Austadiums Year That Was – 2020
We look back at the year that was in 2020 on Austadiums to reveal the most viewed content, trends, crowd figures and most attended sports stadiums.
While 2020 was a year we’d like to forget on so many fronts, it was a solid year for Austadiums with a re-launch of the site, many new features and a boost in popularity. More of that below, but first we look at our ‘Top 5’, which you can compare to 2019 here.
TOP FIVE VIEWED STADIUMS
1. Optus Stadium
2. Adelaide Oval
3. Gabba
4. Queensland Country Bank Stadium
5. Stadium Australia
Perth’s Optus Stadium was the most-viewed venue on Austadiums for a third year running, albeit by a lesser margin this time. In 2019, it had twice as many views as second-placed Bankwest Stadium, but just snuck ahead of Adelaide Oval by a few hundred views in 2020. Adelaide Oval was a big mover, from seventh into second, as was the Gabba into third spot from ninth. The MCG and Marvel Stadium dropped out due to a lack of events forced upon them by Covid-19. Townsville’s spectacular new home of the NQ Cowboys attracted plenty of interest, being the fourth most viewed stadium. Additionally, the top three search terms on the site during 2020 were MCG, Optus Stadium and Adelaide Oval.
TOP FIVE STADIUM NEWS ARTICLES
1. Sydney Football Stadium construction commences
2. $51m Concord Oval redevelopment approved
3. Australia/NZ 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup stadiums
4. Melbourne Arena to be renamed in honour of John Cain
5. Top 10 Biggest Cricket Stadiums in the World
The rebuild of the Sydney Football Stadium (Allianz Stadium) continues to attract plenty of interest, with the commencement of construction being the most-read article on Austadiums during 2020. Sign up to the Austadiums Newsletter to receive the latest stadium news direct to your inbox.
Austadiums is a primary source of sports fixtures and attendance figures and during 2020, the site listed a total of 1,080 sports events (down by 250 due to cancelled/postponed events). Attendance figures were posted for 662 of these (noting that 113 of the remaining events were closed to the public). The total attendance figure across all events was 5,975,404 (down from 18,683,771 in 2019), while the average attendance was 5,533 (down from 17,062).
TOP FIVE ATTENDANCES
1. Australian Open (d6) – 93,709 (Melbourne Park)
2. ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Final – 86,174 (MCG)
3. Australian Open (d5) – 85,470 (Melbourne Park)
4. Australian Open (d2) – 83,015 (Melbourne Park)
5. Australian Open (d3) – 79,775 (Melbourne Park)
The Australian Open dominated the top attendances, being held in January before Covid-19 hit in March, taking eight of the top nine spots, with the ICC Women’s World Cup Final at the MCG in front of more than 86,000 fans in second spot, but the largest attendance held within an individual stadium.
Attendance figures for sports events held in Melbourne took the top 11 spots (up from 10 in 2019) and if we look at events held in individual stadiums (which excludes the Australian Open held at Melbourne Park across multiple venues), after the World Cup Final in top spot, the next top events were: BBL Stars v Renegades (54,478 at Marvel), AFL Bushfire Relief game (51,052 at Marvel), State of Origin III (49,155 at Suncorp), NRL Grand Final (37,303 at ANZ).
Looking at the two major football codes, the AFL outdrew the NRL in terms of attendance figures – view our analysis here.
TOP FIVE ATTENDED STADIUMS
1. Adelaide Oval – 535,611
2. Optus Stadium – 519,435
3. Gabba – 420,634
4. Melbourne Cricket Ground – 355,062
5. Sydney Cricket Ground – 330,268
The MCG usually dominates the most-attended stadiums list, but no AFL crowds during 2020 meant it slipped from top spot, but still featured in our top five despite 2.9 million less people attending the iconic venue. Adelaide Oval took top spot, closely followed by Optus Stadium. Note that these figures include sports events only and excludes concerts and other non-sport events. To find out more about what attendances we cover on Austadiums, visit our crowds page and get in touch with us if you would like to find out more.
With sport around the world essentially coming to a halt for the best part of three months and spectators not attending stadiums at all and then in lower numbers, there was a period of relatively low traffic on Austadiums, yet throughout 2020, the number of visits to the site still increased by almost 2% compared to the previous year.
It was a busy year for Austadiums with a new look & feel revealed and a host of new features, highlighted by sports fixture pages, nearby stadiums and stadiums map, new homepage and more recently, city pages. Find out more about the improvements here.
We had the biggest update to the stadium database yet, with 48 new stadiums added to the site and countless existing stadiums updated and enhanced, plus new photos and the addition of proposed and former stadiums.
We again thank our many fans for their continued support of the Austadiums website during what has been a tough 2020 and look forward to a brighter 2021.
