AFL Head of Broadcasting and Scheduling Marcus King has explained why we don\u2019t see Thursday night football every single week.<\/p>\n
The AFL has released the fixture for rounds seven and eight, with Friday night games set to open the rounds.<\/p>\n
Fans had become accustomed to Thursday night footy after the opening three weeks and will continue to see the timeslot until the end of Round 5.<\/p>\n
King said agreements with the AFL Players Association in particular made it tough for the league to schedule Thursday games every week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we\u2019re looking at it, for these rounds in particular, we are trying to take into account attendance and factors like that and that\u2019s contributing to a more normal round structure at this stage,\u201d King told SEN\u2019s Dwayne\u2019s World.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we look at the Thursday\u2019s we do try to get them around the school holidays where we can. We find that\u2019s a better attendance outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other factor is we\u2019ve gone back to the full match length this year and as part of that, the agreement we\u2019ve got with the AFL Players Association and clubs is to revert to a minimum six-day break.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have got some scope for a five-day break per club during the year, but that\u2019s quite restricted and that limits how many Thursday games we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether he would like to see Thursday night footy every weekend, King said a balance was important.<\/p>\n
\u201cI reckon if you asked the broadcasters, they would answer that with a yes,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a balance and clearly we get a really strong broadcast outcome. I think a lot of fans really love Thursday\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there is a balance there and if you have Thursday\u2019s every week, I think it does become an attendance challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cFans and members from country areas trying to get to a Thursday game can be tough.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely a place for them and I really like them, but we need to find the right balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
While we might not see Thursday night games return in the next block of the fixture, we will likely still see them again this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are looking to get another block of Thursday (games) in the second half of the year,\u201d King added.<\/p>\n
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