not defending AFL, but it would be hard to put in 2 new teams in non-traditional areas and not take a hit in crowds. their efforts to mitigate these losses are what makes them worse though, ie rigging the draw for more melbourne blockbusters etc, and a stand-alone sydney derby opener sure helped. what would they have been without them? their high water mark was in 2010 with 38,423 per game including finals. that year was the GF replay, so i can't see them achieving that again for a very long time. last year it was 32,748 representing a drop of 14.7% over 2 years since the GC and GWS.
i think the wanderers might also impact on GWS - but hard to tell at this stage. they're averaging only 11,677 a home game but the perception is much higher. still it is higher than GWS at 10,825.
with the tv deals all in all, what are we looking at for the NRL rights v AFL rights?
AFL TV, digital and radio = $1.253b over 5 years ... is that right?
NRL TV 1.015b, digital 150m (likely more, but undisclosed) = $1.165b ... Kiwi TV and radio yet to come?
only need to cover $88m over 5 years to equal the AFL deal dollar for dollar, with one game less per week, but SOO and INT included, from what I can tell.
the next step for the commish is lifting the off-field sponsorship. to me the holden deal seemed pretty good, so a step in the right direction there.
any thoughts?
