Delisted Former CEO Xavier Campbell - Resigned - 24/8

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JayJ20 said:
There's a big problem with doing that. If we're going to laud Campbell for achieving 84K, we also must hold him responsible for the biggest membership drop in the competition.

We can say 2020 was an outlier year, but other clubs (with a few exceptions) maintained a relatively stable membership base, including Hawthorn who dropped just a hard as we did performance-wise.
COVID was a reason we dropped members, but it wasn't the reason we dropped nearly a quarter of our members.

I put it down to the ludicrous coaching succession plan we had in place, which was Campbell's doing. Most Essendon fans lost faith in Worsfold and the direction the club was headed.
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No, I don’t agree. This is why.

Essendon sell more memberships as a proportion of its total membership after the season has started than any other club. This is a fact. This is due to having a lower % of its total member base on auto renewal. Normally this wouldn’t impact the club as they would sell these packages during the earlier part of the season. Essendon sell around 15,000 memberships from round 1 onwards based on recent year membership tracking over time. This compares to Hawthorn (~10,000), Collingwood (~11,000) and Carlton (~7,500) based on recent seasons. So, with COVID shutting down the season Essendon was impacted more than almost every club in fighting to sign up memberships beyond the suspension. Clubs sold very few memberships after mid March last year... Then form played a minor role as well..

This almost entirely explains why Essendon’s membership fell 20% whilst most other clubs saw a 5-15% drop off.

Whilst the errors and failures in the football department can be rightly directed back to Campbell in large part, membership performance over the last 5 years defied on field lethargy and recorded strong growth and on a net basis, probably outperformed Hawthorn, Carlton and Collingwood’s membership performance.
 
dave10 said:
No, I don’t agree. This is why.

Essendon sell more memberships as a proportion of its total membership after the season has started than any other club. This is a fact. This is due to having a lower % of its total member base on auto renewal. Normally this wouldn’t impact the club as they would sell these packages during the earlier part of the season. Essendon sell around 15,000 memberships from round 1 onwards based on recent year membership tracking over time. This compares to Hawthorn (~10,000), Collingwood (~11,000) and Carlton (~7,500) based on recent seasons. So, with COVID shutting down the season Essendon was impacted more than almost every club in fighting to sign up memberships beyond the suspension. Clubs sold very few memberships after mid March last year... Then form played a minor role as well..

This almost entirely explains why Essendon’s membership fell 20% whilst most other clubs saw a 5-15% drop off.

Whilst the errors and failures in the football department can be rightly directed back to Campbell in large part, membership performance over the last 5 years defied on field lethargy and recorded strong growth and on a net basis, probably outperformed Hawthorn, Carlton and Collingwood’s membership performance.
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They sell them, do they?
 
JayJ20 said:
There's a big problem with doing that. If we're going to laud Campbell for achieving 84K, we also must hold him responsible for the biggest membership drop in the competition.
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No we don't. It's perfectly logical to hold him responsible for the 84k but give him leeway for what happened in Covid.

They didn't both occur in the same operating environment. It makes more sense to treat them, and his responsibility, differently than trying to equate the 2.
 

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yodellinhank said:
They sell them, do they?
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You think we're the only club giving them away? I was a North member from 2009 - 2013 and never gave the club a dime.
 
boncer34 said:
You think we're the only club giving them away? I was a North member from 2009 - 2013 and never gave the club a dime.
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no finals wins in that period for north either
 
dave10 said:
No, I don’t agree. This is why.

Essendon sell more memberships as a proportion of its total membership after the season has started than any other club. This is a fact. This is due to having a lower % of its total member base on auto renewal. Normally this wouldn’t impact the club as they would sell these packages during the earlier part of the season. Essendon sell around 15,000 memberships from round 1 onwards based on recent year membership tracking over time. This compares to Hawthorn (~10,000), Collingwood (~11,000) and Carlton (~7,500) based on recent seasons. So, with COVID shutting down the season Essendon was impacted more than almost every club in fighting to sign up memberships beyond the suspension. Clubs sold very few memberships after mid March last year... Then form played a minor role as well..

This almost entirely explains why Essendon’s membership fell 20% whilst most other clubs saw a 5-15% drop off.

Whilst the errors and failures in the football department can be rightly directed back to Campbell in large part, membership performance over the last 5 years defied on field lethargy and recorded strong growth and on a net basis, probably outperformed Hawthorn, Carlton and Collingwood’s membership performance.
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Form and direction of the club played a minor role? Nah I disagree. It's not consistent with the numbers of other clubs.
Sydney, Essendon and Melbourne had the biggest reduction of members percentage-wise.

Sydney finished bottom 4 in 2019 and had an average start to the year so they had a natural decline. Melbourne finished bottom 2 in 2019 and had an average start to the year, so again, a natural decline.

Essendon made finals in 2019 and were tracking to beat our previous record before COVID right? It's highly unlikely that 18K went "oh nah no membership because of COVID" when that didn't happen with any other club to that scale. I'd look past a 9K drop, but 18K? That's a little too convenient.

Our numbers should've been similar to Collingwood and Hawthorn (around 74-76K), but we fell 10K short of them.
Carlton who also traditionally sell more memberships during the season actually gained members. I do think they fluffed their numbers a bit with freebies, but not 18K.

boncer34 said:
No we don't. It's perfectly logical to hold him responsible for the 84k but give him leeway for what happened in Covid.

They didn't both occur in the same operating environment. It makes more sense to treat them, and his responsibility, differently than trying to equate the 2.
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Even if you treat the years differently, you'd still need to consider how our competition performed. How did other clubs perform in the same conditions? That's a more reliable indicator of COVID's impact.
It's akin to blaming our fall from finals on the hub and giving leeway to the coach when we're the only Victorian 2019 finalist that missed out on finals last year.

I'd give him leeway if our drop was average-high for teams around us. But more than double of Hawthorn's drop?
COVID isn't the reason we dropped almost 20K because that's a big outlier in comparison to others. At least some of what brought us to this can be traced back to form during the season and a lack of faith in the club's direction, which Campbell is partly responsible for.
 
JayJ20 said:
Form and direction of the club played a minor role? Nah I disagree. It's not consistent with the numbers of other clubs.
Sydney, Essendon and Melbourne had the biggest reduction of members percentage-wise.

Sydney finished bottom 4 in 2019 and had an average start to the year so they had a natural decline. Melbourne finished bottom 2 in 2019 and had an average start to the year, so again, a natural decline.

Essendon made finals in 2019 and were tracking to beat our previous record before COVID right? It's highly unlikely that 18K went "oh nah no membership because of COVID" when that didn't happen with any other club to that scale. I'd look past a 9K drop, but 18K? That's a little too convenient.

Our numbers should've been similar to Collingwood and Hawthorn (around 74-76K), but we fell 10K short of them.
Carlton who also traditionally sell more memberships during the season actually gained members. I do think they fluffed their numbers a bit with freebies, but not 18K.


Even if you treat the years differently, you'd still need to consider how our competition performed. How did other clubs perform in the same conditions? That's a more reliable indicator of COVID's impact.
It's akin to blaming our fall from finals on the hub and giving leeway to the coach when we're the only Victorian 2019 finalist that missed out on finals last year.

I'd give him leeway if our drop was average-high for teams around us. But more than double of Hawthorn's drop?
COVID isn't the reason we dropped almost 20K because that's a big outlier in comparison to others. At least some of what brought us to this can be traced back to form during the season and a lack of faith in the club's direction, which Campbell is partly responsible for.
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Why? Is every supporter in every club the same?

Going "we should've been similar" completely ignores that everyone's different. Demographics accross clubs are different. Statistically with 18 clubs you'd expect there be a range of reactions from big drops through to rises.

We happened to be one of the extremes.

It's not at all like blaming the hub for our drop. Every Victorian club faced that challenge the same, it was level accross the park. Did every member of every club face the same challenge? Or did they all face vastly different scenarios?
 
JayJ20 said:
Form and direction of the club played a minor role? Nah I disagree. It's not consistent with the numbers of other clubs.
Sydney, Essendon and Melbourne had the biggest reduction of members percentage-wise.

Sydney finished bottom 4 in 2019 and had an average start to the year so they had a natural decline. Melbourne finished bottom 2 in 2019 and had an average start to the year, so again, a natural decline.

Essendon made finals in 2019 and were tracking to beat our previous record before COVID right? It's highly unlikely that 18K went "oh nah no membership because of COVID" when that didn't happen with any other club to that scale. I'd look past a 9K drop, but 18K? That's a little too convenient.

Our numbers should've been similar to Collingwood and Hawthorn (around 74-76K), but we fell 10K short of them.
Carlton who also traditionally sell more memberships during the season actually gained members. I do think they fluffed their numbers a bit with freebies, but not 18K.


Even if you treat the years differently, you'd still need to consider how our competition performed. How did other clubs perform in the same conditions? That's a more reliable indicator of COVID's impact.
It's akin to blaming our fall from finals on the hub and giving leeway to the coach when we're the only Victorian 2019 finalist that missed out on finals last year.

I'd give him leeway if our drop was average-high for teams around us. But more than double of Hawthorn's drop?
COVID isn't the reason we dropped almost 20K because that's a big outlier in comparison to others. At least some of what brought us to this can be traced back to form during the season and a lack of faith in the club's direction, which Campbell is partly responsible for.
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I just explained why Essendon’s membership declined more than most clubs (close to double Cs other clubs), and it was largely not form related. Refer to my post again for the reason (Essendon lower auto renewal % Vs other clubs meant it had a much lower % of its 2020 membership signed up compared to other clubs when the world effectively ended and left it highly exposed compared to its piers like Hawthorn and Collingwood).

All clubs sold very few memberships once COVID hit, Essendon included. It may not suit your narrative however it’s important we recognise some important facts that explain the membership 2020 final result.
 
boncer34 said:
You think we're the only club giving them away? I was a North member from 2009 - 2013 and never gave the club a dime.
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Geez, you've outed yourself there.

Another reason Essendon would have higher memberships at a later period is there is a big push on 3 game memberships in the lead up to ANZAC day, and people but them to access a ticket.


The whole "80-100k memberships" is a joke these days. Even Snowball I is a member. On the metric of $ sourced from membership i think we were around mid table?
 
dave10 said:
I just explained why Essendon’s membership declined more than most clubs (close to double Cs other clubs), and it was largely not form related. Refer to my post again for the reason (Essendon lower auto renewal % Vs other clubs meant it had a much lower % of its 2020 membership signed up compared to other clubs when the world effectively ended and left it highly exposed compared to its piers like Hawthorn and Collingwood).

All clubs sold very few memberships once COVID hit, Essendon included. It may not suit your narrative however it’s important we recognise some important facts that explain the membership 2020 final result.
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I explained why Essendon membership was going to drop in 2020 back in 2019. Essendon's membership was always going to drop in 2020.
 
yodellinhank said:
Geez, you've outed yourself there.

Another reason Essendon would have higher memberships at a later period is there is a big push on 3 game memberships in the lead up to ANZAC day, and people but them to access a ticket.


The whole "80-100k memberships" is a joke these days. Even Snowball I is a member. On the metric of $ sourced from membership i think we were around mid table?
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I've mentioned that before. Got my North 2009 members cap around here somewhere.

We were 6th for Membership/Gate in 2019. Behind West Coast, Collingwood, Richmond, Adelaide and Freo.

Fwiw I asked if my pet membership was counted in the numbers and the club said no.
 
yodellinhank said:
I explained why Essendon membership was going to drop in 2020 back in 2019. Essendon's membership was always going to drop in 2020.
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If not for COVID, Essendon’s membership would’ve grown in 2020. As at March 2020, at the time when COVID commenced, Essendon’s membership was actually tracking +2.5% Vs the exact same date in 2019...
 
boncer34 said:
Why? Is every supporter in every club the same?

Going "we should've been similar" completely ignores that everyone's different. Demographics accross clubs are different. Statistically with 18 clubs you'd expect there be a range of reactions from big drops through to rises.

We happened to be one of the extremes.

It's not at all like blaming the hub for our drop. Every Victorian club faced that challenge the same, it was level accross the park. Did every member of every club face the same challenge? Or did they all face vastly different scenarios?
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18 clubs lost approximately 64K members competition-wide. Essendon accounts for nearly 30% of that. Essendon, Sydney and Melbourne make up two-thirds of the total amount of members lost.
Form and direction has a proven correlation to membership numbers, which includes last year. Using demographic as a reason is relying on something unproven.

dave10 said:
I just explained why Essendon’s membership declined more than most clubs (close to double Cs other clubs), and it was largely not form related. Refer to my post again for the reason (Essendon lower auto renewal % Vs other clubs meant it had a much lower % of its 2020 membership signed up compared to other clubs when the world effectively ended and left it highly exposed compared to its piers like Hawthorn and Collingwood).

All clubs sold very few memberships once COVID hit, Essendon included. It may not suit your narrative however it’s important we recognise some important facts that explain the membership 2020 final result.
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Auto-renewal % in itself tells a story about how Essendon struggle to convert casual support into dedicated members. Everyone wants to see how Essendon go first before committing. Form and direction plays a part in that. It's why COVID can't be the only explanation.

Do you think we'd have lost the amount of members we did if we were regularly going deep into finals?
 

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JayJ20 said:
18 clubs lost approximately 64K members competition-wide. Essendon accounts for nearly 30% of that. Essendon, Sydney and Melbourne make up two-thirds of the total amount of members lost.
Form and direction has a proven correlation to membership numbers, which includes last year. Using demographic as a reason is relying on something unproven.
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No, nothing about last year is proven. That's my point.

I'm not pinning last year's membership drop during Covid on Xavier. You are.

Agree to disagree. Be interesting to see this year's number.
 
Vander18 said:
The CEO role as relates to footy isnt about winning flags...it’s about sustained competence IMO and creating an environment and culture that gives the footy people the best shot to win flags across multiple years. Think Geelong are a good example.

Its not the entirety of their role but it’s the key metric for the organisation....so consistent failure in that area must have a consequence.
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How do you define consistent failure?

We've played finals in about 1/3 of the seasons Campbell has been CEO, which included a season with the majority of the best-22 playing group suspended. If clubs themselves measure on-field success as finals appearances, he's not been a failure.

Sure, the Worsfold extension was a howler, as was the coaching reporting structure that was allowed to be implemented, and the handover didn't go as smoothly as would have been ideal, but that was compounded with the external events of last year - COVID and hubs had different impacts on each group and club.

I just disagree that as CEO the primary KPI is "win premierships" given the CEO role encompasses the business side of the club, you're moving the bar to be about 'sustained competence and culture' now though.

I don't particularly love Campbell, but if you look at the off-field position of the club, it's in a very good place for a club that was smashed from pillar to post from 2012 - 2016 then has spent most of the last 4 years trying to repair that damage.

How many clubs have been on the brink of folding from far lesser things than that 2012 - 2016 period in EFC history, yet we weren't, not even close.

As a supporter the only thing we might give a s**t about is the club playing in, and winning, Grand Finals. As a CEO, there's a hell of a lot more going on. EFC is a multi-million dollar organisation.
 
owen87 said:
How do you define consistent failure?

We've played finals in about 1/3 of the seasons Campbell has been CEO, which included a season with the majority of the best-22 playing group suspended. If clubs themselves measure on-field success as finals appearances, he's not been a failure.

Sure, the Worsfold extension was a howler, as was the coaching reporting structure that was allowed to be implemented, and the handover didn't go as smoothly as would have been ideal, but that was compounded with the external events of last year - COVID and hubs had different impacts on each group and club.

I just disagree that as CEO the primary KPI is "win premierships" given the CEO role encompasses the business side of the club, you're moving the bar to be about 'sustained competence and culture' now though.

I don't particularly love Campbell, but if you look at the off-field position of the club, it's in a very good place for a club that was smashed from pillar to post from 2012 - 2016 then has spent most of the last 4 years trying to repair that damage.

How many clubs have been on the brink of folding from far lesser things than that 2012 - 2016 period in EFC history, yet we weren't, not even close.

As a supporter the only thing we might give a sh*t about is the club playing in, and winning, Grand Finals. As a CEO, there's a hell of a lot more going on. EFC is a multi-million dollar organisation.
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Haven’t shifted the goalposts at all - I never said winning flags was the be all and end all. My argument is simply that on field success is part of how the CEO should be assessed.

In terms of how you define consistent failure, I would define it as failing to achieve the goals the club set for itself in its strategic plan. It’s not a subjective view, it’s their in black and white.
 
Vander18 said:
Haven’t shifted the goalposts at all - I never said winning flags was the be all and end all. My argument is simply that on field success is part of how the CEO should be assessed.

In terms of how you define consistent failure, I would define it as failing to achieve the goals the club set for itself in its strategic plan. It’s not a subjective view, it’s their in black and white.
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This strategic plan?

When did I ever say it wasn't part of how the CEO should be assessed?
 

Essendon 2017-2021 Strategic Plan.

This should be good...

Our Vision: TO MAKE OUR PEOPLE PROUD BY BEING THE MOST INCLUSIVE, SUCCESSFUL & RESPECTED CLUB ON & OFF THE FIELD

Right... Successful - in the entire length of the plan, we failed to win a single final, and have a sub 50 win/loss record.

And respected? We're a ******* laughing stock.

Objective by 2021: TO BE A THRIVING PROFESSIONAL SPORTING CLUB DELIVERING TOP 4 PERFORMANCE IN ALL KEY ON & OFF FIELD MEAURES

We not top 4 in any of these measures;

- Attendance
- Wins
- Finals wins
- Flags
- Sponsorship dollars
- Members
- Revenue

What are these ******* measures you speak of?

2017-2021 Strategic Themes

1. DELIVER BEST PRACTICE MEMBER & SUPPORTER EXPERIENCE
Oh yeah man - I love rocking up year after year and watching my team s**t the bed. Great supporter experience.

2. IDENTIFY & STRENGTHEN KEY COMMERCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
Lost it's ISC deal, has not improved commercial revenue as much as other clubs.

3. DELIVER GENUINE COMMUNITY OUTCOMES, PARTICIPATION AND ENGAGEMENT
Well a VFLW side is something, as is the Hangar - so that's one tick I suppose.

4. DEVELOP AND EMBED UNIQUE EFC FOOTBALL PHILOSOPHY
I'm not even going to dignify this with a response.

5. RESPONSIBLE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT & MAXIMISE INVESTMENTS
Conversations would indicate they have FAILED MISERABLY here.

6. DRIVE PURPOSEFUL INNOVATION
Name me one innovation that Essendon has successfully conceived and implemented in that time.

7. ESTABLISH CLEAR AND ENDURING BRAND POSITION
Actually a plus. I know exactly what Essendon's brand position is. :poo:

8. STRENGTHEN INDUSTRY RELATIONSHIPS
With who? The AFL? The other clubs? Media? Where's the tangible outcome?

9. CREATE HIGH PERFORMANCE PEOPLE CULTURE
I... I just...

How THE * is this bloke still employed?
 
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