Freo 3rd in membership race

[sij1981]

So long as we dont go down this track !!!

 

[Tas]

North Melbourne offer 1-game memberships. Me and a few mates bought one last year because their queue was way shorter than the Etihad stadium ticketing queue. Cost $2 more than at the gate, but you got a nice North hat and lanyard...

Anyway, I get back to Perth and a week later another hat and lanyard arrive in the mail. And now this season I'm get a text from NthMelbFC imploring me to renew so "we can rise together". I hastily replied STOP to opt out...

We don't offer a 1 game membership, minimum is a 3 game membership. They aren't imploring you, it is just an automated message system for all lapsed members.

The other cause for concern is the pathetic numbers for Melbourne based clubs eg: North, Saints, Bulldogs and Melbourne.

From our perspective we are now and will probably remain the biggest club in W.A.

Not sure why the numbers are 'pathetic', it is a very competitive market here. If Fremantle had 5 West Coast Eagles teams which had a significant head start in Perth and you had limited access to FTA timeslots it would be challenging to increase your supporter base.

Our ground only holds around 50k, about 10k of that isn't available to our members. Our target is 40k this year (hit 35k last year and we are approximately 4-5k ahead of last year). Once we get into a position where demand exceeds supply it will be a lot easier to push the sale of memberships.

If you can stay up in Victoria for quite a while there is significant scope to change your demographic quite radically, our problem has been we have had lengthy downturns after successful periods, that rollercoaster cycle both on and off-field has made it difficult to maximise the support. I think we are better run nowadays, so hopefully things are on the improve.

 

[Fred Ziffel]

We don't offer a 1 game membership, minimum is a 3 game membership. They aren't imploring you, it is just an automated message system for all lapsed members.



Not sure why the numbers are 'pathetic', it is a very competitive market here. If Fremantle had 5 West Coast Eagles teams which had a significant head start in Perth and you had limited access to FTA timeslots it would be challenging to increase your supporter base.

Our ground only holds around 50k, about 10k of that isn't available to our members. Our target is 40k this year (hit 35k last year and we are approximately 4-5k ahead of last year). Once we get into a position where demand exceeds supply it will be a lot easier to push the sale of memberships.

If you can stay up in Victoria for quite a while there is significant scope to change your demographic quite radically, our problem has been we have had lengthy downturns after successful periods, that rollercoaster cycle both on and off-field has made it difficult to maximise the support. I think we are better run nowadays, so hopefully things are on the improve.

The point I was making was not about your club specifically but more the fact Melbourne can't sustain the number of clubs that are there.
That is why it is such a competitive market; which means struggling clubs will continue to struggle.

 

[Tas]

The point I was making was not about your club specifically but more the fact Melbourne can't sustain the number of clubs that are there.
That is why it is such a competitive market; which means struggling clubs will continue to struggle.

Clubs here are only struggling due to AFL mismanagement. They shut down all the medium stadiums, forced clubs to only play at MCG and Docklands, gave clubs no bargaining power whatsoever because they guaranteed games to the third parties, allowed them to go massively into debt with little government support which means in the short-term they are very unattractive compared to clean stadiums.

What can we do, we could have moved to Princess Park which was offered to us at 5% overhead on the gate but the AFL refused. We were promised a cheap subsidised stadium in the Docklands and that was the basis for clubs agreeing to play there. The AFL has now decided the smallest and poorest clubs would pay off this billion dollar asset and retain none of the equity.

It is really a farce. You guys are fortunate the AFL stays out of Perth, they pretty much botch everything they touch. If it wasn't for the coincidence of pay-tv taking off in Australia, they would have run this league into the ground.

 

[holy diver]

The bandwagon is gaining momentum. It's good the club can make money due to
the current almost successful period.

 

[Nodgey]

We don't offer a 1 game membership, minimum is a 3 game membership.

Don't wanna turn this into an argument, but I'm telling ya, I took out a 1-game membership last year. Maybe they only offer them later in the year or something? I dunno and I don't care.

My mate wanted to buy a 1-game Western Bulldogs membership too but they didn't seem to have them for sale.

 

[Tas]

Don't wanna turn this into an argument, but I'm telling ya, I took out a 1-game membership last year. Maybe they only offer them later in the year or something? I dunno and I don't care.

My mate wanted to buy a 1-game Western Bulldogs membership too but they didn't seem to have them for sale.

I think 2012 was the only year they were offered. They weren't available this year and are not available next year. Club converted basically every membership category to be a minimum of 3 games, with 11 being standard and 14 and 3 optional.

It would be a good idea to target opposition fans for 1 game memberships to soak up surplus space, because AFL takes 50% of gate receipt sales, however, I doubt they would be happy if clubs did that.