{"id":279882,"date":"2025-11-12T16:30:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T16:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/279882\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T16:30:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T16:30:24","slug":"gather-round-to-remain-in-adelaide-future-uncertain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/279882\/","title":{"rendered":"Gather Round to remain in Adelaide, future uncertain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adelaide will again host the AFL’s Gather Round in 2026, but the event’s long-term future in South Australia remains uncertain.<\/p>\n

Despite the success of previous years, an extension to the contract beyond the upcoming event has not yet been secured.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Gather Round schedule has been released, confirming Adelaide Oval as the primary venue.<\/p>\n

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Adelaide Crows will commence the round with a Thursday night match against Carlton.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MELBOURNE,<\/p>\n

Adelaide Crows players\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Collingwood and Fremantle will feature in the Friday night game.<\/p>\n

The Barossa Valley will host North Melbourne and Brisbane on Saturday, one of four games scheduled for that day, including Sydney versus Gold Coast at Norwood Oval.<\/p>\n

Geelong will face West Coast at Norwood Oval on Sunday, while Greater Western Sydney and Richmond will play in Lyndoch.<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide will conclude the round against St Kilda on Sunday night. Mt Barker has again been excluded from hosting any matches.<\/p>\n

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas acknowledged the event’s rapid growth.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen Gather Round start from an experiment, and turn into a juggernaut, and has a momentum that seems hard to stop,” he said.<\/p>\n

Despite the current lack of a long-term commitment, Malinauskas indicated a willingness to consider alternative venues should the event remain in South Australia.<\/p>\n

“Should South Australia get an extension of the contract, we’re open minded to what other venues might look like in the future,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Premier<\/p>\n

Peter Malinauskas\u00a0via Getty Images<\/p>\n

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon expressed optimism regarding the event’s future in the state, dependent on the success of next year.<\/p>\n

“If Gather Round next year’s as successful as it has been previously, I think we’ll be OK,” he said.<\/p>\n

The event is expected to provide a significant boost to the state’s hospitality sector.<\/p>\n

“We are seeing unprecedented occupancy rates in our hotels,” Malinauskas said.<\/p>\n

The Mayfair Hotel in Adelaide is undertaking a $23 million renovation to cater for the anticipated influx of tourists.<\/p>\n

Tickets for Gather Round 2026 will be available to AFL members on December 3, with general public sales commencing the following day.<\/p>\n

This article was produced with the assistance of 9ExPress<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide will again host the AFL’s Gather Round in 2026, but the event’s long-term future in South Australia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-279882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}