2019 Membership changes

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You reckon they took data from the end of 2016 and just used that to make their decisions? I'd be guessing that they formulated a variety of plans based on varying success rates.
At the end of the day, the fact you've been a member for x amount of years has never earnt you the right to a better seat. I get that people are annoyed but change is required. We now have incredible demand for premium memberships, the club would be mad to not raise prices.

I don't think I'm entitled. I'm grateful that I had the same seat since the stand was built. I have not asked for better seating, rather, we have lost the reserve seat. I'm happy for change - and welcome new members. But why must we move to accommodate them ? Why can't they sit in other designated areas ?
 
Dear RFC there’s only 3-4 games a year where reserved seat and failure to show is an issue. Don’t bring in the demolition crew to resolve the problem, renovate instead by focussing the solution on those blockbuster games. We can understand that and send me a DM for any market research , platinum member, influential reserved seat holder on the terraces.
If you want any background , I was the bloke who sent my raffle tickets in next day after they were delivered , that should fill in a few blanks
 
This has been an ongoing issue since Benny signed on

I've been to two focus groups for members of premium packages (I had a reserved seat in n4)

There have been two main problems throughout that time. The first being that on average only 50% of PC members would attend any given game. That's a lot of empty seats.

Club looked at resell options and other arrangements, but fans didn't want to allow oppo supporters to buy their seats, and they wanted the right to decide to sell till the last minute.

Secondly, we have limited real estate to use, so what we have we have to optimise. Initially I kept my seat when I joined 3121, but ultimately they asked me to give it up. Reason being, both 3121 and PC have wait lists.

I was initially concerned about the reserved bay arrangements for 3121, but in all my years I've never missed out on a seat (and I do rock up late)

It also could be worse. At least we get to keep our access for home games against the pies, unlike Inner Sanctum members (thanks to the pies deal with the MCC, they keep their seats for away games)

I understand that in past years, the members area I'm in (N5) has been fully populated at the start of the season, and due to poor performances, it tapers off as the season progresses. In 2016, I took a photo of our entire row - which was empty. It was purely a reflection on how bad we were going on field. But - all those seats were paid for, whether the member turned up or not. So I can't see the club's argument that the seats are empty, and they need to make changes. They made the changes and we won a premiership. This is our reward ? The fixture also dictates crowd numbers. Thursday night and some Sundays are not good as kids have school on Fridays and play junior footy on Sundays.
 

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Apparently ours is going up by $225 over the next 2 years.

Not happy at all.

No extra benefits, not sure if we lose the reserved seating or not but that price rise might mean we have to drop our level of membership

That's not exactly true. The letter does say that they'll be providing us with access to function rooms on occasion to provide more value for money. Seems people are pretty quick to tee off but make sure you read it properly first.
 
The logical solution is to have an app for reserved seat holders where they can say they are not attending a game, right up until kick-off. A normal punter can then buy those tickets and the reserved seat holder receives a % of the seat cost.

Taking reserved seats away from people who have paid for them for a decade or more during tough the tough times is the sort of bullshit I don’t want to be apart of. If our club gets greedy like the rest of the AFL they can **** right off! Gale should know better....

Won’t matter anyways if they implement the new rule changes the sport is doomed. Can’t imagine watching AFL with an 18m goalsquare.

Waiting for my letter that the GF guarantee is to be removed from my MRC membership.
 
The logical solution is to have an app for reserved seat holders where they can say they are not attending a game, right up until kick-off. A normal punter can then buy those tickets and the reserved seat holder receives a % of the seat cost.

Taking reserved seats away from people who have paid for them for a decade or more during tough the tough times is the sort of bullshit I don’t want to be apart of. If our club gets greedy like the rest of the AFL they can **** right off! Gale should know better....

Won’t matter anyways if they implement the new rule changes the sport is doomed. Can’t imagine watching AFL with an 18m goalsquare.

Waiting for my letter that the GF guarantee is to be removed from my MRC membership.

They have had a similar system for the last 2 years. If you are unable to attend the game, you inform the club and then they sell your ticket, and provide you with the "refund".
 
That's not exactly true. The letter does say that they'll be providing us with access to function rooms on occasion to provide more value for money. Seems people are pretty quick to tee off but make sure you read it properly first.

the price you pay for relying on information text through to you from someone who had the letter!

i read it when i got home and saw all that, lesson learnt!
 
The logical solution is to have an app for reserved seat holders where they can say they are not attending a game, right up until kick-off. A normal punter can then buy those tickets and the reserved seat holder receives a % of the seat cost.

Taking reserved seats away from people who have paid for them for a decade or more during tough the tough times is the sort of bullshit I don’t want to be apart of. If our club gets greedy like the rest of the AFL they can **** right off! Gale should know better....

Won’t matter anyways if they implement the new rule changes the sport is doomed. Can’t imagine watching AFL with an 18m goalsquare.

Waiting for my letter that the GF guarantee is to be removed from my MRC membership.
If that happens , I’ll become a 3G member and just buy a res seat on special occasions , and for 80-90% the ap or text would work perfectly . Having to go through the hoops with ticketec is a pain in the arse and should be avoided , don’t try and resolve a problem by creating another one
 
They have had a similar system for the last 2 years. If you are unable to attend the game, you inform the club and then they sell your ticket, and provide you with the "refund".
Well if they have it’s very poorly communicated , it would be a rare day I don’t view club website and have never seen anything about this
 
Does it work? Because if it did those sections would be full most weeks.

Friends who sit in front of us did it once. They bought a reserved seat for their son, who was 1 year old at the time. The idea was to "reserve" the seat for 4 years so that when old enough, he would have his seat. No one sat in that seat until the game the family did not attend (Hawthorn). The seats were sold to a Hawthorn family of foul mouthed bogans. He never sold his seats for an unattended game thereafter.
 
Well if they have it’s very poorly communicated , it would be a rare day I don’t view club website and have never seen anything about this

I know in 2016, we received emails throughout the season reminding us that we had the option to sell the seat(s) back to the club if we were not attending home games. Didn't see them this year, although I would never have taken up on the offer.
 

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Friends who sit in front of us did it once. They bought a reserved seat for their son, who was 1 year old at the time. The idea was to "reserve" the seat for 4 years so that when old enough, he would have his seat. No one sat in that seat until the game the family did not attend (Hawthorn). The seats were sold to a Hawthorn family of foul mouthed bogans. He never sold his seats for an unattended game thereafter.
I think the solution to that would be for the ticket sale to be done through the club internally. Sell the seat to GA members only.

The other issue is many people are not aware of how to "sell" their seat and it may be be too complicated to do so. For selling of the reserved seat system to work, it would require for people to be well aware of it and easy to use.
 
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What I don't get is that we all have bar codes on our memberships, and I know the club knows the official members attendances throughout the year. I recall an email that I received in 2015 ish, and it was a promotional gift for attending all MCG home games. Given the club has access to this type of data, they could have looked at the attendance history of each member, and retained the seats of members that they know attend games regularly (going back since the bar codes were introduced). The ones that have not, could have been stripped of their reserved seat. Given that should have been an option, I would have gladly paid for a price increase. The families in our area value our reserved seating that much.
 
I understand that in past years, the members area I'm in (N5) has been fully populated at the start of the season, and due to poor performances, it tapers off as the season progresses. In 2016, I took a photo of our entire row - which was empty. It was purely a reflection on how bad we were going on field. But - all those seats were paid for, whether the member turned up or not. So I can't see the club's argument that the seats are empty, and they need to make changes. They made the changes and we won a premiership. This is our reward ? The fixture also dictates crowd numbers. Thursday night and some Sundays are not good as kids have school on Fridays and play junior footy on Sundays.

They haven't just made changes when we won a premiership

You used to be able to be 3121 AND have a reserved seat, but this was removed several years ago because of waitlists. Also there have been at least two reorganisations of some of the seating arrangements in n2/2a (which I remember because people were complaining about not being able to keep their old seats)

The issue of utilisation of our reserved areas has been an ongoing one for years, this is just the first time you have been personally effected
 
They haven't just made changes when we won a premiership

You used to be able to be 3121 AND have a reserved seat, but this was removed several years ago because of waitlists. Also there have been at least two reorganisations of some of the seating arrangements in n2/2a (which I remember because people were complaining about not being able to keep their old seats)

The issue of utilisation of our reserved areas has been an ongoing one for years, this is just the first time you have been personally effected

I'm 3121 and still got my reserved seat on the wing olympic stand ground level M section, i rang the club and they said I'm not affected.
 
Friends who sit in front of us did it once. They bought a reserved seat for their son, who was 1 year old at the time. The idea was to "reserve" the seat for 4 years so that when old enough, he would have his seat. No one sat in that seat until the game the family did not attend (Hawthorn). The seats were sold to a Hawthorn family of foul mouthed bogans. He never sold his seats for an unattended game thereafter.

Thats problem im gong to have is bringing my son when he's old enough in a year or two , i only have 1 reserved seat so he's on the waiting list , he's already a member as soon as he was born but without reserved seat.
 
So being a shift worker, I get 8 full weekends off during the footy season and not all of them are a home game but I still buy a reserved seat membership and have done for 24 years, I go when I can....should I be punished??

In the end it is what it is....nothing we can do.
tiger_of_old
In the same boat Frustrated Tiger Shift worker who hands are tied behind my back pending on which w/end our home games fall on.Yet you get an entitled so called member who thinks unless you attend over 55% of games the club should cancel our membership.
 
I called the club when I got the letter yesterday and spoke to a young lad Josh I think. He was exceptional. I'm in N5 and my brother is in olympic stand N54 and although we're disappointed with the changes, I now have a much better understanding. The changes aren't to accommodate for the new members. Those who were in N7-N9 who are being moved to our area will back fill the empty seats and attendance issues so it'll really only open up spots for members to bring guest passes for low crowd games. 3121 have been moved too and they'll have some room to sell more in here but only a small amount as the club doesn't have many grand final tickets left. They're not stupid. It sounds like a lot of work and thought has gone into it so given what the club has done over the last few years im now supportive of their decision. He also mentionde about the resale program where if youre not attending you can put your seat up for resale. They have this is place but the feedback on this has been that people don't want opposition supporters sitting in their seats as they can put these seats up just for richmond member.s i sure don't want opposition supporters sitting in punt road end. At least this way more long term richmond members who missed grand final tickets in the ballot etc last year are going to get the opportunity to go if we make it in future.
Worth a call to the club if you have questions but they were so helpful and transparent. I'll be at the forum next week to hear more apparently Balmy is also going to be there to give an update on footy too.
I've gone from pretty angry to understanding. still love the tiges no matter what.
 
In the same boat Frustrated Tiger Shift worker who hands are tied behind my back pending on which w/end our home games fall on.Yet you get an entitled so called member who thinks unless you attend over 55% of games the club should cancel our membership.
And that's what I was getting at....
 
I think the solution to that would be for the ticket sale to be done through the club internally. Sell the seat to GA members only.

The other issue is many people are not aware of how to "sell" their seat and it may be be too complicated to do so. For selling of the reserved seat system to work, it would require for people to be well aware of it and easy to use.
Correct , I’m now lead to believe this option is active and I have NFI where it begins and ends
 

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2019 Membership changes

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