Fundamental problems in the GWS Giants fanbase?
I love demographics. I try to get demographic information when I can. There aren’t many official numbers regarding the exact percentage of female fans for the AFL but the general rule of thumb appears to be that the AFL has always had more female fans than the NRL. The AFL numbers tend to estimate the female fanbase as being 33 to 50% of all fans for the AFL. The NRL numbers tend to suggest the female fanbase tends to top out at around 10%.
The difference between the traditional AFL fan composition and the NRL fan composition should work in the AFL’s favor as it attempts to put another team into the Sydney area: They aren’t competing for the same fans (women) and the AFL has a much larger pool to draw from (the other half of the population).
That said, this doesn’t appear to be the case. Facebook’s numbers suggest that only 18.8% of the GWS Giants fans are women. Let’s compare this to the Sydney Swans, where Facebook says the percentage of female fans is 38.2%. That 20% is a huge difference. GWS Giant’s female participation is much closer to the NRL than the AFL numbers. This suggests to me that something is fundamentally off here. Heck, it suggests that rather than catering to a new market of sport fans that weren’t interested in the NRL that the GWS Giants are actually competing with the NRL for market share. If that’s the case, it is a recipe for disaster for the Giants.
(As an aside, the historical observational NRL numbers may not hold up to the situation online. The Wests Tigers community on Facebook? It is 40.5% female.)
There is another thing that feels completely off to me and suggests a fundamental problem with how the GWS Giants are marketing themselves: Lesbians are under represented. On the whole for both the AFL and NRL, female lesbian fans tend to outnumber their gay male counterparts. GWS Giants? Not the case. Lesbian fans make up 0.5% of all their fans and gay men make up 3.8%. To offer perspective on Facebook, the Sydney Swans have lesbians make up 3.3% of all fans (where orientation is known) and gay men make up 1.2% of all fans. Again, this suggests some fundamental problem in marketing. I just don’t have the historical understanding to explain why.
There was a big push to promote Team GWS in Canberra. People talked about how the team would basically be a home side AFL club for Canberra. It looks like part of this plan went pear shaped. Canberrans make up only 8.5% of the total GWS Giants fans on Facebook. If an eye is turned towards Twitter instead? GWS is not even in the top ten for most popular teams that Canberrans follow. Victorian Bushrangers, ACT Brumbies, Cadel Evans, New South Wales Blues, St. George Illawarra Dragons, Canberra Raiders, Wests Tigers, Wallabies, Parramatta Eels, Collingwood Magpies, Stephanie Rice, Cycling Australia, Melbourne Demons, Sydney Swans, Cricket Australia, South Sydney Rabbitohs, Queensland Reds, Gold Coast Titans, Socceroos, Eamon Sullivan, Gold Coast Football Club, Western Force, Penrith Panthers, New South Wales Waratahs, Canberra Cycling Club, Geelong Cats are all more popular. To give this perspective, the ACT Brumbies have 238 Canberran followers compared to GWS Giants’s 60. The Giants are smashed between Geelong at 66 and Hawthorn at 59. The team doesn’t appear to have generated much real interest in Canberra. This should be a concern if GWS is looking get into the merchandise market as they don’t appear to have a position anywhere close to the major teams based in the city. This is another fundamental problem that needs to be addressed if the club is really serious about Canberra.
