{"id":370971,"date":"2024-02-27T03:43:21","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T04:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=370971"},"modified":"2024-02-27T06:03:12","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T06:03:12","slug":"more-fans-than-collingwood-swans-boss-pokes-pies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=370971","title":{"rendered":"'More fans than Collingwood': Swans boss pokes Pies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swans<\/a> president Andrew Pridham believes Sydney has more fans than Collingwood<\/a> as the Harbour city prepares to capitalise on the AFL<\/a>'s new 'opening round' coming to town<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last week, \ufeffPridham claimed the Sydney Swans would eventually become the most popular sporting club in the country.<\/p>\n

"I think it's inevitable that the Sydney Swans will be the biggest sporting club in Australia for a whole lot of reasons," he said.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Broncos legend serves Walsh brutal reality check<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Red Bull facing $365 million bombshell amid Horner probe<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Same-old Sharks at risk of losing young star<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sydney<\/p>\n

"All the data suggests that's what is going to happen, and you can see it happening."<\/p>\n

Pressed further about this by 3AW's \ufeffWide World of Sports<\/em><\/a> host Sam McClure\ufeff, \ufeffPridham reiterated that he was talking about the Swans' growth trajectory.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffIt's difficult to put timelines on things but I genuinely believe it," he said.<\/p>\n

"It depends on how you want to measure it, obviously. There are plenty of ways to measure these things but the Sydney Swans have two million fans. That's more than any other club in Australia \u2014 there's no NRL club, there's no AFL club with that many fans.<\/p>\n

"We have got more fans than Collingwood. Collingwood \ufeffonly has 1.3 million and we have two million fans."<\/p>\n

Last year, \ufeffCollingwood led the league's 2023 membership tallies with a record-breaking 106,470 members.<\/p>\n

While Sydney experienced double-digit growth in membership numbers year on year, the club still lagged in 10th place with 65,332 members.<\/p>\n

Asked what measurement Pridham was referring to which held the Swans as the most supported club in the league, Pridham said he was drawing on data from an online polling organisation called YouGov that provides the figures to the AFL annually.<\/p>\n

\"Sydney<\/p>\n

"You can believe it or not but the simple facts are whether it's 10 years or 20 years, Sydney is a third of the population and we have two [AFL] clubs. We also have a lot of support in Melbourne [because of the connection to South Melbourne]," he said,<\/p>\n

"I think it is inevitable but I'm not brave enough to predict when…\ufeff And I don't underestimate Collingwood."<\/p>\n

This year's 'opening round' features two matches in Sydney, with a rematch of the 2023 preliminary final between GWS and Collingwood at Giants Stadium and a grudge match between Sydney and Melbourne at the SCG with Swans recruit Brodie Grundy set to face the side that traded him after just 12 months<\/a>.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"\ufeffThe excitement around having the 'opening round' in Sydney is something that's real," Pridham said.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI'm not sure what's happening with the GWS-Collingwood match but I presume it will be a sell out and I'm pretty confident that our game against Melbourne at the SCG will sell out.<\/p>\n

"I've been involved [with Sydney] \ufefffor a long time and I can't remember a sell out in round one. Normally with the first game we play in Sydney, many of the fans don't even know the season has started."<\/p>\n

As a result, Pridham would like to see 'opening round' matches in Sydney become a permanent fixture on the AFL's schedule.<\/p>\n

"I think it's very important to have something throughout the season that's unique and special to a club," he said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/AFL\/status\/1724525577464619470?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"So, I think if we could lock this in, it's certainly a major promotional source for the game [in Sydney]."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Speaking to issues plaguing the \ufeffgrowth of AFL in New South Wales, Pridham highlighted the difference between the two states when it comes to attracting eyeballs.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffWe're just the inverse of what happens in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth," he said.<\/p>\n

"The reality is, AFL \u2014 in Melbourne in particular but also in those other markets \u2014 it promotes itself. It's covered extensively in the media.<\/p>\n

"In Sydney, we're very much, in terms of the publicity, a long way behind the NRL and that's been a real challenge for us.<\/p>\n

"The AFL has made some really good strides \ufeffin terms of investment in promotion and I think having the opening round in Sydney \u2014 having Melbourne come play us and Collingwood play GWS \u2014 is a really important initiative."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swans president Andrew Pridham believes Sydney has more fans than Collingwood as the Harbour city prepares to capitalise on the AFL's new 'opening round' coming […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":370973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=370971"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":370976,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370971\/revisions\/370976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/370973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=370971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=370971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=370971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}