Collingwood 2014 Most Popular Footy Club

THE ROAR

Collingwood is the most popular football club in Australia for 2014 based on data for the calendar year.
The survey of attendances and Fox ratings assesses all the professional Australian football clubs playing in the top tier, across the AFL, NRL, Super Rugby and A-League.
The top-four spots are held by what many consider to be the biggest AFL clubs:

1. Collingwood
2. Essendon
3. Hawthorn
4. Carlton

As a guide, the 14-point gap between Collingwood and Essendon is the equivalent of 14,000 in average attendance or 28,000 in average ratings.
The Brisbane Broncos fly the flag on behalf of the NRL, coming in at fifth, barely two points below Carlton. The Blues’ status has been slipping for a while now, and it would not surprise me to see the Broncos overtake the Blues in the next couple of years.
Another four AFL clubs follow: Adelaide Crows, Geelong, Port Adelaide and Richmond. Port experienced a meteoric rise this year, being the first full season of the revamped Adelaide Oval, averaging attendances of nearly 44,500.
South Sydney brings up the top 10, falling just a whisker short of Richmond. The Rabbitohs had attendances of almost 20,000, and the highest average ratings of any NRL club (its average of 245k was only 2k short of Collingwood’s).
Having consolidated is place, not only in the NRL, but as a premier football club in Australia, one can see Souths’ position only getting stronger.
Outside of the top 10, the Storm’s finish in 12th spot is of interest, below the Swans and above Manly.
All 34 AFL and NRL clubs take up the top 34 positions, with four AFL clubs taking up 31st to 34th: St Kilda, the Suns, the Lions and GWS, all four finishing below the Raiders.
The Suns have managed to finish above the Lions in only their fourth season, with the Lions experiencing the lowest average ratings of any AFL club (even lower than GWS).
Also of interest in the lower reaches of the top 34 is the New Zealand Warriors finishing above the Western Bulldogs, and within striking distance of the Demons, having experienced very healthy ratings of 175k.
After the top 34, there is a bit of a gap to the other clubs, all of them from Super Rugby and the A-League.
Of these, the Reds and Waratahs are the most popular, with the Waratahs having a 10 point gap on the most popular A-League team: Sydney FC (closely followed by the Victory).
Of interest is the very low rating of the Rebels, with Heart/City (treated as the one club for 2014), the Glory, the Jets, the Mariners and the Phoenix bringing up the rear with average ratings of 62k or less (the Rebels managed to reach 70k).

The full list for 2014:

1. Collingwood 171.7 2. Essendon 157.6 3. Hawthorn 153.1 4. Carlton 151.3 5. Brisbane Broncos 149.2 6. Adelaide Crows 145.6 7. Geelong 143.9 8. Port Adelaide 143.6 9. Richmond 142.7 10. Souths 142.5 11. Sydney Swans 140.1 12. Melbourne Storm 135.6 13. Manly 131.8 14. Nth Queensland 131.0 15. Wests 129.3 16. Parramatta 127.9 17. Fremantle 127.8 18. Canterbury 127.5 19. St George 126.0 20. West Coast 124.4 21. Sydney Roosters 119.0 22. North Melbourne 116.5 23. Gold Coast Titans 115.2 24. Penrith 115.0 25. Newcastle Knights 113.0

26. Cronulla 112.4 27. Melbourne Demons 107.0 28. New Zealand 105.1 29. Western Bulldogs 104.0 30. Canberra Raiders 102.0 31. St Kilda 98.7 32. Gold Coast Suns 98.5 33. Brisbane Lions 96.3 34. GWS Giants 88.9 35. Queensland Reds 71.8 36. NSW Waratahs 70.0 37. Sydney FC 60.3 38. Melbourne Victory 58.6 39. ACT Brumbies 53.5 40. Western Force 49.6 41. West Sydney Wanderers 48.8 42. Adelaide United 47.5 43. Brisbane Roar 47.5 44. Melbourne Rebels 46.4 45. Melbourne Heart/City 41.8 46. Perth Glory 38.1 47. Newcastle Jets 38.1 48. Central Coast Mariners 35.4 49. Wellington Phoenix 31.2