Essendon supporters continue to embrace Colonial Stadium with the average crowd at home games this season almost identical to that of last season. In season 2000 Colonial Stadium home games attracted an average crowd of 40,630. An average of 40,147 people attended Essendon’s seven home games at the stadium this season.

“We are extremely pleased to have been able to match the home crowd figures that we generated last season,” Essendon chief executive Peter Jackson said. “Last year we had the opening of a brand new stadium and the hype surrounding the club’s unbeaten streak to attract crowds. I thought we would be doing extremely well to get close to the average figure of last season – to virtually match it is a great result.”

The figures are even better when you consider Essendon played only four interstate sides at Colonial last season and in 2001 played five – those being Port Adelaide, West Coast, Adelaide, Fremantle and Sydney. With the exception of the opening match at Colonial Stadium, matches against the three Melbourne sides in 2000 attracted the largest crowds.

The Essendon v Sydney match last Sunday afternoon attracted the largest crowd of the round. The crowd figures were:

Essendon v Sydney (Colonial Stadium) 45725
Kangaroos v Geelong (Colonial Stadium) 30919
St Kilda v Port Adelaide (Colonial Stadium) 14018
Melbourne v Hawthorn (MCG) 26632
Adelaide v Carlton (Football Park) 44542
Brisbane v Richmond (Gabba) 31324
Collingwood v Bulldogs (MCG) 38793
West Coast v Fremantle (Subiaco) 41285

""It was a fantastic crowd. For an Essendon match against an interstate side to attract the largest crowd of the round ...well, who would have believed it. It really says something about our supporters. And I have no doubt they played a significant part in the win. The crowd noise late in the game really pumped up the players. And it didn't go unnoticed by the players - Sean Wellman took the whole team over to the cheer squad to applaud them at the finish of the match.""

""The crowd we attracted on the weekend combined with the other crowds we have attracted to Colonial Stadium is a great result for the club and very satisfying. It is a real vote of confidence in Colonial Stadium as a venue to watch football at and its management should also be congratulated.""

The figures for Colonial Stadium home games over the past two seasons are:

2000 Season
v Port Adelaide 43012
v Adelaide 34626
v St Kilda 39836
v West Coast 39694
v Fremantle 34567
v Hawthorn 46956
v Bulldogs 45725
Total Attendance: 284,416
Average Crowd: 40,630

Season 2001
v Port Adelaide 34948
v West Coast 33829
v Hawthorn 50701
v Adelaide 38816
v Fremantle 29528
v Geelong 48152
v Sydney 45057
Total Attendance: 281,031
Average Attendance: 40,147