Post your club's current membership tally please

[HBF]

Richmond are the best in terms of song,strip,location,fans. and when we win games,will have the biggest membership!!!!!!

Close thread.

Another dilusional Richmond supporter. What a shock.
Granted, this is the only time of year when Richmond feels any sense of excitement.

 

[Neville Bartos]

There is no denying that Hawthorn have done well, exceptionally well, on the membership.

I think North are poised to enjoy a similar period of growth.

For mine, three factors were key in the Hawks membership surge.

1 - Focused, determined talented club management making membership growth a priority. We have that at North now and given Arocca and the team have delivered on the Arden St redevelopment and the stadium deals, they will have much more time and energy to devote to this area.

2 - A young talented list with a real sense of destination. The Hawks clean out and rebuild via the draft gamble paid off handsomely. In 2006/07 there was a real sense of a looming juggernaut, something people want to get onboard and be a part of. I think North's momentum will look different to Hawthorn's - not based around a single superstar in Franklin so much - but will have very similar excitement and energy.

3 - Demographics. Much of Hawthorn's membership surge has come from those converted during the 80s/early 90s period of success coming into financial and social indepedence and being able to buy memberships and attend games. Our wave of 90s kids is just coming through now.

Say you were a 7 year in 96, when won a flag. Decided you loved North. You'd only be 20 odd now, perhaps just finishing uni, getting to a position where you could financially and attend games more often.

I don't know if we'll reach stratospheric heights like Hawthorn as I think they come off a larger base in general, but certainly a period of 'step growth' is upon us.

Well said SLF. I think you guys are most definitely going through a similar stage to us in regards to the things you mentioned. I don't know about your club's decision to discontinue playing games interstate, if I was a North supporter I'd want them exploring every avenue possible for ways to make the club bigger. Hawthorn also have the advantage of having a massive fan base in the eastern suburbs and as these areas continue to grow as rapidly as they are, we are finding ourselves with an ever growing fan base in Melbourne and our conversion ratio of turning supporters into members is up there with the best in the league.

People are saying that there's no big deal in having heaps of members if you're not making massive revenue from it, but I beg to differ. Having 50,000+ individual people investing their money in the club binds them to it and gives them a sense of ownership that you can't get from being just a supporter. I think clubs like Collingwood need to ask a lot of questions about why they have average crowds of 60,000 yet they can't make it past 50,000 members. Members might not always make it to home games, but they buy plenty of merchandise, they buy raffle tickets, they buy auction items and they buy finals tickets when their team makes it. Not to mention your sponsors have direct access to 50,000 people who might feel that little bit extra inclined to use those products/services as they're supporting your team too.

I think membership is a pretty important factor when rating a club's appeal and shows confidence and support in the direction that your team is headed. It's got to be a big boost for the coaches and players knowing that such big numbers are in direct support of their club.

 

[Hodgies Heroes]

Pies made over $3m from poker machines as well.

As far as I know, North is the only club that doesn't have poker machine revenue as we ditched ours.

You only closed yours because you were losing money - don't pretend your club has a high moral stance on this.

Yes you guys take the tough decisions... and instead of trying hard to make money yourselves, you take your $1,4 million in handouts from the AFL.
And where does their money come from..... corporate sponsors like the TAtts Group, Betfair and TAB Sportsbet. Your major revenue source is the AFL , and they take more from gambling agencies than any club.

 

[Hawkk]

I didn't say they didn't. Collingwood do not count international or interstate three match memberships in their total though. Hawthorn do count Tasmanian four match memberships in their total as they are permitted to do because they play matches there.

All Victorian clubs that have 5 game Interstate memberships (which are cheaper than the vast majority of Hawthorn's 4 game memberships) are counted by the AFL

Hawthorn - 33,526

 

[Lexus Rose Oval]

Collingwood - Total as at 14 Dec: 30,012

 

[Madtiger2006]

Can we close you out of the thread in order to keep the discussion here intelligent?

In all seriousness though, you're right about having the best songand strip, but your fans are embarassing and you'll never win games so don't expect to ever crack 40,000 members. If your fans were the most loyal like we're always told, then you'd have 60,000 members.

We had 46,000 member last year going by what figure nearly every single club gives. 39,000 the year before. Don't fool yourself thinking your membership sales are miles ahead . Would Collingwood get 60,000 members with 2 finals series in the last 30 years? NO. Would they even get 40,000?

 

[Madtiger2006]

Collingwood - Total as at 14 Dec: 30,012

Looks like Pie fans want to make a fight of it with hawk fans

 

[Simon_Nesbit]

awesome stuff pies.

Huge jump in just a couple of days....backlog, auto-renewals, or a MCC club supporter dump? (You couldn't physically process 10k new memberships in that time so has some assistance).

 

[Madtiger2006]

Lions

 

[sainter]

 

[Bulldog1954]

You only closed yours because you were losing money - don't pretend your club has a high moral stance on this.

Yes you guys take the tough decisions... and instead of trying hard to make money yourselves, you take your $1,4 million in handouts from the AFL.
And where does their money come from..... corporate sponsors like the TAtts Group, Betfair and TAB Sportsbet. Your major revenue source is the AFL , and they take more from gambling agencies than any club.

The Roos are also sponsored by roobet

http://www.kangaroos.com.au/roobet.com.au/tabid/14650/default.aspx

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

Well said SLF. I think you guys are most definitely going through a similar stage to us in regards to the things you mentioned. I don't know about your club's decision to discontinue playing games interstate, if I was a North supporter I'd want them exploring every avenue possible for ways to make the club bigger.

I think it is horses for courses. The continual selling of games really turned people away, as did the change of name to the Kangaroos.

Since we decided to stay in Melbourne we've increased our membership by 40 per cent and we are on track this year to record our highest ever membership, beating the 2007/08 'sympathy memberships' year.

I think Hawthorn people have seen the value you get from the Tassie deal and accept that as part of the price for success. Wheras in North, we saw selling games, especially to the GC, as a step toward death.

Anyway, plenty of good times ahead at North. My understanding is we are going to do a debt demolition thing next year similar to what the Dees did.

Who knows, those white knights might just turn up after all.

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

The Roos are also sponsored by roobet

http://www.kangaroos.com.au/roobet.com.au/tabid/14650/default.aspx

There is a difference between a wagering firm and pokies.

Though I reserve my greatest disdain for clubs like Hawthorn that put pokies in places like Caroline Springs.

At least you gut locals.

 

[Hodgies Heroes]

There is a difference between a wagering firm and pokies.

Though I reserve my greatest disdain for clubs like Hawthorn that put pokies in places like Caroline Springs.

At least you gut locals.

Massive difference between wagering firms and pokies. They reach into peoples homes via phone accounts and internet - and have nowhere near the controls pokies venues have.
You are being the ultimate hypocrite - you have slagged off at other clubs about promoting gambling and don't have the courage to admit yours is the same when they are out there trying to push gambling to it's members.

 

[Optimax]

We had 46,000 member last year going by what figure nearly every single club gives. 39,000 the year before. Don't fool yourself thinking your membership sales are miles ahead . Would Collingwood get 60,000 members with 2 finals series in the last 30 years? NO. Would they even get 40,000?

yeah probably

we had plenty of members going into 02/03/04/05 before our run from 06 until now

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

Massive difference between wagering firms and pokies. They reach into peoples homes via phone accounts and internet - and have nowhere near the controls pokies venues have.
You are being the ultimate hypocrite - you have slagged off at other clubs about promoting gambling and don't have the courage to admit yours is the same when they are out there trying to push gambling to it's members.

In a perfect world, we wouldn't have any gambling association.

But pokies are demonstrably worse than people having a punt on sport.

And putting them in already hard hit communities well away from your own support base as hawthorn is despicable.

 

[Ant85]

Back off mate... What he wrote was a resonable question. You stated that all Collingwood supporters are Victorian, which is bollox.

It appears illiteracy is a widespread problem here.

 

[EagleMan87]

yeah probably

we had plenty of members going into 02/03/04/05 before our run from 06 until now

I should hope so, considering you played in two Grand Finals.

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

They possibly do. I've heard the Dogs mentioned as a club that 'sells' memberships to their corporates (I think they also have a system where they get kids memberships and those tickets are given away to local disadvantaged kids). Certainly if you look at their crowds against interstate opposition it would seem a lot of their members aren't exactly keen to attend home games. And you would have thought their crowds would currently include a sizable bandwagon element that pays at the gate.
North and Melbourne are in the same boat IRT small support compared to their membership figure - Melbourne offer a $50 MCC membership that inexplicably gets included in their numbers.M

Members are asked in their membership renewal whether they would like to sponsor a disadvantaged child - I don't think that it is a giveway.l

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

Some clubs buy promotional memberships, ie when a friend of mine built a house in the western suburbs he got a free Bulldogs membership out of it and he isn't a football fan.

Not sure if they still do it now or not but I think they should show promotional purchases if they are going to make a song and dance about membership figures.

First I have ever heard of that, can any other doggie supporters verify?

I did hear Geelong and the City of Greater Geelong did that a couple of years back to encourage people to move to Geelong. I don't know how successful it was - any Geelong supporters care to comment?

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

No matter what Hawthorn do, people are going to say this every year, and its just ridiculous. If Hawks get 55k this year, are these numbers ignored because we offer an interstate membership as well have a rock solid Victorian base as well.

Do all Tassie members (less than 10000) buy 4 game memberships? I have an 11 game membership and don't live in Melbourne.

All clubs have interstate members.

Hawthorn also have lots of premium members that sell out ridiculous fast as well.

Its about revenue, not focusing on any loop hole to degrade ridiculously good numbers.

Loads of clubs have pokies, some with a lot more than Hawthorn. I can't fathom why Hawthorn have gotten singled out for this. Probably that one article written recently, which shows how little information posters base their opinions on.

Hawthorn were bagged for trying to win 2 premierships and get 50000 members within 5 years. Ridiculously unrealistic most were saying. The Club has achieved one flag and 50k members within 2. Now given they have done that, people find ways of degrading those things, rather than sitting back and saying "actually, that's not bad".

You are being singled out because Jeff Kennett has targeted the Western Suburbs to place his pokies where people are poor and desperate. Why don't you put them in Hawthorn?

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

Game day 15138
Total 16133

 

[incubi]

There is a difference between a wagering firm and pokies.

Though I reserve my greatest disdain for clubs like Hawthorn that put pokies in places like Caroline Springs.

At least you gut locals.

I think you will find that both forms of gambling have similar addiction issues, and that many reports dont suggest their is much of a difference between those forms of gambling in psychological terms.
David Schwarz would verify the issues with gambling of all sorts.

 

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Richmond are the best in terms of song,strip,location,fans. and when we win games,will have the biggest membership!!!!!!

Close thread.

You're right, I obviously wasn't thinking. Richmond are teh best

 

[cs61]

There is no denying that Hawthorn have done well, exceptionally well, on the membership.

I think North are poised to enjoy a similar period of growth.

For mine, three factors were key in the Hawks membership surge.

1 - Focused, determined talented club management making membership growth a priority. We have that at North now and given Arocca and the team have delivered on the Arden St redevelopment and the stadium deals, they will have much more time and energy to devote to this area.

2 - A young talented list with a real sense of destination. The Hawks clean out and rebuild via the draft gamble paid off handsomely. In 2006/07 there was a real sense of a looming juggernaut, something people want to get onboard and be a part of. I think North's momentum will look different to Hawthorn's - not based around a single superstar in Franklin so much - but will have very similar excitement and energy.

3 - Demographics. Much of Hawthorn's membership surge has come from those converted during the 80s/early 90s period of success coming into financial and social indepedence and being able to buy memberships and attend games. Our wave of 90s kids is just coming through now.

Say you were a 7 year in 96, when won a flag. Decided you loved North. You'd only be 20 odd now, perhaps just finishing uni, getting to a position where you could financially and attend games more often.

I don't know if we'll reach stratospheric heights like Hawthorn as I think they come off a larger base in general, but certainly a period of 'step growth' is upon us.

Definitely think your new coach sounds like the right man as well.