THE AFL has posted another year of stunning growth with revenue, membership and participation at record levels in 2008.

According to a statement released by the AFL on Wednesday, the average crowd for the season was just under 37,000 per match, which ranks third in world among professional sporting competitions behind only the United States’ National Football League and Germany’s elite soccer competition, the Bundesliga.

Financially, the game has never been healthier, as reflected by a number of record figures.

Revenue of $302m was a $17.3m increase on 2007 and the first time it had topped $300m. The operating surplus of $204m, of which $187.9m was handed over to community football and AFL clubs, also smashed previous financial records.

The off balance sheet drivers of the game grew steadily with records in membership, attendances and participation.

More than 574,000 people were club members in 2008 compared to 532,697 in 2007 while attendances to all matches was 7,426,306 – a jump of 23,460.

This impressive result came despite the league spreading the game across the country to limited-capacity venues such as Launceston (four games), Carrara (three games), Manuka Oval (two games) and Marrara Oval (one game).

The participation of 693,052 players in 2008 represented an increase of 54,224 or 8.5 per cent, but those figures only tell part of the story.

Thirty per cent of the total participation is now in Queensland and New South Wales. In 1997, that figure was just 14 per cent.

Auskick continued to be at the heart of our national game with 163,885 children getting a taste of the action, a rise of 1.7 per cent.

However, there was also a solid 2.6 per cent jump in community club football with 290,590 players in 12,024 teams.

The broadcasters reached an enormous amount of fans in the year.

The Toyota AFL Grand Final was watched by an average national audience of 3.247m people and was the second most watched program of any kind in Australia, behind only the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. The average television audience per round during 2008 was 4.668m.

An average of 1.3m people also tuned in to matches on radio in the five mainland capital cities each week, an increase of five per cent.

AFL Commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick said the AFL was very proud of the achievements.

“To have achieved record attendances, topped off by a grand final crowd of more than 100,000, memberships of 574,000 and participation well in advance of all our estimates is a great credit to our supporters, our clubs, our administrators and players across all levels of the game,” Fitzpatrick said.

“In the past five years we have grown strongly with more people watching, participating and attending our game as well as expanding the game significantly into northern markets and setting the foundations for new teams on the Gold Coast and in western Sydney.”

“We also had a series of 150th anniversary activities, including the Community Football Weekend, where more than 1.6m people attended community football matches right across suburban and regional Australia during the May 9-11 weekend.”

The AFL Commission also released the details of the executive packages for 2008.

The package for AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou, including superannuation and performance bonuses based on achieving key performance indicators, was $1.596 million while the AFL Executive (10) were paid salaries and bonuses totalling $4.68 million.

Fitzpatrick said the packages were based on reaching a series of key growth figures, which had been achieved.

“The executive team is assessed on a range of different categories and how the game is going and we have growth at all levels. This leadership team has taken us through a period of extended growth and has ensured that the AFL is not only the leading sport in the country but one that has committed to ploughing $1.4bn into the football community between 2007-2011,” he said.

“The last media rights deal underpinned that investment and that growth and also underpinned the biggest ever investment in our AFL clubs, in community facilities and community football and in expanding the reach of our game.

"We are entering a tough period where we face a downturn in the economy, which will put pressure on the AFL and its clubs. The AFL is addressing this with strict cost control. 

"The issue of securing better financial returns from stadium deals, particularly at Docklands and the MCG, along with satisfactory progress with the Gold Coast and western Sydney expansion, will be a key focus of executive success in 2009."