5 point plan to help MFC grow its off field presence

[00Stinger]

(1) Play 3 or 4 games a year in Canberra, provided we play almost all Melbourne games at the MCG. Also get some sort of state backed sponsorship from the ACT (ala Hawthorn with Tassie), hell even put the ACT or Canberra somewhere small on the jumpers (once again ala Hawthorn). This would bring in an extra say $500,000 a year in revenue.

(2) Come to an agreement with the MCC that say all Melbourne supporters who have an MCC membership pay an extra 15%-25% on their MCC memberships a year, which in turn goes to the MFC. Shit if they have MCC memberships more likely than not they are not struggling for a dollar.

(3)Draft kids this year and next year trying to unearth a marquee player. However don't take a massive risk say a Natanui that could do more harm than good

(4) Look for a high growth new area to situate its training ground. Say one with a high immigration rate as they will be new to AFL. They will fall in love with the game as most people do and will be more likely to follow the Dees since the club is based near them them.

(5) Get Garry Lyon to get off his ass and promote the club alot better than he does. He is becoming the new Eddie Maguire and look at what he did with Collingwood.

 

[Supermercado]

The problem with point 1 is that Tasmania has a tourist industry so they need to promote it. Canberra has... roundabouts?

 

[master bate]

(2) Come to an agreement with the MCC that say all Melbourne supporters who have an MCC membership pay an extra 15%-25% on their MCC memberships a year, which in turn goes to the MFC. Shit if they have MCC memberships more likely than not they are not struggling for a dollar.

(3)Draft kids this year and next year trying to unearth a marquee player. However don't take a massive risk say a Natanui that could do more harm than good

What, come to an agreement with them that makes them demand more cash from a certain group of their membership. What else, the MCC will charge 15%-25% more for coloured folk. Ridiculous. There already is the 40 odd dollar membership which gets you a scarf and the stickers. You can't make people pay more because of what team they support, it will never happen.

Also should we really try and go for marquee players. I'd love to draft half a team of fast aborigines, some blond dale thomases and 7 foot tall freaks, but when the novelty wears off we wont have much to show for it. Draft the best out there, make yourself a fast, strong and hard team and win a flag, much better idea.

 

[McLean_4_Captain]

You had point 1, 2 & 3 debunked. 4 is a good idea, that's why we;re going to Casey.

So i'll take point 5. You can't force Lyon to love the club more and to become our Eddie or our Brayshaw. If Gary had that sort of commitment he would've taken the presidency, Jimmy wouldn't have stood in his way because he'd be aware that Gary's profile would be huge for the club, but for whatever reason Gary didn't want to make that commitment.

You can't force that sort of thing, it just has to be there. Eddie has it, JB has it, Stynes has it, I could imagine someone like Neita having the same passion, but Gary doesn't. This is not a dig, he just prefers to make his contribution in private and as much as melbourne fans want it, he will never be out Eddie.

 

[Colin Grigson]

(1) Play 3 or 4 games a year in Canberra, provided we play almost all Melbourne games at the MCG. Also get some sort of state backed sponsorship from the ACT (ala Hawthorn with Tassie), hell even put the ACT or Canberra somewhere small on the jumpers (once again ala Hawthorn). This would bring in an extra say $500,000 a year in revenue.

(2) Come to an agreement with the MCC that say all Melbourne supporters who have an MCC membership pay an extra 15%-25% on their MCC memberships a year, which in turn goes to the MFC. Shit if they have MCC memberships more likely than not they are not struggling for a dollar.

(3)Draft kids this year and next year trying to unearth a marquee player. However don't take a massive risk say a Natanui that could do more harm than good

(4) Look for a high growth new area to situate its training ground. Say one with a high immigration rate as they will be new to AFL. They will fall in love with the game as most people do and will be more likely to follow the Dees since the club is based near them them.

(5) Get Garry Lyon to get off his ass and promote the club alot better than he does. He is becoming the new Eddie Maguire and look at what he did with Collingwood.

(1) As has been pointed out, the Hawthorn deal with Tasmania is related to the tourism industry there. Canberra has no tourism industry. Additionally, Hawthorn has had a big following in Tasmania for some time. I don't think there's any evidence to suggest that we have any similar support in Canberra. Having less home games at the MCG will also make it difficult to attract new members here in Melbourne, an infinitely bigger market than Canberra. I can't see the AFL giving us an equal amount of games in Melbourne as what we normally would if we moved games to Canberra...

(2) Rubbish. I have an MCC and an MFC membership and I am far from wealthy. Just because you have an MCC membership doesn't mean your a millionaire, or even remotely well off. It has more to do with what your priorities are.

(3) What do you mean 'unearth a marquee player'? Do you mean an untried youngster, or an AFL star??

(4) Casey. Already been talked about extensively.

(5) Gary Lyon's done plenty for this club already, I am sure there are things he does behind the scenes for the club no-one hears about. Eddie had it a lot easier than anyone at Melbourne has now. He had the basic material there to work with when he arrived, which is a club with a massive and loyal supporter base, that's the difference...

 

[the russian40]

There are some pretty weak points there.

Firstly, of the 17 games we play in Melbourne 13 are at the G with 3 at TD and 1 at skilled. We can't really ask for more than that as we have to play away games.

Secondly, if a member has the option of saying I'm a Melbourne supporter and paying an extra 25%, or saying Im not a Melbourne supporter and paying 25% less, and still getting to go to the games..what would you choose?

Thirdly, I think each and every year the club tries to draft a marquee player, they don't have a crystal ball (at least I hope thats not what they are relying on)

Fourthly, Casey.

Fifthly, As other people have mentioned, its not on Garrys agenda, we can't force anyone to do something, when the time comes it comes, we don't want to turn him off the club by persistently perstering him.

Finally, we are following the hawthorn plan on and off the field. We are in a sense bottoming out and re-building a strong list, we have some good young players who over time will develop. off the field we are following them by going to Casey, they have a strong hold in the S/E suburbs, so we had to go a little fiurther out, but over time it will come to fruition

 

[The Dr]

There are some pretty weak points there.

Firstly, of the 17 games we play in Melbourne 13 are at the G with 3 at TD and 1 at skilled. We can't really ask for more than that as we have to play away games.

Secondly, if a member has the option of saying I'm a Melbourne supporter and paying an extra 25%, or saying Im not a Melbourne supporter and paying 25% less, and still getting to go to the games..what would you choose?

Thirdly, I think each and every year the club tries to draft a marquee player, they don't have a crystal ball (at least I hope thats not what they are relying on)

Fourthly, Casey.

Fifthly, As other people have mentioned, its not on Garrys agenda, we can't force anyone to do something, when the time comes it comes, we don't want to turn him off the club by persistently perstering him.

Finally, we are following the hawthorn plan on and off the field. We are in a sense bottoming out and re-building a strong list, we have some good young players who over time will develop. off the field we are following them by going to Casey, they have a strong hold in the S/E suburbs, so we had to go a little fiurther out, but over time it will come to fruition

I would pay the extra and I would like to think most Dees supporters would do the same if asked.

 

[telsor]

Hawthorn plays in Launceston...Offer to play some games in Hobart for a similar deal...

Play home & away against Hawthorn in tassie and use the Tasmanian north/south rivalry to build your own support down there...

 

[00Stinger]

Ok I'll take your responses.
Does anyone else have some ideas on how we can fix the off field issues??? I was thinking of suggestions and thats what i came up with.


(1)With your points what about playing games in Darwin????
(2)Say that we introduce a system where we try to get all the MCC members who are MFC supporters to pay say $100 a year to help the club out. We could even introduce a system where you pay the $100 yearly on a monthly basis of $8 or $9 a month.
(3) We don't seem to attract stars so the draft we must go ( I know we are doing this already)
(5)Since we gave Lyon his break as a footballer which lead to his other media opportunities maybe he owes the club something. I am not talking about being president or anything, just to promote the club a little better. Even if its on the footy show when asked who will win a match out of Melbourne and someone else and he says Melbourne everytime or just doesn't answer.

So please feel free to leave any ideas of how we can fix our off field issues rather that just slagging off mine!!!!

 

[00Stinger]

Hawthorn plays in Launceston...Offer to play some games in Hobart for a similar deal...

Play home & away against Hawthorn in tassie and use the Tasmanian north/south rivalry to build your own support down there...

I was thinking that. It's a pretty good idea, but I've watched footy in Hobart and the grounds are no where as good as Launceston in an AFL capacity

 

[Colin Grigson]

No one's slagging off, i'm just not sure that some of those things you are suggesting are practical.

I really cannot afford to pay another $100 dollars a year on top of my MCC membership, in addition to my MFC membership.

Not all MCC members are wealthy. Some like myself, have a passion for football and cricket & sport in general, and want the best experience possible. I was lucky I was nominated for MCC membership just after I was born.

There is no way in the world that Melbourne supporter's like myself, who already have an MFC membership, are going to further subsidize the club. Its just not going to happen...

 

[master bate]

I was thinking that. It's a pretty good idea, but I've watched footy in Hobart and the grounds are no where as good as Launceston in an AFL capacity

North Hobart ovals a ripper, we could make that the real home of the dees! Couple of stands at either end, a few beers up on the hill, pack the place and it would be better than watching footy at most grounds in Australia, had a really nice surface when I was there as well.

Of course Bellerive is probably where you would play, that isn't too bad either.

 

[malodeez]

why is everyone freakin out so much. everything is going along beautifully. what really piss's me off is these carltank supporters start threads about "how to save the poor old deez", we dont need their ****en sympothy, on the main board. after reading it i realise that most of these so called footy fans on the site are a bunch of ****en tools. they think that we are doomed just because we have had a few shit years. i mean seriously u don't have to be einstein to work out we were gonna be shit this year and next year when bailey came in, he has a hawthorn type plan and these days its almost the only way to go IMO. prepare to be dissapointed in 09 BUT this is where it gets sweet, we are gonna have the best crop of kids come post draft time 09 its gonna be scary, also a new stadium (even tho know one knows what the hell is goin on with that). it might not seem it but things are lookin up. just hope we do the right thing next season (no need to write that as u probably all know what it is, if you don't: 4-18). come 2010 the fans will start to come back, just need to be patient for one more season

 

[Deestroy]

Point 2 is a really good way to have our large percentage of MCC members go down (i.e. Melbourne supporters will say they go for someone else to save $100).

 

[Devastating Boris]

The problem with point 1 is that Tasmania has a tourist industry so they need to promote it. Canberra has... roundabouts?

Canberra and the surrounding area also has about 5000 MFC supporters. Last year when they played the swans up here the crowd was 50-50. Something unheard of against the swans and the sound was amazing when we came back in the 3rd qtr.

Not a bad plan though.

 

[Supermercado]

It might have been 50/50 the year before, but the year before that there was about 1000 Melbourne fans, 5000 Swans fans and 6000 people in various other teams shirts up to and including Fitzroy. I'm not saying we don't go for it, but the chances of their government throwing any more money than they are already do in must be tiny.

 

[KickLongTackleHard]

5 point plans remind me of Treasurer Wayne Swan causing me to spontaneously yack...

 

[The Demon]

I'm sure a bunch of ideas will be put forward at the "Demon Summit" on Nov 16.

By the way,Who is attending from this forum?

 

[demons64]

It might have been 50/50 the year before, but the year before that there was about 1000 Melbourne fans, 5000 Swans fans and 6000 people in various other teams shirts up to and including Fitzroy. I'm not saying we don't go for it, but the chances of their government throwing any more money than they are already do in must be tiny.

I was at both the afore mentioned games and this year's match was the first time a game in Canberra had anything like an even split of support and the constant footy atmosphere that you get in Melbourne. I don't know where the Red and Blue supporters came from, but they were everywhere. Think it might be worth perservering with and support will grow with our improvement.