AFLW reaches membership record in fifth season

February 12, 2021

THE AFL has revealed that its AFL Women's competition has broken its club membership record, reaching 21,319 members.

The new figure surpasses last year’s high and marks the fifth straight year an AFLW club membership milestone has been achieved since the competition was established in 2017.

Eight AFL clubs have also achieved record AFLW club membership in season 2021, including Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton, Collingwood, Fremantle, Geelong, Gold Coast and Western Bulldogs.

The record number of AFLW club memberships comes following another week of strong crowd attendance numbers, with four capacity games in round two (Western Bulldogs v Carlton, Collingwood v Geelong Cats, North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos v St Kilda and Brisbane Lions v Gold Coast) taking the total number of sold-out matches to seven across the first two-weeks of the 2021 NAB AFLW competition.

Fans have also shown their support for AFLW at home, with a total average audience of over 1.7 million Australians tuning into the broadcasts for rounds one and two of the competition - an increase of 9% compared to the same time in 2020.

The opening Pride Round match between the Western Bulldogs and Carlton last Friday night recorded an average audience of 265,000 viewers (a 12% increase compared to round two in 2020), marking the largest ever Friday night audience recorded outside season openers.

Welcoming the growing interest in the competition, AFL Head of Women's Football, Nicole Livingstone stated "I want to acknowledge the passion and dedication of everyone in the football community in supporting the 2021 NAB AFL Women's Competition

"It's fantastic to see football fans from across the country show their support for the NAB AFLW competition and get behind their teams, whether that be through club membership, attendance at games or tuning in at home, thanks to the continued support of our broadcast partners, Seven, Fox and Telstra.

"The fifth season of AFLW has already experienced a strong start, with high ratings, high scores, sold-out matches and now record AFLW club membership numbers, so we're excited to see this energy for female football continue to grow throughout the rest of the 2021 season."

Image: West Coast Eagles players celebrate a win during the last AFLW season. Credit: AFL Media.

2nd February 2021 - Carlton FC announces elimination of debt and new membership record

28th January 2021 - Ticket Sale Success and ‘This Is Us’ Campaign marks AFLW 2021 Season launch

27th January 2021 - Work commences on new elite women’s facilities at Melbourne’s Ikon Park

19th January 2021 - Trans player Hannah Mouncey plans legal action against AFL

24th September 2020 - Aquatic, fitness and sport facilities headed for membership crisis

29th October 2019 - AFL reaches agreement with AFLW players for 2020 season

1st April 2019 - Grand Final sees AFLW smash domestic attendance record

25th March 2019 - Research suggests AFLW inspires more women to participate in football codes

20th March 2019 - Online trolling of AFLW player Tayla Harris’ in-game image compared to sexual abuse

8th February 2019 - Sport Australia’s Kate Palmer says now is the time to stop talking about ‘women’s sport’

1st February 2019 - Lions AFLW team base to be backed by $15 million in Federal Government funding

21st December 2018 - AFLW to expand to 14 teams in 2020 but warned ‘hard work’ needed for successful expansion

18th October 2018 - Women Sport Australia announce ‘world beating’ sportswomen

17th September 2018 - FFA looks to introduce new A-League fan engagement initiatives

27th December 2017 - Microsoft shares sport fan engagement learnings

8th August 2017 - Melbourne Football Club partners with SportsHosts to drive fan engagement

4th February 2015 - Melbourne Cricket Ground to take stadium technology and fan engagement to new levels

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