If we had nine or ten MCG home games like Dees/Tiges/Pies (Hawks get six), we would get a few more Melbourne members. That will help balalce our upcoming loss of around 5k - 6k Tas members when they get their own team.
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AFLW 2024 - Round 9 - Indigenous Round - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
2022 Membership Updates
- Thread starter dave10
- Start date
- Tagged users None
- Moderator
- #627
| Club | 2022 (July 15th - known and reported |
| Adelaide | 40,000 |
| Brisbane | 41,827 |
| Carlton | 86,738 |
| Collingwood | 86,841 |
| Essendon | 79,536 |
| Fremantle | 54,214 |
| Geelong | 67,878 |
| Gold Coast | 8,721 |
| G.Western Sydney | 30,861 |
| Hawthorn | 70,007 |
| Melbourne | 65,782 |
| North Melbourne | 48,639 |
| Port Adelaide | 59,146 |
| Richmond | 99,830 |
| St Kilda | 58,301 |
| Sydney | 51,642 |
| West Coast | 100,000 |
| Western Bulldogs | 50,107 |
| Club Total | 1,100,070 |
| Womens Total | 48,712 |
Collingwood would be very close to 90,000 members by now
- Thread starter
- #629
Essendon 80,029. Pretty ordinary and reflecting a poor year. It was +6,000 tracking Vs LY (81,600) back in March and tracking well towards 90,000. It will likely finish about 9,000 short of what it hoped and targeted.
Franking a poor membership result in a really poor year on field. Sooner the years over the better…
- Oct 3, 2013
- 13,489
- 32,694
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
- Other Teams
- Chelsea
80,000 strong
Essendon Football Club is delighted to announce that it has surpassed the 80,000 member milestone for the second consecutive year.
- Oct 3, 2013
- 13,489
- 32,694
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
- Other Teams
- Chelsea
Richmond reaches 100K.
www.richmondfc.com.au
Tigers achieve 100,000 members for fifth straight year
Richmond and the Tiger Army are today celebrating a fifth consecutive year of reaching 100,000 members.
- Nov 14, 2010
- 45,700
- 52,159
- AFL Club
- North Melbourne
Does anyone know if you are already a member of the men’s team and you buy an AFLW membership for your club does that double count in the tally or just count as 1?
May also be different club to club?
May also be different club to club?
- Nov 14, 2010
- 45,700
- 52,159
- AFL Club
- North Melbourne
Would make sense to not double up but call me cynical in that I reckon some clubs just count everything both men’s and women’s
I mean it is the clubs who release figures not the afl so not audit per se over double counting
- Oct 3, 2013
- 13,489
- 32,694
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
- Other Teams
- Chelsea
Update
Richmond = 100,189
West Coast = 100,000 (announced on June 14)
Collingwood = 86,841 (as of June 24)
Carlton = 86,738
Essendon = 80,029
Hawthorn = 75,000 +
Geelong = 68,048
Melbourne = 65,816
Adelaide = 60,000 +
Port Adelaide = 59,146 (as of June 17)
St Kilda = 58,736
Fremantle = 54,358
Sydney = 51,642 (as of May 27)
Western Bulldogs = 50,232
North Melbourne = 48,639
Brisbane Lions = 41,827
GWS = 30,861 (as of May 17)
Gold Coast = 17,500
Richmond = 100,189
West Coast = 100,000 (announced on June 14)
Collingwood = 86,841 (as of June 24)
Carlton = 86,738
Essendon = 80,029
Hawthorn = 75,000 +
Geelong = 68,048
Melbourne = 65,816
Adelaide = 60,000 +
Port Adelaide = 59,146 (as of June 17)
St Kilda = 58,736
Fremantle = 54,358
Sydney = 51,642 (as of May 27)
Western Bulldogs = 50,232
North Melbourne = 48,639
Brisbane Lions = 41,827
GWS = 30,861 (as of May 17)
Gold Coast = 17,500
- Oct 3, 2013
- 13,489
- 32,694
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
- Other Teams
- Chelsea
I get a bit sick of them only reporting total number of members. As others have said, it is a bit meaningless as you don't know what they are counting. Take West Coast - 100k members in a 60k seat stadium. There are about 45k season ticket holders, then 5-10k seats sold for flexi memberships (either 3 or 5 games for a season). A bunch of members on a waitlist to get match day access and a bunch of interstate members (mostly in victoria). It wouldn't surprise me if they also count things like baby membership and AFLW.
I'd rather look at it from revenue, as that is the main benefit to a club from membership.
I'd rather look at it from revenue, as that is the main benefit to a club from membership.
- Moderator
- #639
Footy fans have taken their passion to new levels with an all-time AFL club membership record set this season.
The AFL will on Thursday announce more people have become members of their favourite club than ever before, with 1,132,295 proud and paid-up supporters Australia-wide.
Eight clubs have already set new membership marks, helping surpass the previous national membership mark by 18,854.
And an even bigger membership haul looms, with numbers counted until August 31 and fans expected to make a late rush to sign up with their club to ensure first crack at finals tickets.
After being forced to watch their team on TV during two winters of Covid-19 lockdowns, Victorian supporters have driven the surge in membership sales.
At least six Victorian teams will this year declare record membership tallies — resurgent Carlton, premiers Melbourne, Collingwood, St Kilda, Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne — as well as GWS and Brisbane.
The two best performers in terms of membership growth were Melbourne — up 26.8 per cent from 53,188 last year to more than 65,000 — and Western Bulldogs, up 11.4percent from 46,541 to more than 50,000.
Sttew
Brownlow Medallist
AFL. 1.2 Million members
NRL. 320,000 members
NRL. 320,000 members
- Moderator
- #641
AFL started really pushing memberships in the early 80s. The NRl didnt really start until 10 years ago, using season tickets instead.
I'm actually staggered the bum sniffers have that many, stadiums usually look 3/4 empty.
Start a thread on it then. Nothing stopping you.
Back in the day when Football Park existed I remember there was a time when a Football Park membership was counted twice in club memberships.
Once for Crows and once for Port Power, so if you were a Power supporter and hated Crows you were still counted in Crows membership numbers.
I suspect that does not happen anymore when they moved to Adelaide Oval.
- Moderator
- #645
RussellEbertHandball
Flick pass expert
Yes the old Category 1 - 22 games were doubled counted for both clubs, Category 2 - was only counted in crows total as it was for their 11 home games and category 3 - was only in Port's as it was for their 11 home games.
At its peak the Footy Park memberships were approx 11,500 Cat 1 memberships, 5,000 Cat 2 memberships, and 3,000 Cat 3 memberships,
So both the crows and Port had 11,500 members double counted and the estimated split was 7,500 crowies and 4,000 Port supporters.
It was double counted as the SANFL copied the AFL members set up, that if you tick a club support box, that club gets a share of the membership fees collected.
2013, was the last year of Footy Park and it was also the last year the AFL published what share of the AFL membership fees the clubs got for adult/concession/junior memberships paid, in the annual AFL Record Season Guide book.
McGuire at the time heavily criticised the AFL about collingwood not getting enough $$$ from the AFL for the 13,000 collingwood club support of the approx 54,000 AFL members, so the AFL said we wont show these figures to the public anymore. Then the next year was the last year in their annual report the AFL showed the split between clubs of who makes up the AFL membership with club support.
In 2013 for an adult AFL Membership with the club support box ticked, that club got $138. For concessions it was $82.50 and Juniors $18.
So that's why the Footy Park Category 1 memberships were double counted because both clubs got $138 from the adult membership fee the SANFL collected, the crows got $138 for the cat 2 memberships and Port $138 for Cat 3 memberships. And $82.50 for concession membership fees and $18 for junior membership fees.
In 2014 when the clubs moved to AO, there were 8,000 Adelaide Oval Football Memberships (AOFM) and the clubs didn't receive the equivalent of AFL Members club support fee. In fact they received $NIL. Both clubs realised that their membership figures would be affected if no AOFM were counted, they both went and sold a lot more memberships as effectively the old Cat 1 was reduced from 11.5k to 8k and Cat 2 and cat 3 were scrapped and the clubs got to sell those equivalent seats as the western stand of AO holds 14.5k and the old members reserve at Footy Park held 17k.
So the 2 clubs continued to double count the 8,000 members in their club totals on their websites, in fact they still do, and they lobbied the AFL that there should be some split as they are memberships only for the footy, not cricket or other events. In that first season in 2014, 8,206 were actually sold and when the AFL did their audit of memberships they somehow allocated as follows as per the article about it, Keith Thomas explained in August 2014;
Statement: Record membership growth
Port Adelaide confirmed as the fastest growing membership base in the AFL.
The 35/65 distribution split was based on SANFL ‘club of support’ research which had the split at 30/70..........
Over the years Port's share has reduced from 35% to 28% or only 2,250 in its club total for the last 5 years. Will be interesting to see what the split is this year because only just over 6,000 AOFM were sold by early June and they reduced the adult membership fee by $300 so that you paid 60% of the annual fee and you got 55% of the original 22 games, left.
Anyway after 2014 was a boom year and the 2 clubs didn't get as big a dividend compared to the SANFL's share, there was a review that covered the 2015-17 seasons and they put up the AOFM fee by $100 a bit less for concessions and junior memberships, and the 2 clubs split the $100 increase ie $50, which was the amount you had to pay for the AFL to count the membership in their audited figures.
When the next review was done at the end of the 2017 season to cover the 5 season 2018-22, the $50 the clubs got was removed, they were given more corporate inventory to sell and a bigger rebate on each person attending increased from the $2.00 inserted into the stadium deal in at the 2015 review, to $2.40.
So even thought the double counting has gone from the 2 SA clubs in the audited figures, both clubs count the 8,000 in their unaudited figures and there is still some manipulation, but also there is a decent argument the 8,000 shouldn't be counted at all, just like MCG, SCG, Gabba, Medallion club etc members aren't counted in any clubs' totals.
But there is a lot of PR spin and marketing, as well as dodgy categories around AFL membership numbers to prevent kicking out the AOFM of the totals completely. Otherwise this answer wouldn't have been so long.
Last edited:
I appreciate the long answer.Yes the old Category 1 - 22 games were doubled counted for both clubs, Category 2 - was only counted in crows total as it was for their 11 home games and category 3 - was only in Port's as it was for their 11 home games.
At its peak the Footy Park memberships were approx 11,500 Cat 1 memberships, 5,000 Cat 2 memberships, and 3,000 Cat 3 memberships,
So both the crows and Port had 11,500 members double counted and the estimated split was 7,500 crowies and 4,000 Port supporters.
It was double counted as the SANFL copied the AFL members set up, that if you tick a club support box, that club gets a share of the membership fees collected.
2013, was the last year of Footy Park and it was also the last year the AFL published what share of the AFL membership fees the clubs got for adult/concession/junior memberships paid, in the annual AFL Record Season Guide book.
McGuire at the time heavily criticised the AFL about collingwood not getting enough $$$ from the AFL for the 13,000 collingwood club support of the approx 54,000 AFL members, so the AFL said we wont show these figures to the public anymore. Then the next year was the last year in their annual report the AFL showed the split between clubs of who makes up the AFL membership with club support.
In 2013 for an adult AFL Membership with the club support box ticked, that club got $138. For concessions it was $82.50 and Juniors $18.
So that's why the Footy Park Category 1 memberships were double counted because both clubs got $138 from the adult membership fee the SANFL collected, the crows got $138 for the cat 2 memberships and Port $138 for Cat 3 memberships. And $82.50 for concession membership fees and $18 for junior membership fees.
In 2014 when the clubs moved to AO, there were 8,000 Adelaide Oval Football Memberships (AOFM) and the clubs didn't receive the equivalent of AFL Members club support fee. In fact they received $NIL. Both clubs realised that their membership figures would be affected if no AOFM were counted, they both went and sold a lot more memberships as effectively the old Cat 1 was reduced from 11.5k to 8k and Cat 2 and cat 3 were scrapped and the clubs got to sell those equivalent seats as the western stand of AO holds 14.5k and the old members reserve at Footy Park held 17k.
So the 2 clubs continued to double count the 8,000 members in their club totals on their websites, in fact they still do, and they lobbied the AFL that there should be some split as they are memberships only for the footy, not cricket or other events. In that first season in 2014, 8,206 were actually sold and when the AFL did their audit of memberships they somehow allocated as follows as per the article about it, Keith Thomas explained in August 2014;
...... This change in auditing system resulted in an allocation of 2,928 Adelaide Oval members to Port Adelaide and 5,278 to the Crows.Statement: Record membership growth
Port Adelaide confirmed as the fastest growing membership base in the AFL.www.portadelaidefc.com.au
The 35/65 distribution split was based on SANFL ‘club of support’ research which had the split at 30/70..........
Over the years Port's share has reduced from 35% to 28% or only 2,250 in its club total for the last 5 years. Will be interesting to see what the split is this year because only just over 6,000 AOFM were sold by early June and they reduced the adult membership fee by $300 so that you paid 60% of the annual fee and you got 55% of the original 22 games, left.
Anyway after 2014 was a boom year and the 2 clubs didn't get as big a dividend compared to the SANFL's share, there was a review that covered the 2015-17 seasons and they put up the AOFM fee by $100 a bit less for concessions and memberships, and the 2 clubs split the $100 increase ie $50, which was the amount you had to pay for the AFL to count the membership in their audited figures.
When the next review was done at the end of the 2017 season to cover the 5 season 2018-22, the $50 the clubs got was removed, they were given more corporate inventory to sell and a bigger rebate on each person attending increased from the $2.00 inserted into the stadium deal in at the 2015 review, to $2.40.
So even thought the double counting has gone from the 2 SA clubs in the audited figures, both clubs count the 8,000 in their unaudited figures and there is still some manipulation, but also there is a decent argument the 8,000 shouldn't be counted at all, just like MCG, SCG, Gabba, Medallion club etc members aren't counted in any clubs' totals.
But there is a lot of PR spin and marketing, as well as dodgy categories around AFL membership numbers to prevent kicking out the AOFM of the totals completely. Otherwise this answer wouldn't have been so long.
Excellent explanation of what been going on there.
You can look at it anyway you want.
However here are some facts that you should probably know about why this is such a big thing now.
Take it from someone who's worked in the sports marketing industry for 10 years
- Clubs use these numbers as a marketing tool to promote their brand.
- Membership numbers attract sponsorships.
- They attract outside interests from interstate and international companies.
- It's a result of on field success and good performances, in turn, generates interest that gets people through the gates and helps generate revenue through merchandise sales and attendances.
- Revenue of memberships is only a small part of the bigger picture.
- You'll find the higher the membership numbers, the bigger or the more popular the club is. The current order is about right, when you match up membership and attendance ladders.
- Moderator
- #649
Carlton as at 26th July
and the great irony is that Melbourne is the NRL club with the most members - the only side not in "NRL heartland" (NSW and Qld).
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