- Moderator
- #301
From the President's email yesterday:-
Carlton - 106,345
Up by 11,068 on last years tally of 95,277
Carlton - 106,345
Up by 11,068 on last years tally of 95,277
Official Club Stuff 2024 Club Membership Updates
- Thread starter dave10
- Start date
- Tagged users None
- Oct 3, 2013
- 13,607
- 33,072
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
- Other Teams
- Chelsea
Final membership tally:
* Club membership record
| 1 | Collingwood* | 110,628 |
| 2 | Carlton* | 106,345 |
| 3 | West Coast | 103,498 |
| 4 | Richmond | 98,489 |
| 5 | Geelong* | 90,798 |
| 6 | Hawthorn* | 83,823 |
| 7 | Essendon | 83,664 |
| 8 | Adelaide* | 75,477 |
| 9 | Sydney* | 73,757 |
| 10 | Port Adelaide* | 66,015 |
| 11 | Melbourne | 65,479 |
| 12 | Brisbane* | 63,268 |
| 13 | Western Bulldogs* | 62,328 |
| 14 | Fremantle* | 62,237 |
| 15 | St Kilda* | 60,467 |
| 16 | North Melbourne | 50,628 |
| 17 | GWS* | 36,629 |
| 18 | Gold Coast* | 26,157 |
* Club membership record
Last edited:
- Moderator
- #303
Last year
2022
2021
- Moderator
- #304
- Moderator
- #305
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #307
Interesting note there about AFLW at 68K. St a guess I’d say membership in this category has in fact declined / at best plateaued the last two years? I think they need to have a look at how they grow fan engagement and involvement in ‘W’ as it seems interest via attendance and membership hasn’t grown which is of concern in certain.
threenewpadlocks
Brownlow Medallist
The cost of a standard membership has increased in line with the free -> $10 -> $15 admission cost. So probably increases in revenue without the quantity increase.
Thanks to a share on Reddit, this was Richmond’s membership breakdown from the 2023 season (so not this season).
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- Thread starter
- #311
Amongst the public frustration and scrutiny around some clubs jacking up 2025 prices by ‘unreasonable’ percentages, I think the talking point is the quiet revolution taking place in some clubs around engineering a revolution of how it sells memberships and utilises stadiums.
I believe Essendon is well aware of the risk it’s taking by increasing pricing on most member packages of 10-20%. I believe this is a deliberate strategy to take a longer term view to address a growing issue it has with its membership structure and commercial optimisation.
Reserved seats are usually only 40-60% used for most home games. I believe Essendon is implementing first step of reframing its offer to more effectively utilise stadium capacity and ensure commercial delivery.
Essendon (and Carlton too) lose enormous revenue from not filling seats. It loses its share of food / beverage sales, merchandise etc. as well as not being able to sell around 10,000 unused reserved seats.
I believe it’s modelling has driven a strategy to sell fewer reserved seats, certainly the premium ones, then introduce a waiting list for seats.. It will also slowly play around with member seating bays, it trialled this in 2024. Other clubs currently do this. This allows them to sell these seats each week to get better return. These level 2 seats at Marvel effectively cost $100 as a member seat, clubs could actually sell them for $120-$200+ to the public for games that sellout or an enticing fixtures. Then add the stadium returns from more seats used.
I think initially it’s targeted at seating related packages as clubs feel they probably aren’t realising sufficient value presently. Especially with the additional cost embedded in some of these packages like shipping charges, stickers, pins, things in boxes that cost clubs $$.
Watch this space. Not just Essendon. Essendon fans are irate now but the club is taking a longer term view, aware of the short term pain of lost sales of memberships.
Keep an eye on this. The MCG now presents similar issue with so many sellouts. A structural change is unfolding.
I believe Essendon is well aware of the risk it’s taking by increasing pricing on most member packages of 10-20%. I believe this is a deliberate strategy to take a longer term view to address a growing issue it has with its membership structure and commercial optimisation.
Reserved seats are usually only 40-60% used for most home games. I believe Essendon is implementing first step of reframing its offer to more effectively utilise stadium capacity and ensure commercial delivery.
Essendon (and Carlton too) lose enormous revenue from not filling seats. It loses its share of food / beverage sales, merchandise etc. as well as not being able to sell around 10,000 unused reserved seats.
I believe it’s modelling has driven a strategy to sell fewer reserved seats, certainly the premium ones, then introduce a waiting list for seats.. It will also slowly play around with member seating bays, it trialled this in 2024. Other clubs currently do this. This allows them to sell these seats each week to get better return. These level 2 seats at Marvel effectively cost $100 as a member seat, clubs could actually sell them for $120-$200+ to the public for games that sellout or an enticing fixtures. Then add the stadium returns from more seats used.
I think initially it’s targeted at seating related packages as clubs feel they probably aren’t realising sufficient value presently. Especially with the additional cost embedded in some of these packages like shipping charges, stickers, pins, things in boxes that cost clubs $$.
Watch this space. Not just Essendon. Essendon fans are irate now but the club is taking a longer term view, aware of the short term pain of lost sales of memberships.
Keep an eye on this. The MCG now presents similar issue with so many sellouts. A structural change is unfolding.
- Moderator
- #312
'Ridiculous': Angry Carlton fan lashes out after membership price hike
Carlton member for 21 years, Luca, has been left disappointed after copping a $60 price hike on his membership. Luca thinks it’s a “ridiculous” decision and has accused the club of price-gouging, after also copping an extra $15 fee to reserve a seat for games next season. “You really start to...
www.3aw.com.au
- Apr 17, 2007
- 5,340
- 6,273
- AFL Club
- Sydney
75,057 for the swans.
- Thread starter
- #315
Swans will pass the Bombers next season. They should pass through 80,000 you’d think.
From what I have been hearing, Essendon have been inundated with membership cancellations and downgrades over this price increase and reduction of reserved seating policy changes. It’s apparently been messy and members have been responding in kind.
At least their match day crowds could be higher!
- Moderator
- #316
It's a league wide problem. Combined with AFL pushing reserved tickets being sold months before the game rather than letting people rock up GA on the day.
Not sure whether the league has the balls to take on this challenge, otherwise we will continue to have sellouts with 80% capacity taken (Geelong as the same issue at KP).
threenewpadlocks
Brownlow Medallist
The fact that Essendon have already gotten some media flack for engineering these well-needed changes by changing their membership structure this season to a small extend shows that they basically can't do it any more aggressively than they are now.
People complaining "Muh reserved seat, I'm a passionate fan look how much I pay" are the same ones that decry "corporates and medallion club paying for a seat". Wanting it both ways. These fans complain that they're genuine fans because they pay a lot of money, but they're not showing up at even half of their teams home games (so how passionate can they really be? Of course on a game by game basis there's a reason why they can't show up but all reserved seat holders across all games consistently are at just 50%).
Teams like Essendon are between a rock and a hard place trying to utilise seats but also fight off fans who claim that they are passionate in their words but not in their actions.
- Thread starter
- #319
I think the issue and critique of Essington is that this comes on top of everything the club hadn’t delivered these members for 20 years. Members have a legit gripe about copping a 23% cumulative cost increase on their reserved seat the last two seasons after 20 years of absolutely nothing from a value perspective.
Carlton can slip this through, Essendon understandably copping the brunt of the angst due to the timing of its changes.
That said, I agree with what they’re doing btw
threenewpadlocks
Brownlow Medallist
Yep. Though there's two ways of looking at value - being able to attend a football team winning more games than it loses (not the case with Essendon), but also, physically showing up to the reserved seat you're paying for to attend the games.I think the issue and critique of Essington is that this comes on top of everything the club hadn’t delivered these members for 20 years. Members have a legit gripe about copping a 23% cumulative cost increase on their reserved seat the last two seasons after 20 years of absolutely nothing from a value perspective.
Carlton can slip this through, Essendon understandably copping the brunt of the angst due to the timing of its changes.
That said, I agree with what they’re doing btw
I don't really see a defensible argument about costs going up in the context of people that are paying for seats they're not physically attending anyway. It's strange. If it's so expensive, why are you paying for something you're not using?
- Thread starter
- #321
Who knows. Either way, a +23% cumulative rise over two years is well ahead of inflation at a time these members probably argue they’re receiving diminishing value.
I have seats on centre wing, level 2 at Marvel. Best seats in the ground. Two years ago I paid $875, in 2025 it’s $1,100. If Essendon were a genuine outfit I’d argue these are still terrific value. But Essendon hadn’t won a final in 20 years (think about that for a second
).
Getting in early, but could the Lions potentially reach 75,000 members next year?
Would require a nearly 20% increase on this years total of 63k but Brisbane being the bandwagon city it is, could definitely see it being accomplished. Has anyone got stats on the biggest increase for memberships for premiers the following year?
Would require a nearly 20% increase on this years total of 63k but Brisbane being the bandwagon city it is, could definitely see it being accomplished. Has anyone got stats on the biggest increase for memberships for premiers the following year?
Those sort of numbers that vastly outnumber the seats available depend on how aggressively they market their low or no game access memberships.
Ultimately if I'm running the Lions the priority should be selling all available seats and getting a waiting list happening. That should provide some protection when the on field downturn inevitably comes.
Selling cheap trinket memberships might look good on the tally but they don't really add a lot to the club long term.
I guess my ideal scenario would be build up the fan base now and when the eventual lull does happen, we have more rusted on supporters and our floor is nowhere near the 10-15k crowds we were getting 6-7 years ago. Then if, and it’s a big if, the new stadium or redevelopment does end up getting built in the sunshine state, then we have potential to become a genuine powerhouse on par with the SA/WA clubs
- Moderator
- #325
