Originally posted by Mark:
1.Roo supporters are few,
but the percentage of those supporters that become members is the highest in the league.
2.Many of those members don't go to the games. Thats an indication that they buy a membership purley to support the club, regardless of whether they can attend or not.
We may be the smallest supporter group, but we defintely are the best!
The clubs that have the highest ratio of supporters to members are the clubs whose survival is threatened. The Bulldgos, North melbourne, hawthorn are all clubs with well over 20,000 members, which appears out-of-sync with those clubs total supporter base.
Carlton, for example have about 27,000 members whichis only marginally more than North, yet we all know that Carlton have easily thrtee times the support of North Melbourne. But Carlton supporters don't need to become members for the club to survive. The club will survive anyway. This makes Essendon's tally of 34,000 members remarkable. It is the highest Victorian membership, yet the club has no chance of ever folding in the near future. Yet, despite this, we are on target for 40,000 members anyway.
So, Roo fans are not the best. They are just "forced" to buy a membership otherwise the club will eventually go under. I'm sure if Essendons survival was threatended, our supporter-to-member ration would be the same as the Roos, Hawthorn and the Bulldogs.
As it is, we have the most members anyway.
[This message has been edited by Dan24 (edited 25 February 2001).]