Ozzie Sport

Unlike my AFL dataset for foursquare, this one is a bit incomplete. I was missing at least two stadiums and for the first week I looked at, there might have been checkins not related to the game as there were four days between the time I recorded the data. I just wasn’t completely trusting of that for a venue that I didn’t think was single use.

That said, these are the games that I have recorded:

When that is broken down by team, it looks like:

NRL fans are appear to be less likely to check in to events. In one case, the venue where games are played is not even listed on Foursquare. The venue issue here appears differently than the AFL where at least two venues are actively promoting foursquare on social media sites like Twitter and encouraging people who attend games to checkin in order to get a swarm badge.

Non-mixed use facilities and facilities that are not shared with the AFL are also likely to have fewer seats with lower average attendance than the AFL. This could be a secondary factor for why there are fewer checkins. Another reason could be that adoption rates for foursquare are higher in Victoria than they are for New South Wales.

Related Posts:

• More popular Australian (and Kiwi) sport related Facebook fanpages and groups (November 23)
• More popular Australian (and Kiwi) sport related Facebook fanpages and groups
• One week Twitter change for Australia/New Zealand sport related accounts
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 11)

I looked at the most popular teams on Facebook for the AFL. Now it is time for the NRL.  The following is based on the official Facebook pages that are linked on a team’s official site.  If a team is not listed, it is because they did not provide a link to their official Facebook page or provided a bad link.  This data was gathered on April 6, 2010.

Related Posts:

• More popular Australian (and Kiwi) sport related Facebook fanpages and groups (November 23)
• More popular Australian (and Kiwi) sport related Facebook fanpages and groups
• One week Twitter change for Australia/New Zealand sport related accounts
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 11)

The NRL could really learn a lesson from the AFL for Facebook. Having looked through most of the official sites to try to find official Facebook pages, I’ve made the following observations:

• The South Sydney Rabbitohs site links to the Facebook page for the Canberra Raiders.
• The St. George Illawarra Dragons and New Zealand Warriors sites links to Facebook.com, not to their fanpages.
• Several teams do not have Facebook fanpages.
• The Melbourne Storm and Canberra Raiders have user pages with limited public profiles.
• The Melbourne Storm user profile is for the team’s mascot.

These patterns suggest that the NRL is behind the ball with their use of social networking.  Social networking is important tool for building a fanbase, selling merchandise, etc.  There is a correlation between attendance at matches and the size of a team’s online social networking fan base.  I’m not certain what factors lead to this and the variables could be totally independent but either way, they need to improve their fan engagement.

(The links were found on the NRL hosted team sites.  These are not official team sites but are official NRL league pages.)

Related Posts:

• More popular Australian (and Kiwi) sport related Facebook fanpages and groups (November 23)
• More popular Australian (and Kiwi) sport related Facebook fanpages and groups
• Online Activity in the Wake of the Melbourne Storm Controversy
• Most popular sport league/team websites in Australia

One of the things I’ve been doing recently is trying to compile a list of fans and members of groups on Facebook.  My interest in doing so is to get a general geographic idea of what teams are popular where.  I’m also interested in seeing if certain universities, colleges and high schools lean more towards one team or league.  Read to that, I’m looking at what universities, colleges and high schools could be deemed the most sports made by the total members of a network.

The problem is that Facebook does not make getting this information easy.  I manually go through the lists.  I copy/paste to notepad, format it and copy it to Excel.  Facebook drops people.  An example of this? Western Force.  It has 3,128 fans.  When I copied and pasted everything, the total people on my list was 1,927.  There is a lot of dropping going on here and I’m not certain what effect it has on the results.

These issues regarding totals are one of the most problematic aspects of trying to do any sort of demographic study of online sports fandom that is in any way accurate and capable of duplication.

If you’re interested, based on the following groups and fan pages… The NAB Northern Bullants appreciation society, Townsville McDonald’s Crocodiles, Waikato/BOP Magic Netball, 1,000 people for Tassie Tigers to offer Rana Naved-Ul-Hasan a full Contract, 10,000 people for the tassie tigers to offer Michael Hogan a contract , Aaron Edwards Fan page, ACT Brumbies, act brumbies, Adelaide 36ers, Adelaide 36ers are the greatest team of ANY kind EVER!!, Adelaide 36ers Fan Zone, Adelaide 36ers National Basketball Team, Adelaide Thunderbirds , Barbagallo Perth Heat Baseball Club, Bendigo Bombers Football Club, Bentleigh Cricket Club, Borough Boys, Borough Supporters Club, Bring Allen Iverson to the Adelaide 36ers!, Bring Dusty Rychart back to the Adelaide 36ers ~ beg, plead, grovel ;p, Cairns Taipans , Canberra Raiders, Canterbury Tactix, Carlton Blues FC, Croc Nation, Crocs to take the NBL title, Daniel Jackson – TIGER TUFF!, Eaglehawk Football Netball Club, Early 90′s Perth Wildcats appreciation group, Fire Roster, Fitzroy Reds Football Club, Frankston Dolphins Football club, FRANKSTON DOLPHINS FOOTBALL CLUB, Fremantle Dockers : Rebuilding since 1995, Fremantle Dockers : Rebuilding since 1995, Geelong Cats, Go the Perth wildcats , Gold Coast Blaze,  Gold Coast Football Club, Greeks who support Richmond F.C the Tigers, I’m a Fitzroy Reds Premiership hero, Law Hawks, Matt Johns to coach the Newcastle Knights in 2010! , Melbourne Tigers, Melbourne Tigers, Melbourne Tigers – Big V Basketball, melbourne tigers all the way in 2008, Melbourne Tigers Basketball Club, Melbourne Tigers cheer squeda east and south ends , Melbourne Tigers NBL HUMMER CHAMPIONS 2007/08, Melbourne Tigers NBL supporters, Melbourne Vixens, Melbourne Vixens, Melbourne-based Wests Tigers Fanatics, New South Wales Patriots , New Zealand Breakers, No matter how bad they are, I will still barrack for the Richmond Tigers! , North Ballarat Cricket Club, North Melbourne Football Club, North Melbourne Football Club, Northern Bullants Football Club, Northern Bullants Under 18′s, Northern Mystics, Northern Mystics Fans, Official Gold Coast Blaze, Official Perth Wildcats, Perth Wildcats, Perth Wildcats, Perth Wildcats (Catties Fans), perth wildcats fans, Perth Wildcats Wildkidz! (:, Port Melbourne Football Club, port melbourne the mighty borough fan club, Pulse Netball, Queensland Bulls, Queensland Bulls Supporters, Queensland Firebirds, Queensland Rams (ABL) Baseball, Queensland Rams Baseball, Sandringham Football Club (Zebras), SAVE OUR MELBOURNE TIGERS NBL TEAM , THIS SEASON., Save Our South Dragons:www. saveourdragons.com, SCONE THOROUGHBREDS RUGBY LEAGUE CLUB, SEABL, Selkirk Roosters – North Ballarat Football Club, South Dragons 2008/09 Nbl Champions, South Melbourne Dragons, Southern Steel, Southern Steel, SUPPORT THE CANTERBURY TACTIX WITH TIC TACS, Sydney Swifts, Tassie Tigers Hockey – Top 4 three years in a row, the fitzroy reds convention for headaches and regrets., The Melbourne Tigers Fan Group, The Official Adelaide 36ers Page, The Official Bendigo Spirit Basketball, Thunderbirds Adelaide Netball Club Appreciation Community, Thunderbirds are GO in the 2009 grand final!, TOWNSVILLE FIRE, Townsville McCafe Fire, Trent Cotchin, Victoria Aces ABL Baseball, Waratahs 2008, Werribee Amateur Football Club, Werribee Football Club , Werribee Tigers FC, West Coast Fever, West Coast Fever, Western Force, Wests Tigers NYC, WNBL – Bendigo Spirit, WNBL – Canberra Capitals, Wollongong Hawks, Wllongong Hawks, Wollongong Roller Hawks, and XXXX gold Queensland bulls!.

All told, there are 3,297 people of the 34,057 people included list a network.  There are 1,078 unique networks. If Facebook wasn’t dropping things, the total people included would be 61,340. Given that, the following networks are the most popular:

Related Posts:

• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 11)
• One week Twitter change for Australia/New Zealand sport related accounts
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 1)
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (November 24)

Gaia Online is an anime, role playing themed social network aimed at an English speaking audience.  According to Alexa, the site is ranked the 2,988th most popular in Australia.  Given the target audience, I was curious as to how large the Australian based sports fandom was.  I went to the search page, selected interest and then searched every team on my list.

The list of teams on my list include: Collingwood Magpies, Carlton Blues, Queensland Maroons, Melbourne Victory, Brisbane Broncos, West Coast Eagles, Essendon Bombers, NSW Blues, Parramatta Eels, Adelaide Crows, Melbourne Storm , Wests Tigers, St. Kilda Saints, Sydney Swans, Fremantle Dockers, New South Wales Blues, Richmond Tigers, Sydney Roosters , Gold Coast Titans, Pretoria  Bulls (Northern Bulls), St. George Illawarra Dragons, Victorian Bushrangers, Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Johannesburg Lions, South Sydney Rabbitohs , Newcastle Knights , Brisbane Lions, Adelaide United, Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, Geelong Cats, North Queensland Cowboys , Durban Sharks (Coastal Sharks)(Natal Sharks), New South Wales Waratahs, Sydney FC, Canberra Raiders, Penrith Panthers, North Melbourne Kangaroos, Melbourne Demons, Central Cheetahs (Vodacom Cheetahs), Western Australia Force (Western Force), New Zealand Warriors (Auckland Warriors), Wellington Hurricanes, Port Adelaide Power, Adelaide 36ers , Hawthorn Hawks, Central Coast Mariners Football Club, Brisbane Roar (Queensland Roar), Newcastle Jets, Perth Wildcats , Western Bulldogs, ACT Brumbies, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs , St. George Dragons (defunct), Perth Glory, Melbourne Vixens , Australian Diamonds (national team), Canterbury Crusaders, Balmain Tigers (defunct), Gold Coast Football Club, North Sydney Bears (defunct), Barbagallo Perth Heat, Gold Coast United, South Australia Bite, Western Sydney Rollers, Wellington Phoenix, Illawarra Steelers (defunct), North Queensland Fury FC, Melbourne Tigers , Cape Town Stormers (Western Stormers)(Vodacom Stormers), Wollongong Hawks , Queensland Reds, Waikato Chiefs, South (Melbourne) Dragons, Australian Boomers, Tassie Tigers (Tasmanian Tigers), Townsville Crocodiles , Sydney Olympic , Cairns Taipans , Queensland Firebirds, Perth Blitz, South Australian Redbacks (Southern Redbacks), Western Suburbs Magpies (defunct), New South Wales Swifts (Sydney Swifts), Northern Eagles (defunct), Melbourne Rebels, WA Raiders, Box Hill Hawks , Casey Scorpions , North Ballarat Roosters , Auckland Blues, Sydney United , Australian Flames (national team), New Zealand Breakers , Queensland Bulls, Old Xaverians , Adelaide Thunderbirds , West Coast Fever, Sydney Kings , Mountains Kariong Cricket Club, East Bentleigh Cricket Club, Sydney Tigers , Penrith City Outlaws (UWS Outlaws), Gold Coast Blaze , Preshil Cricket Club, Western Warriors, Sydney Windies Cricket Club, Manly United , Otago Highlanders, Dandenong Jayco Rangers (Dandenong Rangers), Jinnah Cricket Club, Petersham RUFC Netball Club, ACE Netball Club, Orcas Netball, Australian Opals, Brisbane Bullets, Logan Thunder, Port Melbourne Borough , Fitzroy Lions, Newtown Jets (defunct), Alberton Cricket Club Inc., Australian Institute of Sport, Highett Cricket Club, Werribee Tigers , Gold Coast Seagulls (defunct), Canberra Capitals, Tuggeranong Hawks, Cumberland (defunct), Melbourne Phoenix , West Sydney Berries , Central Pulse , Gold Coast Chargers (defunct), Wollongong Wolves, Adelaide Lightning, Belconnen Magpies, Gold Coast Giants (defunct), Northern Bullants , Southern Steel , Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic, West Sydney Pirates, Adelaide Rams (defunct), Ainslie Football Club, Eastlake Football Club, New South Wales Waratahs, Perth Lynx, Queanbeyan Tigers, SA Fire, Sydney Uni Flames, Townsville Fire, UTS Gridiron, West Sydney Razorbacks , Western Reds (defunct), Bendigo Spirit, Fitzroy Reds, Newcastle Rebels (defunct), Northern Mystics , NT Stingers, Old Melburnians , Perth Orioles , Perth Reds (defunct), Queensland Sundevils, Tassie Tigers, Victoria Aces, Victorian Eagles, Victorian state team, Wollongong Mustangs, ACT Monarchs, Adelaide Thunder, AIS Canberra Darters , Annandale Dales (defunct), Bankstown City Lions , Bendigo Bombers , Blacktown City Demons , Bondi Raiders, Bonnyrigg White Eagles , Brisbane Spinning Bullets, Bulleen Boomers, Canberra Labor Club Lakers, Canterbury Tactix , Coburg Tigers , Collegians Football Club , Collingwood Magpies , De La Salle Old Collegians , Frankston Dolphins , Geelong Cats , Glebe Dirty Reds (defunct), Hunter Jaegers , Hunter Mariners (defunct), Marcellin Old Collegians , Marconi Stallions , Melbourne Kestrels , New South Wales Patriots , Northwestern Predators, NSW Wolfpack, Old Brighton Grammarians , Old Scotch , Old Trinity Grammarians , Perth Wheelcats, Queensland Blades, Queensland Rams, Rockdale City Suns , Sandringham Zebras , South Coast Wolves , South Queensland Crushers (defunct), Southern Hotshots, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers Football Club , Sutherland Seahawks, Sutherland Sharks , Sydney Swans Reserves, Sydney University Lions, University Blues , Victoria Vikings, WA Thundersticks, Wenty Leagues WheelKings, Williamstown Seagulls , and Wollongong Roller Hawks.

It is not a short list.  (At the same time, it isn’t all that comprehensive. It only includes about 215 teams of the over 3,000 various teams I know exist in the country.)  I found only seven teams had people eleven total who listed a team as an interest.  The teams included 4 from the NRL, and 1 from the AFL, A-League and Super 14.  Gaia Online is different in league representation that FaceBook, blogger, Twitter, LiveJournal and its clones, where the AFL dominates.

The teams represented on Gaiai Online include Brisbane Broncos (1), Parramatta Eels (1), Sydney Roosters  (3),  Sydney FC (2), Canberra Raiders (1), Western Bulldogs (1), and ACT Brumbies (1). The 11 team interests listing include 9 people using 10 accounts.

If the duplicates are taken out, the network is the youngest where age can easily be determined.   The average of all users on Gaia Online is 18.5.  This compares to 24 on bebo, 26 on LiveJournal and its clones, 28 on orkut, and 29 on blogger.

Three people list their city of residence.  Two of those are in New South Wales and one is the ACT.  This could explain the favoring of the NRL.   Everyone who lists a country of residence lists their location as Australia.  This is also unique when compared to other networks because except for the smaller LiveJournal clones, there is some one from another country who is a fan of an Australian based team.

Four people list their gender: Three female and one male.  This ratio is nearly inverse of what bebo and blogger are where 66% of bebo users listing an Australian team as an interest are male and 70% of blogger users are male.

Gaia Online’s unique audience has an impact on the type of Australian sports fans on it.  They are younger, more New South Wales based and much more female.

Related Posts:

• Version 3: Most popular Australian athlete and team related Twitter accounts by total followers.
• One week Twitter change for Australia/New Zealand sport related accounts
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 11)
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (November 16)

Yesterday, I made a post about the most popular Australian athlete, league and team related Twitter accounts.

On Twitter, @anthonyalsop pointed me to a list of Australian athletes on Twitter he had created.  I had missed quite a few on his list and some of those accounts led me to lists where I found additional athletes, teams and leagues.  All told, I added about 61 new rows of data.  There are a few repeats from yesterday’s list as I updated some numbers.  (Historical twitter growth for athletes would be interesting to look at and there are tools for just that.  It is a project for a different day. Maybe.)  There doesn’t appear to be much change.

Things to remember with this list: It does not include athletes who do not play for team based sports.  Swimmers, golfers, tennis players, surfers and race car drivers are not on the list.  It also does not include Australian athletes playing for teams outside of Australia.  This includes cyclists (who are probably the most popular Australian athletes that I can find) as they often compete for teams outside Australia.  It does not include Australian NBA and WNBA players.  It also does not include retired Australian athletes, unless they are now involved in a management role with a specific team.  National teams are included but players are generally sorted by their other playing affiliation. This list does include athletes and teams from outside Australia when the league has teams from other countries.  Thus, South Africa is represented with its Super 14 teams and New Zealand is included with a variety of teams in leagues such as the NRL, Super 14 and the NBL.

Updated this list on the 11th to include the Australian Opals thanks to a comment by @SportingSheilas.

Related Posts:

• Version 3: Most popular Australian athlete and team related Twitter accounts by total followers.
• Most popular Australian clubs and teams on Twitter
• One week Twitter change for Australia/New Zealand sport related accounts
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 11)

An updated version of this list can be found at Version 2: Most popular Australian athlete and team related Twitter accounts by total followers.

This is sorted by total number of followers. If an account is tagged (unofficial), it indicates that it is not the official account; it belongs to management, a player or a fansite.  The list includes teams from most of the major sports leagues in Australia.  Teams that play in those leagues that are not from Australia have also been included.  Players were only counted as belonging to a team if they currently play for it.  (Some players that are on NRL player lists have gone to play in Europe.  They aren’t included.)  The date that the information was collected is also included as these numbers actively change over time.  If some one/team/organization is listed twice, it is because the data was collected on multiple dates.

Related Posts:

• Version 3: Most popular Australian athlete and team related Twitter accounts by total followers.
• One week Twitter change for Australia/New Zealand sport related accounts
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 11)
• Most popular Australian clubs and teams on Twitter

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

Related Posts:

• One week Twitter change for Australia/New Zealand sport related accounts
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 11)
• Based on data to date: Biggest Australian sports fandom
• Most popular sport league/team websites in Australia

This post looks at the geographic distribution of various fans by location inside Australia.  The maps were created using Google’s Fusion Tables.  The data is based on this table, which includes bebo, blogger, LiveJournal and LiveJournal clones.  The totals by city were added together.  (So if there were 2 bebo fans and 1 blogger fan from a city, the total will be 3.)  (United Kingdom and United States data has been filtered out.) These tables will not likely be updated.  Rather, this data will probably appear in a new table and graphs when more data is added. Please read the Google created legend carefully.

Adelaide Crows

Brisbane Lions

Geelong Cats

Port Adelaide Power

Adelaide United

Sydney FC

Brisbane Bullets

Brisbane Broncos

Canberra Raiders

Canterbury Crusaders

Related Posts:

• One week Twitter change for Australia/New Zealand sport related accounts
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 11)
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 1)
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (November 24)

The Gold Coast Titans are a member of the National Rugby League.   According to Roy Morgan Research, they are the 11th most popular NRL team in Australia.  Prior to this post, I’ve looked at two current (Brisbane Broncos, Canberra Raiders) and nine defunct (Balmain Tigers, Northern Eagles, Western Suburbs Magpies, Adelaide Rams, Annandale Dales, Cumberland, Glebe Dirty Reds, Hunter Mariners, South Queensland Crushers) NRL teams on bebo.  The Gold Coast Titans hold a very secure second with 138 people interested in them on bebo.  The Raiders are third with 83 and the Broncos are first at 278.  The Gold Coast Titans number fits with the  pattern if we correlate the teams where I have bebo data and the Roy Morgan Research data:

The correlation for bebo is strong that that of the pattern for blogger, though it isn’t as strong as the one for Facebook.  The correlations are so strong though that it is hardly worth mentioning.

The Gold Coast Titans community is 50% male, 38% gender unknown and 12% female.  The percent unknown makes it really hard to discuss the male versus female community size.  And the community for the team on blogger is so small (2) that its all maleness probably doesn’t speak to the bebo community in answering the percentage question. 51 or 82.3% of the fans on bebo, where they list information so their country can be identified, are from Australia.  The others are from New Zealand (10 or 16.1%) and Yemen (1 or 1.6%).  There are a number of Kiwis playing on the squad which can help explain the fanbase.  The person from Yemen may be an error.  They list their city of residence as Tawahi, which is a city in Yemen. There are no Yemeni players on the team, but it could be an Australian who moved to Yemen, or a Yemeni who visited Australia and fell in love with the team.

Of the Australians,  most (27) hail from Queensland.  The remainder hail from New South Wales (20), the ACT (2), Northern Territory (1) and Western Australia (1).

44 people list their age.  The mean age is 24.09, median age is 21 and mode age is 19.  This is very close to the bebo Raiders with a mean age of 23.3 and the bebo Broncos mean age of 23.29.

Related Posts:

• More popular Australian (and Kiwi) sport related Facebook fanpages and groups (November 23)
• More popular Australian (and Kiwi) sport related Facebook fanpages and groups
• One week Twitter change for Australia/New Zealand sport related accounts
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 11)