NRL has just announced it's KPIs for 2024.

NRL 2024 season by numbers

    Attendances – total: $4.79m - up 3.8%

    TV viewership – total: $200.5m - up 8.6%

    Participation – total: $1.03m - up 20.6%

    Asset value – total: $322.4m - up 24%

Pretty impressive numbers and claiming to be the number one sport in the country now.

I don't find that many of my friends who watch sports but are not following an AFL club bother to watch any AFL matches these days.

Can't say I really enjoy "being activated" at AFL footy matches much any more either.

I wonder if the AFL may head into a bit of a ARU slide over the next decade?

 

  On 21/02/2025 at 03:04, Brownie said:

NRL has just announced it's KPIs for 2024.

NRL 2024 season by numbers

    Attendances – total: $4.79m - up 3.8%

    TV viewership – total: $200.5m - up 8.6%

    Participation – total: $1.03m - up 20.6%

    Asset value – total: $322.4m - up 24%

Pretty impressive numbers and claiming to be the number one sport in the country now.

I don't find that many of my friends who watch sports but are not following an AFL club bother to watch any AFL matches these days.

Can't say I really enjoy "being activated" at AFL footy matches much any more either.

I wonder if the AFL may head into a bit of a ARU slide over the next decade?

 

They are absolutely not the number 1 sport in Australia… they are delusional.

Do you even know the AFL numbers for the same things?

As a starting point the AFL had total attendance of 8.2m

Edited February 21Feb 21 by DistrACTION Jackson

bunch of criminals and thugs.....

  On 21/02/2025 at 03:04, Brownie said:

NRL has just announced it's KPIs for 2024.

NRL 2024 season by numbers

    Attendances – total: $4.79m - up 3.8%

    TV viewership – total: $200.5m - up 8.6%

    Participation – total: $1.03m - up 20.6%

    Asset value – total: $322.4m - up 24%

Pretty impressive numbers and claiming to be the number one sport in the country now.

I don't find that many of my friends who watch sports but are not following an AFL club bother to watch any AFL matches these days.

Can't say I really enjoy "being activated" at AFL footy matches much any more either.

I wonder if the AFL may head into a bit of a ARU slide over the next decade?

 

Pretty sure the Afl is worth 5x more than rugby league, and triple the viewers on tv

Are the first 3 meant to be in dollars? If so they're truly woeful. I'll assume you meant people not dollars.

AFL attendance last year was 8.29 million, that dwarves rugby. The TV rights are worth more than rugby and cricket combined and the idea of a 20% rise in the participation rate sounds like rubbish to me. Asset values are over $700million for the AFL.

The only things bigger than afl that rugby has is V'landy's mouth and his ego. 

Wow rugby has cracked the Las Vegas market. The raiders are that bad that Las Vegans will go and watch anything at Allegiant Stadium because it couldn’t possibly be worse than watching the Raiders. Get your hand off it V’Landy’s 

The interesting thing is they do seem to have the AFL covered in total TV viewership which is an interesting stat

Attendance numbers are always night and day between the two codes.

But they do have a good TV product and that's where the money is at right now. 

  On 21/02/2025 at 04:06, DistrACTION Jackson said:

The interesting thing is they do seem to have the AFL covered in total TV viewership which is an interesting stat

This was something that I noticed when I first moved to Sydney - there are particular rugby games which are TV events.  The Sydneysiders will head to a pub or otherwise do a viewing party to watch those games, and will banter during the week leading up to the relevant game (generally finals and the state of origin games).  However, most people never go to a game or think about it outside of those times. 

The focus seems to be on the communal experience instead.  I was negotiating a sponsorship agreement against a few different rugby league corporates at one point and (as a pure AFL devotee) went to ask a number of loud "rugby head" colleagues questions about how the season etc was structured.  Surprisingly not many could tell me much or answer my basic questions... I ended up using Wikipedia and speaking to one person who was actively a rugby follower to find out more.  Very different interaction to how AFL is treated by fans!

Edited February 21Feb 21 by DeelightfulPlay
Typo fix

  On 21/02/2025 at 04:17, layzie said:

Attendance numbers are always night and day between the two codes.

But they do have a good TV product and that's where the money is at right now. 

this

league is always going to be a 'tv game' - they've tried in the past to boost attendance, and the majority of fans don't care; it's about watching the game, as a group

with about 55% of the population residing in nsw and qld, they're always going to command good $$

v'landys is smartly spruiking the product for the saudis, who now control domestic sport's fate with their buying into daz n, who are the incumbent rights holders for the nrl competition

whether it remains that way after the expiration of the current deal will tell us a lot about how interested they are in retaining the likes of nrl and afl in particular

Edited February 21Feb 21 by whatwhat say what

It’s also not an exact science with TV viewership as there are a lot of assumptions made, given they don’t track every single TV in Australia. They usually track a small number and then extrapolate out I’ve been told by someone who worked in the ad buying industry.

  On 21/02/2025 at 04:06, DistrACTION Jackson said:

The interesting thing is they do seem to have the AFL covered in total TV viewership which is an interesting stat

I suspect this is correct. I assume partly because (1) the heartland states of NRL (ie NSW and Qld) have much larger regional populations who can't otherwise get to games and (2) they generally play games in smaller and poorer stadiums which don't encourage spectators to attend.

  On 21/02/2025 at 04:52, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

I suspect this is correct. I assume partly because (1) the heartland states of NRL (ie NSW and Qld) have much larger regional populations who can't otherwise get to games and (2) they generally play games in smaller and poorer stadiums which don't encourage spectators to attend.

i've always thought that the game itself might be a better tv-viewing experience than live, as everything is usually in so close and tight with little sweeping ball movement; less even than union or the nfl as a comparison

i've never been to a rugby nor nfl game of any variety, so merely speculation

One interesting stat that I think is one of the most important is the TV viewership for the Grand Finals.

NRL 2024 - 3.42m

AFL 2024 - 4.024m

What that tells me is when it comes to the biggest game of the year, the AFL support is stronger.

  On 21/02/2025 at 04:58, DistrACTION Jackson said:

One interesting stat that I think is one of the most important is the TV viewership for the Grand Finals.

NRL 2024 - 3.42m

AFL 2024 - 4.024m

What that tells me is when it comes to the biggest game of the year, the AFL support is stronger.

Only got that number because both Sydney and the Lions were playing in it. 

  On 21/02/2025 at 05:16, Demon Disciple said:

Only got that number because both Sydney and the Lions were playing in it. 

true, but storm played in nrl gf too

id say Melbournians are more likely to watch the NRL GF with no Storm than NSW/QLD watching without their teams in the AFL GF

  On 21/02/2025 at 04:54, whatwhat say what said:

i've always thought that the game itself might be a better tv-viewing experience than live, as everything is usually in so close and tight with little sweeping ball movement; less even than union or the nfl as a comparison

i've never been to a rugby nor nfl game of any variety, so merely speculation

Very true but if it's a well designed rectangular stadium such as AAMI Park the experience is rather good. On the other hand went to a State of Origin at the MCG and saw very little.

Even worse is an NFL game at the stadium. It's simply a mass of converging players and you have to be lucky to spot the ball carrier.

TV wise the action is limited to distinct areas that are easily covered by cameras.

Soccer is a game that lends itself well to both stadium and TV viewing

Edited February 21Feb 21 by Diamond_Jim

  On 21/02/2025 at 05:16, Demon Disciple said:

Only got that number because both Sydney and the Lions were playing in it. 

Well 2023 was 3.83m, so a little lower but I get your point.

  On 21/02/2025 at 04:06, DistrACTION Jackson said:

The interesting thing is they do seem to have the AFL covered in total TV viewership which is an interesting stat

Sydney culture.

Don't turn up, just watch on TV. If not constantly stimulated, flick channels.

It is the same reason that when big musical acts tour Australia they do one or two concerts in Sydney and two to four in Melbourne.

The AFL marketing dept is desperately anxious about keeping people stimulated at Sydney/Brisbane games and unfortunately haven't grasped that constant noise isn't the ideal outreach facilitator for other markets. Same principle as the hyperactive vacuous commentary making constant over-excited noise. And also the constant gifting of advantages for Sydney, GWS and Collingwood, whose soft fan bases go completely to water if not told they will definitely win the premiership next week.

Also, NRL games averaged just barely 20,000 attendences per game and their boosters are announcing that they've set an INCREDIBLE record. E.g. "An astonishing 212,725 spectators attended games in Round 26 of the NRL season, setting a new single-round crowd record".

So, yeah, NRL is small fry propped up by outrageous levels of poker machines and a Sydney-dominated media and marketing industry.

QLD AFL are claiming that more kids in QLD are playing AFL then NRL these days.

Shorter quarters is the way of the future.

I watched the indigenous/freo game the other night and got bored. The quarters go for too long in a world where shorter form content is growing exponentially in popularity. 

  On 21/02/2025 at 08:22, The Jackson FIX said:

Shorter quarters is the way of the future.

I watched the indigenous/freo game the other night and got bored. The quarters go for too long in a world where shorter form content is growing exponentially in popularity. 

Dangerfield what are you doing on here?

  On 21/02/2025 at 08:11, BrisbaneDemon said:

QLD AFL are claiming that more kids in QLD are playing AFL then NRL these days.

good old corrupt afl qld, im sure they loving all the handouts they get from the afl though

Don't know about rugby but the AFL should be worried about soccer. Junior soccer clubs are turning players away while junior footy clubs can't attract enough kids.