- Banned
- #1
Some years ago, and I can’t quite put my finger on when it was, possibly when my club South Melbourne was booted up to Sydney, the AFL (then the VFL) took from us the people what was ours, the game of Australian Rules Football, and sold us back what we have now, a product. Someone with a better marketing, development, commercial reality type mind than mine might be better able to explain in detail how that happened, but happen it did, to the detriment of us all. I challenge anyone to convince me that the football experience for the supporter is now any better than it was back in 1977, or 1960, or 1945. Many would argue that the game itself has deteriorated as a spectacle. Taste is subjective and I am inclined to believe that supporters go to watch a physical contest between men, and that that physical contest remains as compelling now as it ever did, despite the fiddling around with the rules in recent years.
I have two brothers in law. One is a Saint, and one is a Bulldog. Come Monday, one of these will be amongst the thousands of supporters trying to work out a way of getting to see his team in what is for him, a very rare Grand Final. Both are members of their respective clubs, so one would think it would be quite simple. You are a member, your club is competing, you are entitled to be there. Not so. The reasons for this are pretty well understood. Damian Barrett wrote about it in the Herald Sun yesterday http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...and-final-ticket/story-e6frf9jf-1225775238506 and Jake Niall has written about it in The Age today http://www.realfooty.com.au/articles/2009/09/16/1252780357167.html
I applaud these two journalists for their articles. Both well written and both perfectly articulate the rip off that is occurring in the AFL on this issue. The subject will be raised again next week as the members of the competing clubs fight over the scraps that are available to them in terms of tickets for their rare, often once in a lifetime, big day. Television will show footage of the few lucky supporters to get tickets and might even show some footage of the little old lady in the Bulldogs or Saints paraphernalia in tears at missing out. She will have been a member for fifty something years and has never missed a game except for when she was hospitalized with gout. You might then get some Good Samaritan come out of the woodwork and get her a ticket and for those of us not involved this year, we can all feel pretty good.
By the Monday following the Grand Final, it will be forgotten. The media will be arguing over the merits of the decision to award the Norm Smith medal to such and such and whether a particular club has missed their window of opportunity and will now have to rebuild, or change coaches. Supporters will start looking at the draft and trades, others will start looking towards the racetrack, and people like me will start thinking about getting the boat ready for Summer. The issue of Grand Final ticket allocation will be forgotten again until this time next year, when again it will be too late to do anything about it.
So how do we fix it? Because this is wrong and it should be made right. The AFL have the power to fix it and they won’t, they have shown that. The State Government have the power to fix it and they won’t, they have shown that (so much for the True Believers). The clubs themselves are making too much money out of flogging their packages so they won’t force the change. No. There is only one way that change will be effected to right this injustice.
Members need to refuse to pay their memberships and make clear to their clubs why. As soon as club memberships start dropping off clubs will be on the doorstep of the AFL quicker than you can say “Australian Rules is the game of the people”. The MCG holds 100,000 people. Clubs have generally in excess of 35,000 members. On the last Saturday in September, those 70,000 people should be the first priority for ticket allocation. The AFL asks who they should take tickets off? I say everyone else. Let the non-competing club supporters be the ones to fight over the scraps. Let the corporates have their lunches at some function centre with a big screen.
So do it now, do it next week. Write to your club, before they put their membership packages together, and tell them not to bother to send you one unless they can guarantee you a ticket on Grand Final day if your club is there. They’ll never be able to do that but if we can get the AFL to change the allocation to competing clubs from 12,000 to 35,000 we should be able to get most of the people that matter to what is their day. And the rest of us can enjoy a BBQ and a few beers.
Do it not just because it might get you to the Grand Final when it’s your turn, do it because it’s the right thing to do, and send a message to the AFL that we, the supporters, deserve better than to be treated like a bunch of cattle there only to generate wealth for the football elite.
I have two brothers in law. One is a Saint, and one is a Bulldog. Come Monday, one of these will be amongst the thousands of supporters trying to work out a way of getting to see his team in what is for him, a very rare Grand Final. Both are members of their respective clubs, so one would think it would be quite simple. You are a member, your club is competing, you are entitled to be there. Not so. The reasons for this are pretty well understood. Damian Barrett wrote about it in the Herald Sun yesterday http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...and-final-ticket/story-e6frf9jf-1225775238506 and Jake Niall has written about it in The Age today http://www.realfooty.com.au/articles/2009/09/16/1252780357167.html
I applaud these two journalists for their articles. Both well written and both perfectly articulate the rip off that is occurring in the AFL on this issue. The subject will be raised again next week as the members of the competing clubs fight over the scraps that are available to them in terms of tickets for their rare, often once in a lifetime, big day. Television will show footage of the few lucky supporters to get tickets and might even show some footage of the little old lady in the Bulldogs or Saints paraphernalia in tears at missing out. She will have been a member for fifty something years and has never missed a game except for when she was hospitalized with gout. You might then get some Good Samaritan come out of the woodwork and get her a ticket and for those of us not involved this year, we can all feel pretty good.
By the Monday following the Grand Final, it will be forgotten. The media will be arguing over the merits of the decision to award the Norm Smith medal to such and such and whether a particular club has missed their window of opportunity and will now have to rebuild, or change coaches. Supporters will start looking at the draft and trades, others will start looking towards the racetrack, and people like me will start thinking about getting the boat ready for Summer. The issue of Grand Final ticket allocation will be forgotten again until this time next year, when again it will be too late to do anything about it.
So how do we fix it? Because this is wrong and it should be made right. The AFL have the power to fix it and they won’t, they have shown that. The State Government have the power to fix it and they won’t, they have shown that (so much for the True Believers). The clubs themselves are making too much money out of flogging their packages so they won’t force the change. No. There is only one way that change will be effected to right this injustice.
Members need to refuse to pay their memberships and make clear to their clubs why. As soon as club memberships start dropping off clubs will be on the doorstep of the AFL quicker than you can say “Australian Rules is the game of the people”. The MCG holds 100,000 people. Clubs have generally in excess of 35,000 members. On the last Saturday in September, those 70,000 people should be the first priority for ticket allocation. The AFL asks who they should take tickets off? I say everyone else. Let the non-competing club supporters be the ones to fight over the scraps. Let the corporates have their lunches at some function centre with a big screen.
So do it now, do it next week. Write to your club, before they put their membership packages together, and tell them not to bother to send you one unless they can guarantee you a ticket on Grand Final day if your club is there. They’ll never be able to do that but if we can get the AFL to change the allocation to competing clubs from 12,000 to 35,000 we should be able to get most of the people that matter to what is their day. And the rest of us can enjoy a BBQ and a few beers.
Do it not just because it might get you to the Grand Final when it’s your turn, do it because it’s the right thing to do, and send a message to the AFL that we, the supporters, deserve better than to be treated like a bunch of cattle there only to generate wealth for the football elite.
