Review Ideas that can help our club

[VitalDread]

also, Bulldogs Radio.
Have a daily radio show maybe from 6-7pm each night on the website to keep the people involved with the club with player interviews coaching interviews, and ABOVE ALL ELSE! Radio all VFL games so it can keep people up to date with the development of our younger players.

 

[OfficialBulldogs]

Great to see everyone contributing ideas. We are keeping tabs on the thread and will try to send any suggestions to the relevant departments. We are committed to trying to better your experience as Western Bulldogs fans so if you have any other ideas or suggestions feel free to call us on 1300 GO DOGS or email: digitaldog@westernbulldogs.com.au.
Go Dogs!

 

[VitalDread]

email sent, hopefully bulldogs hire me to host the radio show though i live in cranbourne

 

[Warner_Bros_FC]

OfficialBulldogs

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/rip-charlie-sutton.955125/page-2#post-25627336

 

[TedDougChris]

For families with multiple memberships at the one address, there should be an option to reduce the number of mailings or deliveries that come to your house. In the past I have received many copies of the same Bulldogs magazine etc... While not a huge cost saving, every dollar (in printing and delivery) counts.

On a similar theme (as I have three members at our house) - there should potentially be a rewards system for the years and number of memberships - Bulldog points if you will. I really don't wear out 3 hats and 3 scarves per year. I'd much rather get points so that every few years I can buy the young lad a Bulldogs jumper. He's far more likely to grow out of that than he is a hat or scarf. This creates two benefits - it reduces the number of hats/scarves I have at my house (currently numbering in the many millions) and if adopted, reduces the mailing costs the club pays every year.

 

[Igloo]

On a similar theme (as I have three members at our house) - there should potentially be a rewards system for the years and number of memberships - Bulldog points if you will. I really don't wear out 3 hats and 3 scarves per year. I'd much rather get points so that every few years I can buy the young lad a Bulldogs jumper. He's far more likely to grow out of that than he is a hat or scarf. This creates two benefits - it reduces the number of hats/scarves I have at my house (currently numbering in the many millions) and if adopted, reduces the mailing costs the club pays every year.

This is a very good idea. One that all clubs should use, imo.

 

[TedDougChris]

This is a very good idea. One that all clubs should use, imo.

Thanks - feel free to borrow and pass on if anyone knows anyone at the club....

 

[Dogs Rule]

For families with multiple memberships at the one address, there should be an option to reduce the number of mailings or deliveries that come to your house. In the past I have received many copies of the same Bulldogs magazine etc... While not a huge cost saving, every dollar (in printing and delivery) counts.

On a similar theme (as I have three members at our house) - there should potentially be a rewards system for the years and number of memberships - Bulldog points if you will. I really don't wear out 3 hats and 3 scarves per year. I'd much rather get points so that every few years I can buy the young lad a Bulldogs jumper. He's far more likely to grow out of that than he is a hat or scarf. This creates two benefits - it reduces the number of hats/scarves I have at my house (currently numbering in the many millions) and if adopted, reduces the mailing costs the club pays every year.

Brilliant idea - hope this is one the club takes up. Would work really well in my opinion and hopefully reduce the numbers of lapsed members.

 

[murphy2bedabest]

His name is Lin Jong

 

[StringyDog]

For families with multiple memberships at the one address, there should be an option to reduce the number of mailings or deliveries that come to your house. In the past I have received many copies of the same Bulldogs magazine etc... While not a huge cost saving, every dollar (in printing and delivery) counts.

On a similar theme (as I have three members at our house) - there should potentially be a rewards system for the years and number of memberships - Bulldog points if you will. I really don't wear out 3 hats and 3 scarves per year. I'd much rather get points so that every few years I can buy the young lad a Bulldogs jumper. He's far more likely to grow out of that than he is a hat or scarf. This creates two benefits - it reduces the number of hats/scarves I have at my house (currently numbering in the many millions) and if adopted, reduces the mailing costs the club pays every year.

This is a great idea, everyone I know (including other club members) either bin and throw to back of closet never to be seen the hats and duplicate scarfs they recieve each year, all you need is a tick box on membership form to opt to not recieve them and I am sure many wouldn't even want anything in return just have it as a cost saving donation back to club.

Also on the bulldogs magazine you could have an opt in just a box on membership form to recieve it as a PDF version, saving the club the mailout and printing costs and of course better for environment with less paper waste.

 

[fred cook]

Get rid of the crap hats etc

I can get on at St Vinnes for $1.00 and the 2007 hat is now retro

 

[Dav1d]

Have we a high altitude chamber? I would like to see the WB have the best & most up to date ways to train to take their performance to a next level, maybe even the occasional change in strength & conditioning during the off season; not sure if anyone is familiar with Mike Boyle from America? Has trained many high perfomance athletes.

 

[TBOW]

I really like the points system idea, although to be honest I would be happy if the club scrapped the members pack altogether.
Every year the lanyard, most of the stickers and all the other crap goes in the bin & the hat goes to the op-shop. I think all most members want is the card.
I would MUCH prefer the club to save money on all this stuff & stop making me feel so guilty about throwing it away. At least give us an option.

These are my ideas.

1. I think that we need to re-evaluate our fundraising strategy.
I very rarely buy raffle tickets because I hate raffles, but the last couple of years I have donated $20 on top of my membership.
I would happily donate more to club appeals that are directly spent on football department issues, no incentive required.
I think there was one a few years back to raise money so we could get 6 rookies instead of 2? You only need to look at our current rookie list to see the value in that.
I know we have our bulldoze the debt fundraiser, but to be honest I think people might be more inclined to put money towards something pro-active rather than just paying off loans. Even if it means having a fundraiser for something that club revenue is generally directed to; such as player scouting, and then re-directing the money generally spent on that to debt reduction.
That way when supporters go to the game on the weekend they can look at some young kid that we plucked from obscurity & think ‘I helped get that kid to the club’ in much the same way that some of us look at Liam Picken or Dalhaus and think I helped make that happen by donating to the rookie fundraiser.

2. I think the big fundraising drive this year should be fielding our own VFL side. I think it is the most beneficial thing any club can do in the next couple of years.
People are so quick to blame recruiters for drafting dud players, but I think a lot of the blame/credit for the quality of a player has to go to the club that has developed them.
You only need to look at the success rate of clubs like Geelong and Collingwood introducing kids and the failure of clubs like Melbourne to realise that.
Standalone VFL clubs have the advantage of playing kids in position, or trialling them in new ones, teaching them team structures in game situations and giving them club directed coaching and directives.

I think having our own VFL side can be very beneficial from an off field perspective too. If we can play games at Whitten Oval it gives us the opportunity of bringing supporters back to our new and improved HQ. The potential for more revenue through the bulldog shop, café, new food licencing, new sponsorship on the ground & maybe the VFL jumpers.
It strengthens our link to the West and with Footscray our traditional home & puts us in a position to forge stronger relationships with the WRFL and potentially the Western Jets as well as the local Footscray community. I just see it as an opportunity to make the Whitten Oval the hub of activity it should be.

3. I guess this is a bit more speculative and I’m not even sure if the club actually owns Whitten Oval or if it is government land, but I think the club could potentially use the land around Whitten Oval in a commercial capacity to create income from property leases.
I don’t really like the idea of surrounding the ground with buildings, but I do feel like there is the potential to put a string of shops along Barkley st. and potentially some form of office or commercial building in the car park area. This represents a significant investment on the part of the club, but could represent a good ongoing source of income for the dogs in years to come.
I know nothing about property development but just thought I throw it out there.

4. I think the biggest thing we need to try to do is keep up with the bigger clubs when it comes to spending. I know we are running a tighter ship than they are but some of the things that they do definitely seem to be baring fruit.
I’m not saying we need to get personally tailored jumpers, or send every player who gets suspended to Arizona, like Collingwood do, but things like development coaching are definitely important.
Maybe we can look at the things that these clubs have done and evaluate what works and what doesn’t. Essentially turn Collingwood, West Coast, Geelong & Essendon into our guinea pigs

 

[OfficialBulldogs]

While we have you thinking about ideas to improve and help fan engagement next year... we would love your feedback on how we use Twitter and Facebook throughout the season.

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Go Dogs!

 

[koby01]

What he says plus hand-pass forward as well

I have just spurted out a mouth full of coke zero!

Hilarious, made my day!

 

[Doggies7]

Would happily donate $50-$100 on top of my membership to help fund a standalone VFL team. I live in Perth so wouldn't really get the chance to go and watch them but to have the long time Dogs faithful be able to go to Whitten Oval to watch the reserves when the Dogs aren't playing would be great. Give us an avantage over other clubs which we don't have in many other areas. Sorry, I know it's not exactly the point of the thread but I would really really love a standalone team and would help support it.

 

[cecil]

Maybe we could do a bit of a poll to see who here would put in and how much?
It could be a good indicator of how much we could raise towards it, I should start a thread.
I think it would be great if the club run a fundraiser for it, and provided some sort of reward for us as "foundation" supporters of the VFL club. I am not sure how exactly, maybe some small piece of "foundation" memorabilia for people who donate over $100 a year or something?

EDIT: Maybe get a few of the younger players (Dahl, JJ, Redpath etc who have come through the VFL) together with the supporters for a quick function, and supply each major contributor a signed picture with a couple of players or something? Not a crappy standing in the car park one, but a professionally shot one.

 

[Snake Livermore]

to have the long time Dogs faithful be able to go to Whitten Oval to watch the reserves when the Dogs aren't playing would be great

I like this idea, and while we're at it, if we get a stand-alone side, lets have them playing at 'curtain raiser' timeslot before bulldogs home games, so people can watch Willy, hop on the train, straight to Southern Cross, then watch the bulldogs. Hehe and sell good food at the Whitten Oval so everyone can eat their fill there instead of at Etihad. And full strength beer.

COMPLETELY UNRELATED and POSSIBLY WHACKO: On the moneyball theme of we have to do things differently due to being under-resourced compared to other clubs... (anyone with sports science background could help here)... I've always thought if you do something in any discipline that's really hard, then you go back to the simple things and you'll be good at them. Eg you learn to juggle 3 balls, are mediocre, teach yourself to juggle 5 balls, then you try 3 again and you shit it in. You do Year 12 maths, your brain nearly explodes, then you do 1st year uni maths and look back at the year 12 stuff and it looks easy.

Could this be incorporated into footy skills training? Practise volleying the ball out of mid-air, marking with only one hand etc etc, and then by perfecting these 'super skills' the fundamental skills come easier. Thoughts, anyone? Is this done already? Is it something we could look at trialling to gain that elusive edge?

 

[WestyBoy89]

We need another major sponsor I reckon Porter Davis or Carlisle Homes something along those lines because we are targeting the west and the west is in a residential boom at the moment.

Wasn't Dulux our sponsor years ago???

 

[Doggies7]

We need another major sponsor I reckon Porter Davis or Carlisle Homes something along those lines because we are targeting the west and the west is in a residential boom at the moment.

Wasn't Dulux our sponsor years ago???

I liked the Red bull idea someone posted yesterday Lot of money and have a fair bit of sponsorship around and not just extreme sports. (New York Red Bulls). Similar colours aswell and having one of the toughest and most exhausting games in the world linked to them could be good.

 

[Ant_]

Follow this link to start the survey now http://bit.ly/OmQVyB Thanks!

Go Dogs!

Done, not a fan of Facebook sorry guys.

It's nothing against the Dogs page either, FB seems to denizen of the lowest common denometer.

Any reason your survey was FaceBook centric? Twitter I've found to be a better direct communication path to the club and sites like this far better for debate.

 

[BIG_BONTS]

not sure if anyone is familiar with Mike Boyle from America? Has trained many high perfomance athletes.

If we had a world class guy like that doing our fitness program, in 2-3 years we'd be monsters.

 

[BIG_BONTS]

We need another major sponsor I reckon Porter Davis or Carlisle Homes something along those lines because we are targeting the west and the west is in a residential boom at the moment.

Sponsorship is a great thing and is something the club should be putting a lot of time into, it's hard to gauge what's going on from the outside though.

 

[WestyBoy89]

I liked the Red bull idea someone posted yesterday Lot of money and have a fair bit of sponsorship around and not just extreme sports. (New York Red Bulls). Similar colours aswell and having one of the toughest and most exhausting games in the world linked to them could be good.

I think AFL doesn't reach a large enough audience i.e in NYC has a population of 19M thats nearly Australia's population.
Its not global like Soccer and F1.
But they are going to sponosor Holden but V8 Supercars is moving to a Global configuration with races to be in Asia and USA.
AFL's first game for premiership points outside of Oz is in NZ next year....
Were about 10 years behind thanks to Demetriou....

 

[Sharkey66]

Done, not a fan of Facebook sorry guys.

It's nothing against the Dogs page either, FB seems to denizen of the lowest common denometer.

Any reason your survey was FaceBook centric? Twitter I've found to be a better direct communication path to the club and sites like this far better for debate.

+ 1
Started doing the survey and didn't bother finishing, the questions were so irrelevant to me there was no point as I really dont use or like Facebook.
Would much rather see some more and quality content on the club website, (especially with regards to Williamstown matches) and of course lots more club generated content on Bigfooty by Official Bulldogs, maybe even a post on team selection on Thursdays at the same time its put on the club website.