Australia's Strange Sports Geography: Why are there so many AFL teams in one city?

Why is Australia's sports geography so weird? Why are there so many AFL teams in Victoria with 9 in Melbourne alone? This video explains why by explaining the history of what made this occur.
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#afl #footy #football #aussierules #australia #victoria #melbourne

[@judileeming1589]

1889 Melbourne was the second biggest city in the British Empire after London and was, in the 1880’s, the richest city in the World. Just about every suburb in Melbourne has a cricket/football ground and with over 1,000 suburbs, fans can fill the MCG (90,000+) when two Melbourne teams play each other so, financially, the $$$ generated keep the clubs strong by compensating the players and clubs and Melbourne clubs have financially supported the establishment of new clubs interstate. Interstate clubs may feel slighted with the number of teams they can field, but as the AFL expands, it is exclusively non-Victorian teams that are being established. I would love to see a Darwin team because they love the game so much. Good luck going forward for Tasmania’s first team.

[@shyyou93]

Its absolutely nuts that the AFL has 10 teams from the same metro area and AFL is the fourth highest attended sport in the world (by average attendance)

[@judileeming1589]

@@shyyou93 my memories go back to the early 1950’s and my family of 7 each had a Season Ticket which admitted you to every round, not just the home games. On every game day the trains were jamb packed with men in their weekend suits and hats, women in their warmest winter coats and kids were in their normal clothes. The only thing that denoted who you followed was a scarf and beanie. Every member of my family, grandparents and their siblings, our parents and their siblings and all their children met up at the home ground every week. It was a tradition that brought the entire family together back in the days before television. And when television did arrived it didn’t offer the chance of sitting at home viewing a live game for decades but it put our team heroes on Sunday Sports shows so we were entertained for rest of the weekend.

[@rajivmurkejee7498]

There was little money in Australian sports leagues until fairly recently. Players needed other jobs. Having easy and affordable air transport and a national TV system are important factors for a national league. This has happened fairly recently also.

[@riskydigitsta1794]

Great Video from a newcomer to the AFL fan base living in Canada

[@thatfelladownunder9396]

I’m old enough to have lived through all of that. Fond memories of the SANFL, like the ‘76 Grand final, 60 odd thousand at Footy Park. Before all the poaching started. It was fantastic football. The Vics were better, but not by much. Anyway, great video. Very good and accurate information. Thanks for the memory trip.

[@clabood]

There has been talk about the Giants moving to Canberra. Would be interesting to see what comes of this.

[@zachwright9445]

I wouldn’t mind this. Manuka might need a capacity upgrade for this to happen though as it only has 13,550 compared to Giants Stadium 24,000.

[@clabood]

@@zachwright9445 I think it would be a good idea. The Giants don't have a massive fan base in greater western Sydney plus Canberra is only a 3 hour drive.

[@peterpiper831]

Rugby Union was the most popular sport in Perth up until several of the leading clubs decided to jump ship and play 'Rules around the mid 1880's.

[@OldFossil]

I wish the AFL was more spread out. Hopefully our league can expand to all states and so the league can be more evenly balanced

[@paulkyriakopoulos3444]

Only way to achieve this is relocate teams or maybe merge. But it might happen in another 100 year's. Population is small and the round ball footy code possibly might take over as number 1 sport.

[@zaco21_]

Relocate North to Canberra

[@eddielong8663]

Not entirely necessary. True that Melbourne could do with a few less. But with my club (Bulldogs) being one of the smaller ones, I'm sure they'd be one of the first on the chopping block or eviction list. Reality is that the AFL has learnt to adapt with an overcrowded Melbourne market for this long. Why make drastic changes now? I do believe it could be beneficial for the Roos to move to Canberra. Perth is getting big enough now to take on a third club. Not the same situation with Adelaide. And of course Tasmania needs to be included... and not with a relocated club. I grew up there and can confirm that most Tasmanians would rather just miss out entirely than be insulted with cleaning up the mess of a struggling relocated club. I'm sure Perthities would say the same.

[@zaco21_]

@@eddielong8663 No, North would be the first to relocate. They have the smallest fanbase in Melbourne (No doubt they are a passionate bunch), they’re not the most financially stable club compared to other clubs in the AFL, They are situated inbetween Bulldogs, Essendon and Melbourne Territoru which doesn’t give ‘em much room for their zone, the club hasn’t been successful since the 1990s. They should move to Canberra because It makes sense to have the national animal in the state capital, North use to play games in Canberra before aswell, Canberra needs an AFL team aswell.

[@grantadam7674]

@@eddielong8663 Brisbane and Sydney don't seem as fastidious about taking over former VFL clubs and they have made a reasonable degree of success out of it. No-one calls Sydney, South and Brisbane, Fitzroy anymore. If Tassie want in take what you can get.

[@shmick6079]

Good video. Well explained.

[@danielterreri9557]

Great video. And cmon power woo

[@h.r.hufnstuf4171]

Saddest part for most states, our football was never, ever as good again.. Catastrophe for Australian sports.

[@shaggyirl]

Fun fact when the VFL had only 4 teams (Fitzroy, Carlton, Richmond and Collingwood) in 1916 Fitzroy won both the wooden spoon and the premiership

[@TDB2509]

Pretty simple. Australia doesn't have many cities big enough for an AFL team, Victoria is the biggest footballing state and the AFL came from the expansion of the VFL.

[@paulkyriakopoulos3444]

True and competition.has no relegation or promotion system that would make footy more interesting.

[@eddielong8663]

@Paul Kyriakopoulos If you regard the EPL's situation with the same five or six clubs sharing seemingly 90% of the trophies among them while the rest of the comp battles it out just to remain relevent, as interesting, then you do you. Due to money and reputation, the top-tier clubs these days are full of mostly not even English-born and raised players. That to me IS NOT winning. I don't understand how so many could be proud of supporting clubs who so shamelessly abuse the privilege of such an unregulated system, nor do I get why anyone would get behind a smaller club that has little to no hope of ever winning anything substantial.

[@paulkyriakopoulos3444]

@@eddielong8663 you also must be a Dan fan and obviously a public Service bludger comment.

[@LomuHabana]

@@eddielong8663As a European former soccer enthusiast (still am for my favourite club), 100% true. Why are people supporting smaller clubs? Easy, you stay true to your club regardless of the chance of big success. Especially when the club is from your own town.

[@Gallalad1]

Interesting. I'd love to see a bit about how Aussies view the international rules tournement between the AFL and GAA.

[@cygil1]

I personally love it, but most AFL fans don't take it seriously. International rules matches sell about 25-30,000 tickets in Australia, which is about the same as a poorly attended club game.

[@Somchai007]

Nothing more than a novelty really.

[@jccnpi9131]

could you do a video on union vs leauge in Aus?

[@geohawk7]

Potentially, tbh I don’t know too much about the history of rugby union and league but I might look into it

[@thisislilraskal]

I think a way that all state's local teams couodve been included and might've made it better is if they had like how the NBA has a Western Conference, Eastern Conference etc. All states hold local competition, then the top 2 teams of each state play off in a finals series. We could've seen a Richmond Vs. Glenelg or even a Mandura Vs. Hobart Grand Final.

[@sueveda]

Simple Because it began as the VFL. Victorian Football League. They were all inner Melbourne teams because the outer suburbs didn’t exit at the time of its inception.

[@chriskelly9476]

It's still more spread out than the NRL.

[@LomuHabana]

NRL isn’t really a National competition. Only two Australian teams outside of NSW and QLD, and Canberra/Raiders is geographically entirely surrounded by NSW, so not even sure if you can count that. No representation for the other 3 states. Games (to my knowledge) are rarely played in the rest of Australia only like 1 game per season in Darwin/NT and sometimes a game in Perth or Adelaide. NSW is also more overrepresented in the NRL than Victoria in the AFL. AFL is soon to be represented in every state, and apart from small Tasmania, by at least 2 teams, and games are also played regularly in the ACT ( GWS being a almost a semi ACT club), the NT and Tasmania (by North until the Devils join). Still hope the AFL expansion continues, with maybe another relocation of a Victorian team, because that is killing two birds with one stone. Less Victorian dominance/teams and more representation in the rest of the country. North Melbourne and (to a lesser extend) St. Kilda are the most reasonable candidates.

[@matis9118]

What map is that at 1:53? Never was there a North Australia that encompassed the NT and QLD.

[@giopomerol3952]

Possums Australia is big, not just you know big big but bloody big! Geographically to be spread out is a no brainer. Everything has to have a nucleus and as it happens, Victoria being the prosperous State that it is, is THAT nucleus. Besides, money talks and the richest people in Australia hail from there ( NSW is Nuevo riche it doesn’t have the old money that Victoria has). To draw an analogy it’s a bit like that crass song about “if you make it in NEW YORK you’ll make it anywhere. Historically that’s been the case with AFL/VFL.

[@aorjarsrelaxingvideos6126]

Because of the VFL.

[@stephendraffin5775]

Why did you completely ignore the VFA, the oldest competition in Australia. It is also more comparable to the SANFL and WAFL than the VFL

[@coopdog3838]

AFL Used to be VFL in Victoria so therefore there is more Victorian teams

[@BDub2024]

10 teams in Victoria. Geelong is more or less Melbourne and play home matches in Melbourne.

[@nickatkinson5692]

Just for the sake of accuracy, football in Tasmania started in 1870, SA in 1877, and WA in 1885.

[@LomuHabana]

Aussie rules started way before 1877, the SANFL was founded then yes.

[@BDub2024]

Until the 1980s the cost of air travel was too high and the VFL WAFL and SANFL were not professional league. The players still needed a job outside playing league footy. At the same time, stadium sizes in Melbourne were small. In addition, coloured tv appeared around 1975 and technology made broadcasting of higher quality, thereby encouraging more people to watch football on tv. All this increased TV royalties which then enabled a national competition which has higher costs, including air travel, accommodation, ground infrastructure development and higher player wages to survive.

[@darylwilson1915]

The bottom 6 Melbourne clubs are now heavily subsidised by taxing the wa and sa clubs (and the Tasmanian government).

[@lennytheleopard]

"Why are there so many AFL teams in one city?" That's an easy one. It's the best state.

[@BDub2024]

They're trying to maintain a powerbase of clubs in Victoria. 10/18 clubs are Victoria. Soon it will be 10/19 with Tasmania joining. Once there are more non Victorian clubs than Victorian clubs then you'll start seeing a fairer system for clubs not based in Victoria.

[@lachmack8967]

North and St Kilda should merge - would become a 100k membership base club straight away. As they are they don't grow

[@Adam-XL]

it doesnt work like that mate

[@lachmack8967]

@Adam-XL why not? It's maths? OK so they lose 10k members each and they are still strong. As it stands, these teams aren't growing their supporter bases.

[@grantadam7674]

Because it's the vfl with a few teams invited. Making sure the vfl teams travel less and win more. Away games, what a load of bullshit

[@adrianbarichievich7756]

this is icorrect

[@fredsmith2277]

nsw banned aussie rules from using any of there grounds, thereby halting expansion !!!

[@stupendous1068]

The Victorian Football Association was created in the 1870s. Not 1800s.

[@paulkyriakopoulos3444]

And the vfa was a better league that had promotion and relegation.

[@Adam-XL]

8:28 This is totally false, there has NEVER been ANY formal relocation proposals for North moving to Tasmania or Canberra, in fact the closest thing to it was a proposal in 2010 from the AFL to take over the Hawks games in Launceston and North agreed to it but Jeff Kennett put the kibosh on it. You make good videos but if you want to start a meaningful conversation about expansion/the future of the game, conflating what ill-informed trolling dickwits on social media say with documented history doesnt do your cause much good.

[@adrianbarichievich7756]

you dont understand the correct history of our game

[@PetraKann]

Melbourne has always been the Financial hub of Australia. If you look at the first Barton Federal Ministry formed in 1901, Melbourne was the chosen city. The gold fields in the Ballarat, where the largest gold nuggets in the world were discovered, provided wealth for Australia. In fact the debt that England incurred after WW1 was paid off with Gold shipped from Melbourne. Melbourne is also where the main high level corruption occurs. Terra Nullius, the illegal declaration that Australia was empty of humans in 1788, was a scam drafted by Lawyers in Melbourne who then traveled to an isolated island off the coast of Eastern Australia to prove that there were not people here before the British Navy invaded, and made the declaration on that island. Melbourne is everything Australia is today. The Commonwealth has about 75 Treaties in force with indigenous people and Australia is the only commonwealth member to lack a Treaty. That is due to Melbournian skulduggery and thievery. So why be surprised that there are more sporting clubs in Melbourne? Do you know where Australian Rules originated from?

[@lunch2102]

You've clearly over thought your reason, the league originated in Melbourne and expanded to include other states, it's that simple.

[@PetraKann]

@@lunch2102 That is the problem in Australia Mr Lunch. People look at the ball and dont want to see much else. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJrYdXqmh7mepJo

[@Aussiefan12345678]

​​@@lunch2102 melbourne had the highest population (of aussie rules states), therefore sold more tickets and made more money and could offer better contracts to interstate players. If you were good in the sanfl, someone from vic would come waving a cheque.

[@lunch2102]

@@Aussiefan12345678 because the sanfl was shit, just like the wafl, the vfl was the superior league in both talent and management. But what does any of that have to do with you "corruption" theory? Sounds like jealousy to me, Let me guess, you're a Port Adelaide fan.

[@thebob3712]

Melbourne is the financial hub of Australia? yeah you might want to look at how much the West props up the Eastern states with royalties from the mining sector, that is the reason why you are trying to take away our share of the GST, btw which is only 70 cents in the $.