The AFLW kicked off its eighth season this weekend, with high crowd attendance a result of “the Matildas effect” and a promising sign for the league’s future.
While the average crowd attendance during 2020-2022 ranged from 2,000-3,000, the Round 1 average crowd attendance over the weekend was 4,819.
Nicole Livingstone, head of women’s football at the AFL, said the FIFA Women’s World Cup has boosted support for women’s sport, which has had a knock-on effect for the league’s eighth season.
“Australia has been awoken that they love women’s sport, and the green and gold tsunami that was the Matildas has helped us with that,” she said in a report from The Guardian.
“We’re happy to grab that as a platform and keep running with it.”
The Adelaide derby between last year’s premiers Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide power received the highest crowd attendance in the Round 1 season opener, with 8,722 gathering at Norwood Oval on Friday night to watch the Crows defeat Power in a 30-point win, 58-28.
The historic win for the Sydney Swans, their first ever AFLW win, against the GWS Giants attracted 5,474 people at North Sydney Oval on Sunday afternoon.
After a winless debut season for the Swans last year, the Sydney side came back from more than 20 points behind in the second half, winning the match 51-46.
The Sydney derby was the second-highest scoring match in Round 1, and incoming CEO Andrew Dillon said the “really good” quality of football and higher scores displayed by the AFLW teams could attract more people as the season goes on.
“Ultimately, the product is the thing that will talk for itself,” Dillon said in The Guardian’s report.
This year, the AFLW introduced a cap on interchanges and lengthened the quarters to create more fatigue and increase scoring in the matches.
“We just saw a goal in the last minute (of the Sydney match)… so maybe we’re getting the desired results,” Dillon said.
The AFLW’s inaugural season in 2017 had an average crowd attendance of 6,405. Only eight teams competed in the seven-game season. Since all 18 clubs entered the AFLW in 2020, average crowd numbers dropped to between 2,000-3,000.
Support for women’s sport has grown significantly this year, particularly off the back of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, it became the most attended women’s sport tournament in history, with more than 1.7 million tickets sold.
Millions of Australians followed the Matildas’ journey in the World Cup, which took them to the semi-finals for the first time. The match between Australia and England was the most watched television program since the current rating system was established in Australia, with more than 11 million viewers tuning into the game.
Last week, a volleyball match held in Nebraska broke the world record for the largest crowd at a women’s sporting event in history. A crowd of 92,003 people attended the game at Lincoln’s Memorial Stadium between five-time NCAA champions Nebraska and Omaha.