Club Mgmt. 2024 Membership Thread - Are you signing up? [POLL]

[Lore]

That time again...

 

[MWPP]

Hi all, sorry to intrude (though I am a paid-up Essendon member- long story). Does anyone have a different number to contact Essendon Membership services? 03 8340 2000 is the only number I can find and it keeps bouncing
Thank you

 

[Lore]

Hi all, sorry to intrude (though I am a paid-up Essendon member- long story). Does anyone have a different number to contact Essendon Membership services? 03 8340 2000 is the only number I can find and it keeps bouncing
Thank you

That’s the only number I have too. The Upfront renewals went through overnight so they’re probably swamped with angry and unwilling customers.

 

[yodellinhank]

So they'll thieve money for the men, and don't even try to renew people for the women? TFC

 

[Lore]

So they'll thieve money for the men, and don't even try to renew people for the women? TFC

I got a call about the women’s membership like a month or two ago

 

[yodellinhank]

I got a call about the women’s membership like a month or two ago

One thing I did think of was that about 3 years back they rang to get me to sign up again to the men. I didn't listen to what the offer was and the guy was really taken aback when i just said "no, thanks". Must've been a good deal. He said "would you like us not to contact you?" and i said that'd be good, so maybe they were just sticking to their word?

 

[windyhill]

Got smashed two weeks ago, minimal warning. Year 52 I think.

 

[Lore]

Now with poll

 

[mcgrath_truther]

probably end up grabbing it again but i feel like i'll miss games

 

[windyhill]

Hi all, sorry to intrude (though I am a paid-up Essendon member- long story). Does anyone have a different number to contact Essendon Membership services? 03 8340 2000 is the only number I can find and it keeps bouncing
Thank you

1800-gluttonforpunishment. We’re standing by for your call.

 

[greysong]

I've been a member since 2005 (i.e. the first year of the finals win drought). I feel like I shouldn't sign up purely to see if it reverses the curse.

 

[TheUnicorn]

I haven’t been a member for the past 2 years, I don’t plan on signing back up until I think we have turned the corner for the better.

I’d feel like I’m rewarding the club for their poor efforts to date. Instead I lie to myself by thinking I’m sending some kind of message by not being a member

 

[mike ross]

I'm in. Re signed again. I might even get on the park this year....

 

[ant555]

Of course I have signed up again . Good or bad I am in for the ride.

 

[dave10]

Membership at 41,600. Struggling again after declining last year (2023 propped up to record by ~5,000 freebies two weeks before cut off). I know it was at 46,500 last year (16/11/22) so looks down again.

The AFLW membership is about 3,500 so it’s off as well (2022: 4,245). I’d say we’d be ranked ~14-15th of the AFL clubs for ‘W’ memberships. Hawks (5,707), Swans (~7,600) expansion clubs well above ours. Add to this the Amart deal almost certainly discontinuing and I don’t believe we have a replacement secured which is sobering for a club like Essendon.

And we’re still one of fewer clubs stuck in pokies without a non core revenue stream to bolster the clubs operations outside of footy.

Difficult times off field too.

 

[Lore]

Membership at 41,600. Struggling again after declining last year (2023 propped up to record by ~5,000 freebies two weeks before cut off). I know it was at 46,500 last year (16/11/22) so looks down again.

The AFLW membership is about 3,500 so it’s down 20% too. We’re ranked about 14-15th of the AFL clubs for ‘W’ memberships. Hawks (5,707), Swans (~7,600) expansion clubs well above ours. Add to this the Amart deal is discontinuing and I don’t believe we have a replacement secured which is sobering for a club like Essendon that used to smash sponsorships out of the park.

I think we’re struggling for membership and commercially as a club!

Yeah I think Amart is ending, the logos are gone off the media polos for 2024. There will be a replacement though.

AFLW memberships are interesting. We get good attendance but low membership? What are other clubs doing in this space that we aren't, besides being in the competition longer and having a regular home ground for more than 5 minutes?

 

[mcgrath_truther]

at the end of the day, regardless of how we as a club end up going, i still like attending football games, so keeping my membership means my tickets are cheap regardless of what game(s) i go to.

i'd rather that, honestly

 

[dave10]

Yeah I think Amart is ending, the logos are gone off the media polos for 2024. There will be a replacement though.

AFLW memberships are interesting. We get good attendance but low membership? What are other clubs doing in this space that we aren't, besides being in the competition longer and having a regular home ground for more than 5 minutes?

I think Essendon has a fan engagement problem. I think the base is frustrated (clearly) and unwilling to support over and above at present. Also, the club has closed ranks (introverted) and its engagement of fans has become really poor and minimalist. So, a frustrated fanbase that has lost trust in the Club, together with a Club communications / engagement problem is feeding into membership figures. I also think when they launched the AFLW packages they were going poorly in the men. All this doesn’t explain why a club like Hawthirn have nearly doubled our membership.

I just think the last 24 months Essendon has lost focus commercially and that extends to its focus on the fans, members and driving its programs like membership.

I’m led to believe the Club are working on a Amart replacement but I don’t think they’ve secured a deal. Concern is they’ve known for sometime and still haven’t locked in a replacement. This to me points to lack of commercial capability abd would be of concern to the Board, though they’ve been distracted ‘on footy’ too I’d say. The business has likely lost focus, certainly lost its once lauded status as among the best in the AFL.

Further, Marvel deal expires end of 2024. Saints are optimistic they’ll get a 2nd MCG homer in 2024 (0 in 2022 / 1 in 2023). You’d certainly hope the likes of St Kilda are not getting better outcomes on its home game assortment than Essendon.

Footy is the focus but it will need to address some off field issues now presenting themselves to ensure the club doesn’t get left behind its competitors who’re all performing much better on and off field. And it’s not the on field leading to superior off field results, they’re simply more focussed and more capable and doing it better.

 

[Lore]

I think Essendon has a fan engagement problem. I think the base is frustrated (clearly) and unwilling to support over and above at present. Also, the club has closed ranks (introverted) and its engagement of fans has become really poor and minimalist. So, a frustrated fanbase that has lost trust in the Club, together with a Club communications / engagement problem is feeding into membership figures.

Agree with a lot of that, though it's not even remotely new. RoCo was going on about it 2-3 years ago but it's been terrible for ages, ever since they left Windy Hill and forgot where they came from.

I also think when they launched the AFLW packages they were going poorly in the men. All this doesn’t explain why a club like Hawthirn have nearly doubled our membership.

I think the AFLW would benefit from launching its season in clean air, or at least at the mid-point of the mens season instead of after everyone has disengaged from it after a run of insipid losses to end the season. Also need to be getting more out of a membership I think.

Not sure why we split the AFL and AFLW membership drives anyway. If the AFL is flogging 2024 memberships in November why do they do women's ones in August? Just flog them for both teams from October-March and do the last ditch drive for AFLW members in August.

Would get better traction asking for 2024 AFLW support while Bonnie Toogood is up and about in 2023 than waiting until everyone's forgotten who she is and is disinterested in giving the club money. Also, flogging them mid-season for the same season with AFLW is tricky since there's only 10 rounds, 5 home games, and not even always at the same venue. It's not like you can buy a three game ticket... it's access or non-access, and if you don't get access at the start then what value is it really?

I just think the last 24 months Essendon has lost focus commercially and that extends to its focus on the fans, members and driving its programs like membership.

Fan engagement was never a core tenet of Campbell's regime, so I wouldn't correlate it with commercial performance. If anything the fans were the first thing that got pushed off the list of priorities when they wanted to save money, then they raised the price of memberships and player sponsorships, jacked up the price of tickets for club events, reduced the benefits for members in terms of member packs etc. That all happened under the leadership of Brasher as Finance Director & Campbell as CEO.

I’m led to believe the Club are working on a Amart replacement but I don’t think they’ve secured a deal. Concern is they’ve known for sometime and still haven’t locked in a replacement. This to me points to lack of commercial capability abd would be of concern to the Board, though they’ve been distracted ‘on footy’ too I’d say. The business has likely lost focus, certainly lost its once lauded status as among the best in the AFL.

The talk of ditching Amart goes back years lol, it's always been a misfit and is exemplified by the member survey that suddenly started asking about the goodness of fit of the various sponsors we've had. It's a pretty solid example of putting money before anything else though.

Further, Marvel deal expires end of 2024. Saints are optimistic they’ll get a 2nd MCG homer in 2024 (0 in 2022 / 1 in 2023). You’d certainly hope the likes of St Kilda are not getting better outcomes on its home game assortment than Essendon.

Footy is the focus but it will need to address some off field issues now presenting themselves to ensure the club doesn’t get left behind its competitors who’re all performing much better on and off field. And it’s not the on field leading to superior off field results, they’re simply more focussed and more capable and doing it better.

The MCG could host more games anyway if they're spreading the games from Thursday to Sunday.

Question is who does the AFL want at Marvel vs. what is the cost of St Kilda hosting at the MCG?

Maybe St Kilda can host us there.

And the MCG's own agreement with the AFL requires that they get a certain number of blockbusters there.

 

[jmoo wan]

yep, we’ve lost focus on the commercial side of footy, and drifted too far to the football side of football - this would NOT have happened on Xavier Campbell’s watch

 

[dave10]

Agree with a lot of that, though it's not even remotely new. RoCo was going on about it 2-3 years ago but it's been terrible for ages, ever since they left Windy Hill and forgot where they came from.

I think the AFLW would benefit from launching its season in clean air, or at least at the mid-point of the mens season instead of after everyone has disengaged from it after a run of insipid losses to end the season. Also need to be getting more out of a membership I think.

Not sure why we split the AFL and AFLW membership drives anyway. If the AFL is flogging 2024 memberships in November why do they do women's ones in August? Just flog them for both teams from October-March and do the last ditch drive for AFLW members in August.

Would get better traction asking for 2024 AFLW support while Bonnie Toogood is up and about in 2023 than waiting until everyone's forgotten who she is and is disinterested in giving the club money. Also, flogging them mid-season for the same season with AFLW is tricky since there's only 10 rounds, 5 home games, and not even always at the same venue. It's not like you can buy a three game ticket... it's access or non-access, and if you don't get access at the start then what value is it really?


Fan engagement was never a core tenet of Campbell's regime, so I wouldn't correlate it with commercial performance. If anything the fans were the first thing that got pushed off the list of priorities when they wanted to save money, then they raised the price of memberships and player sponsorships, jacked up the price of tickets for club events, reduced the benefits for members in terms of member packs etc. That all happened under the leadership of Brasher as Finance Director & Campbell as CEO.


The talk of ditching Amart goes back years lol, it's always been a misfit and is exemplified by the member survey that suddenly started asking about the goodness of fit of the various sponsors we've had. It's a pretty solid example of putting money before anything else though.


The MCG could host more games anyway if they're spreading the games from Thursday to Sunday.

Question is who does the AFL want at Marvel vs. what is the cost of St Kilda hosting at the MCG?

Maybe St Kilda can host us there.

And the MCG's own agreement with the AFL requires that they get a certain number of blockbusters there.

Lots of good points there.

I believe Amart ditched us, not the other way around. We would’ve had 6 months+ notice of this but for whatever reason they haven’t from my understanding found the replacement. I don’t think the commercial team, senior team are thst good these days. Loath him for eSports deal, but Rodski was regarded in the industry as among the best CMO’s in sport and in don’t think we have anything like his capability overseeing sponsorship, social media and membership. And because Vozzo’s so focussed on footy, he’d be relying on his commercial team to deliver, I just don’t think they’re that good. That’s what I’ve been told anyway..

Good points re Marvel. Their member surveys keep telling them members want to return to the MCG. They need to balance the financials thiugh. The AFL will want them at Marvel, Essendon (members) and the MCG want Essendon at the G. I think a good outcome would be a 5 year deal that sees 5 X Marvel / 6 X MCG, though I reckon it will land at 6 X Marvel / 5 X MCG. I reckon if the commercial team were too butch and we had a real go getter President like McGuire, we’d get the 5/6, not 6/5. But I reckon our new leaders are introverted, certainly not aggressive and overly dynamic and the AFL will get what they want. I hope I’m wrong.

AFLW packages tend to be quite separate to ensure the Club gets to double dip. I don’t have an issue with the timing tbh, the AFLW delivers AFL content in a ‘white space’ time for AFL, extending AFL dominance and reach into traditionally non AFL periods. I just think Essendon need to lift their game and refocus on the member / fan piece, as well as win some games.. Both things abd not just the on field wins.

 

[dave10]

yep, we’ve lost focus on the commercial side of footy, and drifted too far to the football side of football - this would NOT have happened on Xavier Campbell’s watch

Xavier was good commercially, problem was he wasn’t good at footy stuff which clearly isn’t desirable and reason for end of his tenure. Truth is through, Essendon need to aspire to be best in the AFL both on, and off field. That’s what great clubs to. They’re doing both very well. Eg: Swans, Cats, Tigers, Pies. Even Carlton has elevated itself both on and off field which is a pity.

 

[ant555]

I think average fan engagement is pretty much universal across the AFL now days . The membership bases are just too big to service them properly . Depending on how well a club is going is usually the barometer of fan discontent. Collingwood have had plenty of member issues in the last two years but winning games tends to sooth the anger.

 

[dave10]

I think average fan engagement is pretty much universal across the AFL now days . The membership bases are just too big to service them properly . Depending on how well a club is going is usually the barometer of fan discontent. Collingwood have had plenty of member issues in the last two years but winning games tends to sooth the anger.

Don’t entirely agree. Yes, winning makes it easier but Collingwood is an example of how you engage.

Their whole club is connected. Their players are connected to their fans, the players, coaches, everyone at Collingwood keeps talking about how important their fans are, they’re channeling their ‘19th man’ to travel with them right around the country. Their social media content is creative, more frequent and much higher quality. Their socials content leaves our for dead tbh. They’ve secured preferential ‘way’ access seating for their MCG away games, ‘just’ appeasing even Richmond who have to succumbed to Collingwood’s fan focus at the G.

Also, the Kangaroos social content is first class. What they produce is Mike’s in front of us. Ditto the Giants.

Yes I agree winning makes a clubs effort to engage fans easier but that doesn’t excuse the apparent lack of focus, creativity and quantity of content Essendon delivers its fans. Essendon merely ‘rolls the arm over’ on this stuff. We get one senior coach live presser a week (excl match day) and maybe some ad hoc stuff across the media landscape. And that’s perplexing given its external and internal reviews highlighted to them they need to do a much better job engaging fabs. They have improved, or shown signs of improvement and we’re 12 months on now.

 

[Lore]

I think average fan engagement is pretty much universal across the AFL now days . The membership bases are just too big to service them properly . Depending on how well a club is going is usually the barometer of fan discontent. Collingwood have had plenty of member issues in the last two years but winning games tends to sooth the anger.

Winning games certainly soothes the anger but you don't need to do individual things to engage fans. They do quite well with fan activation stuff at the AFLW home games – a raffle for a signed guernsey, face painting for the kids, etc.

Put some proper seats on the side of training at the Hangar, chuck us a bone in the form of member exclusive content on the website.

And some sort of token for our membership each year – like as a VFLW/AFLW member over the last few years I've had a pair of merino gloves, a picnic blanket, an actual blanket, a tote bag, a travel mug, a member pin and a few other bits and pieces like stickers and s**t... all members only with branding and stuff on it you can't get elsewhere.

That's for a $60 VFLW membership, or I think it's $85 now for AFLW with access. Whereas I pay hundreds for a reserved seat and get exactly the same member videos for AFL as AFLW (behind the scenes etc), but almost zero of anything else beyond a free coffee at Maccas and a $30 bombershop voucher for crap that's not even unique to members, any fan can buy it.