The Great Dane
First Grade
- Messages
- 7,960
It takes multiple monumental leaps in logic to come to the conclusion that popular teams drawing larger attendances on average in a city is evidence that growth of a sport in that city is solely down to a significant population of expats from a place where it's popular boosting attendance.I have some very good evidence of that. Take a look at how the Swans, Lions, Giants and Suns crowds swell significantly higher when playing the big Melbourne clubs compared to other teams. Take a look at the Lions and Suns top crowd this year (which is the case most years v Collingwood), then take a look at how much lower the QLD derby crowd is between the Suns and Lions. It is heavily reliant on expats.
And no, considering the investment, the following is not that healthy if you are relying on people moving over the border. The TV ratings and average attendances have been stagnate for 25 - 30 years since the SL war bump.... which of course, you see as a coincidence In the case of Brisbane, their TV ratings sometimes struggle to outnumber those at the Gabba.
Furthermore, Collingwood drawing a crowd in Sydney is no more evidence of a significant population of expat Collingwood fans than e.g. Liverpool selling out the MCG is evidence of their being an enormous population of Scousers in Melbourne boosting soccer's numbers...
It's honestly a totally munted argument that relies on a bunch of suppositions and requires you to largely or completely ignore basic facts like more popular teams have a larger fanbase across the board, are more likely to have a larger traveling contingent of fans, have more prestige and draw a bigger audience on that alone, get better publicity that helps to market their games, have more intergenerational support on average, etc, etc, etc.
You even contradict yourself in your own argument when you suggest the AFL is 'relying on people moving over the border' but then suggest that their growth stagnated after a SL bump. Which is BS as well BTW, but I find trying to argue people off such positions of faith to be a total waste of time.
You'd expect to see steady growth roughly inline with the number of people immigrating from "AFL states" if it was the case that AFL's growth is down to immigration, especially ratings, yet you claim that their growth stagnated post SL. . . You can't have it both ways.