{"id":600896,"date":"2026-04-11T22:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T22:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600896\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T22:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T22:38:12","slug":"its-a-scam-what-the-afl-and-city-of-adelaide-wont-tell-you-about-gather-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600896\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s a scam’: What the AFL and city of Adelaide won’t tell you about Gather Round"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Jake MichaelsApr 12, 2026, 07:00 AM<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Jake Michaels is a Senior Writer who has been with ESPN for 13 years. He writes on a range of sports and events in Australia and around the world, covering everything from Aussie Rules to Grand Slam tennis, Formula One to boxing, athletics, swimming, and the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

Multiple Authors<\/p>\n

ADELAIDE, Australia — Despite its punny name and the seemingly endless commendation it receives from football media around the country, Gather Round has never been — and likely will never be — for the 99%. You know, the football fans that keep the game alive. The ones who show up to grounds week after week, fork out their hard-earned for memberships and merchandise, and allow the AFL<\/a> to cash in on eye-popping broadcast deals. Instead, this weekend has become an annual opportunity for the travel and tourism industries to shamelessly price-gouge, forcing the majority of football fans to miss out on what is supposed to be a congregation and celebration of the sport.<\/p>\n

By now, we know the all-too-predictable drill. From the moment the league announces its Gather Round dates — some nine months out from the event — airlines immediately react with their own version of overt surge pricing. This year, a return trip to Adelaide from Melbourne on Qantas — the nation’s carrier — was priced at over $750 per person within 48 hours of the dates being made public. A month ago? Forget about it. Booking that late would have set a family of four back an unfathomable $5,000. Virgin, the AFL’s major sponsor, mind you, was hardly providing any relief to footy fans, offering airfares only marginally lower in cost than its primary rival.<\/p>\n

So extortionate have Gather Round airfares become that a road trip isn’t just a viable alternative, but rather the preferred option for many residing in Victoria. And while driving remains significantly cheaper than flying, escalating fuel costs in recent months have meant it’s hardly still an affordable proposition for budget-conscious travelers. With unleaded 91 priced around $2.29 per litre in most Australian capitals the week of Gather Round, a return trip from Melbourne in a medium-sized family vehicle would have cost approximately $380 in petrol.<\/p>\n

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon with SA Premier Peter Malinauskas.\u00a0James Wiltshire\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Of course, regardless of flying or driving, these costs are simply to arrive and depart the city of Adelaide. We’re yet to factor in tickets for games, food and beverage, transport, other attractions footy fans might be interested in, and, perhaps the greatest culprit of unabashed price-gouging: accommodation.<\/p>\n

While the airlines cop their deserved whack for exorbitant pricing, hotel chains seem to escape what should be similar levels of both public and media criticism. From central Adelaide to Glenelg, even out at the airport, no hotel within a 25 kilometer radius of the city’s CBD opts against inflating their room rates to astronomical levels during Gather Round, pricing thousands of would-be travelers out of the weekend’s festivities.<\/p>\n

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One hotel we’ve decided not to name, but claims to be “budget-friendly”, was asking for $698 per night from Thursday through to Monday for a basic, unrenovated 18-square metre room. If you were to stay at this hotel the following Saturday evening, after the AFL circus had departed the city, it would set you back just $188. The one after: $104.<\/p>\n

This hotel isn’t acting alone in taking advantage of footy fans simply looking for a pillow to rest their heads. Three five-star Adelaide properties, which usually retail for approximately $220-280 per night over a standard weekend, had jumped to $875 per night at the lower end and as much as a laughable $1,400 per night at the upper end, eight weeks out from Gather Round. A scan ahead for the following six months revealed the next-most expensive night among these three properties to be ‘just’ $532 per night.<\/p>\n

“I figured I would just get a cheap hotel for the two nights and suck it up, but I couldn’t believe how crazy expensive even that was. Hostels were also four times the [regular] price,” Patrick Greaves, a Blues fan who had driven from Melbourne to Adelaide on Thursday morning to soak in the Gather Round festivities, told ESPN. “I thought stuff it, I’ll just sleep in the car. It’s not exactly the most comfortable, but hey, at least it’s free!”<\/p>\n

Fans on the Riverbank Precinct Pedestrian Bridge during Gather Round.\u00a0Mark Brake\/AFL Photos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It’s not just the extortionate hotel rates which should be questioned, many accommodation chains are also acting somewhat deceptively when it comes to revealing what inventory is available for purchase. For three years running, any search engine would lead you to believe that 99% of hotel rooms in the city were booked out over Gather Round, even as early as six-to-eight weeks before the opening game. The other 1%? They were priced so laughably high that no reasonable person would seriously consider booking them. But this all seems to be nothing more than misdirection.<\/p>\n

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Anecdotal evidence can reveal there were just two three-star or above hotels within four kilometres of Adelaide Oval available for booking six weeks out from Gather Round. At two weeks out, that number had grown to nine. Three days before the Crows-Blues<\/a> opener: 21. The prices for these rooms had also dropped significantly, too. That unnamed “budget friendly” hotel had shaved 44% off its lowest rate, while two of the three five-star hotels referenced earlier could be snapped up for under $500 per night. Those quick to suggest the sudden uptick in available rooms was a byproduct of fewer people heading over on account of the fuel crisis should know that this is by no means an issue exclusive to 2026, rather an ongoing theme that’s accompanied Gather Round since its inception.<\/p>\n

“Honestly, it feels like a scam,” one Victorian, who wished to remain anonymous, told ESPN. “It’s as if the hotels want to make you believe there is nothing available and scare you into overpaying for a room, when in actual fact there are plenty of rooms available. [The hotels] know demand will be high this weekend and they take advantage of it, preying on the fear you might actually miss out. I basically got screwed out of $250 per night.”<\/p>\n

It’s not inconceivable that a family of four travelling to Gather Round from Melbourne could return home having spent in excess of $10,000. That’s a trip to Bali, with change! Some may argue this is simple economics. Supply and demand, if you will. After all, how can airlines and hotels be blamed for simply looking out for their respective bottom lines? And that’s precisely the problem, they cannot be. Not only that, but there’s zero incentive for them to provide any financial relief to the football public.<\/p>\n

Gather Round has been a raging success since it began in 2023.\u00a0Mark Brake\/AFL Photos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The AFL, too, can easily wipe its hands of the issue and point to discounted game tickets and the endless parade of footy scarfs, jumpers, and beanies down Hindley Street as proof Gather Round is both accessible for the masses and a raging success. But it’s undeniable the league would have foreseen such blatant price-gouging from other stakeholders when the concept was first drawn up in the boardrooms at AFL House. It had to have known the majority of footy fans would quickly be priced out.<\/p>\n

But this is the AFL, after all, and commercial objectives often trump the wants and needs of the fans, the very group that keeps the league’s powerbrokers employed. Just last week, Geelong coach Chris Scott called out the league for adding the likes of Gather Round and Wildcard finals for “no good reason” other than financial gain. Fremantle’s Mason Cox agreed<\/a>, labelling the new finals structure “absurd” on ESPN’s Red Time<\/a> and claiming players are never consulted when it comes to major competition-altering decisions.<\/p>\n

The reality is, Gather Round is likely here to stay. And to be clear, that’s not in any way a bad thing. In fact, quite the contrary. The event itself continues to thrive and live up to the hype generated by the bulk of football media. A trip to Gather Round can be likened to travelling to Japan. We all know people who have been and yet nobody seems to have a negative word to say about it. “You have to go!” But unless you’re in the financial one percent (or close enough to it), are South Australian-based, or travelling on the corporate dollar, a trip to Adelaide over Gather Round weekend simply isn’t feasible. And that just means this weekend is hardly a true and fair representation of the entire football community — something it was supposedly introduced for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jake MichaelsApr 12, 2026, 07:00 AM CloseJake Michaels is a Senior Writer who has been with ESPN for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-600896","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\/600896","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=600896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}