The Sydney Swans have become one of the hottest tickets in town, reaching their highest home crowd numbers ever at the SCG and boasting an average of 39,952 fans going through the turnstiles. The Swans have five home games left in the regular AFL season and chairman Andrew Pridham has not seen such strong demand for tickets from fans in more than 20 years. “Every week I’d probably get requests for 20 to 30 tickets.
I’ve been in the club for 22 years ...
it’s the most (requests) I’ve ever seen,” Pridham said. “It’s certainly amazing, the fact that we’re having sellouts week after week, averaging 40,000 people, it’s just mind-blowing. “To get to an average of 40,000 (fans) in any sporting code in Sydney, that’s big, big numbers and I think it reflects that we’re attracting a whole new audience to the footy.
“It’s been drawn from a whole wide range of demographics, both, historically, AFL/Swans fans and new fans coming from rugby league. I think there’s a lot of people disenchanted with union coming along.” “I think it’s a whole lot of factors, but, you can also never underestimate, and I’m always a realist, never underestimate the attractiveness of success.
The Sydney Swans cheer squad (including Liz Whiffin centre holding the flag) gather ahead of Saturday’s game against Fremantle Credit: Louie Douvis The Swans’ attendance numbers have been significantly boosted by 13 wins and only one loss, against Richmond in round three at the MCG.
