THE high standard of this year’s West Australian Football League competition has paved the way for record-breaking attendances, with spectator numbers up 34 per cent on the same time last season.
A big round of action over the Easter weekend saw more than 2000 people attend each WAFL game and almost 4000 front up to the Perth versus Swan Districts clash at EFTel Oval, seeing this year’s total attendance figure climb to 37,580 – the largest after four rounds since 37,759 in 1995.
The crowd of 3922 at EFTel Oval on Easter Monday was the largest at one game so far this season and the most since Round 12 last year when 4178 attended a grand final preview between Swan Districts and Subiaco at Medibank Stadium.
The close results over Easter also indicated that attendance figures will continue to grow this weekend with highly anticipated contests between Claremont and South Fremantle in Albany, East Fremantle and West Perth at East Fremantle Oval, and East Perth and Perth at Medibank Stadium.
Sunday will see Peel Thunder host Subiaco at Rushton Park at the new time of 3.15pm, which has been rescheduled from 6pm to give more spectators the opportunity to attend.
There will also be a special highlight for the East Perth and Perth colts teams this weekend, with the two sides scheduled to play at Subiaco Oval on Sunday morning as a curtain-raiser to the West Coast Eagles and Western Bulldogs AFL game. The curtain-raiser is scheduled to bounce down at 11.30am.
WAFL operations manager Clint Roberts said it was exciting to see the competition receiving extra attention this season and hoped attendance numbers would continue to grow as the year progressed.
“We’ve had a sensational start to the season both on and off the field with some very close results and big crowds,” Mr Roberts said.
“More than 10,000 people went to a WAFL game over Easter, which was 37 percent more than 2008, taking our season total to almost 10,000 more than the same time last year.
“I think we can put it down to the quality of the competition and how unpredictable and exciting the close results have been, as well as the great work the clubs have been doing to promote their fixtures,” he said.