Some MCC seats to be avilable to club members Prelim & GF - Caroline Wilson
- Thread starter Collingwood 4 eternity
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- Aug 17, 2006
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Don't AFL members have to buy tickets to finals? You're comparing apples with oranges.
I feel like those who are just hoping to he outraged by this are going to be disappointed, since it's the only game in Melbourne this weekend. Nevertheless, the club has restricted the number of guests that can come in on Friday (maximum one guest ticket per member, two has previously been the norm).
Everyone knows the deal. You wait 25 years and pay $700 odd a year to turn up when you want. If you don't pay one year, you're back to the end of the waiting list. That's not something that should be changed overnight and certainly not because of a vocal group of people whose opinion on how the MCC should allocate its seating is arguably irrelevant.
I'm only going on Friday because Geelong's playing. There's no way that I'd go to watch anyone else. Some people may only go to the grand final and only if their team is playing. Some people may not use their membership at all. That's their right. That's what they wait decades for and pay an annual subscription for.
If the rules are to change so drastically, the sensible time to announce it is between October and March. Not a couple of days before the finals. For now, it feels like if the members is the only part of the stadium that is going to have empty seats and if that actually is an issue (I'm certainly not convinced that it is), the appropriate first step would be to offer more guest tickets to members, before just throwing the gates open to anyone who feels like they deserve a seat.
because i like to put my feet up.
This is what they did, changed the rules for the 2019 season. They agreed to more actively manage the reserve for public sell outs when the reserve looks like it won't fill up. Firstly by allowing more vistor tickets, then if needed allowing provisional members in and as a last resort the public.
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Then I fail to see what the problem is. My Dad is in his first year as a provisional (doubling as an AFL member until he becomes a full MCC member). He wants a ticket and can't get one.
- Feb 13, 2011
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Thread bump is a bit premature, the match hasn't sold out yet.
Collingwood have more MCC members, so it's likely the MCC would be more cautious with any attempt to open their doors to Provisional/more guest passes.
Indeed, the new policy makes sense. If it's pissing down all afternoon then walkup demand will be lower and I reckon they may open it up for provisional members 30 min before.
As a member I just found out that the entire L4 of the MCC reserve is unavailable for walk ups this week. You have to have spent $10 to purchase a ticket.
As offensive as this is to full members (paying >$700 a year) it's clear they don't want to be in a position where they have to open up L4 to the rank and file.
As offensive as this is to full members (paying >$700 a year) it's clear they don't want to be in a position where they have to open up L4 to the rank and file.
Only standing room available.
Yes Pies have big numbers, but look what happened in the prelim last year, rows and rows of empty seats. It all comes down to the weather. MCC won't want any visible empty areas, they made a commitment as part of the 2057 GF deal.
MCC members can do what they like they pay for the stadium not the AFL members or spectators who come along occasionally. Pay subscriptions and don’t use is their problem.
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- Aug 17, 2006
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I prefer the reserved option, when I can't get there an hour before gates open to go for a balcony seat. When I get tickets for visitors, especially for games like Anzac Day, I always advise them that the $10 extra for a reserved seat is money well spent. But again, I can understand if others feel differently and choose not to spend even more money on tickets when they feel like they've already contributed a fair bit to their membership.
Walk up has nothing to do with it. Finals seats are either pre or at game reserved. Walk ups now have to come early to get seat upper level if lucky or stand. Most stand or sit in bars.
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Same as whenever it’s chockers in outer its chockers in mcc. In fact it’s often busier mcc than outer.
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The problem with the last 2 Prelims were how fast they sold out.
There will be no pressure on the MCC if this game doesn't actually sell out tommorow.
BoxMatrix
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AFL members dont have to buy a ticket to get into finals, if there are seats left over from the reserve sale, they can scan in. This happens very rarely. Think the last time it happened was the Cats-Swans semi in 2017.
I'm also not wanting to be outraged, I just know I've seen enough to know that the MCC reserve is highly unlikely to be full on Friday, whereas the rest of the ground will be 99% filled.
10% attendance rate is absolutely shocking. Like, if GWS only got 2,000 fans to their game, everyone would be calling for them to be removed from the league. Yet the MCC seems to skirt all blame, and relies on guest passes to boost the attendance The MCC needs to enforce an attendance rate over say, a five year period. If you don't turn up enough times within five years, without a good reason (Like living out of the state) then you are kicked out. Should boost the attendance nicely.
You see that big Southern stand that occupies a third of the ground? Guess who paid for that? The AFL members did. The AFL chipped in the money to build the stand, in turn for a hefty portion of it to be dedicated to the AFL members. So the AFL members do pay for the stadium. To add to this, the spectators also help pay for the stadium. They pay the gate fee, as well as food and drinks, and consume the advertisement. They also pay for the stadium. So stating that the MCC members are the only ones paying for the stadium is flat out false.
I'll have to dig for it, but the AFL members area is about 21,000 seats. Last grand Final, 14,000 seats were sold to AFL members. The rest were given to the various corporate obiligation. And that's only for the Grand Final. I believe regular finals have about 17,000 seats. But that information isn't as open as the GF is.
So only 30,000 AFL members were eligible for tickets, and the tickets sold out in about an hour.
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The Southern Stand cost approx $150m. The AFL tipped in $1m per year while it was being built. The rest was financed by the MCC as far as I'm aware, not sure if there were also some government grants. To claim that the AFL members paid for it is a stretch.
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http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/forecasts/melbourne.shtml
I feel like you may be in for a surprise.
Why is it "shocking"? GWS members presumably support the Giants. If there is an AFL game being played at Giants Stadium, their members all have a vested interest. On the other hand, if Hawthorn is playing Port Adelaide at the MCG, 90%+ of the MCC members couldn't care less.
Furthermore, why does the MCC have to enforce an attendance rate? What are you proposing this to look like? What is a 'good reason'? From a personal perspective, I would have averaged going about 20-odd times a year 5-10 years ago. So far this year, I've been twice. In ten years, when my kids are a bit older, I'll probably be back to going 20 times a year. People's circumstances change and sorry to break it to you, but for most people, footy revolves around life, not vice versa.
The MCC is responsible for the administration of the ground in its entirety, not just the members reserve. The AFL's contribution to the Southern Stand is not perpetual.
Indeed. Why would you sit there? You'd have a better view of the ground from the Dining Room, the Long Room, the Frank Grey Smith Bar, or probably even taking your chances standing out the back of level 1.
You'd have the same aesthetic effect if people in the other parts of the ground could just walk into a corporate box if they felt like it (and/or if they couldn't take alcohol out to the stands), which is pretty much what the members reserve is like.
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A lot of members who entered the MCC in the early-late 90s got in at a relatively young age due to this commitment (read: the floodgates opened)
owen87
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I feel people have entirely forgotten that the MCC membership numbers covers a spectrum of supporters of varying AFL clubs (who may or may not be interested in that particular game) along with cricket supporters who may have no interest in AFL, and people who just hang on to it because they’re at a point in their life when they won’t use it much, but will later.
When the waiting list is now well beyond 20 years, you can see why people opt to continue to pay the membership fee rather than lose the membership.
I’ve no issue with them fiddling around to allocate more reserved area in advance or allow provisional members access if it’s not looking like a sellout. But people crying woe is me because they want paying members to be locked out from using their membership when and how they like, would be livid if their club reserved seats were given to some random member of the public i’m quite sure.
When the waiting list is now well beyond 20 years, you can see why people opt to continue to pay the membership fee rather than lose the membership.
I’ve no issue with them fiddling around to allocate more reserved area in advance or allow provisional members access if it’s not looking like a sellout. But people crying woe is me because they want paying members to be locked out from using their membership when and how they like, would be livid if their club reserved seats were given to some random member of the public i’m quite sure.
Yes, the club had to increase what is essentially guaranteed yearly revenue in order to secure such a large loan at a decent rate.
The same thing happened around 2005 with the redevelopment of the northern stand. It's also why the upgrades to full membership have slowed to a trickle over the past decade.
Are you serious that you can’t put your membership into absentee for a year or two and pay a lower fee?
So I can wait 25 years on the list, be a model member paying $700/ year for 10 years, then I have to go overseas or interstate for a year... and they tell me GFY and charge me the full whack?
You see stuff like this and you wonder who the * is running the MCC? How stupid are they?
Putting aside the pathetic way you’re treating your members, anybody who did a week of Year 9 economics can see how moronic their approach is.
They have a waiting list 100kms long. They don’t lose the revenue if the membership gets transferred to the next person on the list. In fact, they make more, because they get your $700 sub off the next person anyway, and they can charge you, I dunno, $200 for nothing. A keystroke on their computer to tick “absent”.
It’s the same with empty seats. How are they not aggressively managing it? Empty seats benefit nobody, least of all MCC Members. More people in the reserve means more sales of everything - food, drink, whatever.
Does anybody at the MCC have a commercial bone in their body?
Given the huge percentage of members who don’t use their membership at all, with a couple of logical changes they’d be raking in a heap more money.
What’s the point of a club if it’s not there to benefit its members?
Hey guys we made a few changes and realised xx more revenue next year. Your membership fees are actually lower than last year.
Or here’s a pile of credits for free food and beer next year when you come to the ground.
Or we’ve done a deal with Qantas, here’s a massive discount to fly to an interstate AFL game or test match.
Or we did this ten years ago and with the money we’re opening a pub across the road in a prime spot where you can chill out and have cheap drinks on matchdays.
Or we did this 30 years ago, we’ve acquired a golf resort down the peninsula where you can go and stay and pay bugger all.
I’m not sure if there’s another club in Australia that has such amazing assets - a quarter of the MCG for themselves, a massive waiting list, and a huge pile of members who they don’t even have to service, because they don’t use the place at all - and it seems like they don’t even use those assets for members.
If somebody with a brain was running the place for the last 30 years, it’d be an thoroughly awesome membership with shitloads of benefits and continually improving. And it’d be cheaper.
Instead it’s exactly the same as it was decades ago - here, pay $700 and you can come to the MCG like anybody else can, but you sit inside a fenced off area. It’s permanently 1970!
The members should be storming head office!
- Aug 17, 2006
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- Geelong
Are you serious that you can’t put your membership into absentee for a year or two and pay a lower fee?
So I can wait 25 years on the list, be a model member paying $700/ year for 10 years, then I have to go overseas or interstate for a year... and they tell me GFY and charge me the full whack?
You see stuff like this and you wonder who the fu** is running the MCC? How stupid are they?
Putting aside the pathetic way you’re treating your members, anybody who did a week of Year 9 economics can see how moronic their approach is.
They have a waiting list 100kms long. They don’t lose the revenue if the membership gets transferred to the next person on the list. In fact, they make more, because they get your $700 sub off the next person anyway, and they can charge you, I dunno, $200 for nothing. A keystroke on their computer to tick “absent”.
It’s the same with empty seats. How are they not aggressively managing it? Empty seats benefit nobody, least of all MCC Members. More people in the reserve means more sales of everything - food, drink, whatever.
Does anybody at the MCC have a commercial bone in their body?
Given the huge percentage of members who don’t use their membership at all, with a couple of logical changes they’d be raking in a heap more money.
What’s the point of a club if it’s not there to benefit its members?
Hey guys we made a few changes and realised xx more revenue next year. Your membership fees are actually lower than last year.
Or here’s a pile of credits for free food and beer next year when you come to the ground.
Or we’ve done a deal with Qantas, here’s a massive discount to fly to an interstate AFL game or test match.
Or we did this ten years ago and with the money we’re opening a pub across the road in a prime spot where you can chill out and have cheap drinks on matchdays.
Or we did this 30 years ago, we’ve acquired a golf resort down the peninsula where you can go and stay and pay bugger all.
I’m not sure if there’s another club in Australia that has such amazing assets - a quarter of the MCG for themselves, a massive waiting list, and a huge pile of members who they don’t even have to service, because they don’t use the place at all - and it seems like they don’t even use those assets for members.
If somebody with a brain was running the place for the last 30 years, it’d be an thoroughly awesome membership with s**tloads of benefits and continually improving. And it’d be cheaper.
Instead it’s exactly the same as it was decades ago - here, pay $700 and you can come to the MCG like anybody else can, but you sit inside a fenced off area. It’s permanently 1970!
The members should be storming head office!
There's a few things here:
- I'm pretty sure you can put your membership on hold if you're overseas or what have you, but I doubt you can if you're finding it tight financially, you can't use it as much as you'd like because of other commitments or many other seemingly legitimate reasons. You just have to stick it out. The upside is (as I've just found out) that if you do stick and become a 50 year member, apparently it's $15 per year for each subsequent year.
- There's a truckload of external benefits that you can get as an MCC member. You can start here. I've been to Lord's for an Ashes Test purely through my membership of the MCC and from memory, I had the option to go to the Long Room (chose to bring a non MCC guest along instead). The cheap drinks and food offers at the nearby pubs are basically the bars throughout the MCC, where you can add money to your membership card and just pay with that. There's regular specials for food and drink in the reserve if you pay with your MCC plus card. And that's without mentioning the hugely discounted tickets that you can secure for things like State of Origin, concerts and exhibition soccer matches between international powerhouses.
- They're looking for the right balance and trying to ensure that they're giving more people access to an MCC membership without reducing the experience for longer-term members. The provisional membership feels like it's only been around for a few years, for a start.
- You can get a pass out at the fence on either side of the MCC and meet/sit in public/general admin areas. I could count the number of times I've done that on one hand though.
- The members I know all seem pretty delighted with the benefits that they get through their MCC memberships. To me, it feels like there's always new offers and interesting events that we're given access to. I'm extremely fortunate to be an MCC member and I'd never give it up.
So what happens when all the absentees want back in under your grand plan?Are you serious that you can’t put your membership into absentee for a year or two and pay a lower fee?
So I can wait 25 years on the list, be a model member paying $700/ year for 10 years, then I have to go overseas or interstate for a year... and they tell me GFY and charge me the full whack?
You see stuff like this and you wonder who the fu** is running the MCC? How stupid are they?
Putting aside the pathetic way you’re treating your members, anybody who did a week of Year 9 economics can see how moronic their approach is.
They have a waiting list 100kms long. They don’t lose the revenue if the membership gets transferred to the next person on the list. In fact, they make more, because they get your $700 sub off the next person anyway, and they can charge you, I dunno, $200 for nothing. A keystroke on their computer to tick “absent”.
It’s the same with empty seats. How are they not aggressively managing it? Empty seats benefit nobody, least of all MCC Members. More people in the reserve means more sales of everything - food, drink, whatever.
Does anybody at the MCC have a commercial bone in their body?
Given the huge percentage of members who don’t use their membership at all, with a couple of logical changes they’d be raking in a heap more money.
What’s the point of a club if it’s not there to benefit its members?
Hey guys we made a few changes and realised xx more revenue next year. Your membership fees are actually lower than last year.
Or here’s a pile of credits for free food and beer next year when you come to the ground.
Or we’ve done a deal with Qantas, here’s a massive discount to fly to an interstate AFL game or test match.
Or we did this ten years ago and with the money we’re opening a pub across the road in a prime spot where you can chill out and have cheap drinks on matchdays.
Or we did this 30 years ago, we’ve acquired a golf resort down the peninsula where you can go and stay and pay bugger all.
I’m not sure if there’s another club in Australia that has such amazing assets - a quarter of the MCG for themselves, a massive waiting list, and a huge pile of members who they don’t even have to service, because they don’t use the place at all - and it seems like they don’t even use those assets for members.
If somebody with a brain was running the place for the last 30 years, it’d be an thoroughly awesome membership with s**tloads of benefits and continually improving. And it’d be cheaper.
Instead it’s exactly the same as it was decades ago - here, pay $700 and you can come to the MCG like anybody else can, but you sit inside a fenced off area. It’s permanently 1970!
The members should be storming head office!
I won't be storming the head office any time soon. But if you're not happy with your membership I'd suggest writing a letter and raising your concerns.
That’s because the AFL membership department don’t use photo membership cards for entry, therefore people give tickets to friends and family or scalp to gain a profit. AFL don’t care as they pocket all the cash from the full stand
