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- Mar 2, 2005
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#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??)
- 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??)

