AFL supporters know all too well that it’s the hope that kills you. But it can also kill your wallet.
Grand final tickets are hard to come by for club members, even though the league recently upped the allocation for competing-club members. That means that many paying members opt to shell out extra to guarantee a ticket to the decider, should their club make it to the MCG on the last Saturday in September.
Geelong fans at the 2022 AFL grand final between Geelong and Sydney at the MCG.Credit: Chris Hopkins
The (costly) catch, of course, is that loyal fans will do their dough cold if their team does not make it.
The AFL allocates each grand final club 17,500 tickets, which cannot be pre-sold. But “premiership memberships” guarantee priority one access when the tickets go on sale. However, even if supporters do have that guaranteed ticket, there’s a ballot to allocate seats – which will set buyers back $6 per ticket.
Geelong and Sydney stepped up the hard sell this week after both teams won their way through to preliminary finals – just one win away from the big dance.
Cats fans had the option to pay $230 on top of their full membership package to secure “priority one access to purchase a 2024 grand final ticket if the Geelong Cats are the competing team”. This means they will be first in line to buy their way into the MCG when tickets go on sale – if the Cats make it through. The upgrade option and ballot registration closed on Wednesday.
Sydney were slugging their fans an extra $135 for a “premiership club” membership.
The tough call for diehard fans was that add-on deals were limited in time and numbers. If their team makes it past the preliminary final weekend, and they had not already taken up the offer, it is too late.
“Should the Cats participate in the 2024 AFL grand final, all Geelong Social Club, 1859 and premiership members are guaranteed to receive a grand final ticket, provided they register for the Cats member grand final ballot within their allocated timeslot,” a Geelong spokesperson said.
Sydney Swans fans Samantha, Matt, Silvana, Lorenzo and Bernard Mandilble at the 2022 grand final.Credit: Chris Hopkins
While the Cats did not release how many add-on memberships they had sold this week, a Geelong fan club insider said most members were happy with the deal.
They said it was better to pay extra to avoid grand final week stress, knowing the money would still go to the club if Geelong lost their preliminary final.
Fans of the teams that emerge from this weekend’s semi-finals – Port Adelaide v Hawthorn and GWS v Brisbane Lions – will start to consider their grand final options early next week.
Hawthorn and Port Adelaide have already exhausted their grand final guarantee memberships, but neither club would reveal how many they have sold.
At Hawthorn, priority one membership prices range from $475 to $2000. At Port Adelaide, the price starts at $485.
Most of the big clubs sell off their grand final deals at the start of the season, and it is lucrative business. They sell between 10,000 and 17,500 grand final guarantee memberships for as much as $660 each.
Essendon said 12,000 of their 83,664 members bought a package with a grand final guarantee this year at a starting price of $470.
Carlton, which had a record 106,345 members this year, also sold out “premiership membership” add-ons (an extra $230) during the season. The Blues always keep about 2000 tickets in reserve each year for grassroots members in case they make the grand final and hold a ballot.
Collingwood said they did not have a figure available because the team did not make the finals, while North Melbourne said around one in five of their 50,628 members took up a grand final option.
The AFL released club membership figures on Wednesday morning and announced a record-breaking 1,319,687 members, up on last year’s 1,264,952 (+4.3 per cent), meaning that one in 20 Australians is registered with an AFL club.
Collingwood topped the ladder for the second successive season in a year that 13 of the 18 clubs set records for the number of members on their books.
The Magpies set a club record of 110,628 members despite the reigning premiers missing the finals, while the big mover was Carlton, which jumped into second spot with more than 10,000 new members from last year.
It is the first time the Blues have broken through the six-figure mark, while West Coast were the third club to crack 100,000 with 103,498 – the fifth consecutive time the Eagles have done so.
Wooden spooners Richmond suffered a dip after their recent premiership boom, dropping to 98,489.
Gold Coast were again the least-supported club, sitting below GWS and North Melbourne at the bottom of the ladder.
The AFL also broke the attendance record this year, with 7,756,268 fans going to matches this season.
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