Broncos supporter base surges but survey favours Storm and Swans
Support for the Brisbane Broncos has soared in the past year, but the grand finalists were still beaten at the post by the popularity of the Melbourne Storm, according to a Roy Morgan survey.
Melbourne Storm and Sydney Swans are the nation's best-supported football franchises, a survey has found. (ABC photo)
Overall, the survey found strong growth for the NRL. Its supporter base was now 7.2 million Australians, an increase of almost 12 per cent.
Compared with pre-pandemic days the support level was up 39 per cent.
Among the clubs, the Storm had 1.19 million supporters, an increase of 4 per cent on a year ago. The Broncos were just behind on 1.15 million, which was an increase of 94,000, or 9 per cent, on a year ago while Penrith has 360,000 fans.
Both were behind the AFL club, the Sydney Swans, which had 1.34 million supporters, an increase of 18 per cent. The Brisbane Lions AFL team has 826,000 fans, a jump of 105,000 on a year ago.
The Lions’ opponent in this weekend’s grand final, Collingwood, has slightly more supporters at 875,000.
The survey also found that the Redcliffe-based Dolphins have already posted 232,000 supporters while the Gold Coast Titans had the lowest level of support of all the NRL clubs with 139,000.
The North Queensland Cowboys had a strong jump in support of 29 per cent to 463,000.
