Does Northern Tasmania Support AFL More Then The South?

A group of people who are against the proposed Macquarie Point Stadium in Hobart claim that York Park in Launceston should be home to the team because more people in the north attend and support AFL then in the south.

They make this claim by comparing crowd numbers for Hawthorn games in Launceston and North Melbourne games in Hobart.

There are many factors of why Launceston AFL games draw bigger crowds then Hobart games which include.

• Hawthorn is a more widely supported team and has a bigger membership base
• The clubs that are picked to play each year
• York Park in within walking distance of the Launceston CBD and has better parking options.

But if we ignore these factors and compare like for like we can have a look at the North Melbourne AFLW games that have been played in Launceston and Hobart since 2019.

If Northern Tasmania supports AFL more then the south then surely they would get bigger crowds for AFLW games then the south right? Well here is the data.

As you can see every year Hobart has drawn a bigger crowd with games played at North Hobart Oval and Bellerive Oval vs the games played at York Park.

The business plan for the Tasmanian AFL team was made with the team being based in the South with some games played in Launceston and it would not work if the Tasmanian Government changed that plan.