Can there be too many members?

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Thread starter #1
I am currently touring the USA for a few years. Sport over here is HUGE, college football gets crowds are comparable and sometimes bigger than AFL, which is understandable given the size of the US. It has me thinking though and I have discussed it with fellow big footy & Geelong member Patdman. Will GFC ever have too many members? Consider the following:
- AFL is the most popular sport in Australia
- We have a home ground that holds what, 35,000
- Currently for some games members still have to pay booking fees and pre-purchase game tickets midweek.
- Telstra dome has no room to expand.
In the states you can barely get to a professional sport. I live in Boston which is a fairly fanatical sports state that has the current NFL champs, the Red Sox are always competative, the Bruins are one of the most supported NHL teams in the US and the Celtics have a long and proud history. At the moment getting tickets to the NFL or Baseball is almost impossible. You can buy the crappest seats in the house at the NHL (which isnt as popular as many people may think) and the celtics you can get tickets because they are CRAP. In montreal where the Habs (NHL) are HUGE we got corporate tickets and were VERY lucky. If you get lucky when they release the backrow seats for the next section of the season you can get lucky.

Most NFL teams that arent like Freo and Richmond and always CRAP have membership WAITING lists of 10,000+. Bennys jets 80,000+ just on the waiting list. You cant get NEAR a game and they are CRAP.

What happens in the future if Geelong gets to 50,000+. I know it is a long way off but I would be crushed if I couldnt go to a game. There are people over here who are fanatical fans, LOVE NFL and just cant get to a game. Even if you can find tickets like for instance of scalpers you are looking at $200+US a game (almost what we pay for the season!!!).

Okay so it is a fair way off and hopefully our population will stop it from ever happening. BUT with all the effort being put in to grow the sport it just may happen. Not in 5-10 years, but in 15-20 sure. So yeah maybe it is not worth talking about, but being in this country makes one realise how lucky we are. And someone can go find the threads where i bitched about having to book for games when i am a member. NEVER will i bitch again. We are DAMN lucky to spend $300 and watch an entire season.

I want members and i love to hear that people are signing up, but lets hope we never have TOO MANY MEMBERS!

(oh and i dont even live in the country yet i will still be on board the cats next year - but maybe one day I will hope others arent??)
 

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#2
Interesting post. You do make some good points.

I don't think you can ever have to many members. It's all money into the club to make it better.

I believe West Coast and Adelaide have waiting lists, and look at the profits they make.

The more the merrier.
 

cats2rise

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#3
scottydeewah said:
I am currently touring the USA for a few years. Sport over here is HUGE, college football gets crowds are comparable and sometimes bigger than AFL, which is understandable given the size of the US. It has me thinking though and I have discussed it with fellow big footy & Geelong member Patdman. Will GFC ever have too many members? Consider the following:
- AFL is the most popular sport in Australia
- We have a home ground that holds what, 35,000
- Currently for some games members still have to pay booking fees and pre-purchase game tickets midweek.
- Telstra dome has no room to expand.
In the states you can barely get to a professional sport. I live in Boston which is a fairly fanatical sports state that has the current NFL champs, the Red Sox are always competative, the Bruins are one of the most supported NHL teams in the US and the Celtics have a long and proud history. At the moment getting tickets to the NFL or Baseball is almost impossible. You can buy the crappest seats in the house at the NHL (which isnt as popular as many people may think) and the celtics you can get tickets because they are CRAP. In montreal where the Habs (NHL) are HUGE we got corporate tickets and were VERY lucky. If you get lucky when they release the backrow seats for the next section of the season you can get lucky.

Most NFL teams that arent like Freo and Richmond and always CRAP have membership WAITING lists of 10,000+. Bennys jets 80,000+ just on the waiting list. You cant get NEAR a game and they are CRAP.

What happens in the future if Geelong gets to 50,000+. I know it is a long way off but I would be crushed if I couldnt go to a game. There are people over here who are fanatical fans, LOVE NFL and just cant get to a game. Even if you can find tickets like for instance of scalpers you are looking at $200+US a game (almost what we pay for the season!!!).

Okay so it is a fair way off and hopefully our population will stop it from ever happening. BUT with all the effort being put in to grow the sport it just may happen. Not in 5-10 years, but in 15-20 sure. So yeah maybe it is not worth talking about, but being in this country makes one realise how lucky we are. And someone can go find the threads where i bitched about having to book for games when i am a member. NEVER will i bitch again. We are DAMN lucky to spend $300 and watch an entire season.

I want members and i love to hear that people are signing up, but lets hope we never have TOO MANY MEMBERS!

(oh and i dont even live in the country yet i will still be on board the cats next year - but maybe one day I will hope others arent??)
Havn't seen you around here for a few weeks scottydeewah!

Hear waht you are saying, but i don't think that will be an isue (50,000+) members for awhile yet.

I think Telstra might be a problem in say 10 years as more members sign up, but im not sure what can be done about it.

KP can still always be upgraded though but untill we have full seasons of packed games, i don't see the need to if only a small % of games are sold out.

I see what you are saying with the GFC members not getting seats at KP, usually i am in the standing room! I get there a good hour early now though.
 
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#4
Don't forget too, GFC are experiencing a BOOM period at the moment and with all Booms comes a bust period. We have a very rosy next 5 years or so (hopefully more), and eventually, as much as it pains me to say it, we will drop to out of the eight and down the lower end of the ladder.

Members traditionally only support the club when it is on a high. Only the true supports sign on when times are tough or Grand Final appreances aren't realistic.
 

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#5
Strong hands Magee said:
Don't forget too, GFC are experiencing a BOOM period at the moment and with all Booms comes a bust period. We have a very rosy next 5 years or so (hopefully more), and eventually, as much as it pains me to say it, we will drop to out of the eight and down the lower end of the ladder.

Members traditionally only support the club when it is on a high. Only the true supports sign on when times are tough or Grand Final appreances aren't realistic.
So say we get the target of 30,000 this year, how many do you think will still be signed up out of those 30,000 next time we fall out of the 8?
 
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#6
That's exactly the question. You would hope 30,000 but i doubt it. Look at the huge growth in membership since '00 based on our improved performance (as well as other factors). A lot of fringe supporters only become members when they envisage a premership. Drop out of the 8 and they don't renew.

Geelong should easily have 50,000 members based on geographics alone!
 

cats2rise

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#7
Strong hands Magee said:
That's exactly the question. You would hope 30,000 but i doubt it. Look at the huge growth in membership since '00 based on our improved performance (as well as other factors). A lot of fringe supporters only become members when they envisage a premership. Drop out of the 8 and they don't renew.

Geelong should easily have 50,000 members based on geographics alone!
WOuld it have to do with the ol' not successful team since '63. Many would have had there hearts broken during the '90s but i would of thought they would have stayed on as members
 

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#8
scottydeewah said:
...
Consider the following:
We have a home ground that holds what, 35,000
...
Scotty , 35000 , Cooky wishes. It wil take another extention or two to get to that at Skilled. After all the blurb we didnt crack 27,000 last year
 

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#9
Strong hands Magee said:
Don't forget too, GFC are experiencing a BOOM period at the moment and with all Booms comes a bust period. We have a very rosy next 5 years or so (hopefully more), and eventually, as much as it pains me to say it, we will drop to out of the eight and down the lower end of the ladder.

Members traditionally only support the club when it is on a high. Only the true supports sign on when times are tough or Grand Final appreances aren't realistic.
Yes , we have a side on the up but is ths the only reason we have increased our numbers. The paradigm has shifted. Two decades ago Geelong was one the "Boom" clubs if you like that term, we had one of the higher memberships but our memerbership was only around 10,000. These days more and more people have been incouraged to become members to become supporters and there has been a change in peoples approach to attendance. So many now book seats to go along with the membership. Geelong makes a meal out of this because every year because of this there is less churn. Once members have their seats they dont want to lose them, so no matter the teams performance they re-up the membership every year.
It may well be that some time in the future that we have problems with numbers , just like the September Membership this year became full so it may for the standard. It may also be that normal membership reaches a stage that demand peters out due to a lack of attendance ability which would reduce our ability to compete with the big boys, to be honest its some time, but its one of the reasons that our current capacity at the Cat Cage is insufficient.
Cook has said as much all ready, and when they have paid the the New Hickey off Id say the Old Hickey/New Doug Wade and Ross Drew may have a date with a dozer.
 

CharlieG

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#10
Sydney briefly had a waiting list in the late 1990s, due to the boom in interest and the small size of the SCG. Membership was capped at 30,000 because the club deemed it desirable to ensure that a certain number of walk-up tickets could be sold.
 

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#12
Instead of a waiting list clubs will just up the prices of a membership ala manchester united and that will soon limit the tickets to 30,000. Even though you may pay over the odds for a seasons ticket, at least you will be guaranteed to get in.
 

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#15
Well, there definitely is a boom at the moment, with the Social club having a waiting list. I had to sign up before Jan 6 to make sure that I got my Social club membership.

As has been said, there will most likely be a drop in the future also. The only way you used to be able to get into the social club was via invitation. Quite obviously they weren't getting many in and they opened up the gates, only to now be overflowing.

It is dissappointing when buying a membership doesn't mean that you will get into a home game, upgrades definitely need to be made to KP, it's pretty obvious when the membership figure last year was larger than the stated capacity (I'm sure Cooky said it was 28000, which was never reached).

I have friends who wish to join me in the Social club, but cannot due to the retrictions, it's a great thing that we can get so many members, but I almost feel that we are losing potential members who feel they won't be able to see a game unless they turn up 4 hours before waiting on the pavement outside.
 
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