Membership numbers through the 90's to present

[jay317]

Apologies if this has already been addressed somewhere. But it's something that I've been wondering for a long time, and if it hasn't, hope that people can shed some light on it.

I was born in 1990, so I count myself lucky that I grew up in one of our most successful periods through the 90's, albeit coming out of that period with at least one less premiership than we should have. Considering the success (seven straight prelims, 3 grand finals, 2 premierships), coupled with the fact that we had arguably the greatest player at the time in Wayne Carey (and one of the greatest of all time), along with players that any spectator would love watching (McKernan, King, Archer, Pickett, Abraham etc.) - why did this never translate to our membership numbers. For as long as I can remember we have always been middle to lower end in terms of numbers, even through the 90's, and I just can't figure out why.

Is this down to the admin side of the club during that period? Is there something else I'm missing?

 

[Luke72]

My memory is that being a member wasn’t as big a deal, in the 80’s I think it was mostly for cheer squad types and was probably only a couple of thousand.

Around 1988 the club was in a shitty financial position and released a statement about needing members to sign up as a crucial part of moving forward. My dad signed himself, me and my brother up at this time, we were getting near the end of high school.

In the 90’s the membership numbers kept increasing but it started from a very low base and despite our success talk of a merge or relocation kept popping up. It seemed almost inevitable that we would have to join someone and while Fitzroy was the closest I recall a lot of talk about Melbourne too.

Friday nights also were seen initially as a bit of a pain to get to and something that was not going to work (it was only our exciting brand of footy that turned this into the success it is). This in a time where memberships were bought largely as value for money as it was cheaper than buying tickets at the gate, so if you weren’t going to most of the games it didn’t make sense.

This combination worked against us at the time. It was a bit of a missed opportunity, but the club was pretty low on resources and membership as a significant revenue stream was new territory. I think given a similar period of success would have a much better result in the current environment.

 

[LB2Snake]

The team played home games all over Australia during that period. Hard to jump on a team when you don’t know where they are gunna eventually be.
Pagan hated “media street”, as he called it, so we weren’t too media friendly IMO.
I think the Carey-Stevens fallout was massive for this club.
I’m also of the belief that we were asleep at the wheel when it came to North Melbourne and surrounding suburbs in the 90’s......we should have focussed massively on “new Australians” .....I think the club trying to address this now via the Huddle type things.

 

[Twinkletoes]

“We’re now known as The Kangaroos”, pushing our rich North Melbourne history to the background didn’t help at the time either.

 

[Kanga Glory]

clubs didn't realise the importance and financial opportunities of memberships back then

 

[Snake_Baker]

It was a peripheral issue that had no great focus back then.

It came to prevalence with the rise of the corporate whores and marketing men, who saw a "product" that they could no longer resist.

Now we have a polo playing private schoolboy w@nker running the game.

It's was once a great game, and it actually belonged to the people.............now it's just a tragedy.

 

[Gumble Frankieton]

I'll go with a combination of History, Geography/Demographics and Public Perception.

History: despite our success in the VFA we largely struggled at VFL level after finally getting admitted in 1925 apart from a few good years under Wally Carter (1949-50, '58). It wasn't until the Barassi and then Pagan era's that we had periods of consistent success with all the media coverage and fan interest that goes with it.

Geography/Demographics: North Melbourne was historically a small working class suburb hemmed in by the catchment areas of Carlton and Essendon, two obviously more established and successful teams (with also Footscray to our west). Then you add in the movement of families to the suburbs, closure of factories/abottoirs/saleyards and then the modern day gentrification etc.
I also agree with LB2Snake's point that "I’m also of the belief that we were asleep at the wheel when it came to North Melbourne and surrounding suburbs in the 90’s......we should have focussed massively on “new Australians” .....I think the club trying to address this now via the Huddle type things."

Public Perception: this is probably one that is hard to definitively prove but it is very important nonetheless. This is the 'perception of North as a struggling club with a small fanbase facing relocation or oblivion' that the media (and opposition supporters) like to bang on about, some more than others obviously. From the failed move to Coburg in the mid-60's to the modern era of selling games to Sydney, Canberra, Gold Coast and Hobart as well as the name change to the Kangaroos, it's hard to avoid the message that North is in the gun for relocation/co-location etc etc. It's hard to quantify but this must have an effect on the ability of the club to initially attract people as supporters and then convert them into members. Poor game time slots, lack of free-to-air coverage and a media obsessed with the big clubs also doesn't help us. The name change back to North Melbourne and building new facilities at Arden St are positives that work towards overcoming these negative perceptions. And then the club increase the number of games played in Hobart and the shitty cycle continues.

 

[Hojuman]

Think back in the 70's we may have been near the top of the m'ship tree ? Wasn't seen as much back then. Remember going to games and looooong queues at the ticket window.
You bought a m'ship > clip your cardboard card with the connies ticket hole puncher and in you went.

 

[Groucho]

Think back in the 70's we may have been near the top of the m'ship tree ? Wasn't seen as much back then. Remember going to games and looooong queues at the ticket window.
You bought a m'ship > clip your cardboard card with the connies ticket hole puncher and in you went.

Yeah I didn’t become a member till 1990. Back in the ‘70’s it didn’t even occur to me, I’d just pay at the gate, I did know someone though who ,very occasionally , would get me into the Social Club on match days. Man what an experience! Jam packed with virtually 100% North people and we won the few times I got to go in there. I’d never experienced anything like that, the bubble of expectation when we moved the ball forward and the deafening roar when we kicked a goal, man I was in heaven and finally got to experience the one eyed sights and sounds of success!

 

[Snake_Baker]

Yeah I didn’t become a member till 1990. Back in the ‘70’s it didn’t even occur to me, I’d just pay at the gate, I did know someone though who ,very occasionally , would get me into the Social Club on match days. Man what an experience! Jam packed with virtually 100% North people and we won the few times I got to go in there. I’d never experienced anything like that, the bubble of expectation when we moved the ball forward and the deafening roar when we kicked a goal, man I was in heaven and finally got to experience the one eyed sights and sounds of success!

It was a different place back then, and we have somehow lost that element as the sport has become sterilized and soulless for marketing purposes..

 

[Hojuman]

Yeah I didn’t become a member till 1990. Back in the ‘70’s it didn’t even occur to me, I’d just pay at the gate, I did know someone though who ,very occasionally , would get me into the Social Club on match days. Man what an experience! Jam packed with virtually 100% North people and we won the few times I got to go in there. I’d never experienced anything like that, the bubble of expectation when we moved the ball forward and the deafening roar when we kicked a goal, man I was in heaven and finally got to experience the one eyed sights and sounds of success!

We were social club members too. Pretty cheap. Nice tucked into that fwd. pocket next to the race. Can't remember to many losses back then.
The other thing was access to finals tickets. You would get a set of " series " tickets bought at the club and sit in the same seats for each finals game. No tikkity tex back then.

 

[tazaa]

We were social club members too. Pretty cheap. Nice tucked into that fwd. pocket next to the race. Can't remember to many losses back then.
The other thing was access to finals tickets. You would get a set of " series " tickets bought at the club and sit in the same seats for each finals game. No tikkity tex back then.

The club really has dropped the ball.
Before the * final in 2014 the club forgot to send the barcodes of a large portion of archer legends members (which is our largest membership base) to ticketek to purchase seats for the game.
Massive stuff up but hey it was our first Melbourne final in 7 years. Go easy on them.
A year on? Same issue again except this time all archer legends members barcodes weren’t sent through.
Will happen again in our next MCG final. Guarantee it

 

[Gasometer]

Friday night at the G around 93 to 96 was unreal. Lower balcony of the Southern Stand came with a basic membership. It was the last of the value era of Membership.

Then the Club realised they could make money out of those seats and basic membership was pushed out of there and up the back.

The final insult was forking out $400 in 99 to get a Pagans Patron membership that essentially guaranteed a 6 hour wait the day after the Preliminary Final. Sure it was worth it but that was the final year of me upgrading anything.

Had a one year lapse in 2006 for financial reasons. Then I lose my continuity of membership. Had to wait 10 years to get to Cat 2 again. One year since 1992. Hopeless.

Then there’s been all the rest mentioned above. The useless annual surveys. Time slots on a Sunday afternoon. Rubbish apparel. Queues for membership items. The Raffle blah blah blah

I hold on hoping for a Premiership to get a seat that day. I will probably cry that day and know that I will probably stop being an active follower and watch via TV, unless I get to move to Melbourne or closer.

I am a bit jaded with the whole AFL and how radically different it has become.

 

[Hojuman]

Friday night at the G around 93 to 96 was unreal. Lower balcony of the Southern Stand came with a basic membership. It was the last of the value era of Membership.

Then the Club realised they could make money out of those seats and basic membership was pushed out of there and up the back.

The final insult was forking out $400 to get a Pagans Patron membership that essentially guaranteed a 6 hour wait the day after the Preliminary Final. Sure it was worth it but that was the final year of me upgrading anything.

Had a one year lapse in 2006 for financial reasons. Then I lose my continuity of membership. Had to wait 10 years to get to Cat 2 again. One year since 1992. Hopeless.

Then there’s been all the rest mentioned above. The useless annual surveys. Time slots on a Sunday afternoon. Rubbish apparel. Queues for membership items. The Raffle blah blah blah

I hold on hoping for a Premiership to get a seat that day. I will probably cry that day and know that I will probably stop being an active follower and watch via TV, unless I get to move to Melbourne or closer.

I am a bit jaded with the whole AFL and how radically different it has become.

With you here a bit Gaso. Will prolly get the same $expensive m'ship 2021 to support the club because l know we don't have the younger support coming through without any success for a long time.
The crappy time-slots and lengthy public transport to and from will wear me down eventually though. 5 more years and then a token m'ship and the Kayo.

 

[Tas]

For as long as I can remember we have always been middle to lower end in terms of numbers, even through the 90's, and I just can't figure out why.

Is this down to the admin side of the club during that period? Is there something else I'm missing?

1990 we had 5,201 members
1995 14,027
2000 22,156
2005 24,154
2010 29,272
2015 41,418
2020 ?

Earlier membership numbers only included full 11 game memberships, it is a lot looser at present.

Our membership has grown, however, it is a very competitive environment. When you think about it, if you are born into a Richmond or Collingwood or Essendon, etc family then you kind of become indoctrinated, only the sane ones get to escape the cult-like grip.

Other things have harmed our ability to maximise growth:

Selling games, it might be good for the bottom line short-term but it disrupts the cycle of going to football games. When you go from playing at the MCG almost every week home or away except interstate games to spending a month or so with no game in your own state you find other things to do with your time.

We have been mediocre for two decades since we were last a favourite to win a premiership, we had some good years here and there but it was nothing sustainable, no expectation of success, we barely qualified for finals at the best of times.

Involved in different markets, we tried to move the club to Sydney, then played in Canberra, Gold Coast and now Tasmania. I am sure it has the stench of death and it must be hard for kids who are outnumbered by supporters of big clubs and being told your club wont exist in a few years, it was annoying to deal with when we were successful, it must be hard on kids these days.

You need a positive psychology, a negative psychology was the difference between 30k members for Richmond and 100k members. While we don't have 70k members in the shadows, it must hurt us to be a bit part club on-field for so long.

We've also lacked a proper stronghold where we have a lot of supporter density until recently with Werribee/Wyndham and the Huddle. It has become an important stronghold for us now and it should be emulated in other nearby North/Western LGAs where we can also establish a larger market share of the supporter base than we have in older LGAs.

It is difficult to get people in football families to switch clubs, it is a lot easier in these younger areas where a lot of migrants move to have no links to football.

I think we need to return to Melbourne ASAP and start to establish a proper, positive environment and aggressively push that growth. It would also help a lot if we stopped sucking on-field.

 

[Elroo]

Friday night at the G around 93 to 96 was unreal.

Beers before the game at the Duke of Wellington wall-to-wall North Supporters talking about how much we were going to win by with Carey dominating. Tram up to game, watch Carey dominate and high fiving fellow North supporters as we got the 4 points. Leave after singing multiple repeats of the North theme song, get to the Corner Hotel in time for the replay of the game from the 1/2 time and re-live the highlights with a sea of blue and white!

Those where the days.

 

[Forever North]

Been a continuous member for around 35 years, since I was a teenager and could afford to buy one with my pocket money. Junior memberships were dirt cheap and great value back then, you could go to all 22 h/a games which I usually did. There was no real emotional blackmail that the clubs and AFL use nowdays that forced ordinary fans to convert to members back then. Was a Pagans Patron in the 90’s during the golden years. We were allocated P section(level 3) in the Southern Stand and could simply sit wherever and had decent priority for finals tickets and from memory a guaranteed GF ticket. Fantastic value it was at the time. Things have gone downhill since then. It’s simply not value for money anymore. Every year ordinary members seem to be shunted further into the bleaches with the opposition ferals in the hope they can be ‘convinced‘ to upgrade to expensive reserved seating areas. Fine if you are Richmond or Collingwood but not us I say. The perks and merchandise quality has also deteriorated in recent times. Unfortunately nowdays I feel like a generic ‘customer‘ on some database ready to be exploited rather than a ‘valued member‘ sigh......But essentially we love our club and all the fun, joy (and shits) it gives us. But please NMFC don’t bombard me with buy a membership bullshit in October ffs. I’ll be seriously disappointed if the club didn’t offer some sort of reward next year to members who have stuck fat this year and possibly next.
The one thing I would love to see is a soccer style North End at Marvel for just ordinary members. Just turn up on L3 show your North membership and sit in the 4-5 allocated bays. No reserved seats and no opposition fans allowed. I‘m so over sitting with opposition dickheads at home games. Would create a decent atmosphere and would be make members feel they are the ‘19th man‘.

 

[Gasometer]

Been a continuous member for around 35 years, since I was a teenager and could afford to buy one with my pocket money. Junior memberships were dirt cheap and great value back then, you could go to all 22 h/a games which I usually did. There was no real emotional blackmail that the clubs and AFL use nowdays that forced ordinary fans to convert to members back then. Was a Pagans Patron in the 90’s during the golden years. We were allocated P section(level 3) in the Southern Stand and could simply sit wherever and had decent priority for finals tickets and from memory a guaranteed GF ticket. Fantastic value it was at the time. Things have gone downhill since then. It’s simply not value for money anymore. Every year ordinary members seem to be shunted further into the bleaches with the opposition ferals in the hope they can be ‘convinced‘ to upgrade to expensive reserved seating areas. Fine if you are Richmond or Collingwood but not us I say. The perks and merchandise quality has also deteriorated in recent times. Unfortunately nowdays I feel like a generic ‘customer‘ on some database ready to be exploited rather than a ‘valued member‘ sigh......But essentially we love our club and all the fun, joy (and shits) it gives us. But please NMFC don’t bombard me with buy a membership bullshit in October ffs. I’ll be seriously disappointed if the club didn’t offer some sort of reward next year to members who have stuck fat this year and possibly next.
The one thing I would love to see is a soccer style North End at Marvel for just ordinary members. Just turn up on L3 show your North membership and sit in the 4-5 allocated bays. No reserved seats and no opposition fans allowed. I‘m so over sitting with opposition dickheads at home games. Would create a decent atmosphere and would be make members feel they are the ‘19th man‘.

You forgot the auto renew you ring them Shite Show

 

[Gasometer]

Maybe some of the Media content should be Members only?

 

[Forever North]

You forgot the auto renew you ring them sh*te Show

2 years in a row I’ve been auto renewEd without my consent even after ringing them last year to take my CC details off from their database. Cash only next year, they’re not getting access to the new CC the bank sent me last week. Like any greedy corporation they rely and take advantage of customer apathy and laziness.

 

[Gasometer]

2 years in a row I’ve been auto renewEd without my consent even after ringing them last year to take my CC details off from their database. Cash only next year, they’re not getting access to the new CC the bank sent me last week. Like any greedy corporation they rely and take advantage of customer apathy and laziness.

So my CCV has changed last month.

Does that make the card invalid?

I will join, but when I can afford it.

 

[Forever North]

So my CCV has changed last month.

Does that make the card invalid?

I will join, but when I can afford it.

Not really sure about that. I’ve got an entirely new card, Westpac have done some deal with MasterCard and are shoving them down the throats of customers whether they like it or not. (Always have had a Visa).
Yeh it sucks when the club treats members like suckers and cash cows.

 

[koshari]

due to shift work meaning half my weekends are occupied, tyranny of distance ( OK gaso is an exception traveling the 300km round trip) and marriage pretty much shores up the other 2 weekends theres really not much of an opportunity for me to attand, so i add on the digital membership and stream it through the phone to the telly and treat it as a donation, this way i get to see the games, the club gets income and rupert dont get his cut. seems to work for me.

 

[Johnny Bananas]

We've also lacked a proper stronghold where we have a lot of supporter density until recently with Werribee/Wyndham and the Huddle.

Pardon the intrusion. On this subject, do you think North would have been able to create a stronghold in Coburg had the move there been permanent?

 

[Snake_Baker]

Pardon the intrusion. On this subject, do you think North would have been able to create a stronghold in Coburg had the move there been permanent?

No. The 60's and 70's saw a heavy influx of migrants in to the area with great interest in the sport.