Why Collingwood and Hawthorn no longer have their games fully ticketed

Collingwood members who haven’t made a reservation for Saturday’s blockbuster game against Carlton can simply turn up and get in if they don’t care where they sit, as a result of a major change in the club’s ticket policy this year.

The Magpies, the competition’s biggest draw club again this year (home and away average 60,773), have not played a single “fully ticketed” home game this season, including the King’s Birthday Big Freeze match against Melbourne and Scott Pendlebury’s match record game against the West Coast, which drew more than 90,000.

Collingwood faithful in full voice.Getty Images

Collingwood has decided to scrap the practice of full ticketing for big games ahead of this season, recognizing that members can avoid booking fees and seat charges and that the previous method of ticketing, compulsory seat reservations for selected larger games, could deter fans from attending.

The Magpies have not yet booked full tickets for Friday night’s game against North Melbourne, which attracted more than 48,000 people at Marvel Stadium, and will maintain their policy of allowing members without reserved seats to “walk in” to the match for Saturday’s clash with the resurgent Blues, which is expected to attract more than 80,000 people.

The Magpies say the change in ticket policy will save members (who do not purchase reserved seats) between $8 and $52 for each game that is no longer fully ticketed; If they had previously set three games per season to full tickets, the member would have saved between $24 and $156.

Collingwood’s shift towards full-ticket games has been part of the AFL trend; Hawthorn have also not played a single sold-out game this year – including a game against Geelong on Easter Monday, which had a perfect attendance of 84,712.

Carlton, the team with the second-highest average attendance this year, have only ticketed two full games: the annual first-round clash against Richmond (74,313) and Thursday night’s draw at home to Collingwood in the sixth round with 78,058. This match will be remembered as one in which midfielder Elijah Hollands suffered a mental health issue. The Blues have not received full tickets to any games at Marvel Stadium.

Like Essendon, Richmond were feeling the impact of their struggles at the turnstiles as they were stuck in the bottom two and had reversed their decision to buy full tickets for the Dreamtime game against the Bombers – a match attended by an impressive crowd of 78,815, an attendance that would have been aided by fans not facing a mandatory reserved seat/booking fee.

Essendon had two fully ticketed home games: Anzac Day, which was almost always the highest home and away game in any season (92,231), and their first-round clash with Hawthorn turned out “only” 71,384 for a match expected to exceed 80,000.

Despite the struggles of Essendon and Richmond, the MCG has had a slightly higher attendance so far this year (59,207) compared to last year (58,187), excluding finals. Melbourne, one of the MCG tenants, improved their performance significantly and saw an increase in crowds.

Many members purchase reserved seating packages throughout the season.

Collingwood chief executive Craig Kelly said Anzac Day, which the Magpies have shared with the Bombers since 1995, was an exception to their new policy of no longer selling full tickets to games this year.

Kelly said Collingwood’s management team had reviewed members’ performance rates at past fully ticketed games and concluded members would be better served by not charging full tickets to games as they had in the past “except for Anzac Day”.

The Collingwood CEO said members had the “opportunity to upgrade” by purchasing a pre-reserved seat if they wanted and encouraged fans to attend the Carlton game.

“But if they (members) want to participate… then they should (know) to come.”

But Kelly said the AFL industry was not up to global standards on ticketing because the Magpies were trying to implement a system that would allow members to resell tickets when they were away or unable to attend.

“Our industry processes and systems are not up to world standards and we need to continue to invest in our stadiums and structures,” he said.

Kelly gave the example of four members who had seats and went out of town or out of town, found it easy to sell those tickets through a technological system, and get some return for both themselves and the club. “That’s what we’re trying to do. It’s always manual, labor-intensive and difficult.”

The Magpies aim to give fans $25 off next year’s membership for tickets sold.

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