The AFL’s Gather Round ‘A Festival of Footy’ in Adelaide is a huge boon for the South Australian economy.

Aligning with the middle weekend of school holidays in Victoria and Queensland and the first weekend of school holidays in South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales – it was a smart time to host such an event. 

Analysis undertaken for the AFL by IER on last year’s Gather Round shows it contributed $91.6-million to South Australia’s economy – a 10 per cent increase on the inaugural Gather Round in 2023 – and by the looks of it, this year’s event was bigger and better than ever.

In 2024, across the nine matches, 265,011 people attended the games, with 33 per cent being interstate visitors. 

The event attracted 45,847 visitors to South Australia – about 93 per cent spent at least one night in South Australia, with interstate visitors spending on average 4.5 nights.

And the benefit was not just for Adelaide – the analysis showed of the 191,669 visitor nights created, 52,026 were outside of the city.

It’s been an outstanding success all round – the South Australian Government was smart and strategic in brokering a deal with the AFL to host the event from its inception.

The four-year deal, which ends next year, has included a massive tourism campaign – not just this week, but several AFL players have been promoting destinations across SA for weeks.

And while many visitors to SA have no doubt travelled by aeroplane to get to the city of churches – in fact South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said it was Adelaide Airport’s busiest period ever, with 94 extra flights scheduled – plenty have made their way by road.

From all reports, the Western Highway was as busy as ever last week, with thousands of Victorians making the trek.

So how does the Wimmera make the most of the influx passing through our region?

As the half-way point between Melbourne and Adelaide, many towns in our region are the perfect stopping point – whether it be for an overnight stay, lunch or a quick break to stretch your legs. How do we, as a region, cash in and get a slice of the pie?

Councils could step up and take the lead with signs welcoming the Gather Round visitors to town – but equally individual businesses could market themselves to entice the travellers to stop. 

What about some Gather Round specials for the week? Or holding a football-related event at Horsham’s May Park or Nhill’s Jaypex Park, and have some community groups, or football clubs, cook a barbecue as a fundraiser?

Channel Nine News sports broadcaster Tony Jones broadcast live from Kaniva on Wednesday – giving a nice spruik for the town, Kaniva-Leeor United Football Netball Club and highlighting the fact that North Melbourne coach Alistair Clarkson hailed from Kaniva.

I saw Andy Munro – a football jumper collector who has a Facebook page about visiting formerly used football grounds – who outlined which jumpers he owns from towns based on the Western Highway.

Beaufort, Taylors Lake, Horsham Demons, Dimboola, Nhill and Kaniva-Leeor jumpers all rated a mention, as did a Horsham United jumper, which was an unexpected blast from the past.

Footy fans will do weird things and fanatics will spend money on anything footy related.

A friend of mine went to all nine matches at Gather Round last year, selecting one team to barrack for at each game – then buying a club scarf of that team so that he could fit in with the supporters and as a memento.

So who has some ideas of what the Wimmera can implement for next year’s Gather Round? Email us at weeklyadvertiser@aceradio.com.au.

The entire April 16, 2025 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!