http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7707-afl-premierships-boost-support-for-tigers-dogs-hawks-201808170433

I can’t help focusing on the fact we have the smallest number of supporters bar the two most recent expansion clubs, and they have a vast number of supporters in waiting, especially the Giants. A minnow like the Bulldogs has almost double the number of supporters.

Decades of mediocrity really hurt us badly. We need to try and win over a new generation of football followers.

 

7 minutes ago, P-man said:

I can’t help focusing on the fact we have the smallest number of supporters bar the two most recent expansion clubs, and they have a vast number of supporters in waiting, especially the Giants. A minnow like the Bulldogs has almost double the number of supporters.

Decades of mediocrity really hurt us badly. We need to try and win over a new generation of football followers.

 

I don't believe those figures at all. Melbourne have a massive dormant supporter base but many have just pulled their heads in due to the pathetic performance of the team over the last 20-30 years. A doctor I met recently told me that her whole family (7) followed Melbourne but neither she nor family have joined in the past. She said they may well do next year, so go as far as we can in the finals and our membership will really jump.

Thre will always but a high level of uncertainty about the results, even though the Roy Morgan poll is one of the larger (note at the bottom of the table n=14,838). That 15k or so is then weighted against census data to give an estimate of the full figures.

I had some great fun (ho ho what a lively time was had) some years ago going through a government survey with only a somewhat smaller sample size, and picking out some odd results created by that sample-to-weighting process. For example, the survey found that there were zero, nix, nil nada, metal polishers, migration agents, turf growers meat inspectors or chocolate packers (among many othr jobs) in all of Australia. It also found that in Australia there are 107 television presenters and they all live in Tasmania, along with Ausralia's entire supply of goat farmers and meteorologists.

So, the annual variation in a survey even of this solid size needs to be taken with a grain of salt. And there are of course a bunch of other technical issues, especially with a privately run survey, that throw the data around almost at random - espcially with the underrepresentation of people who don't like to sit through long market research surveys!

But, what we can take from it is that year in, year out, for a very long time now, this survey has produced the consistent result that Melbourne supporters are the most likely to have a membership and the most likely to actually get to a game, and that stood firm even in the worst of years.

4 hours ago, MT64 said:

I don't believe those figures at all. Melbourne have a massive dormant supporter base but many have just pulled their heads in due to the pathetic performance of the team over the last 20-30 years. A doctor I met recently told me that her whole family (7) followed Melbourne but neither she nor family have joined in the past. She said they may well do next year, so go as far as we can in the finals and our membership will really jump.

That's because the supporter numbers are from a survey. 

Ask anyone in NSW which AFL club they support and they will say Sydney or GWS.  That survey result is then translated Australia wide. 

So ask 300 people in NSW who they support, because 30% of the population of Australia is in NSW.  Make the sample 1000 Australia wide.  7.6M supporters supposedly Australia wide.  1.1M people supposedly support Sydney. 

So if only  144 of those 300 people in NSW say they support the Swans then that will translate approximately to 1.1M supporters Australia wide......

The story suits the AFL and the TV stations, but there is something seriously wrong with the sampling when only 5% of these supposed "supporters" are actually interested enough to  become members.

I like the sentiment but for reasons expressed above I place almost no stock whatsoever in those figures.

6 hours ago, P-man said:

I can’t help focusing on the fact we have the smallest number of supporters bar the two most recent expansion clubs, and they have a vast number of supporters in waiting, especially the Giants. A minnow like the Bulldogs has almost double the number of supporters.

Decades of mediocrity really hurt us badly. We need to try and win over a new generation of football followers.

 

I've never met a bulldogs supporter in my life. I know tons of Melbourne supporters of varying levels of disenfranchisedness.

Mind you I live in the south-eastern suburbs and socialise exclusively with toffs, so...

A premiership will deliver the numbers.  Maybe more wins will create more children per Demon supporters household!!

Those figures are bulldust.

Bulldogs have 153,000 more supporters than us?