The AFLW Grand Final on Sunday between North Melbourne Tasmania Kangaroos and the Brisbane Lions is officially a sellout. All 13,000 tickets have been sold for the season’s penultimate fixture, which will be played at Ikon Park, Carlton’s home ground in the inner north of Melbourne. There was speculation that with extra demand for tickets, the game might have been moved to the AFL owned Marvel Stadium but Marvel is already booked for some major concerts (Motley Crue and Def Leppard) and the World Supercross Grand Prix.
Whilst some are disappointed the venue wasn’t switched, it is a good opportunity to reflect on the growing demand for women’s sport. After all, the first AFLW games (including the first ever game at Ikon Park between Collingwood versus Carlton) were free to attend. And as the game gets better known it has been possible to charge admission which ultimately allows the sport to grow, and players’ wages to improve and the like.
The growth in women’s sport was on display during the FIFA Women’s World Cup this year. In 2017, I wrote about how exciting it was that the Matildas attracted a crowd of just over 15,000 in Penrith in a friendly game against Brazil (Lisa de Vanna and Sam Kerr scored in a 2-1 win) but this pales into insignificance against the 75,000 plus crowds the team attracted at the 2023 World Cup.
Similarly, women’s cricket is attracting bigger crowds as word has spread about the quality of cricket played and the Women’s Indian Premier League has boosted the types of salaries women can earn playing cricket professionally. The demand is there, it’s just a matter of supply catching up.
But back to the AFLW. Whilst Marvel could have attracted a bigger crowd, the players are happy to play at Ikon because of the atmosphere. Kangaroos’ player Kim Rennie is quoted in The Age as saying: “Playing on Sunday in the preliminary final against Adelaide, it was probably the loudest and biggest North-based crowd that I have played in front of. And it was so exciting…every tackle that we laid, to hear the crowd roar and (when) Adelaide were paid a free kick…the booing, it was incredible.”
So if the players are excited, and the fans are as well, then that’s the main reason to support the footy. Good luck to both teams and congratulations on getting to the grand final – the pinnacle of the footy season!
Professor Tim Harcourt is Chief Economist at the UTS Centre for Sport, Business & Society (CSBS) and host of Footynomics – The Economics of Sport. He specialises in Australia’s economic engagement with the Global Economy particularly Asia, Latin America and Emerging Markets. Tim has worked in both public policy and research roles in International Trade, Labour Markets, Climate Innovation and the Economics of Sport.
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