The Sydney public's appetite for the AFL has waned, according to the league's own figures, as they push ahead with plans to establish a second club in the city.

But AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou says the fall in key indicators - revealed on Wednesday as part of a mid-season review - will not deter them from creating a western Sydney franchise to enter the competition in 2012.

While interest is booming in Melbourne, the review showed that attendances at Sydney Swans' home matches are down nine per cent on the same stage of last year.

The Swans' membership figure is down 15 per cent, with television audiences in Sydney also lower.

That is despite the AFL's push to build the code in the NSW capital, with Demetriou admitting they face an enormous task.

"We continue to say it's one of the great challenges we face," Demetriou said.

"We've never said anything other than that, we're not deluding ourselves that it's going to be easy, it's one of the great challenges that has ever faced the AFL.

"But we think it's the right time, it's a great opportunity, we think it's going to be of benefit to the Sydney Swans."

Swans coach Paul Roos last week warned it would be "absolutely catastrophic" for the code if his ageing side spent an extended period in the bottom half of the ladder as the new franchise came in.

Demetriou said the AFL would do what they could to safeguard the Swans financially.

But when asked his view on whether they could withstand an on-field slump, the league boss said only that he had faith in the Swans' staff to keep the side competitive.

"What we can't have are two teams in that market that are not successful," he said.

"So we're working pretty closely with the Swans. In fact, I was up there last week and met with several Swans representatives.

"We're working closely on areas of membership and revenue generation.

"I think with the football side, they are a very highly skilled, professional football club, we've got great faith that they'll make, as they've always done, good decisions around recruiting, trading and the like."

Demetriou said the AFL needed to "create some fans" in western Sydney, but said the drop in the television audience did not mean they were failing to get their message through.

"I don't get concerned by TV," he said.

"Form plays a significant role, also the number of people watching free to air television has plateaued, in fact it's dropping, so I don't read too much into that.

"I just think the Sydney Swans are in the most difficult and challenging football market in the world.

"They're one of 17 football clubs, when you consider NRL clubs, A-League clubs and rugby union clubs, it's a tough market.

"We need to put another team in there to help them to be quite frank."

But the news was much brighter for the AFL in their Melbourne heartland.

The combined membership figures of the 10 Victorian clubs are on track to reach 400,000 for the first time, despite the AFL having braced for a slight decrease because of the global economic downturn.

That means total memberships for the 16 clubs are forecast to top last season's record of 574,091, despite falls for all the non-Victorian clubs except Brisbane.

Free-to-air television viewership also increased in Melbourne, despite dropping in all the other AFL capitals.

The competition-wide attendance total for the season is forecast to be second only to last year's record.

The biggest crowd of the season so far was the 87,043 for the MCG season-opener between Richmond and Carlton.

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