Archive for category blogger

Blogger and Australian/Kiwi women’s sport

Posted by Laura on Friday, 26 November, 2010

blogger is a popular blog hosting site. Many popular Australian and sports blogs use it. In the United States, the site also has high press visibility because of its inclusion in Google’s blog search and the number or journalists using Google Alerts, which pulls its notifications from Google’s blog search. The reliance on blogspot has been decreasing as people have eased away from blogging or switched to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. The Australian sport population is smaller than that of Bebo but larger than that of 43 Things. For example, Collingwood had 68 fans on bebo and 7 people with Collingwood related goals on 43 Things. Blogger has 22.

Beyond the press reliance on using blogger as a source, another thing that makes a blogger audience desirable is that the format encourages people to write more. That additional content should encourage people to be more thoughtful and create dialogs around the team that they are blogging about. Theoretically, the longer and more prolonged the engagement that fans have regarding their team, the more likely they are to reaffirm their relationship with the team.

Sadly, the size of the Australian and Kiwi women’s sport community on blogger is non-existent when compared to their male counterparts. The lone fan of the Matildas is a male from South Australia.

League Team Number Date gathered
ANZ Championship ANZ Championship 0 11-Nov-10
ANZ Championship Melbourne Vixens 0 4-Jun-10
ANZ Championship Melbourne Vixens 0 19-Nov-10
ANZ Championship Melbourne Vixens 0 23-Nov-10
ANZ Championship NSW Swifts 0 19-Nov-10
ANZ Championship NSW Swifts 0 23-Nov-10
ANZ Championship Queensland Firebirds 0 19-Nov-10
ANZ Championship Queensland Firebirds 0 23-Nov-10
ANZ Championship West Coast Fever 0 16-Aug-10
ANZ Championship West Coast Fever 0 19-Nov-10
ANZ Championship West Coast Fever 0 23-Nov-10
AWIHL AWIHL 0 19-Nov-10
AWIHL AWIHL 0 23-Nov-10
Cycling Australia Amy Gillett 0 11-Nov-10
Cycling Australia Anna Meares 0 11-Nov-10
Hockey Australia Hockeyroos 0 24-Nov-10
Tennis Australia Alicia Molik 0 11-Nov-10
Triathlon Australia Emma Moffatt 0 11-Nov-10
W-League Canberra United 0 3-Jun-10
W-League Canberra United 0 19-Nov-10
W-League Canberra United 0 23-Nov-10
W-League W-League 0 3-Jun-10
W-League W-League 0 1-Jul-10
W-League W-League 0 11-Nov-10
W-League W-League 0 19-Nov-10
W-League W-League 0 23-Nov-10
WNBL Perth Lynx 0 16-Aug-10
WNBL West Coast Waves 0 16-Aug-10
WNCL Western Fury 0 16-Aug-10
WNCL Victorian Spirit 0 15-Jun-10
Women’s World Cup Soccer Matildas 1 4-Jun-10

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Appendix A: Data Gathering Site Specific Methodologies (draft 1)

Posted by Laura on Wednesday, 24 November, 2010

And just to mix it up today and support the idea that I actually do write things, this would be a draft of some methodologies that will be headed into my appendix. A lot of it feels really simple, already gets stated inside existing chapters as I use the data and would eat up word count in my methodology in a really unhealthy way. (I’ve got about 20 of these methodologies to do. I should really do a summary about each particular site I’m using too. We’ll see. This section first.)


Appendix A
Data Gathering Site Specific Methodologies

43 Things
User information
To get user information from 43 Things, the first step was to identify goals that related to an Australian or New Zealand based sport club.  Searching using various keywords, reading the goals that related to the keywords and determining if they related to the search accomplished this.  Once a goal was identified and people were identified as having completed the goal or intending to complete the goal, the goal was recorded on a row in a 43 Things specific spreadsheet.  In a separate column, the team and league to which the goal related to were also recorded.  After this was completed, the user pages for people with that goal were visited.  Their username, city, state, country, birthday, website, and date joined were all recorded.  The last notation to the row was to include the date that this information was gathered.
During the time that this data was gathered, 43 Things changed the information that was available on the profiles.  This was done sometime between early June 2010 and  early November 2010.  Subsequently information such as city, state, country, birthday, website were not available on user profiles.  Only data gathered prior to this time exists except in cases where the data was checked at a later date and the user’s information had previously been recorded.

Total user information
Attempts were made to benchmark the level of interest in a team by recording the number of relevant search results on 43 things.  This was done by documenting the league and team that were being searched for in a row.  After that, the keyword used for the search was recorded in the same row.  The search was then completed and the total results were recorded.  A textual analysis of the search results was conducted and the total number of relevant results was recorded.  Of those relevant results, the total number of people working to accomplish them was then recorded.  Finally, the date the search was conducted was recorded.

Alexa
Site rankings
A list of websites related to Australian and New Zealand sport was created.  This was recorded on a spreadsheet, with columns that listed the league and team that the domain featured.  For every domain on the list, the page about the domain on Alexa was checked.  The Alexa page URL for the domain was also recorded on the relevant row.  When visiting the page, the world rank was recorded.  If an Australian rank was also available, it was recorded in a separate Australian specific column.  Next, the date that this information was gathered was recorded.  After that, any notes the author had regarding the site were recorded.  This was mostly to identify the type of domain or if it ranked in a country outside Australia.  Lastly, in some cases, the paragraph of information provided by Alexa regarding the site’s traffic and demographics was recorded.

Bebo
User  information
Profile information from bebo users was gathered by running a search related to a specific team or league.  The league and team that the search was related to was documented.  Once this was done, the people search results were copy and pasted to Notepad.  The search results were then formatted for pasting to the bebo user spreadsheet. Once copy and pasted, the author attempted to convert user-inputted locations into real locations of city, state, country.  The location field results were then found in columns for city, state, country instead of a location column.  The columns that existed then were league, team, name, gender, age, city, state, and country.  A final column was added that recorded the date this data was gathered.

Videos, Groups, Band information
There are three different search tabs on bebo beyond people that have information about the community size and audience for Australian and New Zealand sport.  They are Video, Groups and Bands.  Searched related to a specific team, player or league were run.  The relationship between the searches and the league and club were recorded.  The search results were then copy and pasted to Notepad where the results were formatted so they could be pasted on to a separate bebo related spreadsheet.  Once this was done, the following headers where information could be found included type, total (fans/viewers/members), loves, profile views, group created, genre, city, state, country, uploaded, uploader, and description.   The city, state and country information was documented using the same methodology as the bebo profile information.  Finally, a column was added that included the data that this data was gathered on.

Total search results
Total search results data came by recording the search term used, and recording the team and league that connect to that search term.  Once that was done, the total results were recorded for People, Video, Music, Groups, Apps and Skins. The date the search was conducted was then recorded.  Finally, any notes regarding the search or its results were recorded.
When recording the results, in almost all cases, the total results were included.  In a few select cases, generally when the results were 20 or less, the total number of results deemed relevant were recorded.  This was deemed important for smaller sport fan communities where one or two videos or groups may represent the whole community.  An example search where this was done involved a search for “Giants Football Club” because the results picked up rugby league teams and the New York Giants.

BlackPlanet
User information
User information was gathered once a search had been conducted and resulted in a user appearing.  If a user appeared for that search, the league and team related to that search were recorded.  The user name was then recorded.  The user page was then opened and the following data was collected: Country, gender and age. Lastly, the date this information was gathered was documented.

Total user information
To gather total user information, a search phrase was thought of and recorded.  In separate columns, the league and team the search related to were recorded.  The profile search was then conducted and the total number of results were recorded.  Finally, the date the search was conducted on was recorded.

Blogger
User information
User information was gathered once a search had been conducted and resulted in a user appearing.  If a user appeared for that search, the league and team related to that search were recorded.  The user name was then recorded.  The user page was then opened and the following data was collected: Age, Gender, Astrological sign, City, State, Country. Lastly, the date this information was gathered was documented.

Total user information
To gather total user information, a search phrase was thought of and recorded.  In separate columns, the league and team the search related to were recorded.  The profile search was then conducted and the total number of results were recorded.  Finally, the date the search was conducted on was recorded.

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Which AFL team do Canberrans support in the Grand Final?

Posted by Laura on Wednesday, 15 September, 2010

Canberra has traditionally been a place that people aren’t from.  Rather, it is a place that people have traditionally moved to.  When they move, they take their sporting loyalties with them.  For that reason, there is a conflicting mess of sport loyalties in the city.  If you went to see the Sydney Swans play the Western Bulldogs at Manuka Oval this year, you could clearly see these different loyalties on display as it pertains to the AFL.  On the whole, I’ve generally found Canberrans to be pretty good with these loyalties: You can safely wear your team’s kit with out fear that some stranger is going to take the piss out of you.

The Grand Final is soon approaching.  Given the different sporting loyalties, it is interesting to see which team people in Canberra are barracking for.  Is one team more popular than another?  Do Canberran loyalties mirror national loyalties?

One way of measuring loyalty and team identification is to count how many people follow a team on Twitter.  All followers combined, Collingwood 7,381 followers, St. Kilda has 4,492 followers, Geelong has 2,153 and the Western Bulldogs have 1,554.  When Twitter followers for each team are filtered by location using time zones and user listed location, you can get an idea as to how many Canberrans are followers of the various teams playing in the Grand Finals:

Suburb Collingwood Magpies Geelong Cats St Kilda Saints Western Bulldogs
Barton 0 0 1 0
Canberra 62 10 28 17
Canberra International Airport 0 1 0 0
Capital Hill 1 0 0 0
City 0 0 0 1
Dickson 0 0 1 0
Gordon 0 1 0 0
Theodore 1 0 0 0
Total 64 12 30 18

It isn’t that big of a surprise that Collingwood is number one. Roy Morgan Research had them as the most popular Melbourne based team in 2009.  Beyond that, Canberrans on Twitter buck the popularity trend.  Roy Morgan has Geelong at number 2.  On Twitter, Canberrans are the least likely to follow Geelong.  Roy Morgan had the Western Bulldogs last.   Canberrans had them at third.  Overall, when compared to total number of followers for a team, Canberrans don’t  always follow the national patterns.  Again, Geelong and the Western Bulldogs are the ones that don’t match: More people follow Geelong on Twitter but more Canberrans on Twitter follow the Western Bulldogs.  It looks like Canberrans, who don’t have their own AFL team, follow a different drummer than the one that beats on a national level.

Another way to measure team loyalty and team identification in Canberra is to use Facebook.  Facebook says that there are 198,500 users who live in the ACT and 175,900 people who live within 50 miles of Canberra.  What Grand Finals teams do Canberrans like?

Area Collingwood Magpies Geelong Cats St Kilda Saints Western Bulldogs
Canberra – Within 50 miles 4,540 760 1,100 280
Australian Capital Territory 5,080 1,040 1,240 300

Well, not the Western Bulldogs, that’s for sure.  Canberran fans on Facebook much more clearly follow the national patterns as established by Roy Morgan.

Other social networks exist and Canberran sport fans are present on them.  One such network is LiveJournal (and its clones).  There are a number of fans on it who list their teams as an interest on their profile:   4 for Collingwood,  22 for Geelong,  16 for St. Kilda and 23  for the Western Bulldogs.  When broken down by city and state, there are two fans from the ACT who list Geelong as an interest and one fan who lists the Saints as an interest.  This pattern for the ACT does not mirror the pattern for the whole of LiveJournal.  It also doesn’t follow the pattern for team fandom size as identified by Roy Morgan Research.

Over on 43 things, there is one Canberran who has a goal related to an AFL team.  It just isn’t a team in the finals.  (The Canberran has a goal of buying a Sydney Swans jumper.)  On bebo, there are 18 people identified as being from the ACT who list an AFL team as an interest, four of which list a Grand Finals team as an interest.  Two support Collingwood, one supports Geelong and one supports St. Kilda.  This pattern mirrors the national one as established by Roy Morgan Research.  On Blogger, there are four people from the ACT who list an AFL team as an interest.  Of these four, only one lists a finals bound team: Geelong.

What does tell us?  Canberran AFL fans are most likely to be found on Facebook.  Their support of their clubs is similar to the national club support though there are differences.    Different social networks attract Canberrans fans of different teams.  It shouldn’t be that hard to find a like minded fan who will support your team if you’re here for the game.  The easiest time of doing that will probably be for Collingwood Supporters but Bulldog fans shouldn’t be that worried either.  Just go on Twitter Doggies fans and reach out to your fellow Canberrans.

Most of the raw data referenced in this post can be found at csv.ozziesport.com/.

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Perth sport fandom size

Posted by Laura on Monday, 16 August, 2010

I feel guilty as I’m kind of posting as I do with out any particular pattern. Anyway, I looked at Google.com.au and friendster (both of which have a load of garbage unrelated results) and recorded the totals for number of results for each team. I also did that bebo, care2 and blogger. (I also did ecademy and blackplanet but results were 0 the whole way through.) I’ll see if I feel like exploring and recording the size of the Perth sport fandom some more. The following table includes the results so far. If you have methodology questions, let me know.

43things.com Bebo – Groups Bebo – People Bebo – Videos Blogger Care2 – Blogs Care2 – Petitions Friendster – Groups Google Total Minus F & G Total
AFL West Coast Eagles 3 44 300 120 24 8 2 1006 273,000 501 274507
A-League Perth Glory FC 0 19 28 79 5 8 0 1072 325,000 139 326211
AFL Fremantle Dockers 5 17 85 18 10 1 0 12 116,000 136 116148
Super 14 Western Force 0 17 54 52 2 3 0 1005 196,000 128 197133
Claxton Shield Perth Heat 0 0 27 0 0 0 0 869 35,700 27 36596
WNBL West Coast Waves 0 2 5 18 0 0 0 1006 36,400 25 37431
Sheffield Shield Western Warriors 0 3 17 3 0 0 0 1004 20,700 23 21727
NBL Perth Wildcats 0 1 3 4 1 0 0 556 33,600 9 34165
WAFL Perth Demons Football Club 0 2 7 0 0 0 0 944 17,100 9 18053
S.G. Ball Cup Western Australia Reds Rugby League Club 0 0 4 2 0 0 0 371 19,600 6 19977
Australian Rugby Championship Perth Spirit 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 1078 10,300 5 11383
WNCL Western Fury 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 1010 85,700 3 86713
WAFL Claremont Tigers Football Club 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 297 13,200 3 13500
AHL WA Diamonds 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 345 7,560 3 7908
WNBL Perth Lynx 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 326 4,440 3 4769
Gridiron Australia Perth Blitz 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 484 2,110 3 2597
WAFL East Fremantle Sharks Football Club 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1002 83,100 2 84104
WAFL West Perth Falcons Football Club 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1069 32,700 2 33771
WAFL East Perth Royals Football Club 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1071 95,300 1 96372
WAFL Subiaco Lions Football Club 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 333 3,660 1 3994
ANZ Championship West Coast Fever 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1006 99,900 0 100906
WAFL South Fremantle Bulldogs Football Club 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1003 88,300 0 89303
Western Australian Suburban Turf Cricket Association (WASTCA) Subiaco Marist Cricket Club 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1002 17,400 0 18402
WAFL Peel Thunder Thunder Football Club 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 680 14,200 0 14880
State Basketball League (Western Australia) (SBL) Perth Redbacks 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 266 12,200 0 12466
State Basketball League (Western Australia) (SBL) Goldfields Giants 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 191 6,710 0 6901
WAFL Swan Districts Swans Football Club 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 614 2,440 0 3054
AHL SmokeFree WA Thundersticks 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3,020 0 3020
Gridiron Australia Perth Broncos 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 277 670 0 947

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Distribution of Australian sports fans by league and location

Posted by Laura on Tuesday, 23 March, 2010

Distribution of Australian sports fans by league and location map

I’m trying to make a map of Australian sports fandom across various social networks.  This is going to take a long time and require a long explanation to understand exactly what you’re seeing.  This map isn’t intended to be all comprehensive.  I’m still collecting data and will likely continue to collecting data for a long time.    That’s why a long explanation is needed.

Country League Rugby: Group 21 is represented exclusively by the Facebook group SCONE THOROUGHBREDS RUGBY LEAGUE CLUB. Location was identified the location of the school network members listed themselves as belonging to.

For the NWBL, amongst the social networks I’ve checked so far, only You!Tube had people who listed the league.  And that was one person.  There were several people on Facebook who belonged the Wollongong Roller Hawks group and listed a network which I could affiliate with a city.

The AHL is represented by a Facebook group for the Tassie Tigers and three people on bebo. There were no fans on LiveJournal’s clones or blogger.

The AFL includes full data from 43things, bebo, blogger, eacademy, Daniel Jackson – TIGER TUFF!, Law Hawks and No matter how bad they are, I will still barrack for the Richmond Tigers! groups on Facebook, Gaia Online (but no one was an AFL fan who listed a city), LiveJournal and its clones, only Collingwood from MySpace profile search, only Brisbane Lions, Collingwood Magpies and Carlton Blues from orkut, only the scrapheap_afl mailing list on Yahoo!groups, and only the Geelong Cats on YouTube.

For the NRL, the following Facebook groups were included: Matt Johns to coach the Newcastle Knights in 2010! , Wests Tigers NYC and Melbourne-based Wests Tigers Fanatics. Only the Brisbane Broncos were looked at on 43things. Every team was searched for on bebo, blogger, Gaia Online, LiveJournal and its clones. The sample is much smaller than the AFL. (Though the community on bebo is much larger than AFL community on bebo. It might sort of make up for that.)

WNBL totals came from YouTube, MySpace, eacademy, bebo and LiveJournal clones.

For the NBL, only the Brisbane Bullets were looked at on 43 things. On Facebook for the NBL, unlike for most leagues looked at, an attempt was made to find every group connected to the team. Thus, the following groups and fanpages are represented: Townsville McDonald’s Crocodiles, Adelaide 36ers, Adelaide 36ers are the greatest team of ANY kind EVER!!, Adelaide 36ers Fan Zone, Bring Allen Iverson to the Adelaide 36ers!, Bring Dusty Rychart back to the Adelaide 36ers ~ beg, plead, grovel ;p, Cairns Taipans , Croc Nation, Early 90′s Perth Wildcats appreciation group, Gold Coast Blaze, Melbourne Tigers, melbourne tigers are the best team, Melbourne Tigers Basketball Club, Melbourne Tigers cheer squeda east and south ends , Melbourne Tigers NBL HUMMER CHAMPIONS 2007/08, Melbourne Tigers NBL supporters, New Zealand Breakers, Official Perth Wildcats, Perth Wildcats, Perth Wildcats, Perth Wildcats (Catties Fans), SAVE OUR MELBOURNE TIGERS NBL TEAM , THIS SEASON., Save Our South Dragons:www. saveourdragons.com, South Dragons 2008/09 Nbl Champions, South Melbourne Dragons, The Melbourne Tigers Fan Group, The Official Adelaide 36ers Page, Townsville McDonald’s Crocodiles and Wollongong Hawks. If this was done with other clubs and leagues, the representation for the AFL and NRL would probably be much, much bigger. Every team was looked at on bebo, blogger, LiveJournal and its clones. It also includes members of melbournetigers on Yahoo!Groups.

For the VFL, only the Geelong Cats and Coburg Tigers were checked. On MySpace, Frankston Dolphins , Sandringham Zebras , Werribee Tigers , Collingwood Magpies and Geelong Cats were checked. All teams were checked on LiveJournal and its clones, blogger and bebo.

A-League is represented by a search of all teams on bebo, blogger, LiveJournal and its clones. Orkut was searched for Melbourne Victory fans. It might not show up on the first version of this map because after about seven layers, the mapping software gets slow.

Distribution of Australian sports fans by league and location map

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AFL Canberra on LiveJournal and blogger

Posted by Laura on Wednesday, 10 February, 2010

The league was discussed in the previous post.  I just don’t want to group too many networks in one post, even if there isn’t much to say.  In this case, while LiveJournal has a much larger comparative Australian audience than LiveJournal clones, the size of the community for AFL Canberra teams is still practically non-existent: Only one person list a team as an interest.  This would be a Belconnen Magpies fan from Melbourne who was born in 1975.  The situation on blogger isn’t much better: No one lists one of these teams as an interest.

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  • No Related Posts

Australian Hockey League on blogger, LiveJournal, and LiveJournal clones

Posted by Laura on Wednesday, 3 February, 2010

Wikipedia says that the AHL is Australia’s “premier national domestic field hockey competition. Despite its non-professional nature, AHL is considered one of the strongest and most competitive national field hockey leagues in the world.”  There is a men’s and women’s league.  On the men’s side, the teams include New South Wales Waratahs, NT Stingers, Southern Hotshots, Tassie Tigers, Victoria Vikings, and WA Thundersticks.

Unsurprisingly, no one lists these teams as an interest on blogger, LiveJournal or LiveJournal’s clones.  These are niche teams for a small audience.  The sport isn’t likely to have much international interest.  The league isn’t professional.  The Australian audience on these services isn’t that big or active.  It seems unlikely that they will ever garner a community around them unless some one comes in and brings their own audience for this content.

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New Zealand professional sports location on bebo and blogger

Posted by Laura on Thursday, 28 January, 2010

New Zealand has several professional sports teams that compete in Australian and New Zealand based leagues.  The leagues that are involved with include the the A-League, ANZ Championship,  National Rugby League, and Super 14. The teams include Wellington Phoenix,    Northern Mystics,     Southern Steel,     Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic,    Canterbury Crusaders, and  New Zealand Warriors.  The map below only includes bebo and blogger users who list the team as an interest and list a city in New Zealand as their place of residence.  (I haven’t done LiveJournal and there were no fans on LiveJournal’s clones.)  The city communities involved are really small compared to some of their Australian peers.   Brisbane has 121 compared to Auckland’s 11.  To be fair though, Auckland had fans of Australian based teams and if those were included, they’d be at 22 instead of 11.  (Those 11 fans are all NRL fans of the following teams: Brisbane Broncos, Canberra Raiders, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Gold Coast Titans.

New Zealand

Overview map

New Zealand

18
4
1
Wellington Phoenix
Northern Mystics
Southern Steel
Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic
Canterbury Crusaders
New Zealand Warriors

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Australian Sports Fandom on Blogger

Posted by Laura on Wednesday, 20 January, 2010

I’ve finished tallying the number of fans by team for blogger.  The following chart is sorted by most popular teams first, least popular teams last.

Australian Sports Fandom on Blogger

State League Interest Blogger  
New South Wales AFL Sydney Swans 34  
Victoria AFL Collingwood Magpies 22  
Western Australia AFL West Coast Eagles 22  
New South Wales A-League Sydney FC 18  
South Australia AFL Adelaide Crows 14  
Queensland NRL Brisbane Broncos 12  
Queensland AFL Brisbane Lions 12  
Victoria AFL Geelong Cats 12  
Victoria AFL Western Bulldogs 12  
Victoria A-League Melbourne Victory 11  
Victoria AFL Essendon Bombers 10  
New South Wales NRL Wests Tigers 10  
New South Wales NRL Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 8  
New South Wales NRL Parramatta Eels 8  
New South Wales NRL Sydney Roosters 8  
New South Wales NRL South Sydney Rabbitohs 6  
South Australia A-League Adelaide United 5  
Western Australia AFL Fremantle Dockers 5  
Victoria AFL Melbourne Demons 5  
Western Australia A-League Perth Glory 5  
Victoria AFL Richmond Tigers 5  
Australian Capital Territory NRL Canberra Raiders 4  
Victoria AFL Carlton Blues 4  
Victoria NRL Melbourne Storm 4  
New South Wales NRL Newcastle Knights 4  
New South Wales NRL St. George Illawarra Dragons 4  
Victoria AFL St. Kilda Saints 4  
Victoria AFL Hawthorn Hawks 3  
Victoria AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos 3  
New South Wales NRL Penrith Panthers 3  
New Zealand A-League Wellington Phoenix 3  
Queensland NBL Brisbane Bullets 2  
New Zealand NRL Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 2  
Queensland NRL Gold Coast Titans 2  
Victoria Commonwealth Bank Trophy Melbourne Phoenix 1  
New Zealand NRL New Zealand Warriors 1  
New South Wales A-League Newcastle Jets 1  
New South Wales NRL Newtown Jets (defunct) 1  
New South Wales NRL North Sydney Bears (defunct) 1  
South Australia AFL Port Adelaide Power 1  
Queensland Brisbane Netball Association ACE Netball Club 0  
South Australia NRL Adelaide Rams (defunct) 0  
South Australia ANZ Championship Adelaide Thunderbirds 0  
Australian Capital Territory Commonwealth Bank Trophy AIS Canberra Darters 0  
New South Wales NRL Annandale Dales (defunct) 0  
Australia Netball Australia Australian Diamonds (national team) 0  
New South Wales NRL Balmain Tigers (defunct) 0  
Western Australia Claxton Shield Barbagallo Perth Heat 0  
Queensland A-League Brisbane Roar 0  
New Zealand Super 14 Canterbury Crusaders 0  
New Zealand ANZ Championship Canterbury Tactix 0  
New South Wales A-League Central Coast Mariners Football Club 0  
New Zealand ANZ Championship Central Pulse 0  
New South Wales NRL Cumberland (defunct) 0  
Victoria Victorian Amateur Football Association Fitzroy Lions 0  
New South Wales NRL Glebe Dirty Reds (defunct) 0  
Queensland NRL Gold Coast Chargers (defunct) 0  
Queensland AFL Gold Coast Football Club 0  
Queensland NRL Gold Coast Giants (defunct) 0  
Queensland NRL Gold Coast Seagulls (defunct) 0  
Queensland A-League Gold Coast United 0  
New South Wales Commonwealth Bank Trophy Hunter Jaegers 0  
New South Wales NRL Hunter Mariners (defunct) 0  
New South Wales NRL Illawarra Steelers (defunct) 0  
New South Wales NRL Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 0  
Victoria Commonwealth Bank Trophy Melbourne Kestrels 0  
Victoria ANZ Championship Melbourne Vixens 0  
New South Wales ANZ Championship New South Wales Swifts (Sydney Swifts) 0  
New South Wales NRL Newcastle Rebels (defunct) 0  
Queensland NRL North Queensland Cowboys 0  
Queensland A-League North Queensland Fury FC 0  
New South Wales NRL Northern Eagles (defunct) 0  
New Zealand ANZ Championship Northern Mystics 0  
Victoria Plenty Valley Netball Association Orcas Netball 0  
Western Australia Commonwealth Bank Trophy Perth Orioles 0  
Western Australia NRL Perth Reds (defunct) 0  
New South Wales Netball New South Wales Petersham RUFC Netball Club 0  
Queensland AHL Queensland Blades 0  
Queensland KFC Twenty20 Big Bash Queensland Bulls 0  
Queensland ANZ Championship Queensland Firebirds 0  
Queensland Rugby League/State of Origin Queensland Maroons 0  
Queensland Claxton Shield Queensland Rams 0  
Queensland Super 14 Queensland Reds 0  
Queensland Gridiron Australia Nationals Queensland Sundevils 0  
Queensland NRL South Queensland Crushers (defunct) 0  
New Zealand ANZ Championship Southern Steel 0  
New South Wales NRL St. George Dragons (defunct) 0  
New Zealand ANZ Championship Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic 0  
Western Australia ANZ Championship West Coast Fever 0  
Western Australia NRL Western Reds (defunct) 0  
New South Wales NRL Western Suburbs Magpies (defunct) 0  

What I didn’t find all that surprising was the dominance of AFL teams at the top.   They have eight of the twelve spots for teams with double digit fans on their service.   Of the remaining four spots, two are for the A-League and two are for the NRL.  The presence of the A-League feels a bit surprising as I didn’t think that soccer was that popular in Australia, at least compared to the NRL.  I do recall a fair amount of advertising for the A-League and they are beginning to build more soccer purpose built stadiums in Australia.

For the 28 teams with 1 to 9 fans, all are from the NRL, AFL or A-League with the exception of the Melbourne Phoenix  who played in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy.  I am a bit surprised that some of the more popular netball teams on Facebook, Twitter and bebo didn’t make the list for blogger.   I’m not surprised that other leagues didn’t make the list as most of these leagues are for secondary sports.

There are 227 total listings for people who list a team as an interest.  (There may be duplicates, where a person lists more than one team as an interest.)  Of the population, 144 or 63% identify themselves as male, 63 or 28% identify themselves as female and 20 or 9% do not identify a gender.  This feels in line with how sports fandom tends to be depicted when looked at by gender: Male dominant but with a growing female demographic.

Of the 227, only 154 listed their birthdate and had their astrological sign displayed.   The distribution amongst various astrological signs is pretty even with the smallest representation at 7 or 5% for Taurus and the largest at 17 or 11% for Pisces.   The distribution for specific teams is much less even, but much of this can be attributed to the small sample size.

142 of he 227 list their age when problematic ages, like 253, are removed.  The oldest fans are those for the Richmond Tigers, who average 41.6 years.  This community is small though, with only three people listing their age.  The Parramatta Eels have the oldest average age for a team with five or more people who list their age.  Their average age is 35.8.   The NRL and AFL are evenly distributed for teams with the oldest fans.  Penrith Panthers has the youngest average fan age at 18, but the population size is only one.  For a team with five or more people listing them as an interest, the Melbourne Victory win with an average age of  22.8.

167 fans list an Australian state of residence.  (There may be more Australian in this sample but they don’t necessarily list their state.)   The most popular state for sports fans on blogger listing an Australian team as an interest in New South Wales, with 62 people.  Victoria is second with 43.   Queensland is third with 28.  Western Australia is fourth with 15.  South Australia is fifth with 11.  The ACT has 5, Tasmania has 2 and the Northern Territory has 1.  In the ACT, the most popular team is the Brisbane Lions with 2 fans.  In New South Wales, Syndey FC is the most popular team with 16 fans.  The Roosters are the second most popular with 7 fans, which is a pretty big difference between the most popular and second most popular teams.  The Collingwood Magpies are the most popular team in the Northern Territory with 1 fan.  The Brisbane Lions are the most popular team in Queensland with 7 fans.  The Broncos are the second most popular with 4 fans.  The Adelaide Crows are the most popular team in South Australia with 8 fans.  The only other team listed as an interest by people listing the state as their place of residence were Adelaide United of the A-League.  No NRL team interested people from that state.  From Tasmania, 1 person listed the Geelong Cats as an interest and 1 person listed the Richmond Tigers as an interest.  In Victoria, the Collingwood Magpies were the most popular team with 12 people listing them as an interest.  The second most popular team with 7 fans was Melbourne Victory.  In Western Australia, there are two most popular teams: Fremantle Dockers and Perth Glory with 5 fans each. There is no second most popular team.  The other five people from the state evenly distribute their interest with one fan for five teams.  I don’t feel well enough informed at this point to know if this reflects on existing regional sports fandom patterns.

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Wests Tigers on blogger

Posted by Laura on Thursday, 14 January, 2010

This post looks at the size of the Wests Tigers community on blogger.  The Wests Tigers are a Sydney based National Rugby League team.  The team is relatively new, having been founded in 2000 as a merger of the Balmain Tigers and the Western Suburbs Magpies.

So far, the only other NRL team on blogger that has been looked at is the Brisbane Broncos.  That team has 12 people who listed them as an interest.  In comparison, the Wests Tigers have ten people who list them as an interest.  That they are so close is a bit surprising as Roy Morgan Research indicates that the fanbase for the Wests Tigers is substantially smaller than that of the Broncos.

Of the ten West Tigers fans, seven are from Australia, one from New Zealand, one from the United Kingdom and one who does not identify their country of origin.  Compared to other NRL teams, the percentage of Australians is low: 100% of Brisbane Broncos fans on blogger and Dreamwidth are all Australian, 100% of Melbourne Storm fans on LiveJournal are Australians, 85.7% of Canterbury Bulldogs fans on LiveJournal are Australian, 81.1% of Broncos fans on LiveJournal are Australian.  Of the networks and teams sampled, only the Broncos community on bebo has a smaller percentage, 71.1%, of Australians.

Of the Australians, three are from Queensland and three are from New South Wales.  This makes as these states are strong holds of Rugby League.  Added to that, Melbourne and Sydney have traditionally had a rivalry so you wouldn’t necessary expect a Victorian fan population.

The astrological sign data is really interesting and would be more interesting if it the samples were larger to see if some sort of statement could be made about a team’s fanbase.  That said, six people list their date of birth for Blogger to calculate their astrological sign.  Three are Leos, and with one person being a Cancer, Capricorn and Pisces.

Seven of the ten fans list their age, with two of these being obviously incorrect; a person cannot be 253 years old.   If those two are ignored, the average age of a Wests Tigers fan on blogger is 28.8 and a median age of 22.  This average makes the team’s fans older than some of the other NRL team fans on networks that I’ve looked at including Broncos fans on bebo and LiveJournal,  Canterbury Bulldogs fans on LiveJournal and Melbourne Storm fans on LiveJournal.  The only team and network with a higher average is the Broncos community on blogger.  The above average age compared to other fan populations may end up being a result of people self selecting networks based on age: the youngest fans prefer bebo, fans in their mid 20s prefer LiveJournal and older fans prefer blogging.  As we age or as a result of a generational gap, we might prefer going from shorter method of communicating to a longer one.

Seven people list their gender as male, two as female and one does not identify their gender.  This is higher percentage of male fans than  the Broncos on either bebo or blogger.

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