Nicole Livingstone has defined why the AFLW will proceed to prioritise boutique floor fixtures over stadium video games regardless of a rising push to play in entrance of the bigger arenas.
Key factors:
The AFLW noticed its largest complete spherical one crowd numbers since COVID hit the competitorsCalls have been made to play extra video games in massive stadiums after 12,092 attended a Docklands matchNicole Livingstone stated enjoying extra video games in larger venues was not financially viable
Talking on the ABC Sport’s The W with Sharni and Sam podcast, the AFL’s normal supervisor of girls’s soccer stated she was thrilled with crowd numbers after the opening spherical of the competitors.
“We had 42,000 folks come to the AFLW in spherical one, which is unbelievable,” she stated.
“That is the largest spherical one crowd we have had since COVID hit.
“To have 42,000 followers come and see AFLW, it simply makes my coronary heart sing.”
The AFLW has seen an enormous variety of developments happen through the low season, not least that the beginning date of season seven was moved to August, which means this newest marketing campaign would be the second of the 2022 calendar 12 months.
“We have been a summer season sport providing for the primary six years,” she stated.
“I believe it was a little bit of a shock for lots of people at Carlton v Collingwood [the opening fixture at Princes Park].
“I used to be sitting within the outer … and it was bloody freezing and raining.”
The thought of beginning the AFLW season through the males’s bye week has been floating round for some time, however gamers have been at the hours of darkness as just lately as April this 12 months about figuring out precisely when season seven would kick off.
“It hasn’t been straightforward, to enter a brand new timeframe,” Livingstone stated.
“In most individuals’s minds [the bye week] is every week off from soccer, or neighborhood soccer takes over.
“So for us to have the ability to muscle in — we predict we have discovered the precise time to play AFLW, and we predict the lads’s bye spherical is the precise time.”
Livingstone stated this fashion the opening AFLW spherical may also function a tonic for the crestfallen followers of the lads’s groups that missed the finals.
“Provided that we’ve got ten golf equipment which have completed [the season] within the males’s competitors, in the event that they [the fans] can decide themselves up from the fetal place … then their hopes and desires are again up and round with AFLW.
“To have the ability to have males’s soccer followers come throughout to AFLW is actually essential to us … our viewers now skews 53 per cent ladies, 47 per cent males.”
Larger stadiums can ‘price 4 occasions as a lot’
One of many spotlight video games of the opening spherical concerned two of the 4 new groups on this 12 months’s competitors, with Essendon beating Hawthorn at Docklands Stadium.
12,092 followers turned as much as see an engrossing contest, and the success of the occasion has led many, together with Hawthorn coach Bec Goddard, to name for extra video games to be held within the 53,000-seat stadium.
“It isn’t as straightforward as simply saying ‘let’s play on the massive stadiums,'” Livingstone stated.
“Typically they price 4 occasions as a lot to even open the doorways and go in.
“So the place is the perfect spend of the price range that we’ve got? Is it on attempting to get each sport at a giant stadium? I do not suppose it’s.
“We nonetheless have these boutique stadiums that actually resonate with our viewers; they love how shut they’ll get.
“So there is a stability, between selecting the marquee video games that we wish to go in massive stadiums, after which additionally staying true to what we all know our followers love.
“The one factor that I do not wish to see is us go to massive venues, and no person be there.”
A double header fixture, pairing a ladies’s sport with males’s remaining, is being staged this week, with the Demons and Kangaroos AFLW groups enjoying on the MCG earlier than Melbourne and Sydney’s qualifying remaining on September 2.
These preparations could cause some points with ticketing, Livingstone stated.
“Individuals ask ‘why cannot we do double headers?’. Nicely, if we do a double header, there are some unintended penalties,” she stated.
“If we go to the MCG, we won’t clear a crowd of 10,000 folks, get them out the door, after which flip it again round for AFL finals.”
Tickets for AFLW video games normally price $10, however double header fixtures clearly must price extra.
“So [for September 2] the beginning worth level was $35,” Livingstone stated.
“$35 for AFLW and males’s finals, I believe is actually cheap, and if you would like AFLW to be enjoying at these massive stadiums, with males’s finals, sadly — or luckily — it is going to price just a little bit extra.
“However that places a price into ladies’s soccer as properly.”
Livingstone ‘snug’ with no executive-level illustration
Livingstone would not maintain an government degree place within the AFL, and there stays no devoted AFLW government on the board degree.
Livingstone stated she’s snug with the present management construction.
“The excellent news is, I’m GM of girls’s soccer, and Laura Kane is GM of AFL competitions,” she stated.
“I report in to Andrew Dillon, who’s the manager normal supervisor of soccer operations.
“We’re senior leaders on this enterprise … I am greater than snug with the place we’re at by way of the management of AFLW and the stewardship of it.
“I do not should be an government normal supervisor, and I am positive Laura feels the identical … the best way that we’re structured proper now, I am actually snug that ladies’s soccer and the AFLW are being well-represented.”
Again on the sector, Livingstone thinks the Demons are the flag favourites, particularly after beating Adelaide within the spherical one grand remaining rematch.
“I believe Melbourne would possibly [win the premiership] … in the event that they hold it collectively,” she stated.
An enlargement 12 months, a brand new season begin time, a brand new collective bargaining settlement: a lot has modified, and but there’s probably extra upheaval to return.
“We’re not at our remaining vacation spot on this journey,” Livingstone stated.
“However is not the journey wonderful?”
