a proper fixture list where priority number one is what's best for the fans attending, and last but not least improving the standard of referees which is probably the only thing in the a-league from start till now that hasn't been up and down. It's the one thing that's simply been shit from the start and had only got worse.

There are many other problems in the game too, some much more complicated. But my point is that with all the negativity for the past few years why is anyone shocked crowds are down. It's to be expected considering the fans of the game have been treated like shit for so long. 

And perfect warm conditions in Melb on Fri night. 

Stop the press, teams perfoming badly struggle to pull crowds.

Shouldnt matter how good/badly your teams performing just show up, even if you decide on a game or two less per season due to form. The derby is the game to be at, call it plastic or a casual fan, the Derby is the minimum regular fixture each 'fan' so attempt to attend. 

Also another note for this seasons Melbourne derbies, the derby on matchday one hosted by Victory at Marvel drew a total crowd of 33,523

The collective total of both derbies hosted by City is 33,955 (17,083 and 16,872), Victory drew 432 less people with just one fixture in comparison to two.

Well, it's just the reality. When you are playing badly, it is mostly the diehards who turn up. Looked like a cracking atmosphere.

stop the press - now there is an all but redundant phrase if ever I saw one

What’s happened in Melbourne over the last couple of years is Victory is starting to lose its grip as a genuine mainstream presence in Melbourne, this can’t be solely put down to bad form as the team was a semi finalist last year, but publically the decline is very noticeable, I remember during the A league season you could be in any shopping centre in Melbourne and you would spot heaps of people wearing Victory gear, those days are largely dead now. Of course the decline of the competition in general is a key factor.

So it's a niche sport followed avidly, that's fine, still a bigger crowd than the BBL Final in Melbourne or the WAFL with free entry. 
Let's take it and work to reunify the code so that niche following grows.

don't press send?

I can think of a couple of emails that I certainly wish I hadn't.   I once sent one being very, very forthright about a particularly difficult client to the client herself by accident (was meant to go to a subcontractor).  Never was so much crow eaten by one human being in one phone call to keep that account.

Oh damn!

Don't comment much these days

But the lengths Victory took to ensure South Melb did not get the nod for an Aleague  licence has caused a nosedive in the Greek Membership for Melb Victory which at its height during their glory days was at over 20% and would now be a single digit. Word circulated quickly in our community.

Anthony Di Pietro in particular demonstrated unethical behaviour at lobbying for non inclusion of smfc not because of football but because the smfc board has a relative of his who is quite prominent however they are not talking to each other and are very bitter towards each other also

The West Melbourne bid was a desperate inclusion due to Anthony Di Pietro

Broadcast data was heavily weighted towards a smfc team in the Aleague and the FFA had several meetings with South

The far south east bid was a frontrunner based on location however like the WMG, having a stadium to play in was baseless, and still is

South was the logical option and would have created a real derby

Not sure why everyone is complaining about the current attendance and TV audience. Clubs wanted more power and got it. Anthony DP made the first move by blocking south. It's up to the club's to promote their league now. Not the FFA

Clubs got what they wanted and it is obvious have they  no plans to promote their own comp

As for South, I'm glad we saved millions as their is no ROI on the HAL. Bring on tier 2 national football with some real bloodline football clubs. I am certain football will be the winner.

Fark me. 

Never underestimate the propensity of Victorians to turn up in support of the Borg...I mean AFL.

This is the point.