Play Nice Richmond, set to become the biggest club in Australia, now with 100K members

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This is quite the robust debate.
So it seems Collingwood have the most supporters, however they are generally too tight to put their money where their mouths are and actually financially commit to their so called 'support'.

Tiger supporters happy to invest in their support rather than sharing 'likes' on their socials.

Cool.
 
Sep 13, 2015
18,683
48,481
Hillary Step
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
76ers
Obviously, the main comparison here is between the Pies and Richmond, just thought there were 2 interesting membership features to point out that I think probably explain the number difference:
  1. Price: The cheapest you can get a membership that includes 1) All games in Vic, 2) A reserved seat, 3) Grand Final Ticket at Collingwood is $910.00. At Richmond, you can get that for $535.00. This price percentage difference is pretty consistent through most packages.
  2. Packages: Richmond have a much wider variety of membership packages to choose from, however, there is one package in particular that I think pushes their membership total up significantly, the Maurice Rioli Club Membership. "Guaranteed access to purchase a ticket for the Grand Final if Richmond is participating" - $275.00. As a Pies member, If I want a Grand Final ticket included in my membership, the cheapest I can possibly get that for is $810.00 (MCG Legends), the Maurice Rioli Club Membership allows you to purchase just that grand finals access. So why would this push memberships up? Well, A) Because its a great deal but, more importantly, B) as a member who can't attend every game (as I live in NSW) would be wasting my money purchasing a Legends membership just so I could go to the Grand Final. If I supported Richmond, I could purchase my Interstate Membership ($95.00) then add the Maurice Rioli Club Membership ($275.00) and effectively get the best of both worlds for under $400.00 and on top of that, I've purchased 2 memberships which, you guessed it, counts as 2 memberships towards the membership total.
For the Richmond members who suggest that this isn't the case and in actual fact membership pricing and flexibility doesn't play a role in seemingly inflated membership totals, I'd suggest you take a look at your site and note the wording of the membership totals:

Collingwood - "THANK YOU TO OUR 79,610 FAITHFUL MEMBERS"
Richmond - "2019 MEMBERSHIP TALLY - 100,150"

Membership total isn't the same as the number of members.
So what you’re saying is that Richmond have more members due to a better membership model.

And then you’ve finished with a lie. Tell me how the two are different please.
 

Proud 2 Be Ur New Dad

R.I.P Billy Conforto
May 7, 2019
44
56
AFL Club
Collingwood
So what you’re saying is that Richmond have more members due to a better membership model.

And then you’ve finished with a lie. Tell me how the two are different please.
Correct, Richmond's membership model is significantly better than Collingwood. Much more variety and less restrictive and significantly cheaper.

I hold an AFL Membership along with an Interstate Membership. I am 1 member, however, I hold 2 memberships. If you're counting how many members a club has vs. how many memberships you have sold, you're going to get a different number. Richmond's website states they have 100'000 memberships, not members.

I thought that was probably the least complicated part of my post. I'm not having a dig at Richmond, just putting forward an idea as to why they have such a different attendance ratio to membership and higher membership count than other big clubs, it isn't as straight forward as many pretend.

West coast has a waitlist for their memberships, this clearly affects their total membership numbers, but no one ever mentions that when discussion how large they are as a supporter base. I invite you to go onto their website and try to buy a reserved seat membership/
 
Sep 13, 2015
18,683
48,481
Hillary Step
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
76ers
Correct, Richmond's membership model is significantly better than Collingwood. Much more variety and less restrictive and significantly cheaper.

I hold an AFL Membership along with an Interstate Membership. I am 1 member, however, I hold 2 memberships. If you're counting how many members a club has vs. how many memberships you have sold, you're going to get a different number. Richmond's website states they have 100'000 memberships, not members.

I thought that was probably the least complicated part of my post. I'm not having a dig at Richmond, just putting forward an idea as to why they have such a different attendance to membership and higher membership count than other big clubs, it isn't as straight forward as many pretend.

West coast has a waitlist for their memberships, this clearly affects their total membership numbers, but no one ever mentions that when discussion how large they are as a supporter base. I invite you to go onto their website and try to buy a reserved seat membership/
The terms are probably a little unclear on our membership page.
But what is clear is that we NEVER get audited down by the AFL. I know their rules include a minimum cost and the need to be human, so I’m sure it has the need for unique members.
Where it says ‘membership tally’ on that, there is no reason other than speculation to suggest that it is 100,000 members.
 

Isaac Cumming No 1

Cancelled
10k Posts
Mar 28, 2018
10,491
8,454
AFL Club
GWS
Correct, Richmond's membership model is significantly better than Collingwood. Much more variety and less restrictive and significantly cheaper.

I hold an AFL Membership along with an Interstate Membership. I am 1 member, however, I hold 2 memberships. If you're counting how many members a club has vs. how many memberships you have sold, you're going to get a different number. Richmond's website states they have 100'000 memberships, not members.

I thought that was probably the least complicated part of my post. I'm not having a dig at Richmond, just putting forward an idea as to why they have such a different attendance ratio to membership and higher membership count than other big clubs, it isn't as straight forward as many pretend.

West coast has a waitlist for their memberships, this clearly affects their total membership numbers, but no one ever mentions that when discussion how large they are as a supporter base. I invite you to go onto their website and try to buy a reserved seat membership/
The Eagles have a wait list you have to pay to be on, and that's impressive.

The Crows are similar though, and you sign up for electronic membership to go on the wait list the difference is it's free.
 

Proud 2 Be Ur New Dad

R.I.P Billy Conforto
May 7, 2019
44
56
AFL Club
Collingwood
The terms are probably a little unclear on our membership page.
But what is clear is that we NEVER get audited down by the AFL. I know their rules include a minimum cost and the need to be human, so I’m sure it has the need for unique members.
Where it says ‘membership tally’ on that, there is no reason other than speculation to suggest that it is 100,000 members.
To be honest I'm not really as interested in the total number of members as the reasons why the total may be different (particularly sooo much bigger than other big Victorian clubs). Everything outside of the "total membership" number suggests Collingwood, Richmond and even Essendon are all batting in a similar ballpark.

Not taking anything away from Richmond, just suggesting that when people say "Richmond is obviously the biggest because they have 100,000 members", there is a lot more to it than that.
 

blaisee

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 11, 2004
9,106
13,343
Punt Road
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
None
To be honest I'm not really as interested in the total number of members as the reasons why the total may be different (particularly sooo much bigger than other big Victorian clubs). Everything outside of the "total membership" number suggests Collingwood, Richmond and even Essendon are all batting in a similar ballpark.

Not taking anything away from Richmond, just suggesting that when people say "Richmond is obviously the biggest because they have 100,000 members", there is a lot more to it than that.

Richmond in 3 of the last 4 years also have bigger crowds as well.

More members, more crowds, vs more facebook and instagram likes.
 

Tiger_4_Life

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 13, 2011
6,379
19,941
AFL Club
Richmond
Obviously, the main comparison here is between the Pies and Richmond, just thought there were 2 interesting membership features to point out that I think probably explain the number difference:
  1. Price: The cheapest you can get a membership that includes 1) All games in Vic, 2) A reserved seat, 3) Grand Final Ticket at Collingwood is $910.00. At Richmond, you can get that for $535.00. This price percentage difference is pretty consistent through most packages.
  2. Packages: Richmond have a much wider variety of membership packages to choose from, however, there is one package in particular that I think pushes their membership total up significantly, the Maurice Rioli Club Membership. "Guaranteed access to purchase a ticket for the Grand Final if Richmond is participating" - $275.00. As a Pies member, If I want a Grand Final ticket included in my membership, the cheapest I can possibly get that for is $810.00 (MCG Legends), the Maurice Rioli Club Membership allows you to purchase just that grand finals access. So why would this push memberships up? Well, A) Because its a great deal but, more importantly, B) as a member who can't attend every game (as I live in NSW) would be wasting my money purchasing a Legends membership just so I could go to the Grand Final. If I supported Richmond, I could purchase my Interstate Membership ($95.00) then add the Maurice Rioli Club Membership ($275.00) and effectively get the best of both worlds for under $400.00 and on top of that, I've purchased 2 memberships which, you guessed it, counts as 2 memberships towards the membership total.
For the Richmond members who suggest that this isn't the case and in actual fact membership pricing and flexibility doesn't play a role in seemingly inflated membership totals, I'd suggest you take a look at your site and note the wording of the membership totals:

Collingwood - "THANK YOU TO OUR 79,610 FAITHFUL MEMBERS"
Richmond - "2019 MEMBERSHIP TALLY - 100,150"

Membership total isn't the same as the number of members.

You obviously have no idea about how the MRC membership works so I wouldn't worry about trying to invent facts about a delta of $600.... Further if your facts are correct, why is your beloved club ripping its "loyal" members off then?
 
Richmond in 3 of the last 4 years also have bigger crowds as well.

More members, more crowds, vs more facebook and instagram likes.

More social media alt accounts = Facebook and insta likes

I wonder what % of these likes are from accounts with single digit followers and no display picture
 

Proud 2 Be Ur New Dad

R.I.P Billy Conforto
May 7, 2019
44
56
AFL Club
Collingwood
You obviously have no idea about how the MRC membership works so I wouldn't worry about trying to invent facts about a delta of $600.... Further if your facts are correct, why is your beloved club ripping its "loyal" members off then?
The MRC is a membership purchased in conjunction with a match-day membership to guarantee a Grand Final Ticket. Collingwood offers nothing even similar to that, its full Legends membership or no ticket. If I'm wrong I'm happy for you to explain how that is incorrect.

Collingwood clearly has a different strategy than Richmond, I've already said the Richmond membership strategy is better for the members so I'm not sure what your point is.
 

blaisee

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 11, 2004
9,106
13,343
Punt Road
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
None
Would be interesting to graph ladder position vs attendance and see how that compares.

Go for your life.

Fact is Richmond were a basketcase for 37 years and still remained near the top in members and attendance.

Logically this number would go up if we were actually successful, point is the following is true

1. If Richmond are crap and Collingwood are crap, Richmond has bigger crowds and members
2. If Richmond are good and Collingwood are good , Richmond has bigger crowds and members
3. If Richmond are good and Collingwood are crap, Richmond has bigger crowds and more members
4. If Richmond are crap and Collingwood are good, It is very close as to who has bigger crowds and members
 

the view

Debutant
Oct 4, 2017
102
97
AFL Club
Collingwood
This is quite the robust debate.
So it seems Collingwood have the most supporters, however they are generally too tight to put their money where their mouths are and actually financially commit to their so called 'support'.

Tiger supporters happy to invest in their support rather than sharing 'likes' on their socials.

Cool.
collingwood have had steady support for 30 year , you johnny come lately only support when your winning , dont embarrass yourself enough with being a richmond so called supporter
 
collingwood have had steady support for 30 year , you johnny come lately only support when your winning , dont embarrass yourself enough with being a richmond so called supporter
Lol
50 years a supporter, 25 + years continuous member here buddy.
 

Coach_Required

Norm Smith Medallist
Feb 19, 2008
9,683
28,197
Perth
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
Liverpool & Boston Celtics
LOL. The same **** happens at every club. We have 80,000 members and we don't even have 80,000 seats. Geelong have 60,000+ and play most of their games in a stadium that holds a bit over half that.

It's a ******** pissing contest. And the people that get excited about it are the same people that get excited about a Carlton home game vs Richmond getting a big crowd with a Richmond home game vs Brisbane does not.

You know what Richmond and Richmond fans actually deserve praise for? The crowd in the 2017 prelim. 94,000 vs GWS. Hats off.

Mate you got 47K to your last home game against a team you were supposed to have destroyed.

Don't pretend West Coast fans are any different, seen a great pic of Eagles fans leaving early in your home loss to Port champ :thumbsu:
 

FlyHigh18

Arden St Parking Inspector
May 8, 2017
2,555
6,758
AFL Club
North Melbourne
100k is huge no matter how you look at it, congrats.

I would love to be able to see an 'average $$ spent per membership' model for every club. I think the results would be shocking to most.
 
May 5, 2006
62,726
70,017
AFL Club
West Coast
Mate you got 47K to your last home game against a team you were supposed to have destroyed.

Don't pretend West Coast fans are any different, seen a great pic of Eagles fans leaving early in your home loss to Port champ :thumbsu:

I've already stated that membership tallies being bullshit isn't club specific.

The difference between us and most clubs is that we have a strong base of 11 game season ticket holders. Whether it's 40,000, 50,000, 55,000 I don't know exactly but they all pay their money each year before the season starts which is why the club is financially secure year on year. We'd prefer that every seat was filled every game but it actually doesn't matter. If people want to miss games or leave early or whatever it doesn't do anything except upset people on the internets. Like every team we get better crowds when we are going well and in finals, but if we get a full house at home it's because people want to see us play. It's not like we sell 30,000 tickets playing Gold Coast and 60,000 playing Freo because all the Freo fans turn up.

Teams like Richmond, Collingwood, Essendon etc. each have a strong core base of supporters who attend games and meaningfully support their clubs financially. But it's closer to 40,000 than it is 100,000. The rest is marketing spin.
 
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