The AFL today announced the all-time AFLW Club membership record has been surpassed, to reach 21,319 members.
The new record surpasses the previous figure set last season of 20,849 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 Crows, Brisbane Lions, Carlton, Collingwood, Fremantle, Geelong Cats, Gold Coast SUNS and Western Bulldogs.
The record number of AFLW Club memberships comes following another week of strong crowd attendance numbers, with four sold-out 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 SUNS) 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 female football at home, with a total average audience of over 1.7million Australians tuning into the broadcasts for Rounds One and Two of the NAB AFLW competition – an increase of nine per cent 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 per cent increase compared to Round Two in 2020), marking the largest ever Friday night audience recorded outside season openers.
AFL Head of Women’s Football Nicole Livingstone expressed her thanks to clubs, players and football fans across the country for their continued support of women’s football.
“I want to acknowledge the passion and dedication of everyone in the football community in supporting the 2021 NAB AFL Women’s Competition,” Ms Livingstone said.
“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.”
The GIANTS take on the Suns at Blacktown International Sportspark on Saturday at 3:10pm. Tickets are $10 for an adult and concession and kids under 18 free - however they must register for a ticket. Tickets go on sale to GIANTS AFLW members from 10am on Friday and to the general public at 11am on Friday via Ticketmaster.
There’s still time to became an AFLW member and receive free entry.
