AFL deputy chief executive officer Gillon McLachlan said he wanted to thank all AFL supporters across the country who had attended a match this weekend for being part of the new record, eclipsing the previous mark of of 367,974 achieved in round 22, 1998.
"The record attendance for this weekend owes a great debt to the work of the AFL clubs and players across the competition in building their relationships with supporters, and we are building towards a tremendous finals series," Mr McLachlan said.
The previous mark was established in the former 16-team competition and the AFL acknowledges the inclusion of the GWS Giants and the Gold Coast Suns across the 2011-2012 seasons allows the AFL to now play nine matches per round, albeit the vast majority of games involving the Suns and Giants are played at smaller boutique stadiums with less capacity than the recent average AFL match attendance of 36,908 (2010 season of 176 games with 16 teams), 34,893 (2011 season of 187 games with 17 teams) and 31,509 (2012 season of 198 games with 18 teams).
To this point of the season, the AFL has already had seven matches in excess of 80,000 fans, equalling the best mark in the game's history with eight rounds remaining. As at the end of round 15, total AFL attendance for the 2013 season is at 4,178,571, compared to 4,107,305 fans to the same point last year, a rise of 1.7 per cent.
The best attendances for a single round in the history of the game:
371,212 - round 15, 2013
367,974 – round 22, 1998
367,792 – round one, 2012
365,507 – round one, 2013
364,544 – round one, 2007
361,003 – round 17, 2009
357,948 – round 21, 2007
350,885 – round three, 2008
349,489 – round one, 2009
347,824 – round six, 2010
