North want to play 2 home games in WA next season

[Purple Suit]

I was surprised that there were plenty of tickets for the WC v Hawks games in June. I then checked each game during the week prior for the resort of the season and there were always some tickets available, and usually a decent choice. Do WC have a ticket return system if members can’t go? Or perhaps they are unsold corporate tickets.

They definitely had a ticket return system that makes the club even more money with another clip for the same ticket. Was it the June long weekend?

 

[Belnakor]

I call bullshit, I personally checked a few times on Ticketmaster a week or two out and nothing except the odd restricted viewing. 35k then turn up.

Easy to get tickets offered though by WC members a few days out

Yeah getting a resale members ticket (good seats) was actually easier than the Fremantle games. There was rarely any GA for both teams.

 

[MelbourneGWS]

So what’s their long term exit plan for Tassie? Has this been articulated to the board and the members?

Seems like some Kanga supporters have been surprised by this development over the past month.

Is the long term plan to sell only 2 games to WA? Or more? Or eventually bring it all back to Melb? Or have a permanent regional hub they can own themselves like Ballarat? It all seems quite short term and vague.

someone from North will have more info, but I thought their long term plan after knocking back the AFL’s plan to relocate to the Gold Coast, was to play all games eventually in Melbourne- Hobart was to be a short term arrangement to obtain $ to enable this? Presumably the selling of 2 games to WA (at the expense of 2 games in Hobart) is also part of the short term plan as the additional $ from these WA games will increase North’s financial position?

 

[Philth]

Scumbag supporters. the worst of the the worst. sort of supporter base to watch no other football, take everything highly seriously, can't take a joke or criticism, nasty, victim mentality, just a horrible ****ing bogan supporter base to be honest. shit colours, too.

Bloody hell!
How many of us have you actually met??

 

[GoRoos2023]

Do you mean from 2026 onwards? Because according to the below article, in 2025 North will stay with seven Melbourne home games, with the addition of two WA home games resulting in the number of Hobart home games dropping from four to two.

WA expected to take two North Melbourne AFL games from Hobart, short-changing Tasmanian fans

The North Melbourne Football Club is contracted to play four home games in Hobart next year, but a deal the club has reportedly done with WA is expected to cut that number in half and fast-track their exit from Tasmania.

www.abc.net.au

Correct 9 games in Melbourne from 2026 confirmed.

 

[Walshawk]

They definitely had a ticket return system that makes the club even more money with another clip for the same ticket. Was it the June long weekend?

No

 

[TheEscapeClub]

And yet North have never stooped low enough to install bay covers.

Only because they probably couldn't afford them.

 

[Outtatym]

Only because they probably couldn't afford them.

Could always ask the tax payer to pay for it I guess

 

[Cunnington Cartel]

So what’s their long term exit plan for Tassie? Has this been articulated to the board and the members?

Seems like some Kanga supporters have been surprised by this development over the past month.

Is the long term plan to sell only 2 games to WA? Or more? Or eventually bring it all back to Melb? Or have a permanent regional hub they can own themselves like Ballarat? It all seems quite short term and vague.

The terms of the deal between NM, WA Gov and the AFL haven’t even been finalised yet. All of information so far has been released via the media. After an official announcement has been made by the key stakeholders, hopefully North will provide some answers to those kinds of questions.

 

[Rich01]

The terms of the deal between NM, WA Gov and the AFL haven’t even been finalised yet. All of information so far has been released via the media. After an official announcement has been made by the key stakeholders, hopefully North will provide some answers to those kinds of questions.

Yeah I’ve heard very little of the long term exit plan from Watt. Concerning

 

[Cunnington Cartel]

Yeah I’ve heard very little of the long term exit plan from Watt. Concerning

A few months ago all she said was that we aren’t in a position where we can play all home games in Melbourne at the moment. Once this new deal has been signed off then, like you said, they need to start being more transparent with members about what the plan is.

 

[Rich01]

A few months ago all she said was that we aren’t in a position where we can play all home games in Melbourne at the moment. Once this new deal has been signed off then, like you said, they need to start being more transparent with members about what the plan is.

Agree. I’ve seen very little from her to have confidence in.

If long term sustainability in Melb is a problem, I’d be looking at the Ballarat catchment area. Kick the bulldogs out and make it a second playing base along with NGA rights. Be serious about it and have a long term plan to build a local supporter base there. Work with the government and local region to obtain sponsorship $$ to keep the club afloat while appeasing existing members and attracting new ones.

Makes more sense than the nomadic approach being bandied about now.

 

[errant bounce]

Bloody hell!
How many of us have you actually met??

A huge amount. all absolutely hard ****ing work. it's like talking hardcore politics and their side is the best side.

 

[Cunnington Cartel]

Agree. I’ve seen very little from her to have confidence in.

If long term sustainability in Melb is a problem, I’d be looking at the Ballarat catchment area. Kick the bulldogs out and make it a second playing base along with NGA rights. Be serious about it and have a long term plan to build a local supporter base there. Work with the government and local region to obtain sponsorship $$ to keep the club afloat while appeasing existing members and attracting new ones.

Makes more sense than the nomadic approach being bandied about now.

During Brayshaw’s tenure he actually established a partnership with the city of Ballarat. A short time later the club also signed the deal to play a few games in Hobart. I think the plan then was to have a secondary market in Victoria and also an interstate one in Tas.

The AFL didn’t like this, came in over the top of NM to scuttle the partnership with Ballarat and played a role in handing that region over to the Dogs. Now the Dogs are focussed on growing support not only in the Western suburbs, but the entire Western corridor out to Ballarat and beyond.

If the AFL didn’t want us having a presence in Ballarat back then, they sure as hell wouldn’t want us there now. Other alternative locations that have been proposed by fans include Albury-Wodonga and Bendigo.

Albury has a decent venue (Lavington) that’s practically AFL-ready, although it’s in the Giants’ NGA zone. Bendigo has some potential. QEO has hosted pre-season games, but it would probably need some more works done before it is AFL-ready. Even if these cities were keen, ready and able to host, there’s no guarantees that we’d be able to secure adequate funding from state/local governments/local industries for playing games there. Certainly not the $2m that’s being offered by the WA government for two games each year.

Until we hear from the club it’s quite hard to know what their thought process was.

 

[the big lebowski]

Tarps for a couple years or consent mediocrity and being irrelevant for 25 years, I know which one I prefer

Didn’t you sell games to china ffs

 

[BloodRet]

3 flags in 100 years (soon to be 2), all the handouts to keep you afloat, and for what? I agree. Not as if Bob Pratt is coming any time soon. Sydney are a s**tstain on a grand Victorian Competition. You add nothing, take plenty and have had two great players, in history. 2. Bob Skilton and Jamie Lawson. Plugger doesn't count, he was StKilda's greatest ever, not yours. On a list of your greatest ever players, I found Mellican.. That's where you're at. Parker is a North player and Mellican one your greatest according to google, alongside Rod, Bernard the two Frenchman, Florent and Heriot. Scrubber Kelly, Mark Bayes, Nick Smith and Freo's Chadwick Warner. What's it like being further away from the ultimate than North and with peasant lucky Premiership player (carried due to Carlton's shitness) Longmire as coach! Enjoy.

We'll take your cash but that's it. You have embarrassed yourself too many times when it counts, let's hope we don't have to see you for 15-20 years, sweet Caroline!

2 ez, just a small lil norfie tho. ill chuck ya back in

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Agree. I’ve seen very little from her to have confidence in.

If long term sustainability in Melb is a problem, I’d be looking at the Ballarat catchment area. Kick the bulldogs out and make it a second playing base along with NGA rights. Be serious about it and have a long term plan to build a local supporter base there. Work with the government and local region to obtain sponsorship $$ to keep the club afloat while appeasing existing members and attracting new ones.

Makes more sense than the nomadic approach being bandied about now.

Why would the Dogs agree to this?

North had their chance before the Dogs muscled in. North wanted to play four games in Ballarat but wouldn't play a game there until the redevelopments were done. Dogs were happy to play two games immediately, before the redevelopments.

North could have had Ballarat in a similar deal to what the Dogs did but they gambled on more immediate funding from the Vic government for the stadium upgrade and a greater return on selling more games, and lost. They shouldn't get a second roll of the dice.

 

[eastfreo75]

Agree. I’ve seen very little from her to have confidence in.

If long term sustainability in Melb is a problem, I’d be looking at the Ballarat catchment area. Kick the bulldogs out and make it a second playing base along with NGA rights. Be serious about it and have a long term plan to build a local supporter base there. Work with the government and local region to obtain sponsorship $$ to keep the club afloat while appeasing existing members and attracting new ones.

Makes more sense than the nomadic approach being bandied about now.

Totally agree.

7 home games against high pull teams at Docklands and 4 home games at Ballarat vs smaller interstate teams.

 

[Obeanie1]

If a team needs to sell home games, maybe they shouldn't be in the AFL.

I am for all reducing travel for Fremantle but having an extra home game isn't fair.

Its a dumb move.

Eddie came up with the solution on travel equality and it did not involve an extra home game for the WA teams. The teams spend 6 days away and play two away games in a row. Then two Vic teams do the same, head West and play the Eagles and Freo away 6 days apart.

Do that twice and you cut two flights / trips per season for all the teams involved. They all get the advantage of less travel. No-one gets extra home games, just less travel. Not a hard concept and great for tourism.

But with Gather Round the AFL has even further eroded the fixturing inequalities that now to fix that it needs to do things like this.

 

[Underarm]

Its a dumb move.

Eddie came up with the solution on travel equality and it did not involve an extra home game for the WA teams. The teams spend 6 days away and play two away games in a row. Then two Vic teams do the same, head West and play the Eagles and Freo away 6 days apart.

Do that twice and you cut two flights / trips per season for all the teams involved. They all get the advantage of less travel. No-one gets extra home games, just less travel. Not a hard concept and great for tourism.

But with Gather Round the AFL has even further eroded the fixturing inequalities that now to fix that it needs to do things like this.

They've tried this in the past, with limited success. Players don't want to spend a week living in hotels - esepcially if they have families.

 

[Obeanie1]

They've tried this in the past, with limited success. Players don't want to spend a week living in hotels - esepcially if they have families.

Every trip they spend 2 to 3 nights away.

Two games away you spend the same number of nights away, just not as often.

So choice is travel twice a month and spend 4/5 nights away. Or travel once that month and still spend 4/5 nights away.

And 6 days isn't much time away. It really isn't. Compared to FIFO workers it is nothing.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

During Brayshaw’s tenure he actually established a partnership with the city of Ballarat. A short time later the club also signed the deal to play a few games in Hobart. I think the plan then was to have a secondary market in Victoria and also an interstate one in Tas.

The AFL didn’t like this, came in over the top of NM to scuttle the partnership with Ballarat and played a role in handing that region over to the Dogs. Now the Dogs are focussed on growing support not only in the Western suburbs, but the entire Western corridor out to Ballarat and beyond.

If the AFL didn’t want us having a presence in Ballarat back then, they sure as hell wouldn’t want us there now. Other alternative locations that have been proposed by fans include Albury-Wodonga and Bendigo.

Albury has a decent venue (Lavington) that’s practically AFL-ready, although it’s in the Giants’ NGA zone. Bendigo has some potential. QEO has hosted pre-season games, but it would probably need some more works done before it is AFL-ready. Even if these cities were keen, ready and able to host, there’s no guarantees that we’d be able to secure adequate funding from state/local governments/local industries for playing games there. Certainly not the $2m that’s being offered by the WA government for two games each year.

Until we hear from the club it’s quite hard to know what their thought process was.

We were going to play in Ballarat if that state election had gone the other way. As it was, the Libs won, we went to Hobart, and when Labor got back in the Bulldogs pounced. And good luck to them.
I would rather see us playing in Ballarat, shred with the Dogs, or even Kardinia Park if it could be got at a decent price. It really needs to be in Victoria if anywhere, or at worst somewhere neutral with zero chance of ever having their won team (I was against the Hobart move too).
With Gather Round as it is, its not like the bar is set too high for an AFL venue at times so there might be scope in suburban Melbourne or regional Victoria so long as secondary venue is deemed necessary.

 

[Woolly Mammoth]

This seems less strategic and more tactical from the North CEO. But perhaps I’ve underestimated her and she has plans to sell even more games to different interstate sides. The Northern Nomads perhaps?

This is an important point that has been missed, this deal has inevitably been depicted as a desperate, hair-brained scheme the club has randomly pulled right out of the core of it's arseh*le, but in actual fact James Brayshaw was trying to do this over a decade ago, the club put alot of work into it, he talked about it being in negotiation stage numerous times on the Footy Show, but the AFL put the kibosh on it (whispers were that it was pressure from one or more big Vic clubs who saw the advantage it gave the WA sides and wouldnt have a bar of it). Hobart was a last resort and ended up being what the club went with.
So basically this isnt selling games to the highest bidder, this is what the club wanted to do in the first place.
It is very telling that not one of the overpaid, cheap tabloid headline spewing, rubbish-bin foraging, parasitical sacks of snake feces in the football media even did enough research or had enough awareness of recent history to even pick this up and mention it once.

Not sure this is going to work to increase the membership base in the long term.

Only winning does that either way. My personal preference would have been to sell games to regional Victorian grounds, but the stone cold reality is if the team is still a festering bowl of dog snot on field, playing games in Bendigo against GoldCoast and Freo is not going to make a dent in anyones membership numbers.
And if the teams fortunes turn around to be a premiership level team, then you inevitably pick up dribs and drabs of new supporters without having to play games at Queen Elizabeth oval for bugger all money.

 

[Rich01]

This is an important point that has been missed, this deal has inevitably been depicted as a desperate, hair-brained scheme the club has randomly pulled right out of the core of it's arseh*le, but in actual fact James Brayshaw was trying to do this over a decade ago, the club put alot of work into it, he talked about it being in negotiation stage numerous times on the Footy Show, but the AFL put the kibosh on it (whispers were that it was pressure from one or more big Vic clubs who saw the advantage it gave the WA sides and wouldnt have a bar of it). Hobart was a last resort and ended up being what the club went with.
So basically this isnt selling games to the highest bidder, this is what the club wanted to do in the first place.
It is very telling that not one of the overpaid, cheap tabloid headline spewing, rubbish-bin foraging, parasitical sacks of snake feces in the football media even did enough research or had enough awareness of recent history to even pick this up and mention it once.




Only winning does that either way. My personal preference would have been to sell games to regional Victorian grounds, but the stone cold reality is if the team is still a festering bowl of dog snot on field, playing games in Bendigo against GoldCoast and Freo is not going to make a dent in anyones membership numbers.
And if the teams fortunes turn around to be a premiership level team, then you inevitably pick up dribs and drabs of new supporters without having to play games at Queen Elizabeth oval for bugger all money.

Seems like a short sighted long term play.

Apart from the cash grab I don’t see any positive benefit to it.

Disenchant Melbourne members, fail to attract new ones and have your side travel to the opposite ends of Australia to play 4 home matches.

They dropped the ball on Ballarat and now sell their games to the highest bidder to stay afloat short term.

They lack long term vision.

 

[Woolly Mammoth]

Seems like a short sighted long term play.

Apart from the cash grab I don’t see any positive benefit to it.

Cash is a pretty big benefit in the 21st century sports industry I would have thought

Disenchant Melbourne members, fail to attract new ones and have your side travel to the opposite ends of Australia to play 4 home matches.

I see what you are saying, disenchanting current Vic members is an issue, but a huge chunk of the simply wont get off their arse and attend games and just generally sook about everything and everyone so at some point you just have to accept you can't always restrict yourself and make plans strictly according to their often ill-informed, reactionary whims. Your own club went through this conundrum in the not too distant past. And playing a few games in WA is not the difference between attracting new members or not, and in fact it deals with one of the absolute killers of our fixture which is a home game against Freo that no bast*rd goes to, which annually, like clockwork, leads to a swathe of "FAAARKIN NORF HAVE NO SUPPORTAAAZ" online jibes.

They dropped the ball on Ballarat and now sell their games to the highest bidder to stay afloat short term.

*No one can agree on what happened with Ballarat, so I don't even bother with that one
*dude....I just wrote multiple paragraphs outlining why they are NOT "selling games to the highest bidder" Did you even read a word of it?
*it's not the Oakley era 80s anymore, no one is struggling to "stay afloat", it's about staying out of debt.

They lack long term vision.

I agree with this, but in fairness it's November and not a single thing has been officially announced either way.