The only figure that is relevant for this discussion is the 29k the AFL Annual Report has as participation in club competitions in NSW/ACT. The equivalent figure for our code is 265k. If you add the respective figures for QLD to the numbers to get the relative popularity in the traditionally non AFL states you get 335k playing Football competitively in club competitions and 50k playing Australian Rules in club competitions. In fact that 335k figure is 20k more than play in Australian Rules club competitions across the entire country. Further to that AFL state they have 2,537 clubs whereas back when the FIFA BIg Count was done in 2006 there were 3,868 Football clubs and that number has grown since because of the significant growth of the code in the AFL states.

Edited by gyfox: 17/1/2013 04:14:38 PM

Collingwood.

I don't think anyone has disputed that soccer has a much higher participation rate, in fact, soccer has dominated participation in NSW for the last 100 years.

I should add that soccer also has the highest participation in NZ of any sport, but I don't think that will save the nix.

Thanks for adding that - it's a valuable contribution to a discussion on of the "Code battle" in Sydney's west.

What does Collingwood have to do with football in NSW? They are irrelevant to New South Welshmen.

Only thing we know about them here is their fans like to fight one another and 'chant' COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLINGGWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.



What do you expect, he uses this tone and low-blow tactic over and over to try and get to people without being held accountable for anything, the sad thing is it works :lol:

What I learnt so far is, AFL is all about Collingwood, and there is a lot of NZL haters here.
This topic really gone off course.

[youtube]VTlGYS6rAfA[/youtube]

As is AFL?

I wouldn't say that AFL is irrelevant in NSW. It has always been relevant in the Riverina. It was irrelevant in Sydney but the Swans have done well to capture a niche market. What is correct is that Australian Rules is the smallest of the 4 football codes in the Sydney market. Seeing that Australian Rules in Sydney has always been an inner city game with outposts in the Hills District and Campbelltown it could be argued that it is virtually irrelevant in western Sydney. Outnumbered 16:1 by Football, about 8:1 by League and at least 2:1 by Union they have about 3-4% of the club football players in the west.

[youtube]IVMKQP0K3a0[/youtube]

This is tough for Mr AFL, his general discussion strategy is to avoid any topic that which makes football look good or AFL look bad. Unfortunately this topic is about Western Sydney which is an embarrassment for AFL so he has to do what he can to change the topic to other random things.

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Participants in this thread might be intereted in Sydney AFL's annual report for 2012:

http://www.sportingpulse.com/get_file.cgi?id=2230528

Actually no, we're not interested.

The interesting facts pertinent to this thread in that report are:-

1. Of the 20 players named in AFL Sydney's representative squad 3 were from western Sydney.
2. Of the 19 players named in AFL Sydney's development squad 3 were from western Sydney.
3. Of the 22 players named in AFL Sydney's Team of the Year 3 were from western Sydney.
4. Traditional powerhouse Pennant Hills was the only team from western Sydney to make the finals.
5. The club of the 80's and 90's Campbelltown finished near the tail of the field in the top division and also in the club championship.
6. Traditional powerhouse of the 60's and 70's Western Suburbs finished near the tail of the field in the top division and also in the club championship.
7. Penrith from far western Sydney won a lower division Grand Final.
8. Sydney Hills Eagles from western Sydney won the U18 Grand Final.

The report shows clearly that the heart of AFL in Sydney is still in pre WWII Sydney but that the game is slowly taking up a presence in western Sydney in addition to its long presence in the Hills District and Campbelltown. The former based initially on interstate migration and the latter on Army families based at the (now defunct) Ingleburn Army Camp.

The average per member would be less than $50, so I expect the revenue to be circa $300K, no way $1.5M

That's a fair summary.

I'm not too sure what's happened to Campbelltown, there was a time when they were a very strong club.

A few people are interested.

'A few people are interested'

I do agree - Mister Football you are providing some excellent stuff

Cheers !!!

They were the top club in Sydney for a decade but looking for a better standard of football they defected and played in the ACT league with not a lot of success but came back to the Sydney competition at the turn of the century. Traveling down to Canberra had stretched them financially so to strengthen their financial position they "merged" with the Penrith Panthers Leagues Club and played as the Panthers. This didn't last long and they went back out on their own. They improved performances for a while but have slipped again. A friend of mine in Campbelltown attributes the slide to the gradual shutting down of the army camp during the 90's and its final closure in 2000. The club lost it source of young, fit AFL state army lads.

And congratulations on starting up a terrific thread, perhaps the best thread that has ever been on 442.

I didn't know the base had closed down - that would definitely explain it - there's no doubt that the stationing of families from the Southern states helped the club out immensely.

[youtube]i3N2oZpWjpY[/youtube]

GWS memberships now up to 7,143, well on the way now to reaching last year's figure of 10,241:

http://membership.gwsgiants.com.au/

The real test will be in attendance. WSW only have something like 6,000 members at present but it appears to not affect their attendance starting with 9,000 crowds (slight dip to 6,500) and increasing to 10,000+ crowds, that is it is always above their membership numbers. People like me who cannot not attend each game tend to pay when we attend games, reasons why me and my friends have not become members. If Adelaide United offered a 3 game membership pack to be used during the season (as opposed to 3 game in row for Christmas half way through the season) I would sign up as this is usually the number of games I can attend in a year but I do not buy a season ticket for that reason.

GWS has 10,000 members and besides a marquee game cannot pull crowds no where near this amount regularly to their games. GWS have members split between various areas (WS, Canberra, Victoria) to help boast numbers by offering cut price memberships, whereas WSW are basically from WS.

Bit like North Melbourne if you are gonna include 1 game memberships for $25 in your member number and boast 30,000+ members it is reflected in attendance for example when they play a interstate team you are lucky to get 15,000 to a game. No point increasing membership numbers any way you can if your total attendance drops i.e. 2012 AFL crowds.

In fact Collingwood's main contributor to income is social and gaming income, hence why they do not want the Pokie income laws changed. This is an area A-League clubs need to work on.

If A-League clubs offered some cheaper membership options I am sure their membership numbers would increase significantly, not sure about the bottom line though which is probably why they do not bother.

50% for $20 or less?

can't believe 'mr football' has bumped this thread into its 25th page

but anyway gws giants memberships now offer free access to the sydney royal easter show on three different days. a one day ticket is like $40, so for someone who attends the easter show every year, my concession membership is already 80% paid off for a 3-game pack, so i might as well help out our struggling neighbours in homebush with increasing their "membership" numbers without the intention to go to any of their games.

Edited by williamn: 18/1/2013 05:03:55 PM

and i would have thought that gws would have learnt from western sydney wanderers and opt to play their derby game at skoda stadium, so that ppl watching on tv can actually see a bumper crowd in that ground, because its definately one of the best grounds in the afl, but is rarely ever full, and since cash is not a problem, they are better off keeping the games at the one ground instead of having a one-off game that inflates their season crowd average.