Where To From Here? AFLW Breaks Domestic Attendance Record

A dominant display on the field by the Adelaide Crows wasn’t the only success story from the weekends AFLW grand final, with crowd figures setting a new attendance record for a domestic women’s sport game in Australia.

A 53,034 strong crowd attended Adelaide Oval on Sunday to watch the Crows take the club’s second AFLW premiership in three years with a dominant victory over the Carlton Blues.

The previous record stood at 41,975 from Fremantle’s clash with Collingwood at Perth’s Optus stadium last year.

The AFL’s goal of attracting 30,000 fans through the gates was blown out the window, with the public making a statement of support in the wake of the Tayla Harris photo scandal.

The record-breaking attendance figure has confirmed the recent report by Roy Morgans Research, attributing the national uptake in sports participation by females to the success of the AFLW.

Currently, over 550,000 women now play one of the four main football codes in Australia and in the last 12 months to December 2018, participation in Australian Rules Football is up by 21,000 to 176,000 women.

The continued growth and success of the AFLW will place pressure on the code to extend the season beyond seven weeks and discuss the idea of a joint collective bargaining agreement, which would see the fully professional men’s players help subsidise AFLW to fast-track the players’ transition to full-time athletes.

Despite the unpopular system, AFL headquarters is likely to continue the structure into next year, with AFL Head of Women’s Football Nicole Livingstone advising it would continue given AFLW’s limited “window” and “cost”.