Our Crowds This Year

[The Pie Man]

North Melbourne have hosted all of Hawthorn, Richmond, Geelong and Essendon so far this year. The only big fish they've missed is Collingwood. They've also only hosted three interstate teams whilst we've hosted ALL OF THEM!

Point is, from a commercial viewpoint, our draw has been an absolute stinker this year. But don't despair, because next year we'll be demanding some big fish at good timeslots. Reason being we're now one of the best teams in the country and certainly the most exciting. Now to get on with winning some finals!

Now

* If we finish top 6, we'll have to play Freo, West Coast & Sydney twice next year, so we'll have to host all three of them at some stage. Hawthorn & Richmond twice next year too - you'd imagine the AFL would figure these two as Friday night potentials.

Hopefully we get the opening round v Collingwood @ the G as well.

* That's how it works isn't it?

[Axe Man]

* If we finish top 6, we'll have to play Freo, West Coast & Sydney twice next year, so we'll have to host all three of them at some stage. Hawthorn & Richmond twice next year too - you'd imagine the AFL would figure these two as Friday night potentials.

Hopefully we get the opening round v Collingwood @ the G as well.

* That's how it works isn't it?

No, that's not quite right, here's the explanation from the AFL:

The final ladder will be grouped into the top six teams, middle six teams and bottom six teams with regard to better managing the equality of double match-ups for all clubs the following season.

· Sides ranked 1-6 on the ladder will have a minimum of two double-meetings with other top six sides and a maximum of three meetings with sides ranked 1-6. They will have a minimum of one double-meeting of sides ranked 7-12 and a maximum of two double-meetings of sides in the 7-12 range. They will have either no double meetings or a maximum of one double meeting with a side ranked 13-18.

· Sides ranked 7-12 on the ladder will have a minimum of one double-meeting with sides ranked 1-6 on the ladder and a maximum of two meetings with sides ranked 1-6. They will have a minimum of two double-meetings of sides ranked 7-12 and a maximum of three double-meetings of sides 7-12. They will have a minimum of one double-meeting of sides ranked 13-18 and a maximum of two double-meetings of sides ranked 13-18.

· Sides ranked 13-18 on the ladder will have either no double meeting or a maximum of one double meeting with a side ranked 1-6. They will have a minimum of one double-meeting with sides ranked 7-12 and a maximum of two double-meetings of sides ranked 7-12. They will have a minimum of two double-meetings of sides ranked 13-18 and a maximum of three double-meetings of sides 13-18.

So if we finish top 6 we will play either 2 or 3 other top 6 teams twice, 1 or 2 7-12 teams twice and 0 or 1 bottom 6 team twice (for a total of 5 teams played twice).

[Hotdog60]

We'll our first game next year will be a home Saturday game at 2.00pm to unfurl the flag.

[boydogs]

Thanks for that Axe Man

[bornadog]

Hawthorn supposedly have over 70,000 members yet when you compare their final last night against the same opponent as ours there was only 10,000 extra fans there.

I think there are lots of Bulldogs fans that have never signed up a membership but when we play finals they come out.

I can't wait till the day we are in the Granny and win and then watch the membership numbers the following year.

I am also predicting our game day numbers will increase next year as long as we continue improving.

[LostDoggy]

Hawthorn supposedly have over 70,000 members yet when you compare their final last night against the same opponent as ours there was only 10,000 extra fans there.

I think there are lots of Bulldogs fans that have never signed up a membership but when we play finals they come out.

I can't wait till the day we are in the Granny and win and then watch the membership numbers the following year.

I am also predicting our game day numbers will increase next year as long as we continue improving.

I'm pretty confident we'll get a sharp spike next year. As well as attracting more fans organically, we'll surely get a more fan friendly draw, more Fri/Sat nights, 1 or 2 big drawing MCG matches etc. In our best ever years, we averaged 35k per match, I reckon we can push towards that figure.