Analysis Where are we actually at as a club?

[gringo2011]

Any excuse'll do lol

You obviously don't get to many games. Not many turn up. Seriously Gold Coast have more cheer squad in Melbourne at some games. Melbourne even when they were rubbish have a huge cheer squad. Our fans don't make any noise on top of that. They have to do something about it or at least get so good that people can't stay away.

 

[AirWinmar]

I'm not saying we don't ever get crowds but most games are very low attendance and we are in the minority of the fans attending most times. That GC I think was a really nice sunny day from memory and probably got above average crowds for that reason.

Yeah was a cracker of a day and 1st round of the season, but on the back of the terrible 2018. Agree would love us to get more supporters to games, but we need some consistency in performance for that to happen. At least we should be able to go to the footy next year

 

[George]

You obviously don't get to many games. Not many turn up. Seriously Gold Coast have more cheer squad in Melbourne at some games. Melbourne even when they were rubbish have a huge cheer squad. Our fans don't make any noise on top of that. They have to do something about it or at least get so good that people can't stay away.

What are you trying to establish by continuously making exaggerated comments? If you must know I get to most games in Victoria. I'm allowed to disagree with you.

It seems that whenever we have even an average crowd it must be because it's sunny and warm outside? Lol. Do you think people should believe that? Why can't we just have a decent crowd without excluding that maybe the club just did a good job lol

You should look at the differences between membership numbers and home game attendance to see if we are on par with the clubs around us. We would probably be doing something unrealistic and quite extraordinary if you expect us to fill 75% of Marvel 11 times a year. I don't think there's a Victorian club out there that plays their home games at Marvel that is doing what you expect of us, so why do you expect it? Can we base opinion in at least a fraction of truth?

The 100k membership clubs like Richmond and Collingwood get about 50k on average to games at the MCG and higher in marquee games. That's expected. Hawthorn & Essendon a rung below and somewhat relative to their membership numbers. We are no different. We are in the Dogs, North, Melbourne group and with our current membership we are bringing in as many people for home games as we should be.

North - 20-25,000 average home attendance
Dogs - 25,000
Melbourne - 25-30,000

You can draw correlations between membership and attendance. Not to mention playing in bigger stadiums is an unfair advantage to other clubs.

You don't bother to look at any numbers, you exaggerate and then set unrealistic expectations of the club, then take issue with it when it doesn't eventuate. I don't know why you do it to yourself. Draw some conclusions based in some fact at least.

What do you expect of a club with 55,000 members playing in a stadium that holds 50,000? Given the teams around us have similar figures.

I know my comments usually get taken out of context or not read properly so I'll make it clear that I don't think the numbers I'm defending are any good. I want us to bring in more people. We should be trying for 30-35,000 per game and that is a realistic expectation of what we can achieve with our membership base, our recent form, stadium capacity and lack of marquee fixtures. We would be doing extraordinarily well to have an average over 38,000 IMO. I just can't entertain the notion that things are worse than they actually are. Nothing points to us not delivering on attendance in relation to our current position in the league.

 

[Saint Watto]

Our fans don't make any noise on top of that. They have to do something about it or at least get so good that people can't stay away.

gringo.....did you get to the West Coast game earlier in the season?

From memory terrible day weather wise.....but 16 K turned up.......when we got rolling.....it sounded like 46K were there.

It was an awesome atmosphere.

 

[MordySaint]

We are in the Dogs, North, Melbourne group and with our current membership we are bringing in as many people for home games as we should be.

Again, downplaying us as a weak club. Set the bar low, so when we fail it isn't far to fall.

Membership levels mean nothing to how many people turn up to a game. What they are going to see when they get there means everything. I'd pay for three seats if I was guaranteed of a decent spectacle.

What they have been serving up for the last 10 years means our attendance is low.

 

[gringo2011]

What are you trying to establish by continuously making exaggerated comments? If you must know I get to most games in Victoria. I'm allowed to disagree with you.

It seems that whenever we have even an average crowd it must be because it's sunny and warm outside? Lol. Do you think people should believe that? Why can't we just have a decent crowd without excluding that maybe the club just did a good job lol

You should look at the differences between membership numbers and home game attendance to see if we are on par with the clubs around us. We would probably be doing something unrealistic and quite extraordinary if you expect us to fill 75% of Marvel 11 times a year. I don't think there's a Victorian club out there that plays their home games at Marvel that is doing what you expect of us, so why do you expect it? Can we base opinion in at least a fraction of truth?

The 100k membership clubs like Richmond and Collingwood get about 50k on average to games at the MCG and higher in marquee games. That's expected. Hawthorn & Essendon a rung below and somewhat relative to their membership numbers. We are no different. We are in the Dogs, North, Melbourne group and with our current membership we are bringing in as many people for home games as we should be.

North - 20-25,000 average home attendance
Dogs - 25,000
Melbourne - 25-30,000

You can draw correlations between membership and attendance. Not to mention playing in bigger stadiums is an unfair advantage to other clubs.

You don't bother to look at any numbers, you exaggerate and then set unrealistic expectations of the club, then take issue with it when it doesn't eventuate. I don't know why you do it to yourself. Draw some conclusions based in some fact at least.

What do you expect of a club with 55,000 members playing in a stadium that holds 50,000? Given the teams around us have similar figures.

I know my comments usually get taken out of context or not read properly so I'll make it clear that I don't think the numbers I'm defending are any good. I want us to bring in more people. We should be trying for 30-35,000 per game and that is a realistic expectation of what we can achieve with our membership base, our recent form, stadium capacity and lack of marquee fixtures. We would be doing extraordinarily well to have an average over 38,000 IMO. I just can't entertain the notion that things are worse than they actually are. Nothing points to us not delivering on attendance in relation to our current position in the league.

If you have 55000 members in a 50,000 seat area you shouldn't expect to fill it fairly regularly considering a percentage will be opposition fans and some Saints fans don't have memberships? 30,000 should be a minimum expectation. Having a better game day experience to get something that TV doesn't give you would be a good start. People laugh at Port but their gimmicky s**t brings in fans and makes them part fo the experience so the feel like they need to attend. It's good marketing. It's been years since the docklands was full when we were headlining. The closest was the North marquee game.

 

[The Punter]

Another point I've made any times - it takes time and repetition to create a tradition. Pick something to do to generate "atmosphere", then do it every home game, without fail, despite of criticism, for five years and then assess.

 

[MordySaint]

It's been years since the docklands was full when we were headlining. The closest was the North marquee game.

Are you talking about the 2018 Good Friday disaster.

I still have that game etched in my brain, the most deplorable match that I have ever witnessed. Every St Kilda player should have been suspended for their efforts in that game.

 

[Yawkey way]

If Andrew bassat, the board and administration have done such a wonderful job and big bad GT is going to spoil everything then perhaps someone can explain exactly what it is they’ve done, spare me the return to moorabbin that was a move any administration would have made.

We‘re still outside AFL house with our begging bowl, we’re still getting screwed over with the fixture which goes a long way towards determining crowds and ladder position. That in turn impacts sponsorship, revenue etc once again this is not a draw it’s a fixture and last year we were murdered. So yeah if gt or someone with a backbone actually called out the AFL and agitated for a better deal god only knows what might happen, just playing AFL you bet we are.

Then there’s the strange case of lethlean and the kings. It’s alleged that he advised bing or his family to accept the gcs offer because we couldn’t match it. Please remind me who he works for and if you believe Essendon, collingwood, hawthorn, richmond, carlton etc would have said to a player we covet and supposedly wanted to get to st Kilda to sign on again kid it’s the best thing for you.

I’m betting that gt would have said we‘ll get you home, you’ll get your pay day, this is what’s best for you and st Kilda. Now gcs have how many years to work on retaining him and we’ll still need to beat out other clubs and pay top dollar in picks and contract. Yep he’s a genius playing the long game earning trust blah, blah.

The club hasn’t been too bad lately and yes they’ve done some things right but I agree with gt we’re just playing AFL and imo it shows. If gt thinks the club needs some new blood on the board a shakeup then why shouldn’t he try to help that happen. Also we’ve had some very wealthy people at the club over the years and we still do, are they kicking in large sums of money or is that a requirement reserved for gt.

St Kilda needs to get into the business of winning games and flags or relocate to Tasmania, because after more than 50 years of following st Kilda I’m tired of just playing AFL. If that upsets the sensibilities of some then frankly I don’t care, this Club needs a sense of urgency from the President to the playing group and if gt lights a fire under them imo that’s great.

PS: This stuff really gets under my skin, I don’t think some posters can even conceive how many truly poor sides and terrible decisions older supporters have had to live through. Yep steady as she goes, it’s worked so well for so long.

 

[busso_mick]

Some great points there Yawkey, we all want success for our mighty club. I am a 61 year old passionate supporter that has seen us lurch from one mistake to another, in particular with our board and management. However just because an ex-Coach takes a few cheap shots at us that does not mean we should have a board spill and create more instability. It may sound unreasonable to some but we just have to stick tight for at least the next year to see what transpires. Make no mistake Ratts will be under pressure to produce results next year, but lets just hang tough for a little longer before we make some irrational changes.

The part that really concerns me is what is GT's motives for his recent outburst, my view he is seeing an opportunity to create some instability and he has fired his first shot. I can see a lot of good work going down the cistern if our ex coach has undue influence at our club. IMO the time is not now, maybe at the end of the year there should be some change. I am as impatient for the ultimate success as any supporter, focussing on what GT has to stay is just a distraction. As the saying goes, an empty vessel makes the most noise.

 

[Ephemeral Hope]

Well you are obviously happy with half full stadiums mostly filled with opposition supporters. The club winning games will fix it but the game day experience will need work too. The club has a sense of lacking energy and it gives that vibe on game day.

honestly I don't really care about game day experience. it's all pretty cringey anyways. I just wanna get to my seat, not pay too much for food and drink and watch the team play well. Anything else doesn't affect my enjoyment of the game. They could play 20 minutes of white noise into the speakers pre game for all I care as long as the team plays well.

 

[George]

Again, downplaying us as a weak club. Set the bar low, so when we fail it isn't far to fall.

Membership levels mean nothing to how many people turn up to a game. What they are going to see when they get there means everything. I'd pay for three seats if I was guaranteed of a decent spectacle.

What they have been serving up for the last 10 years means our attendance is low.

You've brought this up with me the other day and I've already explained it to you. Right now we are a small club with potential to be big. Hopefully I don't need to say it a third time. I've been debating with people on here for years about us having enough latent support to become a big club.

As for membership meaning nothing, you are wrong again because you can identify correlations between having a big membership base and having high home game attendance. You say ours is low because we've been no good. Why don't you just do yourself a favour and have a look at the actual figures. Look at clubs like Carlton and Essendon who haven't done anything in 20 years still average about 40,000 to their games. Richmond and Collingwood near on 100,000 members and also top the bill when it comes to average attendance too. If you don't think there's a correlation you are only kidding yourself.

I posted this yesterday - not really the tone of someone who wants to set the bar low;

Should we not aim high then? I don't understand what the point of pointing this out is. Were the goals too unachievable? Did he aim high in an effort to work as hard as they could to get at least close to those goals? I would prefer we aim high and fall short as opposed to having low or average ambitions as a club and patting ourselves on the back for reaching them.

Whatever we say about the administration of this football club we cannot deny the fact that we have never been in this good of a position before and it has gotten better and better year on year. He has helped rebuild this football club - not acknowledging that is unfair.

If you have 55000 members in a 50,000 seat area you shouldn't expect to fill it fairly regularly considering a percentage will be opposition fans and some Saints fans don't have memberships? 30,000 should be a minimum expectation. Having a better game day experience to get something that TV doesn't give you would be a good start. People laugh at Port but their gimmicky sh*t brings in fans and makes them part fo the experience so the feel like they need to attend. It's good marketing. It's been years since the docklands was full when we were headlining. The closest was the North marquee game.

Yes and lack of marquee fixtures and rubbish timeslots do play a part in that, don't they? Along with our performance over the last few years coupled with the fact that our latent supporter base has stayed latent because there's nothing to come out of the woodwork for.

Yes, 30,000 should be the expectation for us until we bring more latent support on board and we start to play regular finals. The most we can expect to average at Marvel would be just a tick under 40,000 I would've thought. But for the teams that we are grouped with right now in North Melbourne, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, we are right where we should be. In fact I'd argue the Dogs could be the most underperformed side in the competition in this respect because of how well they've done over the last 5 years. Melbourne not so much given they came good over COVID so if they don't get more through the gate that will be a real worry.

Regardless you can make links between membership and attendance. Performance and attendance yes but not so much given clubs like Essendon and Carlton still get a healthy amount of people to their home games and other factors including timeslots and marquee fixtures do play a part. Families with kids are probably ruled out from most Sunday afternoon games and we topped the bill with those over the last few years. Not a coincidence that when we get a marquee game or a primetime slot we see an above average turnout.

 

[lewdogs]

It will be interesting to see how our crowds go if we start winning again. Generally speaking crowds are down when you're losing and the one year we made finals in the last decade we were in Queensland for the whole year.

That Essendon game probably killed our chances of getting decent crowds early in the year. Reckon a lot of supporters would have said "why would I bother doing that again?"

Another reason results are very important to us next year.

 

[gringo2011]

It will be interesting to see how our crowds go if we start winning again. Generally speaking crowds are down when you're losing and the one year we made finals in the last decade we were in Queensland for the whole year.

That Essendon game probably killed our chances of getting decent crowds early in the year. Reckon a lot of supporters would have said "why would I bother doing that again?"

Another reason results are very important to us next year.

I think that is a pretty obvious correlation. Start winning games and playing regular finals and people want to be involved. AFL isn't designed to have a 20 year reign of finals like Geelong and Sydney have managed to do so you need to make the experience enjoyable as well so that they come even when there is down times.

Having players that make you want to watch them even when you aren't playing finals is another. Maybe there could be a loyalty card thing where you can go into the draw just by showing up to games. People who attend all 11 games get to go into a draw for a decent prize. People who attend 6 a lesser one or something. Have bands playing before the game on a Saturday night or something...or on the concourse outside the game and sell our musical links.

Have a really top notch lighting and music at the games to give some vibe to the place. I'd choose them a soundtrack and then they just need some event management graduates to get experience by designing a new theme every season that the best in a class are allowed to direct as reward.

We need some creative thinkers in the place. Throwing money at things isn't the only way to make things great.

 

[lewdogs]

I think that is a pretty obvious correlation. Start winning games and playing regular finals and people want to be involved. AFL isn't designed to have a 20 year reign of finals like Geelong and Sydney have managed to do so you need to make the experience enjoyable as well so that they come even when there is down times.

Having players that make you want to watch them even when you aren't playing finals is another. Maybe there could be a loyalty card thing where you can go into the draw just by showing up to games. People who attend all 11 games get to go into a draw for a decent prize. People who attend 6 a lesser one or something. Have bands playing before the game on a Saturday night or something...or on the concourse outside the game and sell our musical links.

Have a really top notch lighting and music at the games to give some vibe to the place. I'd choose them a soundtrack and then they just need some event management graduates to get experience by designing a new theme every season that the best in a class are allowed to direct as reward.

We need some creative thinkers in the place. Throwing money at things isn't the only way to make things great.

The band idea is a ripper mate. I think a lot of our supporters would love it and get involved. We are the rockers club. Tex Perkins, Dan Sultan, the Something For Kate guys, Wedding Parties Anything, TISM.

Imagine catching a band on a Saturday before the game outside the ground singing the Saints song and a few other bangers, it would be so awesome and people would be pumped. Good for kids too.

 

[MordySaint]

You've brought this up with me the other day and I've already explained it to you. Right now we are a small club with potential to be big. Hopefully I don't need to say it a third time. I've been debating with people on here for years about us having enough latent support to become a big club.

As for membership meaning nothing, you are wrong again because you can identify correlations between having a big membership base and having high home game attendance. You say ours is low because we've been no good. Why don't you just do yourself a favour and have a look at the actual figures. Look at clubs like Carlton and Essendon who haven't done anything in 20 years still average about 40,000 to their games. Richmond and Collingwood near on 100,000 members and also top the bill when it comes to average attendance too. If you don't think there's a correlation you are only kidding yourself.

I posted this yesterday - not really the tone of someone who wants to set the bar low;

Top 5 Melbourne Clubs (core supporter base) which I see - Collingwood, Essendon, Carlton, Richmond, St Kilda

Our current hierarchy has completely disenfranchised its core supporter base over the last 10 years.

Each of the other 4 clubs haven't pandered to the AFL on any occasion, like we have time and time again.

Top 2 positions at our club are taken by ex-AFL employees.

All I am saying is that I think results matter more than anything.

 

[austinnn]

If you have 55000 members in a 50,000 seat area you shouldn't expect to fill it fairly regularly considering a percentage will be opposition fans and some Saints fans don't have memberships? 30,000 should be a minimum expectation. Having a better game day experience to get something that TV doesn't give you would be a good start. People laugh at Port but their gimmicky sh*t brings in fans and makes them part fo the experience so the feel like they need to attend. It's good marketing. It's been years since the docklands was full when we were headlining. The closest was the North marquee game.

Another point I've made any times - it takes time and repetition to create a tradition. Pick something to do to generate "atmosphere", then do it every home game, without fail, despite of criticism, for five years and then assess.

I have been making this point on St Kilda forums for the best part of a decade. Game day experience, if properly managed could bring thousands more through the gates. But just like our merch, we follow the braindead El Cheapo option. It's better than it was because it was s**t or non-existent. As you said, an experience that TV can't replace.

I may be wrong, but hasn't our Cheer Squad improved in the last few years, stemming from a rejuvination and turning over of the key organisers? As Saint Watto said, at times when the team has actually been giving us something to cheer, they've been very loud and proud. But my point is we need atmosphere that isn't dependent on the on field performance. There needs to be a dependable consistent fan experience; Saints fans need to look forward to going to the footy regardless if the team is in good form or not.

Some stuff is out of our control, like food and drink inside the stadium, but events in the local area and the concourse can be organised. Music can be used. Look at the PA Power: Never Tear Us Apart is a gimmick sure, but so was You'll Never Walk Alone, just a slushy old showtune - and who knows the song from Carousel nowadays, or even the old Gerry & The Pacemakers version? It was a great idea that we should look into, especially with latest celeb fanboi Ed "Sherrin" Sheehan in our corner. Also, * off the fake cheers and instead give us something to inspire real cheers. The doggies used to have a roarometer or something that they'd turn on after their team scored. Something funny maybe.

But we shouldn't just rely on the club. Remember when Western Saint did some kind of fan event like a ring around the stadium? I vaguely remember something like that about 5 years ago. Fan community events are much more important than some weak underpaid marketing assistant's ideas anyway. The fans make the game, nothing has shown us that more than COVID. If we really want to make our club more relevant, get more people to games, and get bigger better fixtures and a more inspired onfield team, we actually need to come together ourselves and not just sit on our arses waiting to be entertained. We could fill each and every stadium with a few good ideas and a coordinated supporter effort of the extent that we demand of our players and coaches.

 

[George]

Top 5 Melbourne Clubs (core supporter base) which I see - Collingwood, Essendon, Carlton, Richmond, St Kilda

Our current hierarchy has completely disenfranchised its core supporter base over the last 10 years.

Each of the other 4 clubs haven't pandered to the AFL on any occasion, like we have time and time again.

Top 2 positions at our club are taken by ex-AFL employees.

All I am saying is that I think results matter more than anything.

Wrong again.

At the moment the top 5 Victorian clubs based on supporter figures are Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong, Richmond and Carlton. Hawthorn are next, and we fall into 7th place.

AFL supporter bases boom in 2020/21 as lockdowns keep people at home and ‘glued’ to the action on TV - Roy Morgan Research

www.roymorgan.com

Does this mean we cannot improve these figures and start to become a big club? No. We are currently a small club with the potential to become big.

Secondly, our current hierarchy has done the complete opposite of what you suggest, given we have broken membership records in each of the last five seasons.

Top 5 membership figures for St.Kilda ever;
2021
2020
2018
2019
2017

Our issues came from not capitalising on our success from 2004-2011. Nothing to do with the current administration.

Onto the issue of pandering - you do understand Collingwood, Essendon, Richmond and Carlton get many more marquee games and primetime fixtures than we do, coupled with playing their games at a stadium that brings in more revenue and holds double the capacity, right? We only just got out of an atrocious stadium deal that gave us peanuts in return. You can't blame that on the current administration.

Lastly, I'm not sure that where a person has come from before being employed at our club has anything to do with anything.

 

[Ephemeral Hope]

It will be interesting to see how our crowds go if we start winning again. Generally speaking crowds are down when you're losing and the one year we made finals in the last decade we were in Queensland for the whole year.

That Essendon game probably killed our chances of getting decent crowds early in the year. Reckon a lot of supporters would have said "why would I bother doing that again?"

Another reason results are very important to us next year.

Their loss then. I noticed attendance dropped off for the West Coast game and guess what it was one of the highlights of the year being there live. That’s why you bother going, so you don’t miss out on an almost record breaking comeback

 

[lewdogs]

Their loss then. I noticed attendance dropped off for the West Coast game and guess what it was one of the highlights of the year being there live. That’s why you bother going, so you don’t miss out on an almost record breaking comeback

Yes and no. It costs a lot to go to the footy these days and takes hours of your time. It's a huge commitment. Most on here probably wouldn't question it as we are the most devoted fans but for many fans it's a hobby.

 

[gringo2011]

I have been making this point on St Kilda forums for the best part of a decade. Game day experience, if properly managed could bring thousands more through the gates. But just like our merch, we follow the braindead El Cheapo option. It's better than it was because it was sh*t or non-existent. As you said, an experience that TV can't replace.

I may be wrong, but hasn't our Cheer Squad improved in the last few years, stemming from a rejuvination and turning over of the key organisers? As Saint Watto said, at times when the team has actually been giving us something to cheer, they've been very loud and proud. But my point is we need atmosphere that isn't dependent on the on field performance. There needs to be a dependable consistent fan experience; Saints fans need to look forward to going to the footy regardless if the team is in good form or not.

Some stuff is out of our control, like food and drink inside the stadium, but events in the local area and the concourse can be organised. Music can be used. Look at the PA Power: Never Tear Us Apart is a gimmick sure, but so was You'll Never Walk Alone, just a slushy old showtune - and who knows the song from Carousel nowadays, or even the old Gerry & The Pacemakers version? It was a great idea that we should look into, especially with latest celeb fanboi Ed "Sherrin" Sheehan in our corner. Also, fu** off the fake cheers and instead give us something to inspire real cheers. The doggies used to have a roarometer or something that they'd turn on after their team scored. Something funny maybe.

But we shouldn't just rely on the club. Remember when Western Saint did some kind of fan event like a ring around the stadium? I vaguely remember something like that about 5 years ago. Fan community events are much more important than some weak underpaid marketing assistant's ideas anyway. The fans make the game, nothing has shown us that more than COVID. If we really want to make our club more relevant, get more people to games, and get bigger better fixtures and a more inspired onfield team, we actually need to come together ourselves and not just sit on our arses waiting to be entertained. We could fill each and every stadium with a few good ideas and a coordinated supporter effort of the extent that we demand of our players and coaches.

There was some bad blood as they pushed a few organisers out and it seems to have collapsed. There are some really passionate CS members but it's sparse. They charge to sit in there as well so people prefer to sit up where you can see better for the money.

 

[MordySaint]

Wrong again.

At the moment the top 5 Victorian clubs based on supporter figures are Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong, Richmond and Carlton. Hawthorn are next, and we fall into 7th place.

AFL supporter bases boom in 2020/21 as lockdowns keep people at home and ‘glued’ to the action on TV - Roy Morgan Research

www.roymorgan.com

Does this mean we cannot improve these figures and start to become a big club? No. We are currently a small club with the potential to become big.

Secondly, our current hierarchy has done the complete opposite of what you suggest, given we have broken membership records in each of the last five seasons.

Top 5 membership figures for St.Kilda ever;
2021
2020
2018
2019
2017

Our issues came from not capitalising on our success from 2004-2011. Nothing to do with the current administration.

Onto the issue of pandering - you do understand Collingwood, Essendon, Richmond and Carlton get many more marquee games and primetime fixtures than we do, coupled with playing their games at a stadium that brings in more revenue and holds double the capacity, right? We only just got out of an atrocious stadium deal that gave us peanuts in return. You can't blame that on the current administration.

Lastly, I'm not sure that where a person has come from before being employed at our club has anything to do with anything.

Wrong again - Geelong are not a Melbourne team

Never said anything about Marquee games (other than our efforts in the Good Friday game)

Never said anything about stadium deals

Primetime fixtures - who would put us on Friday or Saturday night when we serve up what we have been doing for the last 10 years

GT says we are happy just playing AFL, well our top 2 employees are ex AFL employees. Maybe he has a point.

Top 5 membership figures ever. My kids are St Kilda members just because they went to Auskick and said they barracked for St Kilda.

 

[George]

Wrong again - Geelong are not a Melbourne team

Not particularly interested in debating semantics. Exclude Geelong and you're still wrong - Hawthorn are ahead of us.

Never said anything about Marquee games (other than our efforts in the Good Friday game)

Never said anything about stadium deals

Primetime fixtures - who would put us on Friday or Saturday night when we serve up what we have been doing for the last 10 years

Therein lies your problem. You give no context. You just say we should be doing this and that without looking at why things are the way they are. I am giving you examples as part of the reason why we are in the situation we're in. Performance is also a factor, but not the only factor. Carlton have been serving up the same crap for 25 years yet they get the opening game of the year every year, they get big draws at the MCG against Essendon, Collingwood, and Richmond. Essendon get the ANZAC day game, Dreamtime at the G, Country game against Geelong - all at the MCG. You say we don't get primetime slots because of our performance but ignore other clubs who also haven't done anything of note getting more of a leg up than us. Yawkey said it best, it's a fixture not a draw. AFL should be giving every club a leg up that had to endure an atrocious stadium deal at Docklands for 20 years whilst the other clubs got to play in stadiums double the capacity with greater revenue. Clubs like ours shouldered the burden of a poor deal from the AFL for the sake of the rest of the competition - we should most definitely be given our dues now.

GT says we are happy just playing AFL, well our top 2 employees are ex AFL employees. Maybe he has a point.

I don't understand how this comment makes any sense. I don't mind GT giving us a bake. Good to keep people honest. But how does having ex AFL employees correlate to being happy just playing AFL. That wasn't the reason GT said what he said, I don't know how you took it like that.

Top 5 membership figures ever. My kids are St Kilda members just because they went to Auskick and said they barracked for St Kilda.

If they don't pay $50 a year for a membership they are not counted towards the membership figures. And if someone is paying $50 a year to be included in a membership tally, who cares how they became members.


There is an extraordinary amount of ignorance/naivety in your comments.

 

[Ephemeral Hope]

Yes and no. It costs a lot to go to the footy these days and takes hours of your time. It's a huge commitment. Most on here probably wouldn't question it as we are the most devoted fans but for many fans it's a hobby.

That’s fair enough. I forget sometimes not everyone’s a diehard nuffie. Get a bit of a skewed perception of the fan base being on a forum like this.

 

[MordySaint]

Not particularly interested in debating semantics. Exclude Geelong and you're still wrong - Hawthorn are ahead of us.

I said core supporter base - not membership numbers. It's already been stated by other posters just how low full memberships are.

Therein lies your problem. You give no context. You just say we should be doing this and that without looking at why things are the way they are. I am giving you examples as part of the reason why we are in the situation we're in. Performance is also a factor, but not the only factor. Carlton have been serving up the same crap for 25 years yet they get the opening game of the year every year, they get big draws at the MCG against Essendon, Collingwood, and Richmond. Essendon get the ANZAC day game, Dreamtime at the G, Country game against Geelong - all at the MCG. You say we don't get primetime slots because of our performance but ignore other clubs who also haven't done anything of note getting more of a leg up than us. Yawkey said it best, it's a fixture not a draw. AFL should be giving every club a leg up that had to endure an atrocious stadium deal at Docklands for 20 years whilst the other clubs got to play in stadiums double the capacity with greater revenue. Clubs like ours shouldered the burden of a poor deal from the AFL for the sake of the rest of the competition - we should most definitely be given our dues now.

The AFL gave us a chance to cement a marquee game. I was there, I saw what we dished up. On and off the field. Entertainment was a couple of mascots doing a relay race.

I don't understand how this comment makes any sense. I don't mind GT giving us a bake. Good to keep people honest. But how does having ex AFL employees correlate to being happy just playing AFL. That wasn't the reason GT said what he said, I don't know how you took it like that.

I would like to see more St Kilda people in jobs at the club. I'm extremely happy with the Dal Santo appointment.

If they don't pay $50 a year for a membership they are not counted towards the membership figures. And if someone is paying $50 a year to be included in a membership tally, who cares how they became members.

I'd like to know if Auskick kids are included in the tally.

There is an extraordinary amount of ignorance/naivety in your comments.

Big call. We are both here with the same purpose to see St Kilda a successful club.

Appreciate and value your opinion.