Figure 4 - Sources (with thanks to Stuart Pearson of Sydney Australia who is a Rugby tragic.)

Participation rates: (2005 ERASS Report Australian Sports Commission)
All players over 15 years.- participation rates

Revenue: All figures from 2005 Annual Reports

Sweeney Sports Report 2006: combines participation, attendance,
television and radio audience as well as print readership in sport, and
is expressed as a percentage of the population

Figure 4 ranks Australia's football codes according to participation rates, revenue and the Sweeny Sports report in 2006. The figures show that AFL revenue was almost double NRL revenue and almost triple the revenue of rugby union and soccer.

Differences in revenue are particularly interesting because they indicate the relative resources available to the codes to spend on public relations, player development, recruitment and government lobbying. It should be remembered; however, that school popularity contests are not won by making friends with the teacher or the publisher of the school newspaper. Nor are they won by trying to buy friends with a great party. That said, having the resources to put on a great party is an asset.

Crowds for opening rounds of the A-League
Season Aggregate Avg per game
2009/10* 61501 12300
2008/09 53325 13331
2007/08 58214 14553
2006/07 62938 15741
2005/06 70206 17551

Attendance in its major competition - 2006

Source: www.austadiums.com.au

Global participation - 2006

Sources (with thanks to Stuart Pearson of Sydney Australia who is a Rugby tragic.)

Media

Source: Sport rules – OK? A study of media usage in 2005
By Roger Patching

Table 4: Sports by weeks in list and total number of stories.

Table 4 and Figure 2 (above) show the dominance of AFL in sports coverage in the nation’s media. It appeared in the “top 5” list for 26 of the 44 weeks, with a total number of mentions in excess of 322,000 – more than a third of sport’s 900,000-plus total. Cricket comes in second with mentions in 20 weeks (almost half) of the survey period, but with a total number of stories not much more than half that of the AFL….Rugby league is the third most-popular sport with the nation’s media, understandable since it is limited to the eastern mainland states.

Table 6: Sports categories by total number of mentions.

The dominance of AFL is also demonstrated in the distribution of the mentions in the “top 5” News Value lists. Nearly 80 percent of their mentions were either top or second on the list – 19 of the 26. On the other hand about the same percentage of the rugby league mentions were in the lower 60 percent of the lists – That is, either third, fourth of fifth. Only on one occasion – coverage of the NRL Grand Final (and another fairytale result with the Wests Tigers taking out their first premiership as a combined club) did the NRL top the list of the most-mentioned stories of the week.

About two-thirds of the listings for cricket (13 of 20) were either as the top story of the week or the second most-mentioned, but only on three occasions was it the top story of the week. While the NRL might make the lists almost as many times as cricket, the sport is nowhere near as popular (as measured by the total number of mentions) as AFL – see table 6

Rugby Union Development

Number of Rugby players by state

(with thanks to Stuart Pearson of Sydney Australia who is a Rugby tragic.)

Super 14 crowds

NSW Waratahs

2006 average crowd - 29,929
2007 average crowd - 21,872 ( down 27 per cent.)

2007 "grudge match" between NSW and Queensland - 21,872

Queensland Reds

2006 average crowd - 23,154
2007 average crowds - 18,101 (down 21 per cent)

ACT Brumbies

2006 average crowd 21-22,000
2007 average crowd - 17,813 (down 22 per cent)

Western Force

2006 - 28,385
2007 - 27,000 ( down five per cent)

Bledisloe Cup appeal

In August 2006, a Rugby Union test between Australia and New Zealand was played to a sell out crowd of 52,000 in Brisbane. The game was watched by around 350,000 on free-to-air TV in Sydney. A home and away NRL game that weekend drew 7,000 to Telstra Stadium, yet the game outrated Union's test match.

Of the 50 top-rating sports programs in Australia in 2005, 12 were AFL, six were League and not one was Rugby. Not even the Bledisloe Cup made the list.

Rugby League Development

"The Australian Rugby League’s concerted effort to develop the game within Victoria has resulted in a 138.7% increase in total participation in the region (20,495 participants in 2006, up from 8,587 in 2005), while Victorian school registrations alone have risen 161%."

"The NSW Country region enjoyed similar success, with total participants in 2006 reaching 108,518, compared to 98,983 in 2005 – an increase of 9.6%."

"The Australian Rugby League’s schools program continues to flourish, with the total participation rate in schools nationally rising by 16.8%, while junior club registrations have also enjoyed a national growth rate of 3.6%."

"Significantly, an increase of 37% in total participation rates – i.e at junior and senior levels - within the ARL’s Affiliated States (Victoria, Western Australia, Northern Territory and South Australia) has contributed to a national total participation rate rise of 11.2% (371,557 in 2006, up from 223,204 in 2005), and shown that more kids are experiencing Rugby League than ever before."

"Other figures of importance include the success of ARL Development’s Smaller Steps Program, which has resulted in 110,250 children participating in 22,874 clinics held in 2006, and a total of 190,649 taking part in Rugby League Gala Days such as the Legends of League competition and ARLD Cup.

Overall, a total of 874,258 kids received a rugby league experience of some capacity in 2006."

source: NRL.com (Accessed 2006)

AFL - Revenue and Development

$215 million in annual revenue

3.94 million – average weekly television audience

5 year television deal worth $780million

5 year internet deal worth $60 million

3 year radio deal worth $8 million

Players in NSW - up 37 per cent

Players in Queensland - up 11 per cent

Source – 2006 Annual AFL report

AFL and NRL comparison

Television ratings - AFL vs NRL

2003 AFL - An average between 2.9 million and 5.3m viewers each weekend (five games a week)
2003 NRL - An average of 2.1m (two games a week)

Grand final ratings - NRL vs AFL

2006 - 903,000 -- NRL Grand Final audience in Melbourne
2006 - 765,000 -- AFL Grand Final audience in Sydney

Crowds- NRL vs AFL

Pay TV - Average week

From week ending June 11 2006

1 NRL Panthers V Dragons (FOX Sports 1) 158,000
2 NRL Cowboys V Sharks (FOX Sports 1) 145,000
3 NRL Rabbitohs V Brisbane (FOX Sports 1) 136,000
4 NRL Panthers V Sea Eagles (FOX Sports 1) 135,000
5 AFL RND 11 Richmond V Kangaroos (FOX Footy) 130,000
6 NRL Warriors V Broncos (FOX Sports 1) 117,000

Of the top 100 programs of all types on pay TV in 2006, 73 were Rugby League. The NRL had eight in the top 10.

Pay television revenue

Foxtel will pay a Seven/Ten consortium $315.5 million over five years for the four live AFL games it will broadcast each week for 22 rounds. ($717,045 per game)

Fox Sports will pay 42m per year pays the NRL direct for five live games a week over 25 rounds. ($336,000 per game.)

Market worth

[Top]