The Tasmania Devils won’t join the AFL until 2028 but the appetite for Aussie Rules in the Apple Isle has already received a staggering endorsement.
The name, colours, logo and jersey for the AFL’s 19th team were unveiled on Monday to widespread praise.
Watch every game of every round this Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial today >
The only criticism of note came from those who wished the Devils logo was on the centre of the jersey instead of the traditional map of the Tasmania.
Just two days after the club’s official launch, AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon revealed on Wednesday there were already 121,000 founding members of the Tasmania Devils.
It’s a remarkable sign of the insatiable interest in Tasmania’s new AFL team, especially given the island state’s population was 541,000 as of 2020.
The ‘founding memberships’ cost $10, a token amount that’s significantly less than official AFL club memberships.
Nonetheless, the Devils’ early membership count has them already on top of all current 18 AFL clubs with the most members.
Last season, Collingwood had 106,470 members as one of three clubs with more than 100,000 members.
By point of comparison, expansion clubs Greater Western Sydney and the Gold Coast had 33,036 and 23,359 members respectively at the end of 2023.
Richmond legend Jack Riewoldt, who grew up in Tasmania and is championing the new team, said the membership figures were phenomenal.
“I’m going to blow your mind,” Riewoldt told Nine’s Today on Wednesday.
“We ticked over 100,000 last night at 6:30pm. Crazy stuff. So in a mere 24 hours we’ve had 100,000 people jump on.
“They’ve got a membership, they’ve got a bumper sticker. A digital membership in their phone. For ten bucks. And we urge people to jump on. It’s been phenomenal. We had forecast hopefully to get to 40,000 by the end of October. And I think we had 40,000 within the space of an hour.
“So, certainly the board and the few employees that there is, are sort of on cloud nine.”
The team’s entry into the league is still contingent on a new, 23,000-seat roofed stadium being built at Hobart’s Macquarie Point, which has become a point of contention heading into this weekend’s state election.
The incumbent Liberal Party is fully behind the current stadium plan while Labor wants to renegotiate with the AFL, believing the state has been forced into an unfavourable deal, and proposed the team beginning life playing at smaller venues Blundstone Arena (Hobart) and UTAS Stadium (Launceston).
t is also unclear whether the stadium will be ready for the planned 2028 entry date. The AFL’s agreement with Tasmania says the stadium must be 60% built by October 2027 or else the team’s entry can be pushed back a year; the venue must be ready by December 2030 or the deal can be ended.
The team could also begin play at the existing venues used by North Melbourne and Hawthorn for AFL matches before opening the Macquarie Point venue in 2029.
2023 AFL CLUB MEMBERSHIP LADDER
1. Collingwood – 106,470
2. West Coast Eagles – 103,275
3. Richmond – 101,349
4. Carlton – 95,277
5. Essendon – 86,274
6. Geelong Cats – 82,155
7. Hawthorn – 80,698
8. Melbourne – 70,785
9. Adelaide Crows – 68,536
10. Sydney Swans – 65,332
11. Port Adelaide – 64,041
12. Fremantle – 62,064
13. St Kilda – 60,239
14. Western Bulldogs – 56,302
15. Brisbane Lions – 54,676
16. North Melbourne – 51,084
17. GWS Giants – 33,036
18. Gold Coast Suns – 23,359
Source Agencies
