Is St Kilda in the firing line for relocation?

[TigerTime3]

Be good to move Richmond. So many years of failures and piss poor efforts, they definitely deserve it.

Would be hard moving a club with 75k+ members.

 

[Gem in i]

What do people expect the supports to do if their club folds or merges with another? Follow the new merged/relocated club? Follow a different team?

If the Saints left I would stop following AFL altogether. Instead I would follow the A-League. I like what they are doing, it is growing for a reason.

From a business perspective letting any of the current clubs die would not be in the best interests for anyone who follows the sport.

A-league? No, don't watch that rubbish. just go for Melbourne, they'll kick the same amount of goals a game

 

[Stan_Darsh72]

What do people expect the supports to do if their club folds or merges with another? Follow the new merged/relocated club? Follow a different team?

If the Saints left I would stop following AFL altogether. Instead I would follow the A-League. I like what they are doing, it is growing for a reason.

From a business perspective letting any of the current clubs die would not be in the best interests for anyone who follows the sport.

We are expected to magically support the new team with as much gusto as we did the original.

 

[flamingEMBERS]

What an absolute load of crap. So many of you WA supporters have this big chip on your shoulder about the "VFL", when in reality the only ones who care about WA v VFL nonsense are people in WA.

It's nothing to do with WA v VFL. It has everything to do with there being too many clubs in the competition and for the strength of the AFL game it would be better to have all clubs financially strong particularly those in the games heartland. It is stupid to be propping up these clubs. Why should my club be penalised and have to pay money so that a club that has been around for 80 years and still is poor and hasn't got a membership base play. Our membership base doesn't even eat in to yours. In fact there would be a greater number of non Eagles or Dockers fans in WA than non Victorian fans in Victoria.

 

[flamingEMBERS]

Actually splitting up the eagles into three smaller clubs that can then regrow again is excellent business. Its well known that the WCE membership is limited by Subiaco so the AFL can now build a couple of more stadiums and allow the membership base to grow. With the additional games now they can make even more money off the tv rights deal.

This just keeps on sounding better and better. I want to applaud you Embers for sacrificing your team for the greater glory of the AFL because afterall, tradition means nothing when MONEY is to be made correct? You basically said it yourself!

Lel. Let more shit state league players play AFL footy!

 

[inamedthegiants]

This is the obvious point all the death riders miss.

Except it's not true. Balmain & Wests fans didn't stop following Wests Tigers when they merged.

 

[inamedthegiants]

I most certainly am, and just as passionate about them as I am the Saints. Elitist is an odd one, never heard it about my AFL team, but you saying who we d and do not "want" as a member feels rather elitist to me, which is not the Borough way I know.

I will buy a membership for whomever I like, I even have the Borough logo as a tattoo. We VFA clubs need all the support we can muster.

The only club that has the right to call St Kilda IS the mighty Borough
They're the only reason why Port Melbourne didn't get accepted into the VFL.
They looked upon us as thugs and hooligans, not fit for the breakaway league.

 

[Colonial]

Except it's not true. Balmain & Wests fans didn't stop following Wests Tigers when they merged.

Allot did though

 

[bombersfan4000]

The only team to relocate will be GWS to Tassie. About 10 years away.

eh no that is North, GSW will remain in sydney,

 

[Ned_Flanders]

That decade of success saw the base membership move from sub 20k to approximately 30k.

No point measuring off the peak, that will come in the next cycle.

This is the issue we used to have though, the notion that we would pay the bills when we are in finals again

If the saints are looking at ten years out of the finals, what is the clubs plan for profitability?

Clubs should be budgeting to be viable at all times, not just when the shit is good.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

Or not offering 3 game memberships to inflate the numbers.

Membership numbers need a FTE equivalent.

This actually makes matters worse for clubs.

Lose three gamers, and these people go back to paying at the gate. Instead of the club getting 100% of that punters money (plus their contact info), they get what's left over after the afl, the stadium, and the ticketing agency take their share.

Also if three gamers are sub par members, does that mean coterie members should be multiplied by the factor they pay over a H11 membership? Surely if you are paying $3k for your membership you should be at least worth ten times a normal membership in your fte world?

 

[Ned_Flanders]

What do people expect the supports to do if their club folds or merges with another? Follow the new merged/relocated club? Follow a different team?

If the Saints left I would stop following AFL altogether. Instead I would follow the A-League. I like what they are doing, it is growing for a reason.

From a business perspective letting any of the current clubs die would not be in the best interests for anyone who follows the sport.

The math shows that yes you lose some, but most either follow the new entity or follow a different afl team.

It happened with the swans, and it happened with the lions, and they had the additional negative of being an interstate relocation.

Fwiw, to show I'm not a complete hypocrite, when the Melbourne Tigers merger was floated a number of years ago, I was in favour of it if the board decided it was our only viable way forward in the VFL at that point.

 

[inamedthegiants]

Allot did though

I don't know of 1.
And I never missed a Balmain/Sydney Tigers game in 8 years leading up to the merger.

 

[roosmad]

Dream on gc kangas, oops i mean tassie kangas, no i mean kangas, wait thats not it.
North melbourne kangas fan.

seriously....

we are a CLUB, you will always be a FRANCHISE never a club........owned, if you want more take it to the bay and I will own you there.....

 

[Riccardo11]

The only club that has the right to call St Kilda IS the mighty Borough
They're the only reason why Port Melbourne didn't get accepted into the VFL.
They looked upon us as thugs and hooligans, not fit for the breakaway league.

Why are Port the only club that have "the right" to call St Kilda "elitist". It's really the last word I would use to describe either team, frankly.

No doubt rough crowd behavior was probably a factor in Port not being invited into the breakaway VFL, but there were others. The club was small and not particularly successful or rich, not financially or politically powerful and shared a lot of it's recruitment area with local rival South Melbourne. The ground was probably a factor as well, we all know the Junction was amongst the very best in the Association at the time, North Port not so much.

You can be as negative about the Saints as you please, but I will still follow the Borough with as much passion as I do St Kilda, maybe more.

 

[Riccardo11]

It's nothing to do with WA v VFL. It has everything to do with there being too many clubs in the competition and for the strength of the AFL game it would be better to have all clubs financially strong particularly those in the games heartland. It is stupid to be propping up these clubs. Why should my club be penalised and have to pay money so that a club that has been around for 80 years and still is poor and hasn't got a membership base play. Our membership base doesn't even eat in to yours. In fact there would be a greater number of non Eagles or Dockers fans in WA than non Victorian fans in Victoria.

The game is plenty strong enough. The AFL makes hundreds of millions of dollars in profit every year, and is universally seen as the most popular code in the country.

In my opinion, people outside of Victoria have no business commenting on the state of the clubs inside it. WA fans regularly assume they are the absolute be and and end all of the AFL and are the only ones making it profitable, and, as you have incorrectly stated, are solely "propping up" all the Victorian clubs that aren't Collingwood, Carlton or Essendon, and without the mighty Eagles and Dockers, all those clubs would just be dead. The obvious solution, in your minds, is to ignore the foundations the competition was built on and illegally exclude half a dozen "crap" teams from the competition, as only then will it (somehow) become more popular and profitable. The fans dispossessed by this will obviously just find someone else to support, they are only Victorians and therefore not loyal to their sides.

I can't begin to tell you how incorrect this is. Honestly, I don't even know where to start.

 

[Colonial]

seriously....

we are a CLUB, you will always be a FRANCHISE never a club........owned, if you want more take it to the bay and I will own you there.....

Dont start on the giants and i wont start on the kangas.

 

[Colonial]

I don't know of 1.
And I never missed a Balmain/Sydney Tigers game in 8 years leading up to the merger.

I know of plenty

 

[#gosaintas]

I know of plenty

Just means you have lightweight friends

 

[Colonial]

Just means you have lightweight friends

Not really. They followed balmain through hell in the 90's. They had no interest in being 50% in Wests.

 

[Matt Stevic]

Except it's not true. Balmain & Wests fans didn't stop following Wests Tigers when they merged.

Except they did, particularly the Magpies camp.

Don't get me started on all the Murdoch related atrocities that happened to rugby league.

 

[Bojan KantKick]

It's nothing to do with WA v VFL. It has everything to do with there being too many clubs in the competition and for the strength of the AFL game it would be better to have all clubs financially strong particularly those in the games heartland. It is stupid to be propping up these clubs. Why should my club be penalised and have to pay money so that a club that has been around for 80 years and still is poor and hasn't got a membership base play. Our membership base doesn't even eat in to yours. In fact there would be a greater number of non Eagles or Dockers fans in WA than non Victorian fans in Victoria.

Penalised eh. Without the vic clubs the tv deal would be **** all and u wouldn't be so rich. There should be a 3rd WA team. The AFL distribution to norf, dogs, godees and saints was circa 3m each last season. Revenue generated from tv $$ would be more than 10x that figure for each club. So westcoke need norf and the like to remain wealthy

 

[inamedthegiants]

Why are Port the only club that have "the right" to call St Kilda "elitist". It's really the last word I would use to describe either team, frankly.

No doubt rough crowd behavior was probably a factor in Port not being invited into the breakaway VFL, but there were others. The club was small and not particularly successful or rich, not financially or politically powerful and shared a lot of it's recruitment area with local rival South Melbourne. The ground was probably a factor as well, we all know the Junction was amongst the very best in the Association at the time, North Port not so much.

You can be as negative about the Saints as you please, but I will still follow the Borough with as much passion as I do St Kilda, maybe more.

All you need to do is listen to the club President in the Burra Bar pre-game to see the hatred between Port and St Kilda runs deep.

 

[Riccardo11]

All you need to do is listen to the club President in the Burra Bar pre-game to see the hatred between Port and St Kilda runs deep.

I know several others who have barracked for both for many years, I have personally never thought of the two as deadly rivals. I can't imagine why this would be the case, but I've never met Peter Bromley so clearly I've never had this conversation with him (I have met Barry Kidd a few times, though) but that may be personal or related to Ports ties to traditional saints rival South. Have barracked for the Saints for 2/3rds of my life as well, and never thought of Port as hated. None of the histories I have read on Port and the Saints mention this, either.

I'd love to know why you believe this is the case.

 

[JackFlash]

We will always be St Kilda.

We will always be St Kilda.

"We are the boys from old Fitzroy we wear the colours maroon and blue, we will always fight for victory, we will always see it through, win or lose we do or die"
Well how did that go?
I can perfectly understand the undying loyalty of the fans, but reality set in pretty fast for Fitzroy and just after the Lions final game Footscray became the Western Bulldogs and are currently still scrapping around all over the place looking for some home base to build upon again. Ballarat sounds like a good idea and maybe 2 or 3 games at Whitten Oval isn't out of the question down the track. They might be better suited in becoming the 'Ballarat Bulldogs' along with the 'Southern Saints'? The next 10 years will be tumultuous in the AFL and i predict some clubs will undergo radical change in that time.