Scoring, crowds rise for AFLW but TV audience keeps sliding

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More fans than have ever attended a ticketed round of home-and-away matches turned up for the opening weekend of AFLW – and they saw an entertaining spectacle with scoring on the increase. However, the steady decline in TV audience numbers continued.

The record crowds – since games became ticketed in 2021 – turned out as the AFL focuses on suburban grounds rather than big stadiums this year.

Kate Hore leads the Demons out for the opening game of the AFLW 2023 season.Credit: Getty

Scoring continued its trajectory upwards with an average score of 39.2 across the opening round, beating last season’s 38.6 and 34.1 in season six, according to Champion Data.

There are longer quarters in AFLW this season, and reigning premiers Melbourne began the season with a bang by kicking 10 goals 13 to Collingwood’s 4.7 on Friday night.

While last season’s opening round had a higher individual game attendance with 12,092 at Marvel Stadium for Essendon’s first game against Hawthorn in season seven, season eight had a greater average across the round with 43,431 fans getting to games at an average audience of 4781 per match.

This is up from 4503 in season seven and 2876 in season six.

Essendon coach Natalie Wood said more than 3700 for the clash with Hawthorn on Saturday night in Frankston was “really good numbers”.

Emma Race, Hawthorn’s No.1 ticket holder for the men’s and women’s teams, said it felt as if the popularity of the Matildas and the Women’s World Cup had brought a new audience to the outer of AFLW. The opening round coincided with the men’s pre-finals bye for the second season in a row.

“Looking around the crowds the usual W lovers were there but so many new fans. The volume of fans and the demographic has expanded. Looking around at the crowd, you couldn’t guess [if] it was a men’s or women’s game,” said Race, who attended three games across the weekend.

The TV numbers were more concerning. According to OzTAM, 230,000 people tuned into Seven for Friday night’s season-opener between Melbourne and Collingwood at IKON Park, while Saturday night’s game between Hawthorn and Essendon attracted 158,000 viewers. These figures don’t include Foxtel or Kayo figures.

Last season 287,038 tuned in for the Thursday night opening round clash between Carlton and Collingwood, and 288,296 watched the Friday night game between Adelaide and Melbourne.

In season six, 376,000 watched the opening Friday clash on Seven and 305,296 the Saturday game.

Earlier this year, this masthead revealed the AFL presented club chiefs with figures showing television ratings for the AFLW were down 70 per cent on season one and crowds were down 60 per cent amid collective bargaining agreement negotiations.

According to the AFL’s presentation, TV audiences for AFLW had fallen from an average of 180,000 per match in the competition’s first season (2017) to just over 53,000 for season seven.

Nicole Livingstone, AFL general manger of women’s football, said they were hoping to build on the momentum of the opening round for the rest of the season.

Fans packed out Norwood Oval for the AFLW opening round Showdown between Adelaide and Port Adelaide.Credit: Getty

“It’s been great to see tens of thousands of fans attend what has been a great AFLW opening round. The quality of footy on the field has been fantastic and the buzz and atmosphere around the venues has been profound, especially evident on opening night as the Demons unfurled their flag at Ikon Park,” said Livingstone.

“And we saw the best attended season opening game since 2020, including Melbourne’s highest opening round crowd on record.”

The Melboune-Collingwood crowd of 8,412 in attendance at Ikon Park was more than double the figure for the previous AFLW season opener and higher than last season’s grand final at 7,512 people.

The last two season openers between Collingwood and Carlton saw 3511 people turn out in season six and 4,28 for season seven. Both seasons were held last year.

That number was beaten on Saturday in South Australia with 8,722 spectators at Norwood Oval for the Showdown between Adelaide and Port Adelaide. Last season, 20,652 fans turned up for the inaugural crown-town rival clash, which was held at Adelaide Oval. Adelaide Oval has a capacity of just over 53,000, while Norwood Oval can hold 10,000 people.

The highest opening round attendance was season one in 2017, which saw 50,350 fans attend the four free games at an average of 12,588 per match.

Venue location appeared to have a significant impact on other numbers compared with last season. Hawthorn and Essendon’s rival game saw 3,778 at Kinetic Oval on Saturday night, a significant decrease from the 12,092 that poured into the bottom level of Marvel Stadium last season.

The capacity of the Frankston venue, an hour’s drive from Melbourne’s CBD, is 5,000, while Marvel, in the heart of the city, is just over 50,000.

The AFL have reiterated a focus of ‘heartland venues’ for the AFLW this year, wanting to pack out smaller suburban venues instead of half-filling larger ones.

Meanwhile, Western Bulldogs defender Elle Bennetts is set to miss the remainder of the 2023 season after scans confirmed a left ACL rupture, which she sustained in the Dogs loss to Geelong on Saturday night.

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