AFL ‘Gather Round’ to stay in South Australia

Steve Larkin | April 16, 2023

The success of the AFL’s inaugural Gather Round has led to a deal that locks in South Australia as host of the football festival for the next three years.

All nine matches have sold out this week, with the AFL reporting more than 220,000 fans attended fixtures at Adelaide Oval, Norwood Oval and Mount Barker.

More than 60,000 fans bought tickets from interstate, driving a reported $85 million economic benefit for SA.

“South Australia really turned it on,” AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said.

“Gather Round and all the activity across the state, the nine matches, the footy festival and the community football engagement has been some of the best days and events the AFL has ever delivered.

“It has been a success because everyone in football got behind the idea; clubs, players, corporate partners and most importantly our fans, to deliver an extraordinary few days.”

As part of the new three-year deal, the AFL and SA government have committed to establishing a community football legacy fund that will benefit local clubs in the state.

Fixture dates for next year will be confirmed in the coming weeks to give fans time to book travel plans.

“While the concept has real momentum, and we plan on taking it to other states around the country, we also feel in order for it to be as successful in the other states we need to continue to build out the concept in South Australia,” McLachlan said.

“The reality is we only had a few months to pull this together, and we hope by locking it in now we are giving everyone a longer runway to put together a bigger and even better event, and our fans certainty around booking travel and accommodation.”

On Sunday morning, SA premier Peter Malinauskas would not disclose how much his government had spent to secure Gather Round this year.

He said the figure was “less than half” of the $40 million major events fund.