Posts Tagged St Kilda Saints

AFL fandom growth on Facebook: Which team is the winner?

Posted by Laura on Monday, 3 May, 2010

Back on March 25, 2010, I collected data regarding the number of fans of the official AFL team Facebook fan pages.  It has been a while and I was curious as to which team had the most growth since the last time I looked.  Did any team do a really good job picking up fans?  Does that have any connection to how well the team did?  (There are a whole bunch of other potential factors.  I just haven’t looked at them.)  The team at the top of the ladder for Facebook fan growth is the Essendom Bombers.  The team at the bottom of the ladder is the Adelaide Crows.  Teams not included didn’t have official pages on March 25, 2010.

Team Url 25-Mar-10 3-May-10 Difference
AFL https://www.facebook.com/AFL 88,546 99,722 11,176
Essendon Bombers https://www.facebook.com/Essendon 44,511 52,126 7,615
Collingwood Magpies https://www.facebook.com/collingwoodfc 26,314 31,366 5,052
Western Bulldogs https://www.facebook.com/Western.Bulldogs 0 4,930 4,930
Fremantle Dockers https://www.facebook.com/fremantlefootballclub 12,939 17,513 4,574
St. Kilda Saints https://www.facebook.com/stkfc 21,310 25,106 3,796
Melbourne Demons https://www.facebook.com/MELBOURNEfc 3,159 6,278 3,119
Geelong Cats https://www.facebook.com/GeelongCatsInsider 1,632 4,745 3,113
West Coast Eagles https://www.facebook.com/pages/West-Coast-Eagles/38862387223 33,501 36,559 3,058
Port Adelaide Power https://www.facebook.com/portadelaidefootballclub 7,892 10,815 2,923
Carlton Blues https://www.facebook.com/OfficialCarltonFC 12,693 14,932 2,239
Richmond Tigers https://www.facebook.com/Richmond.FC 4,798 6,626 1,828
North Melbourne Kangaroos https://www.facebook.com/northkangaroos 9,866 11,678 1,812
Hawthorn Hawks https://www.facebook.com/hawthornfc 14,342 16,129 1,787
Adelaide Crows https://www.facebook.com/adelaidecrows 39,546 41,246 1,700

Is there a correlation between a team’s performance so far this season based on their ladder position and the number of new fans?  No, the correlation is -0.04002 where the Sydney Swans and Brisbane Lions get zero new fans as they do not have a fan page.   If those two teams are removed, -0.10666.  That still is completely random.  The cause for the big increase in fans is not dependent on team performance; other factors must explain the increase in fans.

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AFL on Facebook

Posted by Laura on Thursday, 25 March, 2010

What’s the most popular AFL team on Facebook?  That really does depend on how you measure it.

The following table has a column for total people listing a team as an interest, total number of members of the largest fan page dedicated to a team, total number of fans of the largest page dedicated to a team and the grand total.  This information was collected in the past three days.

AFL on Facebook

Team Interest Page Group Total
Collingwood Magpies 59800 80 7969 67849
West Coast Eagles 26020 33501 5094 64615
Carlton Blues 58120 317 1626 60063
Adelaide Crows 50020 1579 5827 57426
Fremantle Dockers 43660 96 3625 47381
Sydney Swans 21260 18094 4737 44091
Hawthorn Hawks 21220 2602 6595 30417
Essendon Bombers 27920 248 1989 30157
Richmond Tigers 13960 11727 2782 28469
Geelong Cats 15760 5092 3976 24828
Brisbane Lions 10940 10556 2302 23798
St. Kilda Saints 15480 317 4281 20078
Port Adelaide Power 6100 9766 3157 19023
North Melbourne Kangaroos 9120 4314 2420 15854
Western Bulldogs 2740 4745 7295 14780
Melbourne Demons 5940 4057 4003 14000
Gold Coast Football Club 1200 1720 66 2986

And then I completed this and realized the biggest fan pages I had?  They weren’t the official ones.   Time to get the official ones, where the total fans are much bigger, and then update.

Green: Indicates official Facebook fanpage has the most fans.
Blue: Indicates a page not linked on the official page has the most fans.
Red: Indicates an official Facebook fanpage was not found to be linked to on the Club’s official site.
Black: AFL does not link to an official page for the team.

Fixed. As an American, I’m used to professional team names being City Mascot. When I search, this tends to be my default mode of searching. It can screw up results and I have to remember to search all variations to make sure this doesn’t happen. When I was just looking for biggest, I didn’t. Woe. But anyway, these results should hopefully be a bit more accurate. I went to every team’s official site that was linked on the AFL’s site. On the official site, I looked for their official Facebook fanpage accounts. Then I took that information and added it to the above table to get a more accurate picture. If an unofficial fanpage had more fans than the official one? I left the unofficial one. I’ve color coded that chart to make easy to see where I did that.

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Version 2: Most popular Australian athlete and team related Twitter accounts by total followers

Posted by Laura on Wednesday, 10 March, 2010

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.

  • First class cricket : New South Wales Blues : PH408 (unofficial) -10,729 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : LoteTuqiri (unofficial) -4,957 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Pretoria Bulls (Northern Bulls) : VictorMatfield (unofficial) -4,559 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : NRL : NRL -4,231 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : Collingwood_FC -3,980 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Essendon Bombers : Essendon_FC -3,808 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Adelaide Crows : Adelaide_FC -3,696 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Essendon Bombers : JobeWatson (unofficial) -3,523 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : Collingwood_FC -3,506 (30-Dec-09)
  • Super 14 : Natal Sharks : JohnSmit123 (unofficial) -3,412 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Wellington Hurricanes : Hurricanesrugby -3,395 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Sydney Swans : sydneyswans -3,160 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Essendon Bombers : AngusMonfries (unofficial) -3,052 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : jimstynes (unofficial) -3,004 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : harry_o (unofficial) -2,712 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : harry_o (unofficial) -2,703 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : St. Kilda Saints : stkildafc -2,617 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Wellington Hurricanes : neyza3 (unofficial) -2,446 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : mat_rogers6 (unofficial) -2,219 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : St. Kilda Saints : stkildafc -2,214 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Carlton Blues : Carlton_FC -1,932 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Geelong Cats : Geelong_FC (unofficial) -1,856 (30-Dec-09)
  • Super 14 : Canterbury Crusaders : mornesteyn (unofficial) -1,631 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : GCTitans -1,616 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : New Zealand Warriors (Auckland Warriors) : nzwarriors (unofficial) -1,533 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : St. George Illawarra Dragons : RealBigDell (unofficial) -1,438 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : MVFCVIDEOS (unofficial) -1,432 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : North Queensland Cowboys : northqldcowboys -1,403 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Brisbane Broncos : BrisBroncosClub -1,365 (2-Jan-10)
  • AFL : Hawthorn Hawks : Hawks_AFL (unofficial) -1,336 (9-Mar-10)
  • First class cricket : New South Wales Blues : ClarkeVC (unofficial) -1,230 (10-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : nathan2jones (unofficial) -1,216 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : gomvfc -1,185 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : Wests_Tigers (unofficial) -1,165 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Durban Sharks (Coastal Sharks)(Natal Sharks) : sharksrugby -1,159 (9-Mar-10)
  • National team : Socceroos : socceroos_news (unofficial) -1,099 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : jarryd_hayne (unofficial) -1,078 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Richmond Tigers : Richmond_FC -1,062 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : North Melbourne Kangaroos : northkangaroos -1,052 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : CamSchwab (unofficial) -961 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Port Adelaide Power : PAFC -946 (30-Dec-09)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : Adelaide36ers -908 (8-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Melbourne Vixens : MelbourneVixens -904 (12-Jan-10)
  • First class cricket : Victorian Bushrangers : Bushrangers -895 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Manly Sea Eagles : manlyseaeagles -888 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : PirtekParraEels (unofficial) -853 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : DemonsHQ -841 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : PeterDaicos (unofficial) -838 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Hawthorn Hawks : HawthornFC -823 (30-Dec-09)
  • NRL : Sydney Roosters : sydroosters (unofficial) -800 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : South Sydney Rabbitohs : SSFCRABBITOHS -761 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Wellington Hurricanes : Powza13 (unofficial) -719 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Canterbury Crusaders : crusadersrugby -717 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Brisbane Lions : ALFbrisbane (unofficial) -690 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Central Coast Mariners Football Club : LawrieMcKinna (unofficial) -681 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : West Coast Eagles : WCEofficial -671 (30-Dec-09)
  • NRL : Penrith Panthers : penrithpanthers (unofficial) -644 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : North Queensland Fury FC : nqfuryfc -627 (5-Jan-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : DemonsHQ -624 (30-Dec-09)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : parramatta_eels -618 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : South Sydney Rabbitohs : rabbitohs (unofficial) -617 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Melbourne Tigers : Follow24Hodge (unofficial) -612 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Melbourne Storm : MelbourneStorm_ (unofficial) -605 (8-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : QuadeCooper (unofficial) -594 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Cape Town Stormers (Western Stormers) : THESTORMERS -593 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Wollongong Hawks : wollongonghawks -585 (10-Mar-10)
  • First class cricket : New South Wales Blues : NBRACKEN142 (unofficial) -577 (10-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Wollongong Hawks : wollongonghawks -572 (6-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : Reds_Rugby -560 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : collingwoodnews (unofficial) -545 (8-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : New South Wales Waratahs : HSBCWaratahs -504 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : West Coast Eagles : wingsofperth (unofficial) -503 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : New Zealand Breakers : johnrillie (unofficial) -474 (6-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : RedsRugby (unofficial) -460 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Melbourne Storm : MelbStormRLC (unofficial) -458 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : perthwildcats -457 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : adrianleijer (unofficial) -454 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : South Sydney Rabbitohs : therabbitohs (unofficial) -448 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : mitchlangerak (unofficial) -445 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : St. Kilda Saints : njbrown17 (unofficial) -437 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : ACT Brumbies : BrumbiesRugby -436 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : New Zealand Warriors (Auckland Warriors) : thenzwarriors -434 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : South Dragons : Joeingles7 (unofficial) -431 (6-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Fremantle Dockers : FremantleFC (unofficial) -427 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : North Melbourne Kangaroos : andrewswallow (unofficial) -417 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Central Coast Mariners Football Club : LawrieMcKinna -414 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : AshHarrison1 (unofficial) -410 (9-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Melbourne Vixens : SharelleVixens -400 (12-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : victoryinmelb -392 (5-Jan-10)
  • AFL : Fremantle Dockers : Freo_Dockers (unofficial) -388 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : bigdyman (unofficial) -376 (8-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Adelaide United : adelaideunited -376 (5-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Wellington Phoenix : wgtnphoenixfc -376 (5-Jan-10)
  • AFL : Gold Coast Football Club : GoldCoastFC -373 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Brisbane Lions : AFLbrisbanelion -363 (30-Dec-09)
  • National team : Socceroos : Socceroos -353 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : lukeodwyer (unofficial) -348 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Newcastle Jets : newcastle_jets -338 (5-Jan-10)
  • Super 14 : Natal Sharks : KeeganDaniel (unofficial) -333 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : St. George Illawarra Dragons : mighty_dragons (unofficial) -316 (9-Mar-10)
  • Basketball Australia : Australian Boomers : aussieboomers -307 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Brisbane Roar : BNERoar (unofficial) -300 (5-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Sydney FC : SFCNews (unofficial) -297 (5-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Brisbane Roar : BNERoar (unofficial) -296 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : PlanetEels (unofficial) -293 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : West Coast Eagles : WestCoastEagles (unofficial) -291 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Melbourne Tigers : Wortho33 (unofficial) -285 (6-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Fremantle Dockers : Fremantle_FC -282 (30-Dec-09)
  • NBL : Wollongong Hawks : milisimic (unofficial) -272 (8-Mar-10)
  • First class cricket : Tassie Tigers : crickettas -271 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Brisbane Broncos : BrisbaneBronco (unofficial) -270 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks : SharksOnline (unofficial) -263 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : TsvCrocs -259 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : TsvCrocs -259 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : nickmarvin (unofficial) -251 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Hawthorn Hawks : LanceFranklin (unofficial) -250 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : chomicide (unofficial) -237 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Cairns Taipans : Dusty_Rychart (unofficial) -234 (8-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Adelaide United : adelaidereds -231 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : blueandgoldarmy (unofficial) -225 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : MelbourneFC (unofficial) -223 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Brisbane Roar : brisbaneroar -221 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : beauryan_winger (unofficial) -215 (9-Mar-10)
  • First class cricket : Queensland Bulls : andrew_symonds (unofficial) -215 (10-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Queensland Firebirds : laurafirebirds (unofficial) -213 (3-Jan-10)
  • NSW Premier League : Sydney Olympic : MarkBosnich (unofficial) -208 (9-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Adelaide Thunderbirds : NatTbirds -205 (12-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Canberra Raiders : RaidersCanberra -202 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : West Coast Eagles : MitchJbrown17 (unofficial) -198 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Perth Glory : PerthGlory_FC -190 (5-Jan-10)
  • First class cricket : New South Wales Blues : eddiecowan (unofficial) -183 (10-Mar-10)
  • NBL : New Zealand Breakers : oscarforman (unofficial) -177 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Sydney FC : SydneyFC0910 -174 (5-Jan-10)
  • Netball Victoria : Netball Victoria : netballvic -174 (12-Jan-10)
  • First class cricket : South Australian Redbacks (Southern Redbacks) : RedbacksT20 -173 (8-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : New South Wales Swifts : SusanSwifts -160 (12-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : TheRealSchensh (unofficial) -154 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : TheRealSchensh (unofficial) -154 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : rustyhinder (unofficial) -153 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : victorytwit (unofficial) -144 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : 1eyedeel (unofficial) -143 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Essendon Bombers : essendonfc (unofficial) -143 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Melbourne Rebels : melbournerebels -141 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Gold Coast Football Club : GoldCoastFC -139 (30-Dec-09)
  • WNBL : WNBL : -138 (10-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Brisbane Broncos : broncosbigfan (unofficial) -137 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : ACT Brumbies : Hoilesy (unofficial) -133 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Brisbane Lions : AFLBrisbaneFC -126 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : South Sydney Rabbitohs : benross23 (unofficial) -124 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Western Australia Force (Western Force) : s14_force -118 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : jgovereasy (unofficial) -110 (6-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : jordiemck (unofficial) -102 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Central Cheetahs (Vodacom Cheetahs) : VodacomCheetahs -102 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Hawthorn Hawks : bmsew (unofficial) -100 (9-Mar-10)
  • VFL : Casey Scorpions : CaseyScorpions -100 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Sydney Swans : BionicSwan (unofficial) -99 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : North Melbourne Kangaroos : Marcus__White (unofficial) -99 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : s14_queensland (unofficial) -99 (3-Jan-10)
  • First class cricket : Victorian Bushrangers : petersiddle (unofficial) -99 (10-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks : Fergo1990 (unofficial) -97 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : fakebrycegibbs (unofficial) -93 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Gold Coast United : GCUSC -92 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Brisbane Broncos : broncobasher (unofficial) -91 (9-Mar-10)
  • Rugby League/State of Origin : Queensland Maroons : QLD_Maroons -91 (3-Jan-10)
  • ANZ Championship : New South Wales Swifts : nswswifts -90 (12-Jan-10)
  • VFL : North Ballarat Roosters : NB_Roosters -90 (9-Mar-10)
  • Rugby League/State of Origin : New South Wales Blues : NSWRL -88 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : DarrenNg8 (unofficial) -86 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : mvfcfanzone -84 (5-Jan-10)
  • NSW Premier League : Sydney United : addsie (unofficial) -83 (8-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : ezytaylor (unofficial) -83 (9-Mar-10)
  • Australia Athletics : Australian Flames (national team) : australianflame -83 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Central Coast Mariners Football Club : CCMarinersFC (unofficial) -82 (5-Jan-10)
  • NBL : New Zealand Breakers : NZBreakers -79 (9-Mar-10)
  • First class cricket : Queensland Bulls : qldcricket -72 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : JoshJenkins24 (unofficial) -72 (6-Mar-10)
  • Netball Australia : Netball Australia : NetballAust -72 (12-Jan-10)
  • Netball Australia : Australian Diamonds (national team) : AussieDiamonds -71 (12-Jan-10)
  • ANZ Championship : West Coast Fever : SusanWCFever -66 (12-Jan-10)
  • Gridiron Australia Nationals : WA Raiders : fatloaf (unofficial) -65 (8-Mar-10)
  • Gridiron Australia Nationals : Perth Blitz : fatloaf (unofficial) -65 (8-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Adelaide Thunderbirds : AdelaideTBirds -62 (12-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : BenFitz (unofficial) -62 (6-Mar-10)
  • NRL : St. George Illawarra Dragons : jsaffy (unofficial) -60 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Western Bulldogs : ccaallward (unofficial) -57 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : 36ers (unofficial) -51 (6-Mar-10)
  • Semi Professional Basketball League : Semi Professional Basketball League : SEABL -50 (10-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Sydney FC : SydneyFC -44 (5-Jan-10)
  • NBL : South (Melbourne) Dragons : SAVEOURDRAGONS (unofficial) -44 (10-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Sydney Kings : sydneykings -43 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : VictoriaParkHC (unofficial) -42 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Balmain Tigers : tigers1908 (unofficial) -42 (9-Mar-10)
  • WNBL : Dandenong Jayco Rangers : jennaohea (unofficial) -42 (10-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Fremantle Dockers : ryanmcrowley (unofficial) -41 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : Aaron_Cannings (unofficial) -41 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Newcastle Knights : Corypato (unofficial) -41 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : matesOmelbourne (unofficial) -39 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Manly Sea Eagles : gorgeousgrose (unofficial) -39 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Richmond Tigers : yellow_n_black (unofficial) -38 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : Kegs42 (unofficial) -38 (6-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Essendon Bombers : bomberblitz (unofficial) -37 (9-Mar-10)
  • Claxton Shield : Barbagallo Perth Heat : PerthHeat -35 (3-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : willo43 (unofficial) -35 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Gold Coast Blaze : Vandy21 (unofficial) -33 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Gold Coast Blaze : Vandy21 (unofficial) -33 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : demonwiki (unofficial) -33 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Wollongong Hawks : danjackson9 (unofficial) -32 (8-Mar-10)
  • Netball New South Wales : : Sydney_Netball -31 (12-Jan-10)
  • AFL : St. Kilda Saints : RWBFooty (unofficial) -26 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Fremantle Dockers : briansham (unofficial) -22 (9-Mar-10)
  • Netball New South Wales : Petersham RUFC Netball Club : PetershamNetbal -22 (12-Jan-10)
  • Brisbane Netball Association : ACE Netball Club : ACENetball -21 (12-Jan-10)
  • WNBL : Dandenong Jayco Rangers : JaycoRangers -21 (10-Mar-10)
  • Plenty Valley Netball Association : Orcas Netball : Orcas_Netball -20 (12-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : parraeels (unofficial) -19 (9-Mar-10)
  • Basketball Australia: Australian Opals: AustralianOpals – 19 (9-Mar-10)
  • NSW Premier League : Manly United : ManlyUnited -18 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : ToffCedar (unofficial) -17 (8-Mar-10)
  • VFL : Port Melbourne Borough : BoroughBoy (unofficial) -14 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : cameronwhiting (unofficial) -13 (6-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Fremantle Dockers : bc8977 (unofficial) -10 (9-Mar-10)
  • WNBL : Logan Thunder : loganthunder -8 (10-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : brad_393 (unofficial) -5 (8-Mar-10)
  • Gridiron Australia Nationals : Perth Blitz : perthblitz -1 (9-Mar-10)If there is anyone  I missed, or anything that really surprised you, let me know.

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

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    Most popular Australian athlete and team related Twitter accounts by total followers

    Posted by Laura on Tuesday, 9 March, 2010

    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.

  • First class cricket : New South Wales Blues : PH408 (unofficial) -10,729 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : LoteTuqiri (unofficial) -4,957 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Pretoria Bulls (Northern Bulls) : VictorMatfield (unofficial) -4,559 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : NRL : NRL -4,231 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : Collingwood_FC -3,980 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Essendon Bombers : Essendon_FC -3,808 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Adelaide Crows : Adelaide_FC -3,696 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : Collingwood_FC -3,506 (30-Dec-09)
  • Super 14 : Natal Sharks : JohnSmit123 (unofficial) -3,412 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Wellington Hurricanes : Hurricanesrugby -3,395 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Sydney Swans : sydneyswans -3,160 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : harry_o (unofficial) -2,703 (8-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Wellington Hurricanes : neyza3 (unofficial) -2,446 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : mat_rogers6 (unofficial) -2,219 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : St. Kilda Saints : stkildafc -2,214 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Carlton Blues : Carlton_FC -1,932 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Geelong Cats : Geelong_FC -1,856 (30-Dec-09)
  • Super 14 : Canterbury Crusaders : mornesteyn (unofficial) -1,631 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : GCTitans -1,616 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : St. George Illawarra Dragons : RealBigDell (unofficial) -1,438 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : MVFCVIDEOS (unofficial) -1,432 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : North Queensland Cowboys : northqldcowboys -1,403 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Brisbane Broncos : BrisBroncosClub -1,365 (2-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : gomvfc -1,185 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : Wests_Tigers (unofficial) -1,165 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Durban Sharks (Coastal Sharks)(Natal Sharks) : sharksrugby -1,159 (9-Mar-10)
  • National team : Socceroos : socceroos_news (unofficial) -1,099 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : jarryd_hayne (unofficial) -1,078 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Richmond Tigers : Richmond_FC -1,062 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : North Melbourne Kangaroos : northkangaroos -1,052 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Port Adelaide Power : PAFC -946 (30-Dec-09)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : Adelaide36ers -908 (8-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Melbourne Vixens : MelbourneVixens -904 (12-Jan-10)
  • First class cricket : Victorian Bushrangers : Bushrangers -895 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Manly Sea Eagles : manlyseaeagles -888 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : PirtekParraEels (unofficial) -853 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : PeterDaicos (unofficial) -838 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Hawthorn Hawks : HawthornFC -823 (30-Dec-09)
  • NRL : Sydney Roosters : sydroosters (unofficial) -800 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : South Sydney Rabbitohs : SSFCRABBITOHS -761 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Wellington Hurricanes : Powza13 (unofficial) -719 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Canterbury Crusaders : crusadersrugby -717 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : West Coast Eagles : WCEofficial -671 (30-Dec-09)
  • NRL : Penrith Panthers : penrithpanthers (unofficial) -644 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : North Queensland Fury FC : nqfuryfc -627 (5-Jan-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : DemonsHQ -624 (30-Dec-09)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : parramatta_eels -618 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : South Sydney Rabbitohs : rabbitohs (unofficial) -617 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Melbourne Tigers : Follow24Hodge (unofficial) -612 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Melbourne Storm : MelbourneStorm_ (unofficial) -605 (8-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : QuadeCooper (unofficial) -594 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Cape Town Stormers (Western Stormers) : THESTORMERS -593 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Wollongong Hawks : wollongonghawks -572 (6-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : Reds_Rugby -560 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : collingwoodnews (unofficial) -545 (8-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : New South Wales Waratahs : HSBCWaratahs -504 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : New Zealand Breakers : johnrillie (unofficial) -474 (6-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : RedsRugby (unofficial) -460 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Melbourne Storm : MelbStormRLC (unofficial) -458 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : perthwildcats -457 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : adrianleijer (unofficial) -454 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : South Sydney Rabbitohs : therabbitohs (unofficial) -448 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : mitchlangerak (unofficial) -445 (8-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : ACT Brumbies : BrumbiesRugby -436 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : New Zealand Warriors (Auckland Warriors) : thenzwarriors (unofficial) -434 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : South Dragons : Joeingles7 (unofficial) -431 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Central Coast Mariners Football Club : LawrieMcKinna -414 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : AshHarrison1 (unofficial) -410 (9-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Melbourne Vixens : SharelleVixens -400 (12-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : victoryinmelb -392 (5-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Adelaide United : adelaideunited -376 (5-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Wellington Phoenix : wgtnphoenixfc -376 (5-Jan-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : bigdyman (unofficial) -376 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Brisbane Lions : AFLbrisbanelion -363 (30-Dec-09)
  • National team : Socceroos : Socceroos -353 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : lukeodwyer (unofficial) -348 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Newcastle Jets : newcastle_jets -338 (5-Jan-10)
  • Super 14 : Natal Sharks : KeeganDaniel (unofficial) -333 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : St. George Illawarra Dragons : mighty_dragons (unofficial) -316 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Brisbane Roar : BNERoar (unofficial) -300 (5-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Sydney FC : SFCNews (unofficial) -297 (5-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Brisbane Roar : BNERoar (unofficial) -296 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : PlanetEels (unofficial) -293 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Melbourne Tigers : Wortho33 (unofficial) -285 (6-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Fremantle Dockers : Fremantle_FC -282 (30-Dec-09)
  • NBL : Wollongong Hawks : milisimic (unofficial) -272 (8-Mar-10)
  • First class cricket : Tassie Tigers : crickettas -271 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks : SharksOnline (unofficial) -263 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : TsvCrocs -259 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : TsvCrocs -259 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : nickmarvin (unofficial) -251 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : chomicide (unofficial) -237 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Cairns Taipans : Dusty_Rychart (unofficial) -234 (8-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Adelaide United : adelaidereds -231 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : blueandgoldarmy (unofficial) -225 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Brisbane Roar : brisbaneroar -221 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : beauryan_winger (unofficial) -215 (9-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Queensland Firebirds : laurafirebirds (unofficial) -213 (3-Jan-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Adelaide Thunderbirds : NatTbirds -205 (12-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Canberra Raiders : RaidersCanberra -202 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Perth Glory : PerthGlory_FC -190 (5-Jan-10)
  • NBL : New Zealand Breakers : oscarforman (unofficial) -177 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Sydney FC : SydneyFC0910 -174 (5-Jan-10)
  • Netball Victoria : Netball Victoria : netballvic -174 (12-Jan-10)
  • First class cricket : South Australian Redbacks (Southern Redbacks) : RedbacksT20 -173 (8-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : New South Wales Swifts : SusanSwifts -160 (12-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : TheRealSchensh (unofficial) -154 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : TheRealSchensh (unofficial) -154 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : rustyhinder (unofficial) -153 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : victorytwit (unofficial) -144 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : 1eyedeel (unofficial) -143 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Gold Coast Football Club : GoldCoastFC -139 (30-Dec-09)
  • NRL : Brisbane Broncos : broncosbigfan (unofficial) -137 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : jgovereasy (unofficial) -110 (6-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Central Cheetahs (Vodacom Cheetahs) : VodacomCheetahs -102 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : s14_queensland (unofficial) -99 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks : Fergo1990 (unofficial) -97 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : fakebrycegibbs (unofficial) -93 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Gold Coast United : GCUSC -92 (5-Jan-10)
  • Rugby League/State of Origin : Queensland Maroons : QLD_Maroons -91 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Brisbane Broncos : broncobasher (unofficial) -91 (9-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : New South Wales Swifts : nswswifts -90 (12-Jan-10)
  • Rugby League/State of Origin : New South Wales Blues : NSWRL -88 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : DarrenNg8 (unofficial) -86 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : mvfcfanzone -84 (5-Jan-10)
  • NSW Premier League : Sydney United : addsie (unofficial) -83 (8-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Central Coast Mariners Football Club : CCMarinersFC (unofficial) -82 (5-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : JoshJenkins24 (unofficial) -72 (6-Mar-10)
  • Netball Australia : Netball Australia : NetballAust -72 (12-Jan-10)
  • First class cricket : Queensland Bulls : qldcricket -72 (8-Mar-10)
  • Netball Australia : Australian Diamonds (national team) : AussieDiamonds -71 (12-Jan-10)
  • ANZ Championship : West Coast Fever : SusanWCFever -66 (12-Jan-10)
  • Gridiron Australia Nationals : WA Raiders : fatloaf (unofficial) -65 (8-Mar-10)
  • Gridiron Australia Nationals : Perth Blitz : fatloaf (unofficial) -65 (8-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Adelaide Thunderbirds : AdelaideTBirds -62 (12-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : BenFitz (unofficial) -62 (6-Mar-10)
  • NRL : St. George Illawarra Dragons : jsaffy (unofficial) -60 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : 36ers (unofficial) -51 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Sydney FC : SydneyFC -44 (5-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Sydney Kings : sydneykings -43 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : VictoriaParkHC (unofficial) -42 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Balmain Tigers : tigers1908 (unofficial) -42 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Newcastle Knights : Corypato (unofficial) -41 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : Aaron_Cannings (unofficial) -41 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Manly Sea Eagles : gorgeousgrose (unofficial) -39 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : Kegs42 (unofficial) -38 (6-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Richmond Tigers : yellow_n_black (unofficial) -38 (8-Mar-10)
  • Claxton Shield : Barbagallo Perth Heat : PerthHeat -35 (3-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : willo43 (unofficial) -35 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Gold Coast Blaze : Vandy21 (unofficial) -33 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Gold Coast Blaze : Vandy21 (unofficial) -33 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Wollongong Hawks : danjackson9 (unofficial) -32 (8-Mar-10)
  • Netball New South Wales : : Sydney_Netball -31 (12-Jan-10)
  • Netball New South Wales : Petersham RUFC Netball Club : PetershamNetbal -22 (12-Jan-10)
  • Brisbane Netball Association : ACE Netball Club : ACENetball -21 (12-Jan-10)
  • Plenty Valley Netball Association : Orcas Netball : Orcas_Netball -20 (12-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : parraeels (unofficial) -19 (9-Mar-10)
  • NSW Premier League : Manly United : ManlyUnited -18 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : ToffCedar (unofficial) -17 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : cameronwhiting (unofficial) -13 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : brad_393 (unofficial) -5 (8-Mar-10)
  • NWBL : Wenty Leagues WheelKings : -0 (6-Mar-10)
  • Victorian Amateur Football Association : University Blues : -0 (6-Mar-10)

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    Based on data to date: Biggest Australian sports fandom

    Posted by Laura on Saturday, 9 January, 2010

    The following chart is based on the data gathered for posts to date.  It is intended to give a general idea as to the comparative size of various sports fandom communities to each other.  Blanks indicate that no data regarding that team on the service has been gathered; it does not indicate a size of zero for that particularly service.  If you would like specific data regarding a team on a service to understand where that number of coming from, please comment or e-mail me at laura[at]fanhistory[dot]com.  I am more than happy to explain it.

    Leagues with teams at the bottom include AFL, AHL, A-League, Claxton Shield, Gridiron Australia Nationals, KFC Twenty20 Big Bash, NBL, Rugby League/State of Origin, Victorian Amateur Football Association.  The AFL’s expansion team puts one of their teams in the bottom 10.  Soccer teams, baseball teams, American/Gridiron football, basketball, netball, rugby union, ice hockey, rugby league and Australian rules football are at the bottom.  Some of these sports can be accounted for because of they are not popular sports in the country.  Others can be accounted for because the teams are part of secondary leagues and competitions.  It will be interesting to see how and if popularity shifts as more data is added from additional networks.

    Edited to add: This post mostly came about as I needed to take a break from gathering Yahoo!Groups data.  The directory currently is not working for me.  It limits my ability to data gather as a result.  Two of the big things in terms of moving a team up or down the above list are Facebook and Twitter.  Facebook has a lot of voids and that’s easy enough to fill in.  I did that.  Things at the bottom didn’t change much but things at the top really did change with four clubs above the 40,000 fans threshold.

    Given the huge leaps there, I cannot really foresee the top order changing much, especially as the Twitter data is already there. The other social networks out there just do not have populations to provide an audience that size. Facebook claims that 7,680,420 people are from Australia on its service. When 50,000 list their interest as the Magpies or the Blues, well, that’s .6% of all Australians on Facebook. Or put another way, 3 out of every 500 Australians on the site list one of those two teams as an interest. For a sports team, that seems really high and about on par for the most popular sports team in other countries. (The New York Yankees have about 785,000 fans for an American population of about 101,468,000 on Facebook. That puts the percentage at about .7%.)

    Yahoo!Groups doesn’t have a large population. While bebo is popular in Australia, it doesn’t provide numbers even close to this. The only way to get numbers that large are to find community specific sites which require registration.

    More edited to add: One of the things I did not realize with the various data sets I’ve been compiling is that about a third of the teams in the National Rugby League aren’t included. My bad. Most of my focus has been on the AFL. Hence, the oversight. I’ve compiled that again and rather than update with a third image, just going to say that there have been no major shake ups. The Brisbane Broncos remain on thop. The St. George Dragons are at the bottom with 240 fans. Second to last are the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs with 1,580. No team really has the big number of fans that the AFL has.

    More editing: I normally tried variations of a team’s name for Facebook to make sure I get the highest number.  In the case of St. George Illawarra Dragons, I goofed and got the one that listed 240.  When I used St Geoergillawarra Dragons combed with St. George Illawarra Dragons, I got 9,200.  This change will show up in any future data analysis.  The collection date has always been changed to today just so I know when I got that number.

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    The AFL on Yahoo!Groups

    Posted by Laura on Thursday, 7 January, 2010

    There is a directory for Yahoo!Groups dedicated to the Australian Football League.   There are 276 lists found in it.   There are an additional 195 listed in the Clubs and Team subcategory.  And then there are the following counts for team specific subcategories:

    It is possible to get data from some of these lists if you either join them or member data is public.  (scrapheap_afl for instance has 25 members and hasn’t been updated since August 2009.   Eight people list their ages with an average age of 38. Eight people list their country.  Two are from Australia, two are from the United Kingdom and four are from the United States.  Nine people list their gender and all are male.)  For mailing lists that require joining to get the information, most of them have open membership.  Spammers than join and post unrelated, offtopic spam.  This spam problem thus makes the data very suspect.  The number of communities is also suspect because there are several instances of incorrect categorization.  For instance, there is an Indian department soccer team grouped in the Western Bulldogs category.

    If we were looking for a reason to use this data, it might be best used for historical purposes: When were these communities created and when were they most active?  When did they go inactive?  This data would have to be currated manually as the suspect groups would need to be removed and periods of high spam posts would need to identified.  Hopefully, in the next day or so, I can provide some data that has the creation dates of Yahoo!Groups to help begin to analyze these patterns.

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    Australian sports fandom on Facebook: Random data is random

    Posted by Laura on Wednesday, 6 January, 2010

    I’ve not really spent much time looking for fan communities for Australian sports teams on Facebook.  This is for a couple of reasons.  First, the data from Facebook’s Advertising Target Selection is often subject to wild fluctuations in the course of small periods of time.  In the case of one search, there was a 200 person drop in ten minutes on a sample size of about 3,000.  That’s pretty significant and calls into  question all the data.  The second reason is that it is hard to get data out of Facebook’s Advertising Target Selection.  For LiveJournal, bebo and blogger, I might not be able to get all a user’s info but I have enough that I can easily tell you that the average Northern Territory fan of a team is this age.  I can identify specific individuals and in some cases make educated guesses about the reliability of the data.    With Facebook, all I get is a number based on the selection.  If I want to find out how many female fans there of the Brisbane Lions from Queensland, I have to make a number of selections to get that number.  (But I only get that based on city for Facebook, not state.)  If I want to find out how many male fans there are, I have to go back to Facebook and make another series of selections.  I can’t do that with in the context of my own data set compiled / exported from Facebook.  This makes it really impossible to compile a complete listing of data in a timely manner.  If I want to find out how many 18 year olds are fans of the Canberra Raiders, I have to make that selection one at a time.  Aggravating.

    Still, I wanted an idea of what is going on with Australia’s sports fandom on Facebook in terms of location and demographics.  What I thus have is a load of random data.  (Random data is random.) I tended to focus on cities and teams, with both chosen mostly at random. I can’t find an easy way to display or map this so the table is located below for you to look at.

    Before that, some things I found interesting in this data:

    • Brisbane Roar’s male fans are double the amount of their female counter parts.
    • Brisbane Roar fans also to be single with 420 married compared to 180 married.
    • The Perth Wildcats don’t have a fanbase in the Northern Territory or Tasmania.
    • Queensland Maroons have 40 fans in Rockhampton, Queensland compared to the 8,100 fans they have in Sydney.
    • New Zealand’s Canterbury Crusaders have the same fan community size, 80, in Sydney as the do in Cranbourne.
    • The Melbourne Vixens are the only netball team to be listed as an interest from the Tasman ANZ Championship teams.
    • St. Kilda is more popular than the Sydney Swans in Adelaide.
    • Essendon Bombers are more likely to be college graduates than currently in high school.  At least for those on Facebook.
    • In the AFL, the Essendon Bombers are more popular than the Geelong Cats, Hawthorn Hawks, North Melbourne Kangaroos, Richmond Tigers, St. Kilda Saints, and Sydney Swans for all Australians on Facebook.
    • The Adelaide Crows are more popular in Brisbane than in Perth.
    • Between the Perth Wildcats, Parramatta Eels, St. Kilda Football Club, Penrith Panthers, South Sydney Rabbitohs , Sydney Swans, and Wests Tigers, the mot popular teams in Hobart is St. Kilda with the Sydney Swans coming in second and the Parramatta Eels coming in third.
    • Darwin only has 4,360  people from the city on Facebook.  Between, Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Gold Coast Titans, Geelong Cats, Perth Wildcats, Hawthorn Hawks, Newcastle Knights, Parramatta Eels, St. Kilda Football Club,South Sydney Rabbitohs, and Wests Tigers, no teams has more than 20 fans in the city and the 50 mile area around it.
    • In Perth, the Perth Wildcats are more popular than the Perth Glory.

    Edited to add on January 9, 2010: I normally tried variations of a team’s name for Facebook to make sure I get the highest number.  In the case of St. George Illawarra Dragons, I goofed and got the one that listed 240.  When I used St Geoergillawarra Dragons combed with St. George Illawarra Dragons, I got 9,200.  This change will show up in any future data analysis.  The collection date has always been changed to today just so I know when I got that number.

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