NFL minimum salary is $285,000.

trimster wrote:

QUOTE:
How much money would a kicker in the NFL earn.....?

I remember Sav Rocca saying that even the rookie salary he was on when he first went to Philadelphia was higher than he was earning at North Melbourne. Apparently, he has a 3 year deal worth US$1.3m over the term of the contract. That would equate to roughly 500k Australian. I don't know what Rocca was on at North but there are very few AFL players on more than 500k and it's a safe bet he wasn't one of them.

A terrible start to the finals. It should have been the best game in September - the 2 teams who were well behind Geelong but clearly better than everybody else. Instead, it was over as a contest long before half time, Hawthorn eventually beating the Western Bulldogs by 51 points.

Hawthorn are now near certainties to lose to Geelong in the Grand Final. The Bulldogs should lose to Geelong in the Preliminary Final but the way they played tonight they might struggle to get there. They play the winners of Sydney and North Melbourne next week and, if North win, I reckon they could be out.

I really feel for my boss. He was 3 when Footscray (he always calls them by their old name) won their only Premiership. As a 10 year old, he went to the 1961 Grand Final which Footscray lost to Hawthorn. They haven't been in a Grand Final since. He was working in China this week but flew back today for the game. He heads back to China tomorrow morning. What a waste of time and money.

Yes, I was just going to say that the AFL Finals concept is a tremendous way of creating closely fought, cut throat games at the end of the season, which gives several teams the chance of taking the title (and not to mention extra revenue)... instead of just one team racing away with it in a first-past-the-post system. I'm amazed that the English Premier League hasn't cottoned on to it.

But it doesn't always work that way... the finals are a game too far for some teams.

Unless we see the shock of the season at the MCG tomorrow, Collingwood will play St Kilda next week after they beat Adelaide in a surprisingly high scoring game this afternoon.

Tonight, all eyes will be on the size of the crowd at ANZ Stadium for the Sydney - North Melbourne game. This is where the second Sydney club is to be based. Things are not looking good according to newspaper reports:

SWANS chairman Richard Colless has described the poor ticket sales for tonight's elimination final against North Melbourne as major blow to the club, the code and the AFL. If ticket sales do not dramatically increase between now and first bounce at ANZ Stadium, the Swans are on target to draw their smallest crowd at a final in Sydney.

At 5pm last night only 17,127 tickets had been sold, and even if you factor in ANZ Stadium gold members, the Swans are on track for a crowd of less than 30,000 in an 80,000-seat venue.
"If the projections are correct, this will be a blow to (ANZ) Stadium, it will be a blow to the Swans, it will be a blow to the AFL, it's a serious problem," Colless said.

Especially for the AFL's plans to launch a second Sydney team playing out of ANZ Stadium by 2012.

Wet weather, the live telecast of the match and the fact North is a poor-drawing team are factors, but the poor ticket sales are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the problems the AFL and the Swans are facing in Sydney, according to Colless.

"I think what this is starting to highlight is there is not an insatiable appetite for live AFL/Swans games in Sydney," Colless said.

It also shows it takes more than just winning for Sydney to stay in love with the Swans, who have made their sixth consecutive finals series.

"What that means is you don't get beaten too much, you don't get humiliated too much," Colless said.

"So I think by any measure the Sydney Swans have held up our end of the bargain.

"But membership, sponsorship, corporate hospitality, television ratings, casual ticket sales, they are all heading in the wrong direction.

"I don't think it's the end of the world as we know it, but it's a major wake-up call for the Swans but I also think it's a major wake-up call for the AFL.

"I'm not making a gratuitous attack on the AFL but I'd be fascinated to know what promotion (for tonight's game) has taken place."

That last comment is a reference to the fact that finals matches are the "property" of the AFL not the clubs. It's the AFL which handles all advertising. It seems astonishing that they've done so little to promote a game in a market they are hoping to expand in.

Melbourne Arab wrote:

QUOTE:
Tonight, all eyes will be on the size of the crowd at ANZ Stadium for the Sydney - North Melbourne game.

Sydney won in front of 19,172 - the smallest finals crowd since 1924!

I've just heard the best excuse ever for a shite crowd (take note Sydney FC fans) - it's Father's Day tomorrow.

I think that Sydney crowd should be a wakeup call to the AFL about their expansion into western Sydney- it is an unrealistic pipe dream.

The Crows only got 37,000 to their game against Collingwood, when normally they would expect 45-50,000 for a finals match. I think it reflects a general downturn of people being reluctant to spend money on entertainment- not just football.

Is it really that difficult for Swans' regular supporters to get to the ANZ? What would the crowd have been like if they had played at their usual ground?

I'd say it would have been about the same. ANZ is no more difficult for me to get to, and unless you live right near the SCG that would generally be the case. Plus tickets are generally slightly cheaper at ANZ and public transport is included in the ticket price. Having said that, the crowds at the four regular season games played at ANZ this year were all a bit disappointing. The weather was particularly shit last night though.

Qualifying Final
Geelong 119 St Kilda 61
Crowd 71,653

Normally, I would be crushed by disappointment and consumed by frothing rage after an afternoon like that. There’s no point, though. Geelong are simply miles ahead of everybody else - as close to 100% certainties to be Premiers as it’s possible to be and, with Hawthorn probably about 95% certain to be their Grand Final opponents, we are left with what feels like a very flat finals series.

We’ve had 2 horribly one sided qualifying finals, an elimination final played in front of 60,000 empty seats and even the one good game of the weekend attracted a disappointing crowd to AAMI Stadium as Trimster mentions. Today’s attendance was about 15,000 below the AFL’s prediction. A Collingwood – St Kilda game in September should attract a near 90,000 crowd but, unless Collingwood fans overreact to yesterday’s win, I can’t see it. I expect today’s reality check to seriously impact on St Kilda’s support and I can’t see a big crowd showing up to see the Western Bulldogs – Sydney game when the “reward” is a preliminary final thrashing from Geelong.

Today, St Kilda competed with Geelong for about 5 minutes – we even kicked the first goal. The quarter time margin was a straight 3 goals. However, the signs were worrying. St Kilda had 2 scoring shots, Geelong 10. Geelong continued to wasteful in the second quarter leading at half time 52-20 but with 17 scoring shots to 5. Then, in the third quarter, they blew us away with 9 goals and the final term was a waste of everybody’s time as both sides left key players on the bench to avoid the risk of injury.

Geelong were simply awesome. It really does look as though they have all 22 players on the ground. At every contest, there are players in blue and white swarming around. They seem to pick up every loose ball and then, with a series of lightning quick handballs, they are off. Geelong have turned handballing into an art form – no other team in history has played with the hands as much as they do. Today, they had 212 kicks and an incredible 211 handballs. In recent weeks, St Kilda have used handballing a lot more but we simply don’t have to skills to carry it off. St Kilda’s stats today – 197 kicks, 155 handballs.

As the week progresses and the game with Collingwood gets near, I’m sure the prospect of beating those bastards will get me excited. Right now, though, it feels like we should just fast forward to the Grand Final.

Melbourne Arab wrote:

QUOTE:
Melbourne Arab wrote:

QUOTE:
Tonight, all eyes will be on the size of the crowd at ANZ Stadium for the Sydney - North Melbourne game.

Sydney won in front of 19,172 - the smallest finals crowd since 1924!

Turns out that's wrong. It was the lowest finals crowd since 1902.

trimster wrote:
[quote]I think that Sydney crowd should be a wakeup call to the AFL about their expansion into western Sydney- it is an unrealistic pipe dream.
[quote]

I think there are only 2 people in the whole of Australia who think Western Sydney is a good idea - Andrew Demetriou and the Mayor of Blacktown.

Demetriou said today: "The AFL loves a challenge."

There were 3 NRL games in Sydney yesterday which drew a combined attendance of 18,245.

From today's Herald Sun:

On Saturday night the Swans attracted a peak TV audience of just 232,000 viewers in Sydney, averaging 185,000.

Double movie re-runs on Seven (Freaky Friday and Pretty Woman) and Nine (Zathura - A Space Adventure and Hellboy) attracted 334,000 and 273,000 averaged respectively.

Even the ABC trumped the footy with Wild at Heart and The Bill averaging 247,000 viewers.

The only show the Sydney final beat was a repeat of Iron Chef on SBS with 84,000 viewers.

The TV debacle was compounded by Ten running ads encouraging people to go to the match an hour after Sydney had won.

"It's pathetic and it just highlights the state of denial that some people in the AFL are in," Mr Colless said.

He believed Saturday night's poor attendance was a symptom of downward trends for Swans crowds, membership, casual ticket sales, corporate support and TV ratings.

"The events of this year I don't think can be swept under the carpet," Mr Colless said.

"The sense I have is the game has plateaued in terms of interest in Sydney. I think the people who should be most concerned would be the AFL."

The AFL admitted there were mistakes in the lead-up to the game.

The league could have moved it to the SCG but said recent finals had indicated a crowd of 40,000-45,000 would attend.

"There is obviously disappointment. It's not an acceptable crowd, but there are reasons," AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan said.

"I don't think we want to throw the baby out with the bath water here. It was shocking weather, the Swans didn't have great momentum and maybe it could have been marketed better.

"We need to learn from it, but I don't think we need to think doom and gloom and start reviewing strategies on growing the game for 50-100 years based on one poor crowd."

Tasmanian officials, whose bid to become the AFL's 18th team has been ignored by the AFL, refused to comment on the Sydney turnout.

"We are ready for any opportunity that comes our way for inclusion in the AFL competition," acting Tourism Minister Michelle O'Byrne said.

Melbourne Arab wrote:

QUOTE:
From today's Herald Sun:

On Saturday night the Swans attracted a peak TV audience of just 232,000 viewers in Sydney, averaging 185,000.

Meanwhile, in Melbourne, Sydney v North was the third highest rating programme for the entire week (594,000 viewers). One of the 2 which rated higher was the Hawthorn - Western Bulldogs game.

I wonder how many of those TV viewers have ever actually watched an AFL game all the way through...?

AFL is a sport that suffers badly at the hands of television, with an advert after every goal, and an interminably long half time break. I've watched very, very few games right through from opening bounce til final siren- perhaps only a few Grand Finals and one or two Power-Crows showdowns. With other games I'll watch a quarter here and a quarter there, rarely totalling more than 2-3 quarters. Sometimes raking leaves in the garden is more entertaining than watching the same adverts over and over again...