1,000 more competing club members have the chance to secure grand final tickets in 2024 after AFL CEO Andrew Dillon announced the updated allocations on Wednesday.
In a league statement, Andrew Dillon announced that 35,000 AFL competing club members (17,500 per club) will be able to attend the last Saturday in September this year, with the extra 1,000 tickets coming from premium hospitality and AFL corporate allocations.
โThe Toyota AFL Grand Final is one of the biggest and best sporting events in the world and the fortunate reality is we could sell out the 100,000 seat MCG four times over, so we need to continue to find the balance," Dillon said.
โFor the ticketing release in September we will always prioritise our competing club members, with the biggest share of tickets available to those two competing clubs, and this year more available to those members."
Following today's decision, members of competing clubs, AFL and MCC make up 75,000 of the ticket allocations, 75% of the MCG's capacity. It's the first increase of competing club member tickets since 2017, when ticket allocation increased from 30,000 to 34,000.
Dillon said that the "heartbeat of a match day" deserves to be rewarded for their dedication to the game and their clubs.
"The commitment of the AFL is to ensure we can get the two competing club members both for this year and beyond more tickets."
Dillon spoke with all 18 Club CEOs at the quarterly CEO conference in Perth, committing to collectively working with the clubs to ensure more tickets for competing club members become available in seasons to come.
The increase of tickets for competing club members will be welcomed by fans after a debacle on Ticketek affected the Collingwood member's ballot for the 2023 Grand Final. It led to Collingwood CEO Craig Kelly calling for an increase in competing club member allocations to "at least 20,000 tickets" per club.
Dillon also noted the ticketing, pricing and on-sale dates for finals will be communicated soon, with members the first to access tickets. Last year's first week of finals recorded two 92,000+ attendances at the MCG, and a near-soldout Gabba.
Additionally, the Round 24 fixture will not be officially confirmed for more than two weeks, set to be announced following Round 21. Round 24 features matches of Brisbane vs Essendon, Melbourne vs Collingwood, and Fremantle vs Port Adelaide, which could shape a 13-team jostle for finals.
