‘It’s the biggest weekend of the year for us’: AFL’s Gather Round in Adelaide is only going to get bigger
On Thursday night, over 45,000 AFL fans packed Adelaide Oval to watch their team lose – but there was an air of celebration nonetheless.
“It’s the biggest weekend of the year for us,” Michael Neill, general manager of Fox Footy tells Mumbrella of Gather Round, in which an entire AFL round is played out in Adelaide over a four-day blitz on the capital city.
“It takes months and months of planning. We build stages out on the hill here,” he says pointing across the action. “We do AFL 360 from one of the function rooms here at Adelaide Oval, for a couple of days. Then we’ve got other events at new venues like Norwood Oval, and Mount Barker. Once a year they get built and ready to go, so we’ve got to come up and put our stuff in and make sure that all works.
“It’s not like the MCG where you just turn up and do the same thing every week. This is all brand new, every year.”
This is the second of five Gather Rounds planned for Adelaide. The success of last year’s inaugural event hangs over their heads, offering a healthy dose of pressure to prove it wasn’t just a one-off.
“This year it’s got to be better,” agrees Neill, “so we’ve got to go even harder and find new ways to make it exciting.”
Part of that is nailing the balance between the carnival atmosphere surrounding the games, and the actual sporting events themselves.
“The takeaway last year was the fan engagement was a really big piece,” he explains. “We want to showcase more of the fans in and around the games. There’s some real opportunities like at Mount Barker. On Saturday, we’re going to have a drone up showing the whole area of Adelaide Hills and really showcasing what that is.
“We work really closely with the South Australian Government and the AFL to help them promote what they’re trying to achieve here.
“But as well, keep a really good focus on the footy and make it as exciting and fascinating as possible.”
Rebecca McCloy is executive director of sport at the Foxtel Group. She is looking at the stats, and likes what she sees. “The growth in 2023 was the biggest rating season we’ve ever had in our history, and for the start of 2024, we’ve already got double-digit growth again on our streaming,” she says, “and that’s consistent with the sell-out audiences, and the growth of the AFL. ”
So, where to from here? There’s a new rights deal kicking in from next year, which allows Fox Footy to have their own commentary teams for each game. The focus has already shifted to 2025 for Foxtel Group, despite the mammoth weekend stretched out in front of them.
“I think the most exciting thing about 2025 is we’ve been waiting such a long time to be able to commentate all of our matches,” McCloy explains, “and Mick [Neill] and the team are so heavy in planning, that when we get to provide our subscribers the unique commentary on every match, innovative graphics, take control of that experience, and give consumers more choice, that is enormous for us.
“And then the Super Saturday franchise is quite game-changing next year, where we’ve got those eight exclusive Saturdays to start off the season.
“It’s going to allow us to introduce our product to a lot of subscribers that have never really experienced this before. It’s going to help grow the game, and it’s going to help grow our platform as well.”
Neill is equally enthused. “It’s going to be great: giving viewers a choice, you know?
“They’ve never had it before with broadcasters. They’ve always just had to take what they’re given. Now, we can give them a choice on these big games – and that’s fantastic.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Deputy Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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