How can we ensure our Future

[Limerick]

RoosviewsRe: Roos divided over share trading - Herald Sun #32
The club needs new ideas, new revenue initiatives, greater involvement from North Melbourne people, better relationships with media, project a better image, be more inclusive of its members etc

”We need people on the board who have the contacts, capabilities, history and experience in their given fields to deliver on these things for our club. People who already have the runs on the board who can re-energise the club. People who have the capability of thinking outside the square, not just an ability to follow a text book, or who are great with procedure. We need ideas from clever, motivated, North Melbourne people. Leave the procedure up to the CEO and department heads when the ideas come. "

Mark is correct. I open this thread to attract thoughts and ideas that can move the NMFC positively into the future, plus list some of my thoughts and suggestions as a starter.
I worked with the Membership group over the first half of 2006. As a result of my experience I submitted two reports containing a number of recommendations
(a) 2006 Membership Telethon Analysis dated It contained 10 recommendations, the major ones of which are listed below

(i) The database system and procedures that they were using be enhanced to be member focused over the total life of the member. The current system allowed for duplicated memberships, which gave the false impression of non-renewals and new memberships. The system did not track match attendances against the memberships i.e. the club didn’t know who was attending matches. This appears to have been addressed in 2007. I’m not saying that it was in response to my suggestion.

(ii) The re-introduction of a non-attending member category. This type of membership enables supporters who can’t attend games to still be a part of the NMFC family. It would also enable members who drop out for a year to maintain their continuous membership. I believe that when it was available it attracted 5,000 members and around 7,000 for Richmond in 2006.
This type of membership is offered by

Adelaide - Boundary Line Membership - $50
Carlton – Blue Member, new this year.
Collingwood - Magpie Nest Membership $85.00
Fremantle - Associate Membership $70.00
Geelong - House Cat $ 70
MFC/MCC Supporter $40.00 - $150
Out of SA. $125.00 provides one ticket to an AMMI game
Tiger Insider (formerly On the Bench) $70.00
Swans Supporters $75.00 in NSW & Vic, $80.00 for other states
Western Bulldogs - The Kennel Club
West Coast - In the Wings, Eagles Nest.
Essendon and Hawthorn membership details were not available.

Are all these 11, possibly 13, clubs wrong in their thinking? This doesn’t appear to have been taken up although there is an AFL Club Support Adult category $105.00 on the NMFC application form but no mention of this in the membership brochure? I’ll contact the membership sales group when they return in the New Year.

(iii) Continuous membership figure. That this is printed on the membership card and club correspondence. This would encourage members to maintain their membership. This was further supported by the re-introduction of the non-attending category. This appears not to have been accepted.

(b) NMFC - A Total Customer Focus dated 13 July 2006This put forward the argument that the NMFC should focus on the 200,000 supporters of which 25,000 are members. It recommended the following
(a) NMFC view its supporters as its customer base and gear all marketing and business administration to this larger group,
(b) The NMFC business be customer and product focused, with KPIs for each product, and
(c)The NMFC business system is designed to support this approach.
No response on this recommendation.

BLOG FacilityIn my expanded candidacy bio I stated that “If elected I would move to put in place mechanisms by which this membership communication could occur e.g. ability of members to (i) Register thoughts on issues via the North Melbourne homepage.” It is interesting that the Pies, Swans & Freo. have a BLOG facility on the sites. Also the West Coast has an “Ask Woosha” facility.

Other Opportunities
The Bulldogs have a “bulldog backyard package” which enables members to donate money that will provide memberships to the needy. It is managed through their Community Services division, SpiritWest Services, memberships purchased through the Bulldogs Backyard Program are distributed to a range of organisations including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), Western Health and other local community agencies. All supporters who purchase Bulldog Backyard packages receive a Certificate of Appreciation.

The packages range from $50 (1 x Junior 17 Game), $100 (2 x Junior 17 Game), $150(4 x Junior 17 Game), $200 (1 x Adult 11 Game & 1 x Junior 17 Game), $250(1 x Adult 11 Game & 2 x Junior 17 Game), & $300 (1 x Family 11 Game)
This is good lateral thinking in that donations are turned into counted memberships that may lead to new future members

 

[Yianni]

(ii) The re-introduction of a non-attending member category. This type of membership enables supporters who can’t attend games to still be a part of the NMFC family. It would also enable members who drop out for a year to maintain their continuous membership. I believe that when it was available it attracted 5,000 members and around 7,000 for Richmond in 2006.
This type of membership is offered by

Adelaide - Boundary Line Membership - $50
Carlton – Blue Member, new this year.
Collingwood - Magpie Nest Membership $85.00
Fremantle - Associate Membership $70.00
Geelong - House Cat $ 70
MFC/MCC Supporter $40.00 - $150
Out of SA. $125.00 provides one ticket to an AMMI game
Tiger Insider (formerly On the Bench) $70.00
Swans Supporters $75.00 in NSW & Vic, $80.00 for other states
Western Bulldogs - The Kennel Club
West Coast - In the Wings, Eagles Nest.
Essendon and Hawthorn membership details were not available.

Are all these 11, possibly 13, clubs wrong in their thinking? This doesn’t appear to have been taken up although there is an AFL Club Support Adult category $105.00 on the NMFC application form but no mention of this in the membership brochure? I’ll contact the membership sales group when they return in the New Year.

I'm 99% sure we've got one of these memberships. I used to have one.

Did we get rid of them? I know the AFL didn't count them, but they're still money for the club. They'd have to be stupid to get rid of them.

 

[rooboy_88]

Love your ideas Limerick.

I know alot of people who would love to attend games and cant make it because of different circumstances so buying a membership isnt cost effective for them.

Can this saught of thing become a tax deduction for supporters and possibly businesses jumping on.

I like the blog idea where the supporters can provide feedback to the club as me and you discussed a little while back about getting the club and its supporters to generate revenue streams.

Keep up the good work mate

 

[sross]

I'm 99% sure we've got one of these memberships. I used to have one.

Did we get rid of them? I know the AFL didn't count them, but they're still money for the club. They'd have to be stupid to get rid of them.

The last time it was available was 2005 and it was called Club Kangaroo and it was $55. My nephew has recently moved to Canberra for work and wanted to buy one and was advised we no longer offer that membership type.

 

[NimChief]

Get away from the AFL handling our membership department.

I've had to phone them up TWICE too sign me up.

And they still haven't deducted the money from my account.

I'll probably have to phone them up AGAIN after the Christmas break....and by then I'll have missed out on the Mazda draw

 

[moomba]

A few thoughts

- First of all we need to sort the board situation out, not saying that everyone has to agree with everyone 100% but we must all be working toward one goal. I reckon the lack of a clear longer term objective for the club is probably one thing that needs to be addressed first. It's all well and good decision making on the hop, and for a club like us it is often necessary but I think we've lost sight of where we want to be long term, and how we can best work toward that objective.

- Once we have that long term objective it should be communicated to members, I suspect a lot haven't renewed because they have no confidence in the long term future of the club. Changing strategic direction every few years is a contributing factor toward that, and I think it's important for the club to come out and say "this is where we will be in 10, 20, 50 years" and this is how we will achieve those objectives.

- Membership and administration needs to be sorted out, and rather than incompetence or bad management in those areas I suspect it is more to do with infrastructure or lack of it. If we need to upgrade systems, let's upgrade them. If we need more staff lets look at how we can get more staff in the key admin areas of the club. It's all well and good saying that this costs money, but I think we are probably losing significant amounts due to the lack of an effective membership database and bums on seating selling memberships and promoting the value of getting a membership to supporters of the club.

- It's an understandable strategy but I think the Melbourne supporters have been ignored a touch while the club concentrates on attracting members in the new markets (Canberra, Gold Coast). I don't think we should ignore the new markets but I'd say there are a lot of North people that no longer attend games, and no longer get memberships. Theres also plenty of new markets in the North Melbourne area, it's been suggested a dozen times but we should be looking at handing out free tickets to schools and the communities around the North Melbourne area. A great way to promote the club in those communities and a good start toward developing some long term supporters, particular among the immigrant communities.

- A lot of things things will cost money but I think we can no longer afford to tread water, because while we stand still other clubs get further and further ahead of us. We have a lot of resources that at times are used and at others are underused. John, you know plenty about volunteering at the club and I think that has been a real positive. Are there other areas that we look at where I'm sure you'll find passionate and skilled supporters willing to put time and effort into. My soccer club does a weekly podcast containing interviews with the coach and players and stories about the club. I'm sure you could find some people on BigFooty (Carlos, Darky and Northbhoy would be a great show, although we might need some volunteer lawyers with defamation experience) let alone the wider support base who would be able to put something together with little outlay if given access to the club. It is not a huge thing, but it does promote the club, and it is a weekly reminder to people that the club is around and part of their lives. Also a great promotion for events and tickets/membership sales.

I'm sure there are plenty more things that need to be done, some big picture stuff at board level but plenty that the membership can contribute toward. Getting a few ideas together is a good start though.

 

[The Other Dean]

Get away from the AFL handling our membership department.

I've had to phone them up TWICE too sign me up.

And they still haven't deducted the money from my account.

I'll probably have to phone them up AGAIN after the Christmas break....and by then I'll have missed out on the Mazda draw

Just to relate an experience, rather than have a crack....

You are not Robinson Crusoe on this one. I have had a similar experience with trying to sort out (not mine but) my little bloke's membership.

And, yep, looking at having to make another call after New Year's.

Rather than giving me the sh1ts on a personal level (usually I have a low threshold for such annoyances, but I make a whole world of allowances when it's the NMFC), it is kind of frustrating from a higher perspective. I mean, (1) obviously, we need every member we can get. I'm not saying that the membership staff should be Sales experts, but surely a consultant should at least make some attempt to ensure that an enquiry into obtaining a membership has every given opportunity to later become an actual purchase. It's important to the club. And (2) it's not rocket science. Receive call, send out forms, receive forms, debit funds, activate membership. Lots of businesses do it. And I think it's fair to say we could honestly do with being a little slicker in this area, especially when getting the process right now could be so vital in the longview.

But as I say, I'm willing to cut the club a whole lotta slack on this as there may be a behind-the-scenes teething/admin/budget/systems/anything problem that I'm not privy to.

 

[The Other Dean]

- It's an understandable strategy but I think the Melbourne supporters have been ignored a touch while the club concentrates on attracting members in the new markets (Canberra, Gold Coast). I don't think we should ignore the new markets but I'd say there are a lot of North people that no longer attend games, and no longer get memberships. Theres also plenty of new markets in the North Melbourne area, it's been suggested a dozen times but we should be looking at handing out free tickets to schools and the communities around the North Melbourne area. A great way to promote the club in those communities and a good start toward developing some long term supporters, particular among the immigrant communities.

Couldn't agree more. After all, this is where our future lies.

- A lot of things things will cost money but I think we can no longer afford to tread water, because while we stand still other clubs get further and further ahead of us. We have a lot of resources that at times are used and at others are underused. John, you know plenty about volunteering at the club and I think that has been a real positive. Are there other areas that we look at where I'm sure you'll find passionate and skilled supporters willing to put time and effort into. My soccer club does a weekly podcast containing interviews with the coach and players and stories about the club. I'm sure you could find some people on BigFooty (Carlos, Darky and Northbhoy would be a great show, although we might need some volunteer lawyers with defamation experience) let alone the wider support base who would be able to put something together with little outlay if given access to the club. It is not a huge thing, but it does promote the club, and it is a weekly reminder to people that the club is around and part of their lives. Also a great promotion for events and tickets/membership sales.

I like this idea. Some of my mates (and sometimes me, too) do monthly music-related podcasts on the Net. It's pretty easy to rig and you'd be surprised - for some unknown reason people actually listen. Every little bit helps. And in this particular scenario, I think any innovation is a godsend.

 

[Limerick]

Club, 2006, Current, Target
Adelaide, 50,138, NA Probably limited to 50k
Brisbane, 26,459 NA
Carlton, 28,756 , 12,063, 32,000
Collingwood, 38,038 NA
Essendon, 32,511 NA
Fremantle, 35,666 NA
Geelong, 32,290 NA
Hawthorn , 28,003, 10,000, 40,000 (barometer)
Melbourne, 24,698, 11,500, 30,000 (barometer)
Nth Melb, 24,624, 4,287, 25,000 (barometer)
Pt. Adelaide, 35,648 NA
Richmond, 29,406 NA
St. Kilda, 32,327 , NA 40,000 (aiming for 20k by Christmas)
Sydney, 30,382, NA
West Coast , 44,138, NA
W. Bulldogs, 26,042 , 16,031, 32,000

Sorry about the formating but it looks OK in the entry box.

This has come from the club web sites. It appears that every club is aiming to exceed 30k in 2007. What is our target. Check out the St Kilda and Bulldogs membership site and compare it to ours. We need to seriously lift our game. The AFL will be laughing if we can only get 25k members and all other clubs are above 30k.

We need significant action by the club to increase our membership total. Any ideas you have should be sent directly to the club.

 

[Arden]

But as I say, I'm willing to cut the club a whole lotta slack on this as there may be a behind-the-scenes teething/admin/budget/systems/anything problem that I'm not privy to.

But this is part of the problem isn't it? You have absolute die-hard supporters on here, who cut the club slack in these situations, but are still continually frustrated. When it comes to the swinging member, if their 2006 membership was handled poorly, or signing up this year becomes bothersome, they just won't do it. And these are the members that North Melbourne just cannot miss out on.

I do feel that it is sometimes the attitude of the club that they can get away with pissing us off on occasions, because we love our club. Unfortunately, not every North Melbourne fan loves them enough to put up with bad service.

 

[Devil Fish]

I know alot of people who would love to attend games and cant make it because of different circumstances so buying a membership isnt cost effective for them.

I F****N hate this excuse with a passion. Any NM `supporter' who ever gives me this excuse loses all respectability. Even if you can't attend any games at all for a season, buy a membership so that at least you'll have the option of watching your team play in 5 years!!!!

 

[Horace]

I F****N hate this excuse with a passion. Any NM `supporter' who ever gives me this excuse loses all respectability. Even if you can't attend any games at all for a season, buy a membership so that at least you'll have the option of watching your team play in 5 years!!!!

Absolutely. Far too many Fitzroy barrackers were not supporters in a financial sense. When the club disappeared they were the ones that had the temerity to say "if only we had known how deperate the situation was".

The bottom line is that barring personal financial difficulty, if you decide not to contribute in some small way, then it will be not much good lamenting the loss of North after the event.

 

[Horace]

One of the thoughts that I have had for some time is the possibility of an "off field" merger with another club, such as the Bulldogs.

My theory is that we have two clubs duplicating processes in many areas that could be very easily run, impartially, by one professional management team, with emotional ties to neither club. This management team would be charged with the responsibility of maximising revenue friom all sources, including memberships, sponsorships, merchandising etc. The only off field area that obviously could not be merged would be the coaching staff.

This is not dissimilar to what happens in the corporate world where mergers and takeovers are in large part put together on the basis of the cost efficiencies achieved in having one management team rather than two separate less efficient and more costly teams.

The Bulldogs have it would seem an excellent administrator in Campbell Rose, who would be ideal for this role. Brian Cook at Geelong would be another excellent person for the role. These people would come at a cost but I think the results would take care of themselves.

Just an idea.

 

[Ghostwriter]

Club,-----------------2006,--- Current, -Target
Adelaide,----------- 50,138,--- NA ------Probably limited to 50k
Brisbane,----------- 26,459---- -NA
Carlton,------------ 28,756 ,-- 12,063, --32,000
Collingwood, --------38,038 ----NA
Essendon, ----------32,511 ----NA
Fremantle, ----------35,666---- NA
Geelong, ------------32,290 ----NA
Hawthorn , -----------28,003, -10,000, --40,000 (barometer)
Melbourne, ----------24,698, --11,500,-- 30,000 (barometer)
Nth Melb, -----------24,624, --24,287, ----25,000 (barometer)
Pt. Adelaide, --------35,648 ---NA
Richmond, -----------29,406 --NA
St. Kilda, ------------32,327 , -NA ------40,000 (aiming for 20k by Christmas)
Sydney, -------------30,382, -NA
West Coast , --------44,138, --NA
W. Bulldogs, ---------26,042 , 16,031,--- 32,000

Sorry about the formating but it looks OK in the entry box.

Is that better?

 

[Tas]

[B]Club		2006	Current	Target[/B]
Adelaide	50,138	NA	Probably limited to 50k
Brisbane	26,459	NA
Carlton 	28,756	12,063	32,000
Collingwood	38,038	NA
Essendon	32,511	NA
Fremantle	35,666	NA
Geelong 	32,290	NA
Hawthorn	28,003	10,000	40,000 (barometer)
Melbourne	24,698	11,500	30,000 (barometer)
Nth Melb	24,624	4,287	25,000 (barometer)
Pt. Adelaide	35,648	NA
Richmond	29,406	NA
St. Kilda	32,327	NA	40,000 (aiming for 20k by Christmas)
Sydney		30,382	NA
West Coast	44,138	NA
W. Bulldogs	26,042	16,031	32,000

Sorry about the formating but it looks OK in the entry box.

That is how you do it.

 

[Limerick]

Thanks to Jozeph & Tas. The formatting is now great. Pity about what it is showing us. We're way behind the four other clubs that are showing their membership sign up progress.

 

[Tas]

Thanks to Jozeph & Tas. The formatting is now great. Pity about what it is showing us. We're way behind the four other clubs that are showing their membership sign up progress.

The other clubs probably notice a lot of renewals from automatic membership renewal, something we have not had as an option.

According to the last Ray Morgan AFL club support poll (which is a bit old, 2004), these are the current conversion percentage of supporters to members based on 2006 membership levels. Those clubs that have a high level of expectation in terms of on-field success I have noted with (bandwagon) to make an allowance for the down-hill skiers that jump aboard while the team is doing well.

Melbourne 12.05% (bandwagon)
St Kilda 11.46% (bandwagon)
Port Adelaide 11.32%
Bulldogs 10.25% (bandwagon)
North 9.89%
Fremantle 9.72%
Geelong 9.36% (bandwagon)
Richmond 7.33%
Hawthorn 7.18%
Adelaide 7.17% (full)
West Coast 5.92% (full)
Collingwood 5.08%
Carlton 4.82%
Essendon 4.08%
Sydney 2.27%
Brisbane 1.99%

If Collingwood converted the same proportion of supporters to members as we did then they would have 74,000 members. I think people have to get off the supporters backs, we are one of the most loyal groups. We just don't have a huge share of the market and it is never going to grow without more exposure and without us having a positive image to promote.

 

[Limerick]

Thanks Tas, I checked out the Ray Morgan Poll and got the 2001-2005 supporter figures. It shows that we were strong in Dec 01, coming off the successful period, then dropped 42,000 in 02 (primarily the Carey incident?), recovered back half in 03 then dropped below the 02 figure in 04 & 05. We now (Dec 2005) have the best member per centage of supporters in the AFL.

As I indicated to the club earlier this year we need to focus on the larger supporter group because this is where we are slipping.

A more meaningful poll would break the supporters into two groups. Those who attend or regularly watch their team on TV AND those that simply say they follow a team to be in the mix. I suspect that Sydney and Brisbane would have a lot of the latter group.

…….MEMBERSHIP…………!!… ……………. SUPPORTERS………………………………………
Club……...…….2006…….06 %…… Dec ’01….Dec ’02……Dec ’03….. Dec ’04……Dec ’05….. 01 v 05
Adelaide……..50,138…..7.7%…… 638,000….647,000….. 699,000….. 649,000……655,000….. 2.7%
Brisbane……..26,459….. 1.9%…… 798,000….1,160,000…1,331,000…1,492,000…1,378,000…72.7%
Carlton….….…28,756…..6.2%…… 603,000….582,000….. 596,000….. 531,000……467,000….. -22.6%
Collingwood…38,038…..5.4%…… 688,000….693,000….. 749,000……776,000….. 703,000….. 2.2%
Essendon…….32,511…. 4.1%…… 862,000….829,000….. 796,000….. 809,000……798,000…. -7.4%
Fremantle……35,666…..9.4%…… 237,000…..341,000…. 367,000….. 403,000……381,000….. 60.8%
Geelong………32,290…. 8.1%…… 357,000….369,000….. 345,000….. 356,000……399,000….. 11.8%
Hawthorn…….28,003…..8.3%…… 362,000….367,000….. 390,000….. 342,000……337,000….. -6.9%
Melbourne……24,698…. 10.2%….. 226,000….194,000….. 205,000…...226,000……243,000….. 7.5%
Nth Melb.....…24,624…. 12.0%….. 268,000….226,000…..249,000……214,000….. 206,000……-23.1%
Pt. Adelaide….35,648…..10.0%….. 274,000….297,000….315,000….. 325,000……355,000……29.6%
Richmond……...29,406…..7.6%…… 398,000….381,000…..401,000….. 367,000……387,000……-2.8%
St. Kilda……..32,327…..8.5%.......321,000.....300,000.....282,000......334,000.......380,000.......18.4%
Sydney……….30,382…..2.0%........1,305,000...1,201,000..1,341,000…1,335,000….1,514,000…16.0%
West Coast…..44,138…..5.4%…… 692,000….657,000…..746,000……710,000….. 821,000……18.6%
W. Bulldogs…26,042……10.9%….198,000….212,000…..254,000…..201,000……238,000….. 20.2%
Total………….519,126….5.6%…..8,227,000…8,456,000….9,066,000…. 9,070,000….. 9,262,000…..12.6%

 

[Tas]

Yeah, Sydney and Brisbane have a lot of supporters the same as I am a Storm supporter. I watch the occassional game on pay-tv and read the articles on them in the paper, that is the extent of my interest in rugby. I am sure most of their supporters are much like me.

Those kind of supporters contribute a big fat zero to the clubs.

Eagles would have had over a million "supporters" aswell prior to Fremantle coming out, the more we go the more Fremantle is taking out of the Eagle's market share.

The most meaningful statistic is that 5% of supporters actually get memberships, I would go a bit further to assume another 5% have some minor financial input maybe go to occassional games (non-members) or buy the odd bit of merchandise. 90% of your supporter base is just hot air.

I think we are pushing as much as we can of our supporter base, harsh reality is that we need to find 10 new supporters to find a member, which is twice as good as the average but is a lot of people to generate.

The last poll I saw suggested about 56% of Melbournians followed a football team, we really need to do some homework and find out who that 44% are and why they do not follow teams. I felt we missed the boat when our deal with Casey evaporated. There is a region of Melbourne which is seeing almost as much growth as the Gold Cost, now has a population twice the size of Geelong and we could have established a significant supporter base in this growing region.

 

[Devil Fish]

Absolutely. Far too many Fitzroy barrackers were not supporters in a financial sense. When the club disappeared they were the ones that had the temerity to say "if only we had known how deperate the situation was".

The bottom line is that barring personal financial difficulty, if you decide not to contribute in some small way, then it will be not much good lamenting the loss of North after the event.

Exacatagly!!!!

 

[Tas]

Something I would like the club to do is see if we can strike a deal with TD/AFL which targets the home games we play in Melbourne against interstate sides.

We currently struggle to get 25-30k to those games.

I think the club should come to some kind of agreement where we can get access to 10k free tickets for each of these games and we should use them for promotion of the club.

I know the Player's Association limits how much unpaid promotional work players can do for clubs but I think there is an opportunity to use past players in this area who want to volunteer their time. We should hit every primary school in Melbourne, invest a bit of money in promotional packages such as posters, flags, etc to hand out to young kids and to give out some free tickets to games where we know we wont fill out.

More people through the gate will just increase TD's catering revenue and could help to grow more support not just for our club but more customers for TD if they become returning customers.

There would be nothing better than going to a game against an interstate team at TD and seeing 40-45k people at the game. Even if a chunk of them are freebies. Target the kids and you get the parents as friendly fire, if kids want to go their usually always drag at least one parent along to games. It may encourage families to go to games.

 

[Limerick]

Something I would like the club to do is see if we can strike a deal with TD/AFL which targets the home games we play in Melbourne against interstate sides.

We currently struggle to get 25-30k to those games.

I think the club should come to some kind of agreement where we can get access to 10k free tickets for each of these games and we should use them for promotion of the club.

I know the Player's Association limits how much unpaid promotional work players can do for clubs but I think there is an opportunity to use past players in this area who want to volunteer their time. We should hit every primary school in Melbourne, invest a bit of money in promotional packages such as posters, flags, etc to hand out to young kids and to give out some free tickets to games where we know we wont fill out.

More people through the gate will just increase TD's catering revenue and could help to grow more support not just for our club but more customers for TD if they become returning customers.

There would be nothing better than going to a game against an interstate team at TD and seeing 40-45k people at the game. Even if a chunk of them are freebies. Target the kids and you get the parents as friendly fire, if kids want to go their usually always drag at least one parent along to games. It may encourage families to go to games.

This is am excellent idea. I believe that Sydney, and probably Brisbane, had a lot of free tickets in their early days to bolster the crowds. To get AFL support, and this won't be easy over 2007-09 given their GC focus, we would need to target non AFL attending people, i.e. potential new market, so schools and through charities (like the Bulldogs backyard package) would be the go.

I'll write to Rick Aylett, on behalf of the BigFooty website, with all the suggestions made.

 

[windsock]

Something I would like the club to do is see if we can strike a deal with TD/AFL which targets the home games we play in Melbourne against interstate sides.

We currently struggle to get 25-30k to those games.

I think the club should come to some kind of agreement where we can get access to 10k free tickets for each of these games and we should use them for promotion of the club.

I know the Player's Association limits how much unpaid promotional work players can do for clubs but I think there is an opportunity to use past players in this area who want to volunteer their time. We should hit every primary school in Melbourne, invest a bit of money in promotional packages such as posters, flags, etc to hand out to young kids and to give out some free tickets to games where we know we wont fill out.

More people through the gate will just increase TD's catering revenue and could help to grow more support not just for our club but more customers for TD if they become returning customers.

There would be nothing better than going to a game against an interstate team at TD and seeing 40-45k people at the game. Even if a chunk of them are freebies. Target the kids and you get the parents as friendly fire, if kids want to go their usually always drag at least one parent along to games. It may encourage families to go to games.

I'd suggest the crowd numbers wouldn't increase greatly but the number of paying customers would drop dramatically. The club and TD/MCG would then lose out. I can't see this one winning fans anywhere, to be honest.

 

[Limerick]

windsock Quote; I'd suggest the crowd numbers wouldn't increase greatly but the number of paying customers would drop dramatically. The club and TD/MCG would then lose out. I can't see this one winning fans anywhere, to be honest.

The scheme would have to be structured so as to minimise any free tickets going to paying attendees e.g. free tickets for kids, accompanying adults pay etc. Like all ideas this need to be further developed. The NMFC membership staff would have the knowledge as to any pitfalls to be covered.

 

[Tas]

I'd suggest the crowd numbers wouldn't increase greatly but the number of paying customers would drop dramatically. The club and TD/MCG would then lose out. I can't see this one winning fans anywhere, to be honest.

I don't think so, it is not like you are giving them out to anyone who wants them, you are giving a child and one adult tickets out to people in primary schools.

Our share of the supporter base is roughly 5% of Melbourne, 10-15% of our actual supporters probably go to games. You want to take a guess at the odds a free ticket would end up in the hands of a paying non-member North supporter who has a child in a primary school targeted?

It would be like winning the lottery.

Perhaps getting some of the non-member supporters who do not go to games might be the catalyst they need to get off their buns and become members. I think it would be great for the club, if we target just interstate games. We need to get more people to the games one way or another and this could help promote the club.