The Gold Coast has been the graveyard of many sports teams, and many, including no small amount of AFL supporters, expect the Suns to join them at some point in the future. The data, might give supporters, the club and the League some cause for comfort.
Please note its not possible to localise TV ratings data to the Gold Coast area, and under VOZ we dont get area specific data any more.
Memberships
Membership data shows steady increases, but the definition of member has changed in this time as well. 3 game memberships began to be pushed in 2011, with more reduced access options coming online. From 2016, the AFL definition was “minimum $50 spend and actual contact details per member”, but this changed in 2020 to be simply “must have contact details” with no minimum spend required.
On its own Membership is not a reliable indicator anymore.
Attendance
The Suns have yet to beat the 18,167 average attendance of their first AFL season at Carrara. However they have dipped considerably below that in the years following that first season, but are now experiencing something of an upswing coming out of the COVID years of 2020-21, with 2024 being the second best attended season at Carrara ever.
Revenue
Fortunately the Suns have used the same definitions for Revenue in their Annual Reports since they started. This is regarded by many as the true indicator of support, and as the graph shows, the last two years have been the highest yet.
Table data
References
- Attendance Data: AFLtables – Carrara
- Membership Data: AFL Annual Reports 2011-2024
- Revenue Data: GCFC Limited Annual Reports 2012-2024
