Memberships 2019 St.Kilda Membership Thread (FINAL TALLY 42,910)

[Saint Watto]

If Matt stays in the role, or develops a foundation within the club that can still operate as efficiently then by 2025 we will have 75,000 members - irrespective of results. And that's the key. Creating a membership base that is sustained irrespective of results.

A great post there George...….

 

[Pakenhamsaint]

Good post mate but I don't agree that the reason we don't have more members now is because of not winning a flag/having "success". We have been poorly run for a long time. Club basically shut the supporters out during 08-11.

I think the lack of/having success is more a generational thing. I get the feeling someone is more likely to take thier kid to the footy/buy a membership if they themselves have seen thier side go all the way.

 

[Fehring]

I don't agree with you. Because clubs like Carlton who also had success in the 70's and 80's can only manage 50,000 members a year.

The real reason Richmond have so many members isn't because of success 40 years ago, it's because they were smart with their member activation programs. From 2010 a lot of young families have moved to suburbs surrounding Richmond and the Tigers have quite simply been brilliant in attracting young families with young kids to sign up.

I think what you think is happening is that young kids who grew up in the 70's saw Richmond win 2 premierships between 70-79, and one in '80, and their kids turned into Richmond supporters and so on, like it has run in the family. I don't think that's necessarily the case either. Richmond haven't been great for a very very long time, Carlton won a flag in '95, were in a Grand Final in '99, and won more than the Tigers did in the 70's & 80's, yet are stuck on 50k members despite having won the most amount of premierships in the league.

We are a big club. Our supporter 'catchment' area is huge. Finnis' isn't joking when he says "from Port Melbourne to Portsea". I think it was 1 in 5 people are Saints supporters along the south-east.

Our real issue is that we haven't been a very well run club at really any point in our history bar right now. Since Matt has stepped in we have seen the off-field growth of the football club grow year on year. Since the AFL era we have been involved in four Grand Finals and played in 12 out of a possible 29 finals series. From 2000 to 2010 we had the most wins of any club. There is enough sustained success there to bring supporters on board but because of our poorly run administration we haven't capitalised on it at all.

I don't think premierships really do make that much of a difference if I'm brutally honest. Look at Carlton, North Melbourne and to a lesser extent the Western Bulldogs. It's really done nothing for them.

What hurts right now is that we should be right up there with the heavyweights of the competition. It should really be the "big five". Essendon, Collingwood, Richmond, Carlton and us. After the decade we had from 2000 to 2010 we should be at 75,000 members by now.

But we will get there. That I have no doubt. We had 30,000 members when Matt took over. Within the next two to three years we will be pushing near on 55,000. It's a huge increase and the professionalism & quality that the club is run at right now is evident. It took Richmond 9 years to grow their supporter base from 35,000 to 75,000 (4,450 increase per year). If by 2020 we have 55,000 members we would be running at an increase of around 4000 a year as well.

If Matt stays in the role, or develops a foundation within the club that can still operate as efficiently then by 2025 we will have 75,000 members - irrespective of results. And that's the key. Creating a membership base that is sustained irrespective of results.

One short term problem. At a saints event I went to last year, Finnis said after the Good Friday game we only got renewals, not new members. It absolutely killed us. I doubt the relative drop in members so far is a coincidence. I suspect that only a hot start will enable us to grow this year.

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[jwikked]

Has anyone here gotten a phone call from the club this week? I’ve had a few missed calls from what I presume is the club, according to a google search.

 

[Diehard Saint]

Has anyone here gotten a phone call from the club this week? I’ve had a few missed calls from what I presume is the club, according to a google search.

Have you signed up for 2019? They might be chasing up tardy members

 

[jwikked]

Have you signed up for 2019? They might be chasing up tardy members

Despite my constant protestations on here, I couldn’t bring myself to cancel my membership once the season had finished. Add in Hannebery and how could I not?

I’m paid up and have received the card and the scarf and stickers so my transaction is complete as far as I can tell. Unless they’re ringing to tell me I won a free membership for a survey I did last year? No idea.

 

[Diehard Saint]

Hey George, how’s the membership coming along? Is been very quiet.

 

[George]

Hey George, how’s the membership coming along? Is been very quiet.

Hey Di, we are nearing 30,000. I'll be at the club on Thursday so hopefully more of an update then.

 

[Diehard Saint]

Hey Diehard, we are nearing 30,000. I'll be at the club on Thursday so hopefully more of an update then.

Thanks. That’s a fair amount fewer than this time last year if I recall correctly.

 

[George]

Thanks. That’s a fair amount fewer than this time last year if I recall correctly.

886

 

[sammm]

886

thats not bad

 

[gringo2011]

Has anyone here gotten a phone call from the club this week? I’ve had a few missed calls from what I presume is the club, according to a google search.

They had some kind of business prize draw thing thats about to end.

 

[gringo2011]

One short term problem. At a saints event I went to last year, Finnis said after the Good Friday game we only got renewals, not new members. It absolutely killed us. I doubt the relative drop in members so far is a coincidence. I suspect that only a hot start will enable us to grow this year.

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app

That GF game was my wife's first game for a few years and her last. That would have snuffed a lot of enthusiasm for people who thought it was going to be a good year.

 

[jwikked]

They had some kind of business prize draw thing thats about to end.

Were they ringing so I could buy tickets? I spoke to someone but couldn't speak long and never heard back.

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

i can echo the comment about the period from 08 to 11 of being shut out .... i know it frustrated the hell out of us here in the west ... we had the opportunity to strike while the iron was hot to build support for our club but instead we turned our back on the members ... terrible wasted opportunity ...
now days the club has got it right with the member engagment but the results on field dont bring in support ...
im in a situation where i have a lot of contact with the opposition supporter groups here in WA and you get a bit of a feel how a club runs from the way they look at the fans who are not under their noses .... Essendon for example having dragged their supporters to hell and back in the last few years have worked supper hard to get infront of their supporters and members to keep themselves relevant ... Richmond realise that familys is where the biggest bang for their buck is and they hit that super hard with things to capture the hearts and minds of their youngest fans timing that perfectly with their time of success ... Geelong see their members as a cash cow and honestly if it wasnt for the success that they have had i couldnt imagine why you would bother being a member outside of Geelong... for us we are making some real good headway there is huge room for improvment and my group have floated a heap of ideas on how to grow on a local level for us and for the most part the club have been really positive with these ideas so i really do think once we get stonger onfield we will see a lot of the hard work done behind the scenes come good ...

Peter Summers was a huge factor in that as he was a supporter first and foremost so he knew the value in the members and fans ... hopefully the new pres is just as strong on that side of things

 

[plugger66]

Good discussion..my query is though, if we had/have all this huge latent supporter base (Port to Portsea etc etc)...why didnt we have 50,000-60,000 members when we DID have sustained success (if finals without a flag can be called that, but thats another debate). I think its twofold. One, we didnt actually win the damn thing, and two the Club stank off-field for one reason or another. A flag however would have seen people forgive a multitude of sins

Exactly. No idea why we think we have huge supporter base. I would suggest all figures over many years suggests bottom 4 of the Victorian clubs.

 

[Brains Trust66]

Can’t argue with you there Plugger66 . I don’t think we have a huge supporter base.
I think some people have got confused with a potential supporter base being the only team based in the southern suburbs and the actual number of supporters we have . Even in 2009-2010 a lot of times we were outnumbered by opposition supporters whenever we played the top sides . Maybe the years of losing have taken its toll . Younger kids don’t follow us much because we haven’t won a flag since 66 . Kids like winners .

Go Saints

 

[George]

Exactly. No idea why we think we have huge supporter base. I would suggest all figures over many years suggests bottom 4 of the Victorian clubs.

Well that's wrong.

 

[Drake Huggins]

I still don't get it lol.

Rusted-ons George, who indoctrinate the following generations. Premiership's are everything when it comes to membership. Vicarious glory and all that.

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

Exactly. No idea why we think we have huge supporter base. I would suggest all figures over many years suggests bottom 4 of the Victorian clubs.

you would be wrong then ....
i know just from the WA supporters of our club our numbers are huge... we have a phenominal number of casual supporters who identify St Kilda as their club more so than other clubs now these are not your die hard fans they are not your type of fans who would know who or what a Doulton Langlands is they are not the fans who live and breath the club but they do identify as followers of the saints .. the hard task is to get these people more interested and more committed to the club that they may consider becoming members ... thats where my team here in the wests role comes into action, our job is to make these guys feel welcome - we invite them to our functions we nurture their Saints interest , we dont push the membership issue but we work on first making them a bigger Saints supporter then once the heart beats for our team we tell them about membership .. its slow work but especially when we are winning games of footy its really rewarding seeing that passion build for our team ..

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

Can’t argue with you there Plugger66 . I don’t think we have a huge supporter base.
I think some people have got confused with a potential supporter base being the only team based in the southern suburbs and the actual number of supporters we have . Even in 2009-2010 a lot of times we were outnumbered by opposition supporters whenever we played the top sides . Maybe the years of losing have taken its toll . Younger kids don’t follow us much because we haven’t won a flag since 66 . Kids like winners .

Go Saints

thats the key point ... Kids do like winners - if you look at the previous draft just gone , how many of the kids in the draft camp were saints supporters ? it was almos like every 4th kid was a saints fan - this was on the back of these guys growing up in an era watching Rooey etc win games of footy that planted the seed of support for our club that for many has been ingrained into them that by the time we get to now where we are s**t they are still on board .... where we didnt capitalise was in that period of success and us having the players that the kids could and did idolise we locked them out by way of our "bubble" - in WA we had a footy clinic one year for the kids after the open training session with a guys like Sippos Saunders Shenton & Simpkin attending (so not even the big name stars) it wasnt a huge deal just the boys doing hand passes with the kids and kicking the footy to them the whole thing lasted about 40mins with about 50 kids in attendance ... 6 years on from that day i still have people come up to me and tell me how fantastic that was and how big a deal it was for them these kids who are now adults remember that and are members because of that ... 6 years ago and it still gets mentioned 6 years ago and they still remember it fondly and thats with guys who bearly got 10 AFL games in their career - imagine doing that in 2009 with Riewoldt in attendance we would have had so many more kids hooked but in 2009 we couldnt even get an open training session ...

 

[plugger66]

you would be wrong then ....
i know just from the WA supporters of our club our numbers are huge... we have a phenominal number of casual supporters who identify St Kilda as their club more so than other clubs now these are not your die hard fans they are not your type of fans who would know who or what a Doulton Langlands is they are not the fans who live and breath the club but they do identify as followers of the saints .. the hard task is to get these people more interested and more committed to the club that they may consider becoming members ... thats where my team here in the wests role comes into action, our job is to make these guys feel welcome - we invite them to our functions we nurture their Saints interest , we dont push the membership issue but we work on first making them a bigger Saints supporter then once the heart beats for our team we tell them about membership .. its slow work but especially when we are winning games of footy its really rewarding seeing that passion build for our team ..

Without being rude the amount of wa fans has little bearing on the total numbers. Just look at the numbers after 3 grand finals in 2 years. Very ordinary. And I live in a saints area and can assure you it’s no where near as big of a saints area as 20 years ago. Not even close

 

[plugger66]

Well that's wrong.

Got memvbership figures to prove it. As stated in the last post you can tell the numbers have dropped off just by being involved in local footy in the biggest saints area in Australia. Apart from you saying it’s wrong do you have any slight proof

 

[sunny3193]

Got memvbership figures to prove it. As stated in the last post you can tell the numbers have dropped off just by being involved in local footy in the biggest saints area in Australia. Apart from you saying it’s wrong do you have any slight proof

Understand where you’re coming from plugger as I too live in a Saints stronghold.
I don’t blame you for your cynicism about membership but written history, lived history, Richmond’s success, and that video about their membership growth strategy, tells me that you’re underestimating the potential we have.

 

[George]

Got memvbership figures to prove it. As stated in the last post you can tell the numbers have dropped off just by being involved in local footy in the biggest saints area in Australia. Apart from you saying it’s wrong do you have any slight proof

Got supporter base figures to prove it?

Can go on all day, but I won't entertain it. I have seen the figures in 2015 first hand. You are wrong.

Information that I have seen is club confidential document, it doesn't get released to the public. If you don't believe me that's OK.