Australia is a much more sports driven country and England doesn't have anti-syphoning laws nor the divide created by the class system.

Good opening round for the 2013 AFL season. It was the second highest opening round of all time (after last season), and the 3rd highest round of all time. These are the top 3 all time high attendances for one round:

1. 367,974 – Round 22, 1998
2. 367,792 – Round one, 2012
3. 365,507 – Round one, 2013

Of course that all time high from 1998 was achieved with one less game, which makes it an extra special achievement, representing an average of 46k for the 8 games that round.

AFL clubs are also on track to go past their record tally of memberships from last season of 707k.

Two games got over 1.2 million ratings (combined FTA and Pay): Ess vs Crows and Carl vs Rich.

ROUND ONE A RESOUNDING SUCCESS - SANFL

The SANFL has declared its opening round a ‘’resounding success’’ after recording its best round one attendance since 2007.

Attracting a total of 18,217 fans - at an average of 4554 - across all four fixtures, the league also recorded it third-best start to a season since the Crows joined the AFL in 1991.

‘’It was a wonderful way to start season 2013,’’ SANFL General Manager Football Chris Davies said.

‘’To have close to 20,000 supporters attend the opening round of matches underlines the SANFL’s ongoing popularity, and relevance, to football fans in South Australia.’’

An increase of more than 5000 people watched SANFL matches across the Easter weekend this year, compared with the 13, 099 who attended during the four-day break in 2012.

An outstanding crowd of 7,560 saw Norwood defeat Port Adelaide at Coopers Stadium on Thursday night while South Adelaide officials were ‘’delighted’’ with the 4530 who voted with their feet at Noarlunga on Good Friday.

While the Panthers lost to Glenelg, it was the club’s third-highest crowd at Hickinbotham Oval since the ground was established in 1995.

It was also the largest attendance since 4744 watched South Adelaide play Sturt at Noarlunga in 1998.

‘’We were delighted with the crowd,’’ South Adelaide chief executive Evan Arnold said.

‘’We worked hard to promote the game through a number of different avenues. We gave some free ticket vouchers to the local community here in the southern suburbs as it’s important to attract the people down here and to get them coming back again.

‘’From our perspective, to kick off the season with such a big crowd, was really important and hopefully there’s flow-on effects for our next couple of Friday night games.’’

Those who attended the four matches were treated to some entertaining football, with at least 20 goals kicked in each contest.

As many as 33 majors were scored at Envestra Park while 31 goals were booted at Hickinbotham Oval and 29 at City Mazda Stadium.

After averaging just 72 points per game last year, West Adelaide showed plenty of attacking flair in its win against Central District, finishing with a tally of 16.9 (105). This included a 10-goal blitz from the Bloods in the third quarter.

‘’There’s no doubt the attacking style of play across the Easter weekend ensured all games were excellent spectacles,’’ Davies said.

‘’Hopefully this trend will continue for what promises to be another round of exciting matches this weekend.’’

Sturt will kick things off in round two, when it hosts Port Adelaide at The Parade on Friday night.

It will be the first occasion the Double Blues have played a ‘’home’’ game at the Woods Street venue.

Woodville-West Torrens will play its first home match of the year against West Adelaide on Saturday afternoon while North Adelaide makes its 2013 debut against Central District at Elizabeth on Saturday night.

The highly-anticipated clash of the round will be at Brighton Road when Norwood tackles Glenelg under lights on Saturday night.

http://www.sanfl.com.au/news/sanfl_news/1974/

Well done to the SANFL. Very important that the SANFL and WAFL remain strong, vibrant leagues.

http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/breaking-news-blog/disabled-fan-verbally-abused-by-hawthorn-member/20130402-2h438.html

Typical Hawthorn scum.

5 city Metro and Pay TV ratings:


Round 1 total of 5,109,000 viewers.

I think that is slightly up on last season for round 1 (doesn't include FTA regionals).

Is the AFL going to have a shit-fit over the turf at the MCG not "getting a rest" in July with Liverpool playing there on the 24th and AFL games there on the 21st and 27th?

I doubt one mid-week fixture matters much.

I remember them expressing their discontent over our Pre-WC game there in 06.

In terms of how great this game is

To quote the title of a Public Enemy song

"Don't Believe the Hype"

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people follow this sport for a reason. They all must see something in it.

Think you will find that ratings were slightly down on last year, as per http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/2012-ratings.912602/page-10.

2012 Figure was 5,253,000. Difference of 2.74%. This amount does not include FTA regionals.

Fri TV #AFL #aflsaintstigers Seven 563k (Mel 436k Ade 127k) 7mate 118k (Syd 33k Bri 28k Per 57k)

STV ratings still to come.

Swans getting the softest free kicks imaginable here early on, what a fucking joke.

Carn the Suns

Great coverage on ABC grandstand here in NSW (Im not sincere at all with that compliment :lol: )

the AFL has been shunted onto ABC News Radio, where 2 or 3 people listen to it, or flicked onto that station by accident when they were driving somewhere in the bush :lol:

Dockers beating bulldogs 94-63, AFL TV commentators really are the worst, they dont sound professional and they really do talk shit.

Do you even watch the A-League??? :lol:

Didn't realise it was that bad on FTA.
Will be interesting to see how the Syd v GC game rates on FTA in same states.

I find A-league commentators a lot more better then AFL commentators which says something and there is like 3-4 commentators?

Radio commentators are much better.

Edited by aussie4ever4: 6/4/2013 04:55:34 PM

It's a whole lot better than NRL getting 1k in Adelaide.

In fact, that 33k in Sydney will be 7Mate's best ratings in Sydney for the day.

Last Saturday, an AFL match actually snuck into the top 20 of the multis, which is the first time I can remember that happening for pretty much any sport (from 3 cities).

The St Kilda v Richmond game in 2012 in round 10 (June 1)on a Friday night rated the following:

Fri TV: ‪#AFL‬ FTA 861k (Syd 47k Mel 528k Bri 47k Ade 115k Per 125k) 7/7mate + Sub TV 315k ‪#FoxFooty‬ ‪#aflsaintstigers

So FTA was 861k including digital TV, down 180k in FTA TV compared to last nights match.

The Sydney & Brisbane ratings are going backwards even the "derby" rated half the numbers of last year in Sydney.

The digital channel would only have made the top 20 because the Perth AFL is on digital now and not the main channel, which has seen a improvement in digital TV ratings but a large drop in the viewership of AFL FTA TV in Perth - this game got 57k this as opposed to 125k last year when it was on the Perth 7 main channel. Something that might also effect SBS2 showing of A-League games.

The NRL would do poorly in Adelaide and Perth because they do not have NRL teams and there is zero coverage here in Adelaide.

The NRL ratings last night were:
Fri TV #NRL Live: Nine 809k (Syd 447k Bri 362k) GEM 45k (Mel 36k Ade 5k Per 3k)

So in fact NRL did better in the state where they have only 1 team with a AFL and A-League game on, than Sydney & Brisbane who have 2 AFL teams each.

Also I am not aware of any shows on digital TV in key markets that cost $125m+ a year.

Spin it how you like, but the ratings in so called expansion states are poor for the dollars spent on these TV rights.

That is what expansion will do to you, just make the weaker clubs weaker spread the already thin playing pool and reduce your product to more meaningless games. There are not enough AFL standard players around. GWS another 10 goal thrashing to Port who came in bottom 4 last year. This is why the A-League should forget about expansion for now and work on improving the standard, fans want good high quality close games in all sports not one sided crap.

Edited by justafan: 6/4/2013 10:07:44 PM

Giants vs Swans got 244k on Fox, a very healthy rating. I can assure you that wasn't double last year.



Do you know what the NRL have to do on Friday nights to get those Sydney and Brisbane ratings? You should explain to our readers, in case they don't know.

Melbourne are an absolute disgrace. Jim Stynes would be turning in hi grave. Was at the game and saw first hand just how shit and soulless that team truly is, they are headed south and fast. Hard to believe they will just get worse than they already are.

The problem is Melbourne will just sack Neeld, when it's very clear that the issues are far deeper than the coach. When you go through coach after coach, the odds are small that you have just continually hired someone inept at the job. The entire club needs a clean out and soon, because their fans don't deserve to watch a group of blokes who just won't put in for the club.

The FTA digital numbers for the derby in Sydney were half last years not Fox which was 251k in 2012 and 244k in 2013. Digital FTA in Sydney was 82k for 2012 and 40k for 2013 in Sydney. So it did rate half the numbers in Sydney on FTA and likely overall.

Do not know what NRL does I am in Adelaide could not even name you half the teams in the NRL.

Only 29K in Sydney and 34K in Brisbane on FTA for the Sydney v Gold Coast match.
ROFL.

A bit of controversy today with only 84,247 turning up at the G for Coll vs Carl when 90k were expected.

In the other games today:

WCE vs Haw: 38,389
Geel vs Nth: 34,152

So a healthy average attendance today of 52,263 across 3 games.

Complete Round 2 attendance details:

St. Kilda vs Richmond: 56,783
Sydney vs Gold Coast Suns: 20,372
Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle: 19,210
Brisbane Lions vs Adelaide: 21,308
Port Adelaide vs GWS Giants: 25,122
Essendon vs Melbourne: 51,153
Geelong vs North Melbourne: 34,142
Collingwood vs Carlton: 84,247
West Coast Eagles vs Hawthorn: 38,389

Round Total: 351,726
Round Average: 39,081
Season Average: 39,866 (after two rounds)