This is a letter I have written to the club about an idea I have come up with to help us grow off the field. I was going to send it off to the club now, but thought I might get some input from here first. Feel free to post any criticism/ideas/thoughts/praise whatever.
To whom it may Concern,
I have been sitting on this idea for a while, and thought it might be worth mentioning to the club, and specifically those who might be able to do something about it. I have been thoroughly impressed by the direction the Melbourne Football Club has taken under the new board. We no longer have a crippling debt hanging over our heads, we are now once again recognised as part of the MCC, and after over 20 years we have finally got a worthy training facility. All the moves off the field have been put in place to return this once proud club to the dominant force it once was, and as a supporter of this club through some of its darkest hours I could not be more proud.
Having said all of that, we still sit a fair way from the leader board in terms of our off field performance. Coming from the position the club was in prior to the current administration taking over that is understandable, and great leaps and bounds have been taken to bridge this gap.
After speaking to a membership person at a game not long after we re-joined the MCC, and asking about a few different things I got to thinking. The club, with it’s initiatives in Casey etc, is obviously looking to expand its potential membership base, which is great to see. As part of this, I came up with the idea of “The Melbourne Sports Club.”
As we all well know Melbourne is the sporting capital of Australia, and certainly impresses greatly as a sporting town on the world scale, and as such, I believe we are very lucky to carry that name along with our great club.
Over the past several years we have seen other clubs from other sporting codes spring up, and sharing one thing in common with the mighty Dees; the first word of their team name, Melbourne. We see the continued rise of the Victory, the Storm, the Vixens, the Tigers, and the introduction of the Rebels and the new T20 cricket team next year. They are representatives of our great town on a national scale. As not only a football fan, but also a sports fan, I take great interest in how the other Melbourne sporting teams are tracking, and I’m quite certain I’m not the only one. So the idea is effectively a joint membership.
As a member of the Melbourne Football Club I would have the option of paying a nominal fee to also include partial membership to the fellow Melbourne sports teams. As an example: it costs me $X to be a member of the MFC for the year. On top of this I could pay an additional $Y to include a 3 game membership to the other Melbourne sports teams, and obviously have reciprocal rights with the Storm, Victory, Rebels, Vixens and Tigers. Many supporters of the other Melbourne sports teams may not follow the AFL so it could be another way to attract new members.
Along with the potential for many new members, it could also enable us to market our club along with the other clubs, which opens up a much larger audience, and a potential to significantly increase our sponsorship. As I drive along Punt Rd through the sports precinct of Melbourne I can envisage the billboard standing tall; Brad Green, Billy Slater, Archie Thompson, Homicide Williams and Sharelle McMahon all standing together as the sporting representatives of this great sporting town.
The logistics of this may be harder to work out than the idea itself, but I see it as a great potential marketing idea for the mighty MFC, along with the other clubs involved.
As a continuation of this idea we could also pursue the option of similar looking playing uniforms. In my opinion it would have to be the colours of the MFC, as we are the oldest club amongst the group, but the Victory already shares the Navy Blue with a V, the Vixens have navy blue and red, and the new T20 team is yet to be decided. This bridge may be too hard to cross, with some of the clubs already being long established, especially the Storm and the Tigers, but it could also expose our colours and brand to a much larger audience, not only within Melbourne, but right through Victoria, Australia, and even onto the world stage, and that could only ever be a good thing.
I am as proud as ever to call myself a Demons supporter, and that is largely thanks to the giant leaps forward our club has taken, not only on the field in the last few years, but also off the field. The club has brought together a playing group who many, including myself, think can bring us the ultimate success that we he haven’t had for the best part of half a century. I firmly believe that our current playing group will be able to match it with the best of them in the very near future, and I strongly hope we do the same off the field. We have the right people there to do it, and much of the gap has already been bridged, and I believe an initiative such as this may well help us take another big leap forward.
I would love to hear your thoughts about the idea if time permits.
Go the mighty Dees in 2011 and beyond!
To whom it may Concern,
I have been sitting on this idea for a while, and thought it might be worth mentioning to the club, and specifically those who might be able to do something about it. I have been thoroughly impressed by the direction the Melbourne Football Club has taken under the new board. We no longer have a crippling debt hanging over our heads, we are now once again recognised as part of the MCC, and after over 20 years we have finally got a worthy training facility. All the moves off the field have been put in place to return this once proud club to the dominant force it once was, and as a supporter of this club through some of its darkest hours I could not be more proud.
Having said all of that, we still sit a fair way from the leader board in terms of our off field performance. Coming from the position the club was in prior to the current administration taking over that is understandable, and great leaps and bounds have been taken to bridge this gap.
After speaking to a membership person at a game not long after we re-joined the MCC, and asking about a few different things I got to thinking. The club, with it’s initiatives in Casey etc, is obviously looking to expand its potential membership base, which is great to see. As part of this, I came up with the idea of “The Melbourne Sports Club.”
As we all well know Melbourne is the sporting capital of Australia, and certainly impresses greatly as a sporting town on the world scale, and as such, I believe we are very lucky to carry that name along with our great club.
Over the past several years we have seen other clubs from other sporting codes spring up, and sharing one thing in common with the mighty Dees; the first word of their team name, Melbourne. We see the continued rise of the Victory, the Storm, the Vixens, the Tigers, and the introduction of the Rebels and the new T20 cricket team next year. They are representatives of our great town on a national scale. As not only a football fan, but also a sports fan, I take great interest in how the other Melbourne sporting teams are tracking, and I’m quite certain I’m not the only one. So the idea is effectively a joint membership.
As a member of the Melbourne Football Club I would have the option of paying a nominal fee to also include partial membership to the fellow Melbourne sports teams. As an example: it costs me $X to be a member of the MFC for the year. On top of this I could pay an additional $Y to include a 3 game membership to the other Melbourne sports teams, and obviously have reciprocal rights with the Storm, Victory, Rebels, Vixens and Tigers. Many supporters of the other Melbourne sports teams may not follow the AFL so it could be another way to attract new members.
Along with the potential for many new members, it could also enable us to market our club along with the other clubs, which opens up a much larger audience, and a potential to significantly increase our sponsorship. As I drive along Punt Rd through the sports precinct of Melbourne I can envisage the billboard standing tall; Brad Green, Billy Slater, Archie Thompson, Homicide Williams and Sharelle McMahon all standing together as the sporting representatives of this great sporting town.
The logistics of this may be harder to work out than the idea itself, but I see it as a great potential marketing idea for the mighty MFC, along with the other clubs involved.
As a continuation of this idea we could also pursue the option of similar looking playing uniforms. In my opinion it would have to be the colours of the MFC, as we are the oldest club amongst the group, but the Victory already shares the Navy Blue with a V, the Vixens have navy blue and red, and the new T20 team is yet to be decided. This bridge may be too hard to cross, with some of the clubs already being long established, especially the Storm and the Tigers, but it could also expose our colours and brand to a much larger audience, not only within Melbourne, but right through Victoria, Australia, and even onto the world stage, and that could only ever be a good thing.
I am as proud as ever to call myself a Demons supporter, and that is largely thanks to the giant leaps forward our club has taken, not only on the field in the last few years, but also off the field. The club has brought together a playing group who many, including myself, think can bring us the ultimate success that we he haven’t had for the best part of half a century. I firmly believe that our current playing group will be able to match it with the best of them in the very near future, and I strongly hope we do the same off the field. We have the right people there to do it, and much of the gap has already been bridged, and I believe an initiative such as this may well help us take another big leap forward.
I would love to hear your thoughts about the idea if time permits.
Go the mighty Dees in 2011 and beyond!
