2015 Membership Thread - Can we get 35,000

[EASTWESTDOGS]

20,681

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

Creeping up so slowly

 

[ThirdLegUp]

Does our membership spike a bit when the season starts, like when the everyday member is suddenly aware that "THE FOOTY IS BACK!" type thing.

I assume there is a out of sight out of mind type thing to this, my memberships renew on auto, but i know a lot of footy fans for various clubs who only actively become footy fans (and members) when the season is back on. But i wouldn't know for sure, i have observational data for my assumption, someone with more knowledge and actual data might know better.

 

[timtamWB]

Does our membership spike a bit when the season starts, like when the everyday member is suddenly aware that "THE FOOTY IS BACK!" type thing.

When the NAB challenge starts there might be a spike.

When round 1 comes and we demolish the Eagles by 100 and Stringer kicks more than the entire Eagles team, there should be a spike.

 

[Libba39]

We finished third bottom, lost our captain, our coach, a brownlow medallist, a club champion (Gia), our top draft pick, and now our CEO...

And people still seem perplexed as to why our membership isn't scaling new heights.....

really?

I'm predicting we'll struggle to make 30K after what has been the worst off-season in a long, long time.

 

[candymanwb]

We finished third bottom, lost our captain, our coach, a brownlow medallist, a club champion (Gia), our top draft pick, and now our CEO...

And people still seem perplexed as to why our membership isn't scaling new heights.....

really?

I'm predicting we'll struggle to make 30K after what has been the worst off-season in a long, long time.

One could argue though that that can bring in more members, maybe?

 

[Eastdog]

Tom Boyd and some of the exciting new draftees we got might get them in.

 

[Tommycash]

Does our membership spike a bit when the season starts, like when the everyday member is suddenly aware that "THE FOOTY IS BACK!" type thing.

I assume there is a out of sight out of mind type thing to this, my memberships renew on auto, but i know a lot of footy fans for various clubs who only actively become footy fans (and members) when the season is back on. But i wouldn't know for sure, i have observational data for my assumption, someone with more knowledge and actual data might know better.

It does help, normally the speed starts to pick up again around now/a bit earlier. So this is a bit of a worry. But maybe it will take the NAB cup to get people excited. Hopefully Boyd can kick a bag.

 

[Tommycash]

A somewhat concerning sight, but I have faith that we'll have a good end result.

 

[the dog's kennel]

Tommy, I think that graph might look a little better if you remove the 2015 dot on Feb-07. Cause you have used today's number (Feb-02) for that value.

That wouldn't make it a LOT better, mind you! But better.

 

[Libba39]

One could argue though that that can bring in more members, maybe?

I wish I had your optimism...

 

[threenewpadlocks]

As sad as it is I reckon our membership largely depends on the success of Tom Boyd this year. He's our poster boy for the next decade and more.

 

[timtamWB]

As sad as it is I reckon our membership largely depends on the success of Tom Boyd this year. He's our poster boy for the next decade and more.

Bontempelli laughs in your face. So does Stringer. And Dahlhaus and his army of kids do as well.

Wow we really have a lot of talent don't we?

 

[EASTWESTDOGS]

20,960

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Bontempelli laughs in your face. So does Stringer. And Dahlhaus and his army of kids do as well.

Wow we really have a lot of talent don't we?

As much as they are gun, the difference between the casual supporter who couldn't actually name more than half our list buying a membership or not is whether or not that they can brag about having Tom Boyd dominate to their work colleagues. Doesn't really work for any other position.

Same with Buddy and Hawthorn even though other players like Mitchell and the like are the unsung heros over the last few years.

 

[timtamWB]

As much as they are gun, the difference between the casual supporter who couldn't actually name more than half our list buying a membership or not is whether or not that they can brag about having Tom Boyd dominate to their work colleagues. Doesn't really work for any other position.

Same with Buddy and Hawthorn even though other players like Mitchell and the like are the unsung heros over the last few years.

Bontempelli definitely has marketing potential in that sense. And I reckon Stringer will as well. I could easily see myself bragging about how Bonti or Stringer dominated and my mates have nobody like them.

 

[LondonBulldog]

Start getting into Ballarat now. Link up with some businesses and offer 4 game memberships for the price of 3 our something similiar.
We would only currently have a small portion of supporters in Ballarat maybe 6% to 10%. We need to offer them something to potentially switch from casual supporter to Bulldogs supporter. Offering deals and things for free is one of the best ways to get in. Everyone loves a good deal!!!

It needs to start now not in 3 years time. Very surprised there is nothing targetting Ballarat currently on the website.

 

[gangsta deluxe]

Just need to get a closer relationship with Vic Uni (mandatory full memberships for all students!)

 

[BRG93]

21,002

 

[ivan rassmussen]

Start getting into Ballarat now. Link up with some businesses and offer 4 game memberships for the price of 3 our something similiar.
We would only currently have a small portion of supporters in Ballarat maybe 6% to 10%. We need to offer them something to potentially switch from casual supporter to Bulldogs supporter. Offering deals and things for free is one of the best ways to get in. Everyone loves a good deal!!!

It needs to start now not in 3 years time. Very surprised there is nothing targetting Ballarat currently on the website.

Good point, how soon does the office in Ballarat open? If we are committed to the area, and 2-3 games p.a. from 2017 is a commitment, then you're right, need to get some marketing/promotional stuff off the ground.

"Bulldogs - coming to Eureka Stadium!" or some such.

Need to play on the Roughy link more, although he was featured in the local paper when named vice-captain.

Maybe sell/distribute badges/stickers in Ballarat with Roughy as a local boy on them, plus Murph lived there when very young.

How about a massive cutout of Roughy as a sign in central Ballarat?

 

[candymanwb]

Just need to get a closer relationship with Vic Uni (mandatory full memberships for all students!)

weave it into school fees and make them pay for it in HECS!

 

[Eastdog]

Saw a billboard at Chadstone shops yesterday advertising Geelong memberships. We need to do something similar not necessarily in the traditional heartland. Would cost a bit though but I say would give us great PR.

 

[Mattdougie]

Our hardcore base of fans simply isn't big enough to help us grow so we need more ideas and options. We simply don't have the fans other teams do and we can all stick our heads in the sand and pretend they will come but they won't. Any pluses made in membership in the Eade era were at least 50% wiped under Peter Rhode mark 2. This will be a slow burn but a realistic target is 35000 in 2017 IMO and then 40000 in 2019 when the team should be finals ready.

So we need to work on the kids In the western suburbs

It might hurt us for a few years but I'd be giving free 3 game memberships to any kids(5-10) in the west that will take them.

Hand 1000s out and if you get at least 10% then that's a win coz if the kid uses the membership at least one parent has to go and most likely try may have siblings.

Then the next year offer them 25% off kids and parent membership.

Get the players and staff out seeing as many kids as humanly possible and giving tickets to them. Give a little to gain in the future coz we are so far behind at the moment it not gonna hurt us

Oh and the Footscray VFL team actually hurt the senior team,I guess we lost at least 1000 members that were happy to just go to Whittten oval and watch that instead of the seniors. A lot of the older fans told me they didn't go anymore coz they love Whitten oval and the seniors were horrible to watch.

 

[dogwatch]

One of the better ideas on growing the membership MD.

Only questions would be
(1) how many of those 3 game memberships would have been bought by the same kid/family if we didn't give them away (i.e. lost revenue), and
(2) how do you stop some kid from accumulating a whole season's worth? Or don't you bother? (i.e. If they are keen enough to get a whole season's worth they will eventually morph into a paying full-season adult in 10-15 years time).

The point about the VFL is an interesting one. However if there are a lot of people in that boat we are in even deeper doo-doo than I thought. No way is AFL ever coming back to VUWO. If these people prefer VUWO to wherever the seniors are playing we've pretty much lost them anyway. The future has got to be more than just nostalgic trips to West Footscray, whether that ends up being at Etihad, the MCG, Eureka Stadium or somewhere else.

 

[Mattdougie]

One of the better ideas on growing the membership MD.

Only questions would be
(1) how many of those 3 game memberships would have been bought by the same kid/family if we didn't give them away (i.e. lost revenue), and
(2) how do you stop some kid from accumulating a whole season's worth? Or don't you bother? (i.e. If they are keen enough to get a whole season's worth they will eventually morph into a paying full-season adult in 10-15 years time).

The point about the VFL is an interesting one. However if there are a lot of people in that boat we are in even deeper doo-doo than I thought. No way is AFL ever coming back to VUWO. If these people prefer VUWO to wherever the seniors are playing we've pretty much lost them anyway. The future has got to be more than just nostalgic trips to West Footscray, whether that ends up being at Etihad, the MCG, Eureka Stadium or somewhere else.

Clearly the club would have to regulate who gets them and each kid would have to fill out a valid membership form for the membership for the active.

Then monitor which memberships are actually used and target those kids next year while moving onto different Kid for free membership the next year.

In actual fact are we losing any revenue by giving kids memberships? They filling a seat that would probably be empty and bringing a parent to counter that.

The reality is we simply don't have the members, they do not exist and continuing to think that if we are successful they will come is ignorance. At best we have about 37-40 thousand fans so lets concentrate on every single one of those AND then find some new ones