MCC walk-up members...where were you?

[Chewy]

Thanks mate! Great guy.

It's bad enough that some of you black 'n' white plebs slip through the net and are allowed into the MCC, but as long as most of you keep to your side of the fence, then I have no issue with you. Just don't expect us to open the gates and allow you animals into our area. It just isn't going to happen.

 

[Stamos]

I know you couldn't actually buy visitors passes per se, but I was wondering on the day how so many kids got in there?

They obviously aren't full members so how do they manage to get admission? (purely out of curiosity)

Not sure. I noticed that too. It would either be the kids being young enough not to require a ticket, or the people have annual visitor tickets (I forget the official name) that were given in replacement for Ladies tickets.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Restricted members - Yes.
General public - Hell no.

I'm 20 years off a membership, but the thing I find funny is how some MCC members have to line up at 2-3am to get in to the Grand Final. Surely there must be a better way of doing this?

No-one has to line up that early. Unless Melbourne were playing, I'd say you're a shoo-in to get a spot on Level 1 if you get there by 6am and you'll get a spot on Level 4 if you queue up at about 8am. You're out of there by 9:00-9:30 with a ticket and you don't have to back to the ground until 2:30, if you don't want to. In my opinion, the people who queue up on the Friday afternoon are simply looking to get some camera time and that's about it, because it's completely unnecessary to get there that early.

Saturday was the first grand final I've been to as a neutral and to be honest, I think I'll probably stick to the BBQ option when Geelong is not playing from now on.

 

[Chewy]

Chewy, I went, and had one of the best days of my life. I'm glad you had a good time as well. I was lucky enough to be able to buy a ticket with my 18 game Collingwood membership. And I'm lucky enough to be able to afford such a membership. Shared a fantastic moment with my old man and my sister. Feel very privileged to have been there on such a beautiful day. It's just a shame that many other people who were just as deserving as myself couldn't find a ticket, because people like you spent the afternoon acting like...people like you.

My issue is with the walk-up policy adopted by the MCC. Of course lots of members who went last week couldn't go this week - that's 100% fair enough. But when the rest of the ground's allocation was sold out on Wednesday (I think!), it's just absurd that so many seats could go to waste. There were hundreds of desperate fans outside requesting tickets, and no doubt tens of thousands more at home who would have killed to be there.

You MCC members pay your membership and deserve most of your rights - granted. But the entitled, holier than thou attitude displayed by some of you is so disappointing. If you're the type of person who seems to be proud of the fact that you being the "to watch a few minutes of a boring game" means that a real fan misses out, there's something seriously wrong with you. But the world will always be full of ********s, I guess.

Look mate, I was just taking the piss. But the point I was trying to make still stands.

Disgruntled folks like you always put the boot into the MCC at this time of year. Step off the plate! The MCC area is for MCC members. I don't see anyone complaining about the empty seats in the corporate areas while those fatcats stand at the bar with their back to play, or sit at tables, buttering their scones and networking.

Why don't people protest the AFL's decision to hand 5000 Grand Final tickets to Medallion Club members? What gives them the right?

At this time of year, there is always pressure put on the MCC to make their 23,000 seats for the Grand Final an all-ticketed, pre-sold caper. The AFL have forced this shit sandwich upon their AFL members and charge them an extra $125. That's their business. The MCC is not run like that.

I love my footy and I go to the Grand Final every year. I go to all finals at the MCG. Been doing so for a long time. I get annoyed when there are empty seats because it means people like you and Demetriou and Brumby renew their calls to for the MCC to pre-sell every seat. But this would mean that footy lovers like me would miss out. We'd have to go into a ballot with 50-60,000 other MCC members, many of whom don't really give a shit about the footy.

Do you understand this? The MCC members is actually the last area of the MCG where egalitarianism applies. (First come first served.) In the MCC reserve, it's the diehard footy fans who queue up at 4am or 5am just so they can get a seat for the Grand Final. Most of us do so every year. Then there are the thousands of MCC members who like to turn up at 9am or 10am and fill the bars, meet their friends and stand up the back or watch on TV from the bar . Why should all of us be denied access because of those very rare occasions when there is a sell-out and a few seats are left empty in the very back rows of the top deck?

It will be a very sad day if the MCC decide to make the Grand Final day an all-ticketed affair. The members will have zero atmosphere. Real fans like myself will be shut out. Fans of the competing clubs will be shut out. It's good how it is. Leave it alone. Like others have said, the MCC should learn to be more flexible and smarter on match day - free up the spare seats on level D at 11am.

The AFL are greedy bastards who exist purely to extract as much money as possible from their loyal customers. F**k them and their greed. If they are so worried about 5000 of the "little people" missing out, they should tell the Medallion Club fatcats to get stuffed.

As for Brumby, if he is so concerned about ordinary people getting ripped off and short-changed, then he should refund the millions (billions?) of dollars his government has stolen of ordinary, hard-working people with his faulty speed cameras.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Not sure. I noticed that too. It would either be the kids being young enough not to require a ticket, or the people have annual visitor tickets (I forget the official name) that were given in replacement for Ladies tickets.

Spot on.

The long term MCC Members ( in the days before women) had a "Ladies Ticket" attached to their membership , for which they culd bring women (obviously) and children along as a guest.

When they started admitting women as Members, these members had the option of letting a female take this ladiesticket and convert it to a permenant ladies Membership (hence letting women jump the male dominated queue). Alternatively they could convert the "ladies ticket" into a permenant guest pass which coule be used by anybody. Once these memebers die off the guest pass dies off with them.