I support "Port Power", not "Port Adelaide Football Club Est. 1870"!

[Allbetsroff]

I know many jumped on board Port as we were a real club and not a corpoiration of robots down West Lakes way?

Yes, but most if not all those people were supporters of the Port Adelaide Football club in the SANFL. I know plenty, I sit with a few at Crows games (They enjoy football so much they watch Crows home games too).

 

[Quadzilla]

Yes, but most if not all those people were supporters of the Port Adelaide Football club in the SANFL. I know plenty, I sit with a few at Crows games (They enjoy football so much they watch Crows home games too).

Nope - North and Centrals.

 

[Pedro59]

the real problem of Port's purported 'downturn' is live against the gate..

8 hour delay ..problem solved..

oh and another small problem is turncoats like the OP whining away..

 

[_Christoh_]

'many' still translates to < 5% tho'.

I've seen 2 stats on this figure and one had our supporters from other SANFL clubs at 13% and the more recent one said 9%. I am one of the 9% too and know a few others (all North Adelaide).

 

[Crow-mo]

You say the PAFC renamed themselves to PAMFC so they could continue in the SANFL. If anything, you would have thought that they would have just named the NEW identity as you put it to PAPFC.

erm, you realise that this is physically and legally exactly what did happen?

its not an opinion or theory but factually what the documentation shows.

 

[El_Scorcho]

Crow-mo, FFS, it's been done 1000 times. Let it go.

 

[Crow-mo]

Crow-mo, FFS, it's been done 1000 times. Let it go.

hey, I didn't bring it up.

just correcting your bloke who thought otherwise.

 

[SwampRat]

Who cares where it came from when it's the very reason nobody else much in SA will support your club.

By most measures, we have about 30% support in the state. Some Crowies like to make that out to be a bad thing, but in reality our potential supporter base is comparable with all but the very largest clubs.

We have no shortage of nominal supporters, we struggle to get these 'supporters' to actually contribute to the club however.

Having an AFL club affiliated with another SANFL club was a stupid idea in the first place.

Why? Attendances in our first year was similar to the Crows' 2010 attendance. To 2004, we managed strong 30k plus crowds. By any measure, we got off to a flying start. To suggest Port joining the AFL was a stupid idea is typical of the ignorance displayed by many Victorian supporters.

Supporters of other SANFL clubs won't ever support you, they'd rather you fail.

Just like having VFL teams affiliated with AFL teams hurts the Victorian AFL clubs? Oh wait, it doesn't.

 

[SwampRat]

except we'd have two broke 25,000 attendance Clubs. Swell move

What? No. You know better than this. If Port got in first, we would not be beholden to the SANFL. 25,000 crowds are fine. Geelong do it. If we got in first with our own license we would have been free to negotiate our own stadium deal with the SANFL or the SACA. We could even turn a profit playing at Alberton in front of small crowds. A poor stadium deal is the single biggest reason for our financial troubles.

Not to mention, there are Crows supporters who were Port supporters prior to the Crows joining the AFL. Some of these returned when we joined. Others did not. Yet we still have a 30% share of the supporter base in SA.

The two new franchises will 'struggle' far more than Port or North ever have in states that Don't care for footy. TV rights and small, boutique stadiums will still make them desirable in the AFL's eyes.

 

[Bomberman86]

I am writing this on the AFL board because 98% of Port Adelaide supporters on here actually believe that the reason why we are badly supported on and off the field is because of an "identity issue".

I have come to realize that I was a child that grew up supporting Port Adelaide in the AFL, a team that was happy being called "Port Power". A team that was alright on the field and played an exciting brand of football. A team that eventually became successful and won a premiership in 2004.

Then when we stopped winning we needed to find a reason for the fans going away, and the best reason we came with was our image and identity was tarnished. Now we are "Port Adelaide Football Club, Formerly the Magpies, now the Power and Established in 1870". However in this attempt to change the direction on and off the field in the past 2 season, attendances, revenue and membership numbers have never been worse.

I would like to thank our fans for pushing this identity change and alienating other fans who are not obsessed with our SANFL history. We will never be the magpies again, We are PORT POWER so stop trying to change things because you are essentially doing more harm than good.

P.S. I do realize I am Alberton_Magpie, I used to follow the SANFL Magpies until this whole identity issue surfaced.

I believe that Port Adelaide should bite the bullet stop being so SANFL orientated (The past is not the answer for the future) and make the following changes. Recognize that we as an AFL Club were established in 1996, and also recognize as an AFL Club that only AFL premierships are relevant.

*cough* VFL/AFL.. I think you mean

You lot joined us dont forget.

 

[PieNSauce]

I reckon this is one of the more interesting threads I've read in a while although I'll confess to not having read every post so if I repeat others thoughts I apologise in advance.

From an outsider's perspective I reckon there were some mistakes made in admitting Port to the AFL. Here's my take on it:

The first problem was the fact that by necessity they were never going to be allowed to keep their mascot and guernsey and that was always going to bite traditional Port supporters hard.

The next problem as I see it was that the management of Port appeared to take the view that in order to be successful in the AFL they needed to broaden their supporter base amongst South Australians. To me it seems that they saw a shift in the identity of the club partly forced on them by the change in mascot and guernsey as an opportunity to facilitate that broadening of appeal.

The main issues around that IMO are that many of the traditional supporters would have felt somewhat disenfranchised and in all likelihood some may well have preferred to maintain their affiliation with the AFL through the Crows. This was probably even facilitated more by the fact that the SANFL decided to invent a new Magpies team and call it Port Adelaide. Hell, they even look like Port Adelaide. To me that was crucial because those who were disenfranchised by the "Power" could always shift their allegiance to the SANFL magpies and retain a link to the AFL through the crows.

Against the background of all of that history, the Port Adelaide Magpies and Port Adelaide are now united but that presents its own problems to the broadened supporter base who clearly see the old Port Adelaide as the enemy. Let's face it, I can liken it on some level to my old VFA/VFL side Box Hill Mustangs. Now that they have an affiliation with Hawthorn I don't want to know them anymore.

In the longer term I suspect all those problems will not have a great effect on the club and the rumblings at this point probably have more to do with recent poor performance. I don't frankly expect that to continue long term and the likelihood is that when on-field success returns so will the old arrogance.

 

[El_Scorcho]

You've hit the nail on the head as far as in see it pieNsauce.

There was a lot wrong with the way we handled our branding on entry to the AFL. Some cause by us, some caused by other parties. Long term we will be fine once the stadium deal improves.

The main point for me in this debate is that Port Adelaide have ~350000 people who identify as fans. We don't need to expand our supporter base, we need to convert more fans to paid up supporters. The identity issue we've had has probably hurt us in that department. I believe a significant number of the dormant supporter base would rather see us with a stronger, Port Adelaide tradition based identity.

 

[Crow-mo]

What? No. You know better than this. If Port got in first, we would not be beholden to the SANFL. 25,000 crowds are fine. Geelong do it. If we got in first with our own license we would have been free to negotiate our own stadium deal with the SANFL or the SACA. We could even turn a profit playing at Alberton in front of small crowds. A poor stadium deal is the single biggest reason for our financial troubles.

leaving aside the stuff about your stadium deal, that's highly debatable and has and will be again - you are right about one thing: the theory goes if you got in in 1990 you'd be free of the SANFL.

that's a fair comment.

its also true that the AFL used you like a stalking horse and didn't really want you. Its not at all certain whether you would really have gone all the way on your own, as you were used a fair bit by a hot girl to make her real target jealous. doesn't mean she was ever going home with you.