Anybody who reckons there was an even split of fans at the game is as one-eyed as most Pies during the season.

I never thought I'd see Hawthorn get booed running out in Launceston but that was the case.

And try telling the Collingwood faithful that flocked from all corners of the state this was a fairly meaningless pre-season trot.

When Tyson Goldsack kicked their first goal the roar would have rivalled Auckland's Eden Park two days later when Trent Boult bowled Glenn Maxwell.

The crowd of 15,422 was not only a pre-season record but also topped seven of the past nine roster matches here and dwarfed anything North Melbourne have managed at Bellerive.

It was 5000 more than the 2013 visit of Greater Western Sydney to Launceston.

Those 15,422 delivered a message as loud and clear as that first goal roar - better fixtures equal better crowds.

As George Bailey loves to say, tongue firmly in cheek, it's not rocket surgery.

Collingwood may have triumphed by 44 points but the real winner was Aurora Stadium which can add Steele Sidebottom to the likes of Lance Franklin, Ricky Ponting, Harry Kewell, Elton John, Jimmy Barnes and Crusty Demon Scott Murray to headline the versatile venue.

Pies coach Nathan Buckley called it one of the nation's best boutique venues. While that always sounds a little patronising he went on to say the facilities were excellent and joined the chorus proclaiming the turf as the best he had seen.

So for at least eight more matches, Tasmanian footy fans are guaranteed the back-to-back premiers performing on the competition's best surface — surely sufficient reason to pack the ground whoever they are playing.

On the day of the game, Hawthorn's main sponsor, the Tasmanian government, announced that a PriceWaterhouseCoopers' report indicated the club's contribution to the Tasmanian economy in 2014 was $17.5million.

That's statewide from four games with an average crowd of 13,824, or about $4.3million per game.

Meanwhile, the Hobart City Council has managed to come up with a similar report stating that North Melbourne's two games last year generated $25.7 million for the Greater Hobart area.

That's not statewide from just two games with an average crowd of 10,671 — about $12.8 million per game.

So every single spectator at a North Melbourne game in Hobart spends $1204.20 in the city. That's an expensive "match day experience".

What these figures reveal is either that supporters at North Melbourne games spend three times as much money than their Hawthorn equivalents, or that the figures in these surveys are about as reliable an indicator of performance as inside-50 hard-ball gets in a NAB Challenge fixture.