2015 Membership Thread (official unaudited figures in OP)

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fabulousphil said:
St kilda are the poor mans Richmond, they really can be a big club, in fact had they have had a few flags in the locker in the last 50 years i would imagine that they would be as big as Hawthorn

( yes that is tough words)

And FWIW i think traditionally they would have had a bigger support base in Tassie than Hawthorn
Click to expand...

Posted this a few months ago...

Hawkk said:
VFL home and away 1925-1941
Carlton 6,453,474
Richmond 5,705,325
South Melbourne 5,460,580
Collingwood 5,242,330
St Kilda 4,882,603
Essendon 4,647,125
Footscray 4,587,062
Melbourne 4,534,566
Fitzroy 4,487,053
Geelong 4,360,087
North Melbourne 3,260,847
Hawthorn 2,961,458

VFL home and away 1960-1977
Collingwood 10,653,827
Richmond 9,882,139
Carlton 9,479,277
Melbourne 9,257,471
Essendon 8,622,204
St Kilda 8,139,310
Geelong 7,801,814
Hawthorn 6,995,164
Footscray 6,939,251
South Melbourne 6,263,811
Fitzroy 5,973,928
North Melbourne 5,613,855

AFL home and away 1997 - 2014
Collingwood 20,119,156
Essendon 18,761,728
Carlton 16,157,619
Richmond 15,733,715
Hawthorn 14,189,768
Adelaide 13,498,176
Geelong 13,399,210
St Kilda 13,145,652
West Coast 12,847,639
Melbourne 12,461,141
Sydney 12,261,147
W Bulldogs 11,700,503
North Melbourne 11,584,999
Fremantle 11,247,356
Brisbane Lions 10,781,670
Port Adelaide 10,727,516

Across VFL/AFL history Carlton (1, 2, 3), Richmond (2, 2, 4) and Collingwood (4, 1, 1) have been the only consistent 'big clubs'. For all intent and purpose, in terms of football history, its really a big 3 (Collingwood, Richmond and Carlton) with Essendon in 4th

In terms of the climbers, Hawthorn (12, 8, 5) have basically been on a continuous upswing since the mid 1960s (which is a common theme in this thread). Essendon's emergence from a middle of the road club was very late from 6, 5 to a clear 2nd (probably the Sheedy factor).

South Melbourne (3, 10, 11) was a seriously big club through the 20's and 30's but dropped off dramatically in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Melbourne (8, 4, 10) started low, emerged and dropped back to mediocrity while the Saints (5, 6, 8) and Dogs (6, 9, 12) all started from pretty big bases (certainly bigger than Hawthorn and North Melbourne) but decades without premiership success have hindered their growth...

All things considered, I think you are spot on with this post...although you are selling Carlton short massively. For most of their history, Carlton was one of the 2 biggest clubs in the league (with Richmond up to 1940, with Collingwood up until the mid 1990's)

Another stat post, sorry guys :eek:
Click to expand...

Obviously some clubs were inhibited by the old suburban grounds but in terms of fans through the gates St Kilda was roughly comparable with Essendon (in fact they were ahead of Essendon in the 1925-1942 period) up to the late 1970s

Carlton (1, 3, 3), Richmond (2, 2, 4) and Collingwood (4, 1, 1) were / are the ancient 'big' clubs (I guess the fact that all three clubs have inner city, catholic / working class backgrounds plays a large share in this) while Essendon (6, 5, 2) and Hawthorn (12, 8, 5) are the contemporary climbers

St Kilda has a monopoly over the Bayside in much the same way that Essendon and Hawthorn have strongholds in the N/W suburbs and Eastern Suburbs...if the Saints had more success (perhaps 1966-67, 1971, 1997, 2009 or something like that) I have no doubt they would have climbed to same scale as the Hawks and Bombers over the past 40 years

Despite their lack of success their base pre 1980 was very similar to the Bombers (who had 12 flags) which is surprising in itself.

Based on this list its very easy to see why the Collingwood v Richmond v Carlton rivalries are much more embedded than equivalent rivalries with Essendon (who shares little cultural similarities with the other big 4 clubs)

Note also the size of Footscray's base in the 1925-1942 period. They were an absolute powerhouse VFA club apparently (I assume the VFA equivalent of Port Adelaide in the SANFL) but the changing demographics of the Footscray catchment killed them in the 60s, 70s and 80s...they are a completely different case study to North who started off with a tiny base pigeon holed between Essendon, Carlton and Footscray
 
Last edited:
Hawkk said:
Posted this a few months ago...



Obviously some clubs were inhibited by the old suburban grounds but in terms of fans through the gates St Kilda was roughly comparable with Essendon (in fact they were ahead of Essendon in the 1925-1942 period) up to the late 1970s

Carlton (1, 3, 3), Richmond (2, 2, 4) and Collingwood (4, 1, 1) were / are the ancient 'big' clubs (I guess the fact that all three clubs have inner city, catholic / working class backgrounds plays a large share in this) while Essendon (6, 5, 2) and Hawthorn (12, 8, 5) are the contemporary climbers

St Kilda has a monopoly over the Bayside in much the same way that Essendon and Hawthorn have strongholds in the N/W suburbs and Eastern Suburbs...if the Saints had more success (perhaps 1966-67, 1971, 1997, 2009 or something like that) I have no doubt they would have climbed to same scale as the Hawks and Bombers over the past 40 years

Despite their lack of success their base pre 1980 was very similar to the Bombers (who had 12 flags) which is surprising in itself.

Based on this list its very easy to see why the Collingwood v Richmond v Carlton rivalries are much more embedded than equivalent rivalries with Essendon (who shares little cultural similarities with the other big 4 clubs)

Note also the size of Footscray's base in the 1925-1942 period. They were an absolute powerhouse VFA club apparently (I assume the VFA equivalent of Port Adelaide in the SANFL) but the changing demographics of the Footscray catchment killed them in the 60s, 70s and 80s...they are a completely different case study to North who started off with a tiny base pigeon holed between Essendon, Carlton and Footscray
Click to expand...

perhaps in rough comparison i should have used Essendon ( according to the stats) however that may have been pushing the envelope.

Looking at your stats i would say there is really only a big 3, but Hawthorn has done a super job and some clubs like Fitzroy and South have been unlucky in the geography they have ended up in

St Kilda should really have grabbed Tassie before Hawthorn, the connections via Baldock, Stewart etc would have seen it succeed there.
 
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WWSD said:
Hawthorn Football Club has broken its all-time membership record for the ninth consecutive year having passed the 2014 total of 68,650 members.

Current tally - 68,712

http://www.hawthornfc.com.au/news/2015-04-08/hawks-reach-record-heights
Click to expand...

A couple of things...

- I'm surprised by our Tasmanian membership (8654). Over the last 3 years we've effectively gained 10,000 more members yet our Tasmanian membership hasn't moved (although its said that 25% of Tasmanian Auskickers are now Hawthorn fans which is a boon for the future)
- Churn is part and parcel of football clubs but 8500 still to renew appears to be high.

Still we have 2 more seasons to reach our 80,000 membership target by 2017 (we'd probably need to three peat to get there but its possible)

When you look at our success over the past decade (plus the 70s andm80s success beforehand) the club is the perfect position to continue its growth o et the next generation
 
Also according to this article the Collingwood v Hawthorn v Richmond membership pissing contest is officially a s**t fight

Hawthorn break membership record and have Magpies in their sights


http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-ne...-magpies-in-their-sights-20150408-1mgv8z.html

Set to exceed 70,000 members for the first time, having achieved a record tally for a ninth consecutive year, Hawthorn say they can topple Collingwood as competition leaders with a grand target of 80,000 paid-up supporters by 2017 now more than a pipe dream.

By the first week of April - about 16 weeks before the AFL's official cut-off date for membership tallies - the reigning premiers have surpassed their benchmark of 68,650...
Click to expand...

"I think Collingwood is always going to be tough to beat because their supporter base is massive, and I know Eddie [Maguire] loves to push the membership figures, and that's part of their club's mantra. But there's no doubt that as that gap reduces, it does make our club hungry, naturally, to go past them.

"Richmond may not be able to pass us this year, but they're probably sitting there thinking how they can pass us, just as we are thinking about how we could one day pass Collingwood."

Collingwood's membership tally sits at 70,005 while Richmond's is 66,794.
Click to expand...

...and the Bay will love this quote ;)

It is an inexact science to compare membership tallies across the AFL given each club has tailored offerings ranging from digital subscriptions, with no match admission, that count as memberships, to traditional offerings of seating at a large number of games. Clubs can also give away "free" memberships and count them in their tallies.

Clearly aiming to suit the needs of as many people as possible, Collingwood advertises 29 offerings on the "2015 packages" page of the club's website, the majority of which count as memberships.

"We can only compare, really, from [information on] club websites and from AFL stats. So we actually don't know the make-up of every other club's membership," Fox said.

"What has always been our philosophy, though, is to really make sure our numbers are true and genuine. We don't like counting cats and dogs …and we're not counting anything else other than signed-up members."
Click to expand...

Now to get the cats and dogs to attend games :)
 
Hawkk said:
A couple of things...

- I'm surprised by our Tasmanian membership (8654). Over the last 3 years we've effectively gained 10,000 more members yet our Tasmanian membership hasn't moved (although its said that 25% of Tasmanian Auskickers are now Hawthorn fans which is a boon for the future)
- Churn is part and parcel of football clubs but 8500 still to renew appears to be high.

Still we have 2 more seasons to reach our 80,000 membership target by 2017 (we'd probably need to three peat to get there but its possible)

When you look at our success over the past decade (plus the 70s andm80s success beforehand) the club is the perfect position to continue its growth o et the next generation
Click to expand...

When you look at our crowd attendance at Aurora Stadium it has continued to drop since 2009. So those numbers aren't at all surprising. By the looks of things our increase in membership has come from mainly Victoria over the last three years.
 
Hawkk said:
Posted this a few months ago...



Obviously some clubs were inhibited by the old suburban grounds but in terms of fans through the gates St Kilda was roughly comparable with Essendon (in fact they were ahead of Essendon in the 1925-1942 period) up to the late 1970s

Carlton (1, 3, 3), Richmond (2, 2, 4) and Collingwood (4, 1, 1) were / are the ancient 'big' clubs (I guess the fact that all three clubs have inner city, catholic / working class backgrounds plays a large share in this) while Essendon (6, 5, 2) and Hawthorn (12, 8, 5) are the contemporary climbers

St Kilda has a monopoly over the Bayside in much the same way that Essendon and Hawthorn have strongholds in the N/W suburbs and Eastern Suburbs...if the Saints had more success (perhaps 1966-67, 1971, 1997, 2009 or something like that) I have no doubt they would have climbed to same scale as the Hawks and Bombers over the past 40 years

Despite their lack of success their base pre 1980 was very similar to the Bombers (who had 12 flags) which is surprising in itself.

Based on this list its very easy to see why the Collingwood v Richmond v Carlton rivalries are much more embedded than equivalent rivalries with Essendon (who shares little cultural similarities with the other big 4 clubs)

Note also the size of Footscray's base in the 1925-1942 period. They were an absolute powerhouse VFA club apparently (I assume the VFA equivalent of Port Adelaide in the SANFL) but the changing demographics of the Footscray catchment killed them in the 60s, 70s and 80s...they are a completely different case study to North who started off with a tiny base pigeon holed between Essendon, Carlton and Footscray
Click to expand...
This is an excellent post. Not only is the St.Kilda possibility one that is rarely addressed (and should be acknowledged, kudos to fabulousphil also), but I don't think many realise the distinct cultural demographic differences, nor just how Sheedy's influence at Essendon cannot be overstated. He took the Bombers from a decent backing to the outright biggest drawcard by a wide stretch in the late 90s.

The Saints, sadly, are the goose that never laid the golden egg, and Hawthorn lay them by the dozen and continue to absorb what St.Kilda could have had.
 
Air_Chester said:
This is an excellent post. Not only is the St.Kilda possibility one that is rarely addressed (and should be acknowledged, kudos to fabulousphil also), but I don't think many realise the distinct cultural demographic differences, nor just how Sheedy's influence at Essendon cannot be overstated. He took the Bombers from a decent backing to the outright biggest drawcard by a wide stretch in the late 90s.

The Saints, sadly, are the goose that never laid the golden egg, and Hawthorn lay them by the dozen and continue to absorb what St.Kilda could have had.
Click to expand...

I have read somewhere that Hawthorns rise and rise was partly to do with moving away from a staunchly Protestant club to being more inclusive with players and coaches.

Today it seems absurd, but it was a reality of clubs 60 years ago and much more of an issue 100, i remember the talk about a Catholic coach ( Sheedy) at Essendon and that was in the 1980's.
 
27,800, 1.1k jump after a win.
 
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