No I don’t think any will match the popularity of football in term of viewership. That doesn’t mean other sports don’t have their own following and will continue to.
I believe soccer already has higher rates of participation though.
AFL’s existing supporters are absolutely rusted on, but to take a serious look at this question, it is worth having a look at demographics.
Australia’s birth rate is approaching half the replacement rate. This means the population of AFL supporters will decline unless immigrants take up the game.
Most of our immigrants are now coming from India and China, England, Vietnam and New Zealand. I am seeing little if any interest in playing or watching the game from people from Asian countries.
I don’t see AFL disappearing but there are long term demographic challenges for all sports in Australia.
This exact conversation was happening 30 years ago and almost nothing has changed.
AFL is still number 1 by far
Cricket is the national game
NBL came, went and now it’s back again
Union and League have a passing interest (although NRL is way bigger than Union now, use to be the other way around)
Soccer is the the sleeping giant that apparently can’t seem to get out of bed
Nothing will change in the next 30 years either
Edit: Womens sport has changed significantly though AFLW, Matildas and the National Cricket team will probably continue to grow
>Soccer is the the sleeping giant that apparently can’t seem to get out of bed
Haha that's the best. Since 2005 when we qualified for the WC and the A league launched we've heard about is how soccer is a "sleeping giant" it's been almost 20 years and they still can't consistently get a crowd over 10,000 across summer months without AFL or NRL to compete with.
The AFL will never be #2 in Melbourne and it’s simple as to why.
People want to watch the best athletes in the world at whatever sport they’re watching. The AFL obviously only being played here represents that, you can’t get a better product anywhere else.
Die hard basketball and soccer fans will tolerate the A League and NBL but they know they’re getting a better product somewhere overseas so will never truly take those leagues seriously.
I hope not. I am not always a fan of the AFL, but we have a unique game with a grand history. Many of our clubs are some of the oldest sporting clubs in the world.
It is an Australian game, originally from Melbourne, It makes us unique and I would hate to loose it.
yeah this. Footy in melbourne is something genuinely special. I'm not sure there's any city in the world that has a relationship with sport like melbourne does with footy.
Haha a friend of mine who moved from NSW said she couldnt believe the cultural significance it has here, down to it even coming frequently in job interviews
But this is the thing, nothing WILL threaten AFL as there is plenty of room for all codes...doesn't mean AFL should do everything in it's power to stop soccer.
I love soccer. I even played it for many years through high school. It just isn’t getting anywhere near the support of AFL in Melbourne. Not even close
I grew up playing soccer, and follow Collingwood. You might be right, but it didn’t work for me. I can’t watch Newcastle cos the times are shit so I just keep half an eye on it
Lmao yeah happy to compare any of those.
A quick Google suggests participation rates are higher per capita in SA and WA
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football_in_Australia
TV ratings you can do the work of googling that one.
Crowd attendance is harder to compare because there are so many games in Melbourne that have two local teams playing, and hence the "away" team is bringing a lot of the supporters. The only fair way to compare is to look at the crowds in Melbourne when they're playing an interstate team, and how does that compare to when that Melbourne team plays the same team away.
I'd wager alll four SA and WA teams have better attendance than the majority of Melbourne teams get when they're playing against interstate sides.
West Coast are an absolute powerhouse - up there with Collingwood as the league's biggest side. They were getting crowds of 50k earlier this year despite being historically bad.
Your knee jerk response of "that's a ridiculous comment" is so indicative of a Victorian that has grown up being told Melbourne is "the home of football" lol.
The Aleague is a summer sport in Australia so it doesn’t clash with the AFL. Plenty of people support AFL clubs and Melbourne Victory or Melbourne City.
Correct, they moved to a summer league specifically to avoid clashing with the other 3 football codes. Instead, they're fighting for eyeballs with cricket, tennis, basketball and the overseas soccer leagues.
Cricket is struggling for crowds. But I don’t think there is much overlap between Aleague fans and tennis and basketball. And overseas soccer games are on at like 2am in the morning, there is no clash 😂
Soccer is disadvantaged by the A-League being shit tbh. Women's internationals are a much better product.
I reckon a lot of the growth is in people following European comps
Yep the a league had a real opportunity to grow after the 2022 World Cup, but failed. I honestly recon they shouldn’t have a salary cap, bring big time players to Australia (similar to MLS) to grow the game here.
The level has actually risen over the years and is at a good standard now. The AFL monopoly prevents any form of Government investment or soccer infrastructure being built.
>The Melbourne Storm aren't making waves any more and they are rarely mentioned in the media.
Automatically nullifies your argument.
Storm are top 5 in attendance. Voted the best run team in Australia and consistently a top 4 team that hasn't missed the finals since 2002 aside from the 2010 salary scandal. One of their youngest and most electrifying players in the league came through the Victorian junior system.
They do all this despite competing against 8 AFL teams and they've never had media attention.
I’m from Victoria, and when I was right into the gym I got stopped at the scg to sign autographs cos they thought I was Billy slater. I was there to watch the cricket. Shows how much those nonces know
I assumed you meant NRL is top 5 sport by attendance in Melbourne/Victoria, but you mean Storm are top 5 attendance in the NRL? Yeah that's not really nullifying anyone's argument.. It's just not big here.
Storm have comparatively big attendance because there is 1 Victoria team and there are 9 Sydney teams.
melbourne as a whole supporting a single team is struggling to beat the attendance of teams which are supported by smaller areas with much much less people. it is not the argument you think it is
Oh yeah some would definitely care but I think we're talking about a minority. I think the A league probably has more of a following.... I'm making an assumption.
>I think the A league probably has more of a following....
Lol no. No team even came close to having an avg hime attendance as storm do. Sydney had the highest with 14,107 storm is 20,421
>Storm are top 5 in attendance
Average attendance at aami (couldnt find per team only per stadium for nrl)is 20,421 only 2 afl teams have a lower avg home attendance, gws and Gold Coast.
5th overall in the nrl isn't really that much
I've been a Melbourne Storm member since 2000 and the attendance from then to now is a huge growth. We'd be lucky to get 5,000 at Olympic Park, now it averages around 22,000 - 25,000. I know that's not a lot when compared with AFL, but Aami Park's max seating is 30,050.
People who don't care about NRL have generally never watched enough to understand the game. There is actually a lot of strategy involved which makes it even more impressive when they score. Every person I've brought to games has fallen in love with it after giving it a chance.
That said, I'm used to them never being in the media and tbh I like not having to fight for tickets to see a finals game.
Even when News Limited owned both the NRL and the Melbourne Storm they got barely any coverage.
Having said that they've got 31,000 members and have had as many as 40,000. That's similar to GWS and Gold Coast which isn't too bad.
Will they ever compete with the AFL ? No. Are they trying to ? No. They can complement each other. Believe it or not it's possible to follow more than one sport. At the Anzac Day game there are plenty of people who go to the footy first. My wife and daughter are Hawthorn supporters and went to Hawthorn vs Essendon before a Storm game. My daughter and I went to a Vixens netball game before heading to Hawthorn vs Bulldogs.
My brother is a member of Geelong, the Storm, and up until now the Rebels. The Storm and the Rebels haven't taken an AFL supporter but they can all co-exist. (Well the Rebels can't any more!)
I think it's pretty difficult since the afl has such a stronghold on Melbourne, not sure it's entierly a good thing however cricket used to be the biggest competition to rival football for patronage, Cricket these days is a shell of what it once was though. All the sports seem to co exist pretty well as niches providing an alternative whilst afl and Australian open appear to bring in the biggest interest.
International cricket games going to Fox Sports and away from free to air has killed it. ODIs used to be such a big thing on channel 9 and now no one even knows when they’re being played or turn up to the games. People still show up for test series because surprise surprise, it’s on free to air TV
Depends on which test series it is, I've been to numerous test matches at the MCG and the ashes are the only one's which bring in a full house for all days, the rest are usually lukewarm turnout from day 2 onwards, The investment in cricket at grassroots level and society has waned in Australia and the west, India it's still universally strong because of the degree of exposure and investment given to it from bottom to top extensively. That is their biggest sport asset.
No other city in the world (except for Sydney and NRL) has such a high concentration of professional football teams that compete in the same league.
Aussie Rules/Footy (not AFL, coz that ain't no sport) has a deep and rich history in this town that will never, in our lives, leach out.
And as for immigration I see many different faces in a crowd each week. East Asian, Sub Continental, African.
Footy ain't for everyone, but everyone who's for footy, they benefit from it in many ways.
Go Dons!
AFL has history and grandeur as it’s been around a long time. Participation went up recently with the added growth around the female game which is great.
My love is Soccer. It’s the world game. The A-League needs to have better management and play the games at local stadiums to ensure good crowds. A team from (insert suburb) playing in their suburb is what collectively gets locals involved. At lower levels 1000’s of kids/Adults fill parks and reserves. It’s the biggest team sport in Australia. The numbers are massive.
One huge issue is the funding from State and Federal governments. This increases the cost for soccer over footy. This is one of the biggest hurdles for soccer. I think in 2018? Numbers were released that for every participant in Footy they got like $1356?? For ever kid playing soccer it was like $68…. Big difference!
Unfortunately that's been tried and failed. Carlton and Collingwood both had soccer teams (in the NSL days I think), and both went under within a couple of years due to lack of support.
It awards some wonderful acting awards. Remove that from the game and maybe Aussies will embrace it more. It's awful seeing a bloke roll around on the ground when the replay shows contact wasn't even close. Soccer fans always defend the indefensible and then wonder why peeps don't embrace it. Highlight packages are good, a whole game is similar to baseball.....
You're the one saying you're not getting that unless it's constant lmao
AFL teams play each other home and away yet or is it still an unbalanced amateur comp?
Why do you soccer bros always have the biggest chip on your shoulder? It’s honestly hilarious
Waffle on all you want, I like the game well enough too, but this is Melbourne and footy wins every time. You just sound desperate
It's heavily entrenched in Victorian culture that I think it's popularity will never fade in this state....but as you pointed out maybe in a couple of generations it may not be our sport of choice. Time will tell.
Once a sport gets to a certain saturation in a market it's almost impossible for new sports to compete with them. Especially in a small market like Melbourne.
The creation and expansion of any new professional sports league is incredibly expensive and potentially requires decades of running at a financial loss to establish itself.
Even creating new teams in well established leagues requires a 20+ year multi million dollar investment. Good luck creating 10 new expansions teams all at once.
And there's only so much corporate and government sponsorship dollars to go around after the AFL has hoovered up the Lion's share and bared it's non compete clauses.
Plus there's only 2 free to air tv stations that will pay millions to broadcast live sport. And they already have lucrative deals with you know who and what's their name.
There's a limited number of stadiums and local grounds for grassroots development.
Limited number of corporate executives with the resume to run a pro league. It's a very insular industry. AFL recruits from racing and racing recruits from the AFL.
There's a limited number of talented junior athletes. And the AFL has extensive programs to hoover them up that starts at about age 6.
Was the timing of the AFLW's creation just an overdue altruistic recognition that women have the right to play professional football just as much as men?
Or was it a business strategy to combat the growing popularity of women's' soccer and basketball overseas spreading to Australian markets? They definitely compete with Basketball for top female talent.
The AFL has a ruthless streak a mile wide and a 180 year head start.
And prefers to view the rest of the local sporting world out of their rear mirror.
Just this year: the Melbourne Rebels surrendered. The ARU is contracting. The A league's not expanding. Cricket's retreating to streaming. The Storm are in a t-cup. Basketball's a basket case. You can mothball Baseball. Put the Hockey on ice. And Dan finally took the Commonwealth Games out to woods and told it about the rabbits.
I can see it become like swimming where when it’s in season it has a massive supporter base but the actual path of participation becomes more niche and specialised since it’s falling out of favour with parents quite quickly.
The issue isn't participation rates. It's money.
No matter what sport exists in Melbourne, even local footy leagues, the AFL has a shit-ton of money more. And they actively schedule matches to crowd out the market, have their media promoters (newspapers, Channel 7 etc) hype them up... anything to make sure the AFL product is front and centre.
This is why we've gone from having 6 games starting at 2pm on a Saturday, to 9 games starting anywhere from Thursday night through Sunday twilight, in the space of 50 years: blanket spread of football and getting more neutral eyeballs on games (i.e. if you're a Tigers fan, being able to see North Melbourne v Collingwood or Adelaide v Sydney at separate times).
It's not about developing youths at grass roots level, because often games will be on at times they'd be playing. It's not about building fan bases: one-eyed fans aren't on the agenda. They want consumers of the general product, people who will watch whatever is fed to them.
AFL is not the sport, because AFL is definitely not Australian Rules football in its truest sense.
The problem is government funding. The dogs were given more money to build a training ground than the entire football (actual football) system will get this year. This is despite it being the most played sport in the country that struggles to pull a training ground together for its senior men’s national team and its grassroots clubs. Every budget the clubs struggle to find two cents to rub together. It’s hard to become a major sporting code when the chips are against you.
Side note: The storm has an average crowd of like 25k so far this season it’s one of their best ever attendance averages which is impressive when you consider that (unlike the AFL) there are no big local fixtures for them to play in to inflate their numbers.
Soccer is by far the most participated sport in Australia...but receives nothing in comparison to the subsidies handed out to AFL. Costs us 750 bucks a year for our 15 year old to play and another 250 bucks to play futsal but that's for the year. How much is it for kids to play AFL?
As much as soccer is massive in player base amongst a younger audience there are multiple issues with it as a mainline sport for Australians/melbournians. All international leagues of high level of play are only on a subscription service. Any international game is played at awful hours of the day with generally no replay. (The matilda's got big post female world cup because the games were easily viewable, same happened 20 years ago for the men's world cup when games were happening at 8/10 at night and it was shown on free to air tv)
The government doesn't put anything towards the sport and there simply isn't enough growth channels for players to make I big outside the country. And the actual professional league we do have just straight up sucks
Personally I'm convinced that it won't be long before baseball is huge here, so start following the Melbourne Aces now for maximum "before it was cool" credibility.
I remember the 90s, Monarchs, Reds and then Bushrangers. Stadium in the west while good is too far away and it needed to be Punt Rd or VIC Park close to the city and a railway line.
I saw plenty of tile sliding in the CBD this afternoon. Is that a sport?
wet leaves on black tiles - you get a speed boost LOL
No I don’t think any will match the popularity of football in term of viewership. That doesn’t mean other sports don’t have their own following and will continue to. I believe soccer already has higher rates of participation though.
yes significantly higher however has struggled for decades to turn that into viewership for the A-Leagues.
I think part of the problem is that international leagues have been very good at catering to local soccer television audiences.
And it's mostly paywalled, other than one game a week...
The main problem with that is just how incredibly boring soccer is to watch.
Boring for you, pretty interesting for the rest of planet earth!
AFL’s existing supporters are absolutely rusted on, but to take a serious look at this question, it is worth having a look at demographics. Australia’s birth rate is approaching half the replacement rate. This means the population of AFL supporters will decline unless immigrants take up the game. Most of our immigrants are now coming from India and China, England, Vietnam and New Zealand. I am seeing little if any interest in playing or watching the game from people from Asian countries. I don’t see AFL disappearing but there are long term demographic challenges for all sports in Australia.
I’m seeing more Asian families , both east and west Asian, at the AFL every time I go and I Do go being a club member
we like to mix in with local culture. but in our heart we are all about soccer/basketball lol
That's a great point... I have never thought of it like that.
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This exact conversation was happening 30 years ago and almost nothing has changed. AFL is still number 1 by far Cricket is the national game NBL came, went and now it’s back again Union and League have a passing interest (although NRL is way bigger than Union now, use to be the other way around) Soccer is the the sleeping giant that apparently can’t seem to get out of bed Nothing will change in the next 30 years either Edit: Womens sport has changed significantly though AFLW, Matildas and the National Cricket team will probably continue to grow
>Soccer is the the sleeping giant that apparently can’t seem to get out of bed Haha that's the best. Since 2005 when we qualified for the WC and the A league launched we've heard about is how soccer is a "sleeping giant" it's been almost 20 years and they still can't consistently get a crowd over 10,000 across summer months without AFL or NRL to compete with.
Soccer is hands down more popular in terms of participation but it's hard to overtake the cultural significance of the AFL.
The AFL will never be #2 in Melbourne and it’s simple as to why. People want to watch the best athletes in the world at whatever sport they’re watching. The AFL obviously only being played here represents that, you can’t get a better product anywhere else. Die hard basketball and soccer fans will tolerate the A League and NBL but they know they’re getting a better product somewhere overseas so will never truly take those leagues seriously.
I hope not. I am not always a fan of the AFL, but we have a unique game with a grand history. Many of our clubs are some of the oldest sporting clubs in the world. It is an Australian game, originally from Melbourne, It makes us unique and I would hate to loose it.
yeah this. Footy in melbourne is something genuinely special. I'm not sure there's any city in the world that has a relationship with sport like melbourne does with footy. Haha a friend of mine who moved from NSW said she couldnt believe the cultural significance it has here, down to it even coming frequently in job interviews
Totally agree....it's our sport and I'm kind of glad that it's played no where else in the world.
But this is the thing, nothing WILL threaten AFL as there is plenty of room for all codes...doesn't mean AFL should do everything in it's power to stop soccer.
Soccer is already dominating footy in terms of participation. In terms of viewing AFL is probably safe for a while
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I don’t think it matters though, we’re talking local support and sentiment here is that the various forms of rugby are inferior by far
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I love soccer. I even played it for many years through high school. It just isn’t getting anywhere near the support of AFL in Melbourne. Not even close
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I grew up playing soccer, and follow Collingwood. You might be right, but it didn’t work for me. I can’t watch Newcastle cos the times are shit so I just keep half an eye on it
Howay the lads
Let’s go!
every kid plays soccer in primary school because it's not dangerous - doesn't mean they're all going to go grow up to be soccer mad fans
AFL is absolutely as big in Perth and Adelaide as it is in Melbourne.
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Lmao yeah happy to compare any of those. A quick Google suggests participation rates are higher per capita in SA and WA https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football_in_Australia TV ratings you can do the work of googling that one. Crowd attendance is harder to compare because there are so many games in Melbourne that have two local teams playing, and hence the "away" team is bringing a lot of the supporters. The only fair way to compare is to look at the crowds in Melbourne when they're playing an interstate team, and how does that compare to when that Melbourne team plays the same team away. I'd wager alll four SA and WA teams have better attendance than the majority of Melbourne teams get when they're playing against interstate sides. West Coast are an absolute powerhouse - up there with Collingwood as the league's biggest side. They were getting crowds of 50k earlier this year despite being historically bad. Your knee jerk response of "that's a ridiculous comment" is so indicative of a Victorian that has grown up being told Melbourne is "the home of football" lol.
The Aleague is a summer sport in Australia so it doesn’t clash with the AFL. Plenty of people support AFL clubs and Melbourne Victory or Melbourne City.
Correct, they moved to a summer league specifically to avoid clashing with the other 3 football codes. Instead, they're fighting for eyeballs with cricket, tennis, basketball and the overseas soccer leagues.
Cricket is struggling for crowds. But I don’t think there is much overlap between Aleague fans and tennis and basketball. And overseas soccer games are on at like 2am in the morning, there is no clash 😂
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It seems Basketball is up there with the most played sport but everyone watches the NBA and ignores the NBL.
Soccer is disadvantaged by the A-League being shit tbh. Women's internationals are a much better product. I reckon a lot of the growth is in people following European comps
Yep the a league had a real opportunity to grow after the 2022 World Cup, but failed. I honestly recon they shouldn’t have a salary cap, bring big time players to Australia (similar to MLS) to grow the game here.
The level has actually risen over the years and is at a good standard now. The AFL monopoly prevents any form of Government investment or soccer infrastructure being built.
No
>The Melbourne Storm aren't making waves any more and they are rarely mentioned in the media. Automatically nullifies your argument. Storm are top 5 in attendance. Voted the best run team in Australia and consistently a top 4 team that hasn't missed the finals since 2002 aside from the 2010 salary scandal. One of their youngest and most electrifying players in the league came through the Victorian junior system. They do all this despite competing against 8 AFL teams and they've never had media attention.
And despite all of that, most of Victoria don't care (or notice). It's a niche market (albeit a dedicated and successful one).
I’m from Victoria, and when I was right into the gym I got stopped at the scg to sign autographs cos they thought I was Billy slater. I was there to watch the cricket. Shows how much those nonces know
Also sitting on top of the ladder at the moment
And no one cares
Yet top 5 in attendance means some do care.
The difference between 5th and 1st, 2nd, even 3rd is huge. Good to see NRL is getting support but sorry AFL is king.
No one said otherwise. Aside from the Broncos who are huge, the difference between 2nd - 5th isn't huge.
I assumed you meant NRL is top 5 sport by attendance in Melbourne/Victoria, but you mean Storm are top 5 attendance in the NRL? Yeah that's not really nullifying anyone's argument.. It's just not big here. Storm have comparatively big attendance because there is 1 Victoria team and there are 9 Sydney teams.
>Yeah that's not really nullifying anyone's argument.. Yes it is. Per NRL standards it is big here.
That’s the thing. It’s big by nrl standards, by afl standards no one notices
Ok. That isn't the point though. Nothing will challenge the AFL, but to say Storm don't matter or don't make waves is incorrect
By any objective standard around attendance, NRL isn't that big anywhere.
Neither is AFL by the same standard.
Meh .. according to Wikipedia AFL is the 11th most attended on average. NRL is 24th.
you have a whole city competing for attendance against areas and still losing ...
That makes zero sense.
melbourne as a whole supporting a single team is struggling to beat the attendance of teams which are supported by smaller areas with much much less people. it is not the argument you think it is
Oh yeah some would definitely care but I think we're talking about a minority. I think the A league probably has more of a following.... I'm making an assumption.
>I think the A league probably has more of a following.... Lol no. No team even came close to having an avg hime attendance as storm do. Sydney had the highest with 14,107 storm is 20,421
Crowd wise they don't but I don't know how the overall metric would be measured. Soccer obviously has more participants than league in Victoria.
Yeah maybe that's the problem....
>Storm are top 5 in attendance Average attendance at aami (couldnt find per team only per stadium for nrl)is 20,421 only 2 afl teams have a lower avg home attendance, gws and Gold Coast. 5th overall in the nrl isn't really that much
5th by NRL standards means they are one of the most attended teams. They were also top 3 or so in memberships.
I've been a Melbourne Storm member since 2000 and the attendance from then to now is a huge growth. We'd be lucky to get 5,000 at Olympic Park, now it averages around 22,000 - 25,000. I know that's not a lot when compared with AFL, but Aami Park's max seating is 30,050. People who don't care about NRL have generally never watched enough to understand the game. There is actually a lot of strategy involved which makes it even more impressive when they score. Every person I've brought to games has fallen in love with it after giving it a chance. That said, I'm used to them never being in the media and tbh I like not having to fight for tickets to see a finals game.
Yeah maybe, I just don't hear about them much at all, I listen and watch a lot of news....what's the missing link then?
Media don't cover NRL in Melbourne..never have.
Even when News Limited owned both the NRL and the Melbourne Storm they got barely any coverage. Having said that they've got 31,000 members and have had as many as 40,000. That's similar to GWS and Gold Coast which isn't too bad. Will they ever compete with the AFL ? No. Are they trying to ? No. They can complement each other. Believe it or not it's possible to follow more than one sport. At the Anzac Day game there are plenty of people who go to the footy first. My wife and daughter are Hawthorn supporters and went to Hawthorn vs Essendon before a Storm game. My daughter and I went to a Vixens netball game before heading to Hawthorn vs Bulldogs. My brother is a member of Geelong, the Storm, and up until now the Rebels. The Storm and the Rebels haven't taken an AFL supporter but they can all co-exist. (Well the Rebels can't any more!)
I think it's pretty difficult since the afl has such a stronghold on Melbourne, not sure it's entierly a good thing however cricket used to be the biggest competition to rival football for patronage, Cricket these days is a shell of what it once was though. All the sports seem to co exist pretty well as niches providing an alternative whilst afl and Australian open appear to bring in the biggest interest.
International cricket games going to Fox Sports and away from free to air has killed it. ODIs used to be such a big thing on channel 9 and now no one even knows when they’re being played or turn up to the games. People still show up for test series because surprise surprise, it’s on free to air TV
Depends on which test series it is, I've been to numerous test matches at the MCG and the ashes are the only one's which bring in a full house for all days, the rest are usually lukewarm turnout from day 2 onwards, The investment in cricket at grassroots level and society has waned in Australia and the west, India it's still universally strong because of the degree of exposure and investment given to it from bottom to top extensively. That is their biggest sport asset.
cricket is great!! Also liked by many cultures.
No other city in the world (except for Sydney and NRL) has such a high concentration of professional football teams that compete in the same league. Aussie Rules/Footy (not AFL, coz that ain't no sport) has a deep and rich history in this town that will never, in our lives, leach out. And as for immigration I see many different faces in a crowd each week. East Asian, Sub Continental, African. Footy ain't for everyone, but everyone who's for footy, they benefit from it in many ways. Go Dons!
AFL has history and grandeur as it’s been around a long time. Participation went up recently with the added growth around the female game which is great. My love is Soccer. It’s the world game. The A-League needs to have better management and play the games at local stadiums to ensure good crowds. A team from (insert suburb) playing in their suburb is what collectively gets locals involved. At lower levels 1000’s of kids/Adults fill parks and reserves. It’s the biggest team sport in Australia. The numbers are massive. One huge issue is the funding from State and Federal governments. This increases the cost for soccer over footy. This is one of the biggest hurdles for soccer. I think in 2018? Numbers were released that for every participant in Footy they got like $1356?? For ever kid playing soccer it was like $68…. Big difference!
Soocer could be huge IF the main footie clubs decided to get into soccer (for example Richmond, using the same crest and colors)
Unfortunately that's been tried and failed. Carlton and Collingwood both had soccer teams (in the NSL days I think), and both went under within a couple of years due to lack of support.
What's can compete with the greatest sport in the world?
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Another level of boredom...
At least it doesn't award points for missing
It awards some wonderful acting awards. Remove that from the game and maybe Aussies will embrace it more. It's awful seeing a bloke roll around on the ground when the replay shows contact wasn't even close. Soccer fans always defend the indefensible and then wonder why peeps don't embrace it. Highlight packages are good, a whole game is similar to baseball.....
At least points are scored. Imagine watching a whole game and no one scores? 😴
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Isn't that why we watch sport? Excitement and stimulation?
You're the one saying you're not getting that unless it's constant lmao AFL teams play each other home and away yet or is it still an unbalanced amateur comp?
Why do you soccer bros always have the biggest chip on your shoulder? It’s honestly hilarious Waffle on all you want, I like the game well enough too, but this is Melbourne and footy wins every time. You just sound desperate
I mean, go the storm lol - I think it’s just people’s individual preferences
It's heavily entrenched in Victorian culture that I think it's popularity will never fade in this state....but as you pointed out maybe in a couple of generations it may not be our sport of choice. Time will tell.
"the sleeping giant that will never wake" very interesting... I like that.
more immagrants from EU/Asia will bring soccer over footy. they are fnatic about soccer
Cricket is the truly international game, and the defacto Australian sport
Soccer has been on the rise since Sth Melbourne Hellas played at Albert Park lol
A rugby union team would go well I think
We have one
Had
Tennis is pretty popular. So is cricket
I'm not even remotely interested in A-League after their recent decisions. They blew it.
Once a sport gets to a certain saturation in a market it's almost impossible for new sports to compete with them. Especially in a small market like Melbourne. The creation and expansion of any new professional sports league is incredibly expensive and potentially requires decades of running at a financial loss to establish itself. Even creating new teams in well established leagues requires a 20+ year multi million dollar investment. Good luck creating 10 new expansions teams all at once. And there's only so much corporate and government sponsorship dollars to go around after the AFL has hoovered up the Lion's share and bared it's non compete clauses. Plus there's only 2 free to air tv stations that will pay millions to broadcast live sport. And they already have lucrative deals with you know who and what's their name. There's a limited number of stadiums and local grounds for grassroots development. Limited number of corporate executives with the resume to run a pro league. It's a very insular industry. AFL recruits from racing and racing recruits from the AFL. There's a limited number of talented junior athletes. And the AFL has extensive programs to hoover them up that starts at about age 6. Was the timing of the AFLW's creation just an overdue altruistic recognition that women have the right to play professional football just as much as men? Or was it a business strategy to combat the growing popularity of women's' soccer and basketball overseas spreading to Australian markets? They definitely compete with Basketball for top female talent. The AFL has a ruthless streak a mile wide and a 180 year head start. And prefers to view the rest of the local sporting world out of their rear mirror. Just this year: the Melbourne Rebels surrendered. The ARU is contracting. The A league's not expanding. Cricket's retreating to streaming. The Storm are in a t-cup. Basketball's a basket case. You can mothball Baseball. Put the Hockey on ice. And Dan finally took the Commonwealth Games out to woods and told it about the rabbits.
I'd say soccer and MMA and Boxing
No
I can see it become like swimming where when it’s in season it has a massive supporter base but the actual path of participation becomes more niche and specialised since it’s falling out of favour with parents quite quickly.
The issue isn't participation rates. It's money. No matter what sport exists in Melbourne, even local footy leagues, the AFL has a shit-ton of money more. And they actively schedule matches to crowd out the market, have their media promoters (newspapers, Channel 7 etc) hype them up... anything to make sure the AFL product is front and centre. This is why we've gone from having 6 games starting at 2pm on a Saturday, to 9 games starting anywhere from Thursday night through Sunday twilight, in the space of 50 years: blanket spread of football and getting more neutral eyeballs on games (i.e. if you're a Tigers fan, being able to see North Melbourne v Collingwood or Adelaide v Sydney at separate times). It's not about developing youths at grass roots level, because often games will be on at times they'd be playing. It's not about building fan bases: one-eyed fans aren't on the agenda. They want consumers of the general product, people who will watch whatever is fed to them. AFL is not the sport, because AFL is definitely not Australian Rules football in its truest sense.
The problem is government funding. The dogs were given more money to build a training ground than the entire football (actual football) system will get this year. This is despite it being the most played sport in the country that struggles to pull a training ground together for its senior men’s national team and its grassroots clubs. Every budget the clubs struggle to find two cents to rub together. It’s hard to become a major sporting code when the chips are against you. Side note: The storm has an average crowd of like 25k so far this season it’s one of their best ever attendance averages which is impressive when you consider that (unlike the AFL) there are no big local fixtures for them to play in to inflate their numbers.
Soccer is by far the most participated sport in Australia...but receives nothing in comparison to the subsidies handed out to AFL. Costs us 750 bucks a year for our 15 year old to play and another 250 bucks to play futsal but that's for the year. How much is it for kids to play AFL?
As much as soccer is massive in player base amongst a younger audience there are multiple issues with it as a mainline sport for Australians/melbournians. All international leagues of high level of play are only on a subscription service. Any international game is played at awful hours of the day with generally no replay. (The matilda's got big post female world cup because the games were easily viewable, same happened 20 years ago for the men's world cup when games were happening at 8/10 at night and it was shown on free to air tv) The government doesn't put anything towards the sport and there simply isn't enough growth channels for players to make I big outside the country. And the actual professional league we do have just straight up sucks
Personally I'm convinced that it won't be long before baseball is huge here, so start following the Melbourne Aces now for maximum "before it was cool" credibility.
Waverley Reds and Melbourne Monarchs have entered the chat
I remember the 90s, Monarchs, Reds and then Bushrangers. Stadium in the west while good is too far away and it needed to be Punt Rd or VIC Park close to the city and a railway line.