AFL revels in record highs

The AFL today announced a new all-time record level of club memberships as the highlight of its mid-year report for the 2006 season.

More than 516,363 members have joined AFL clubs or joined the AFL as club support members in 2006 - a 1.95 per jump on the previous all-time record high of 506,509 set in 2005.

"It is amazing when you think that one in every 39 Australians is a paid-up and proud member of an AFL club," AFL Chief Executive Officer Andrew Demetriou said.

Mr Demetriou said at the half-way mark of the AFL season, indicators showed that participation and Auskick registrations were also heading for record levels.

He praised football supporters for their ongoing support and passion for the game.

"This has been an incredibly busy sporting year with the Commonwealth Games and the World Cup yet the connection between the spectators, the community and the game of football remains very strong," Mr Demetriou said.

Other features of the mid-year review are:

* Adelaide has become the first AFL club to crack the 50,000 member mark.

* Participation in football (measured by involvement for at least six weeks) is up and is expected to grow by five per cent in 2006 to a total of 566,755 participants in 2006 after a similar rise in 2005.

* Auskick registrations are on the rise in all states and territories with a forecast increase of at least six per cent in 2006 to a total of 147,244.

* Attendances to the end of round 12 are the second best year on record, behind only the all-time record year in 2005 with more than 3.419 million people going through the turnstiles over the first 12 rounds.

* Cumulative average national television audience for each round of eight matches is 4.15 million metro viewers and 1.25 million regional viewers.

* Collingwood has experienced a 40 per cent increase in crowds in 2006 and has the highest average attendance of the 16 clubs.

"Attendances have been strong considering we didn't have the MCG for the first four rounds and we have played a number of games at Carrara, Marrara and Launceston," Mr Demetriou said.

"Last week we also had our second best home and away crowd ever in Sydney with 60,000 people heading out to Telstra Stadium for the Swans-Collingwood clash."

"The momentum from the Swans' premiership victory has also seen Sydney recording record membership and resulting in an enormous boost to television ratings in Sydney which is great for the game."