Austadiums Year That Was – 2021
We look back at the year that was in 2021 on Austadiums to reveal the most viewed content, trends, crowd figures and most attended sports stadiums.
Sport came back to life in 2021 after the disaster that was 2020… then covid struck again in the back-half of the year, forcing events to be relocated, postponed, cancelled, or played in empty stadiums. Still, a 70% increase in traffic to Austadiums showed things were at least starting to return to some sense of normality.
Let’s kick things off by taking a look at our ‘Top 5’ from 2021 and if you want to compare the results to previous years, see 2020 and 2019 results.
TOP FIVE VIEWED STADIUMS
1. Optus Stadium
2. UTAS Stadium
3. Adelaide Oval
4. Melbourne Cricket Ground
5. Marvel Stadium
Perth’s Optus Stadium was once again the most-viewed venue on Austadiums. Incredibly, it has been the most view venue in each of the four years since it opened, while its popularity was again confirmed as it took out the top award in the fan-voted Stadium Awards for a second consecutive time.
The AFL Grand Final and Finals matches held in Perth cemented its position, while rare AFL Finals matches held in Tasmania boosted UTAS Stadium into second position on the most-viewed list. The MCG and Marvel Stadium returned to the top 5 with the return of live sport to Melbourne, after missing out the previous year.
TOP FIVE STADIUM NEWS ARTICLES
1. Brisbane 2032 Olympic venues announced
2. Blundstone Arena to host fifth Ashes Test
3. New-look Gabba central to 2032 Brisbane Olympics
4. Calls to restore Calder Park Raceway to its former glory
5. Ballymore redevelopment set to kick-off
The announcement of Brisbane winning the rights to host the 2032 Olympic Games sparked a surge in interest, with two of the top three articles related to which venues will be used during the Games in ten years’ time. Again, it was a rare event heading to Tasmania, this time the recent fifth Ashes Test at Blundstone Arena, which earned position two in the list of most-read articles.
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Austadiums is the ultimate database for Australian sports events and during 2021, there were 1354 events listed (up from 1,080 in 2020 which was impacted by more cancelled events). Of these, 109 were closed to the public (just down from 113 in 2020) and 580 had restricted capacity. The total attendance figure across all events was 10,561,418 (up from 5,975,404 in 2020 and down from 18,683,771 in 2019), while the average attendance across the 1032 events was 10,234 (up from 5,533 in 2020 and down from 17,062 in 2019).
TOP FIVE ATTENDANCES
1. AFL: Collingwood v Essendon – 78,113 (MCG)
2. AFL Grand Final – 61,118 (Optus Stadium)
3. AFL: PF - Melbourne v Geelong – 58,599 (Optus Stadium)
4. AFL: Essendon v Carlton – 57,447 (MCG)
5. Boxing Day Test (D1) – 57,100 (MCG)
With stadium restrictions easing, big AFL crowds returned to dominate the list of top attendances. Looking at the top 20 events, AFL matches occupied 16 of these, while 18 events were played at either the MCG or Optus Stadium, with the remaining two at Suncorp Stadium.
TOP FIVE ATTENDED STADIUMS
1. Melbourne Cricket Ground – 1,287,518
2. Optus Stadium – 1,128,793
3. Adelaide Oval – 868,267
4. Suncorp Stadium – 807,980
5. Marvel Stadium – 746,704
The MCG returned to top spot on the list of most attended stadiums, with the return of AFL crowds helping almost 1.3 million spectators through the turnstiles – still well down on the 3.2 million that attended the iconic venue in 2019. Optus Stadium held onto second position and more than doubled its attendances from 2020, dropping Adelaide Oval to third, while Suncorp Stadium was fourth thanks to relocated events and Marvel Stadium returned to the list.
TOP FIVE ATTENDED CITIES
1. Melbourne – 2,772,350
2. Sydney – 1,699,891
3. Perth – 1,513,917
4. Brisbane – 1,482,665
5. Adelaide – 1,114,567
A new ‘top 5’ for our year in review, as we reveal the cities which had the highest attendances across 2021. Melbourne sits on top of the list with 2.7 million (average of 8609 per event), followed by Sydney with 1.6 million (7112 average) and Perth 1.5 million (12,939 average). Brisbane averaged 9504 and Adelaide 8845.
A reminder that these figures are calculated from all sports events listed on Austadiums where crowd figures are available and may not include smaller events, such as state league matches. To find out more about what sports attendances we cover on Austadiums, visit our crowds page or get in touch with us if you would like to find out more.
Reflecting on 2021 for the Austadiums website, it’s been another significant year of growth, both in terms of traffic and content. Visits to the site increased by 74% compared to 2020 (compared to a 2% increase in 2020 from 2019, despite covid impacting traffic after March).
There was a 55% increase in news content compared to the previous year, while a further 23 venues were added to the stadium database, bringing the total number up to 557.
The year wrapped up with the 2021 Stadium Awards which again proved popular with thousands of votes submitted. As was the case the last time they were run in 2019, Optus Stadium took out the main prize, named Australia’s best stadium in the public vote. Significant media interest has followed the awards which is fantastic to see.
We once again thank the many fans of Austadiums who continue to visit and support the website and we look forward to bringing you more of what we love in 2022.
