Analysis Should we be pursuing a secondary market post-Hobart? If yes, then where?

[Val Keating]

I don't like that we are selling games, again.

No one is. Especially the club I reckon. Sonja is as hardcore as the rest of us. Tbh with the amount of money the AFL makes they could easily subsidise us without us selling games, though with the interstate clubs squealing about a Victorian bias, North selling games to WA will go a long way to placating the agitators.

 

[Dan]

Does this mean we’ll be playing poort in Melb

They can't hide Judas forever.

 

[shinboner magic]

They can't hide Judas forever.

Might time it well as we’re going up the ladder and they’re going down

 

[DocSholl]

They can't hide Judas forever.

He might get 12 coaches votes next time

 

[Johnny99]

6 million over 3 years - wow what a great deal.
I wonder how Much we can get for all 11 of our home games - rather die on our feet than live on our knees

Lol. We are still living on our knees. Wake up! Lol
We can't play 11 home games in our base because that's not economically viable.
Whereas the Pies play 15 games at the G in a year they win the flag.
Geelong make 800 grand a home game, playing a home game in front of 20k.

We have a broken Academy, which is useless to us.

I love the club.....but if you are honest, we are struggling.

 

[Billy Not Really]

If this deal is about bringing 2 games back to Melbourne with a view to bringing them all home I like it.

It would be good to if they released a long term plan around the issue.

There is no long term plan, its quite obvious considering we haven’t done shit to improve our actual fan base in Melbourne since the Gold Coast move was rejected.

The club’s chasing money in ways that don’t involve pokies or some other back door dealings like other clubs (GEELONG), and as much as I respect that we have a WA fan base of SOME sort, this isn’t doing anything but making us a travelling band club.

Something about this whole thing seems short sighted in the pursuit of a good payout and is bad in the long term. The AFL should be giving a shit about how clubs are selling home games and even their home games aren’t really ‘home’ games because many teams share it under the one roof, and the lucky ones that get this weird time-share agreement get to have others at the MCG, and cry foul when its at Marvel.

The fact of the matter is the whole things a ****ing joke. If they wanted to kill a minimum of 3-4 Victorian clubs to make room and put more importance of it being a ‘national’ game which the AFL is DYING to have breaking into the QLD, NSW and now Tassie markets, then they should at least come out and say it.

 

[Luke72]

The fact that VIC teams largely have no home ground advantage is the trade off for travelling less I guess.

 

[Tas]

No one does. Unfortunately, we are now a “poor” club thanks to the last 5-6 years. This is something that is required for our club to stay afloat clearly. Depressing but the right move.

When we rejected the gold coast move we turned over about $25m or so from memory, we are now turning over more than $50m, obviously there is inflation to factor but the AFL rights keeps ballooning in size, AFL could easily afford to distribute more than $25m to each club but they don't for whatever reason, they retain a lot of the money but clubs like Saints and Dogs haven't been compelled to sell more games, most who have either scaled back or stopped selling because the AFL just increased the distribution to the clubs that did.

We were ahead of Saints and Dogs for supporter base but have been left dead last because we aren't developing the local market as aggressively as other clubs do.

I just feel selling games is a lazy option that lacks any kind of vision or foresight for the future. We have a good stadium deal but our supporters have been conditioned to not going to games due the sporadic access to games here. We should be encouraging fans back to the footy and to attend away games as that is what makes us more attractive for prime time slots as well.

It is just disappointing to lack any kind of innovation. We need to be strong here or there is no future, is what we are doing putting us on the path? It is just sad, this club and the supporters here deserves more than this.

 

[Luke72]

If we were smart we would get together with the dogs, saints, demons and argue about the obvious inequities as a group.

 

[choppy]

Thank you for your question and here is my honest response:

NO!!!!! I was passionate since 1973. I had loved the club but in the end it came down to money and a betrayal of my trust. Perhaps the trust of many, because many have had my recent experience but choose to just suck it up.

The club membership department betrayed my trust and integrity when they on-sold my personal financial details to a second party without my consent. THEY!!!! Have done that continuously for at least the last three years without apology or verification. The Club denied all obligation, choosing to blame it on Ticketmaster. WELL IT'S LIKE THIS .... I gave my personal information and financial details to the club's Membership department (Not Ticketmaster) over the phone, and I certainly NEVER gave the club authorisation to auto-renew my annual membership. This was all done over the phone, not online. So, THEY (The club's "MEMBERSHIP DEPARTMENT") chose to forward my personal financial details to Ticketmaster. Now as it turns out, Ticketmaster have an agreement which was NEVER - EVER - DISCLOSED to me (By the club's membership department) or to you that they get provided our personal security details to credit card companies to extend our updated card CVN and updated expiry dates from our credit cards.

ARE YOU NOW GETTING THE PICTURE????????

Do you now damn well see what the Hell I am on about? You ought to be as angry at this point as I am.

The Club and Ticketmaster are blatantly abusing your personal privacy. They hide behind the fact that they are a multi-billion dollar business. That still doesn't allow them to abuse your privacy or banking details under any circumstances. Do you, or anybody else reading this post understand now? YOUR PRIVACY and MINE is ATM for sale to credit card companies. The club membership department are being a willing accomplice to this. Any questions?

I am not making this up.

That is the point of my complaint. And any person among you who thinks that I am a crackpot or an idiot for lodging a complaint about this breach of personal security to either the ACCC, the Banking Ombudsman or the AFL better damn well think again. How could the AFL and any club think that taking a member's updated or changed banking information (The security details (CVN and expiry date)) from their credit card, without at least a courtesy phone call for personal verification of the card holder (without consent) think for a moment is acceptable?

If any among you think that such behaviour is acceptable, then be my guest. Feel free if you are that way inclined to offer over up your personal PIN numbers for all of your bank accounts to the next Nigerian Prince, or maybe to Big W who are offering you free Tupperware, or even to Bunnings who are offering your free vouchers in your next round of spam emails.

Is anybody among you reading this message laughing now???? You have all received those emails. So think about it before you try to respond to this post or EVER try to question my motives again. Where do you think that these spammers get their information from? Think about it folks.

I gave 51 years of support and loyalty to the North Melbourne Club, and yes now I'm over it, and angry as F***. Yes, I am over the Club and the bullshit tens of $1000s that I have given to it without question over my working life. They have done their dash now because they abused my personal trust. Trust takes many years to build, and only takes a few seconds to destroy. Can I be clearer? The NMFC and AFL have destroyed my trust and can not morally ever support them ever again. They attempted to take money from me without my consent. That is the bottom line. They are still doing it even to many who are reading this post. It is wrong. Make no mistake, in the old days we used to call that "Robbery". How can I ever trust this club, the AFL or Ticketmaster ever again?

I cannot give you a more honest response to your question than that my friend.

Now! That all said and done, many of you are asking ... "So if you are not a NM supporter then why are your responding to this thread?" The answer to that is dead simple. This came up flagged on my "Watched Threads" icon. Look at the top of your screens and there is a little eyeball icon that flags messages. The next step for me is to cancel my "Bigfooty" membership/association because there is no facility within the app or group to change club affiliations. So yes as long as I remain on Bigfooty they identify me as a NMFC supporter. I've had enough, and yes that is my next step. Just cancel my membership to even this organisation and write it off as one of life's big mistakes ... Like 51 year marriage Yes, like a divorce it sometimes takes some people 51 years to realise that they hitched their wagons to the wrong horse.

That's a strange hill to die on.

Each to their own I guess

 

[Mr north man]

If we were smart we would get together with the dogs, saints, demons and argue about the obvious inequities as a group.

Wont happen for
1:The Bulldogs think there a big club but are not and wouldn’t hesitate to sell us out if they could move ahead.
And
2:St.Kilda would sell out us out like the Bulldogs if given the chance as well.
Time to wake up we as a club and supporters/members are on our own and are hated from the AFL to everyone else even our own club board will not give the supporters/members of or club the time of day.

 

[barnrokn]

 

[Roo316]

They can't hide Judas forever.

We will beat port at home in 2025, no chase will cry and Kenneth will get the arse. It’s the circle of life Simba.

 

[Augustine]

The more I think about this, the more I’m against it.

If it was two games in WA, 9 at Docklands, I could live with it.

7 Docklands, 2 Hobart, 1 Perth and 1 Bunbury is just cooked.

Imagine we start contending again and it’s 2nd vs 4th, North vs Freo in round 18. Huge massive match. And we play our home game at their home ground? It’s stomach churning. Makes you feel horrible.

As it stands, the seven home games are far too few.

 

[GoRoos2023]

The more I think about this, the more I’m against it.

If it was two games in WA, 9 at Docklands, I could live with it.

7 Docklands, 2 Hobart, 1 Perth and 1 Bunbury is just cooked.

Imagine we start contending again and it’s 2nd vs 4th, North vs Freo in round 18. Huge massive match. And we play our home game at their home ground? It’s stomach churning. Makes you feel horrible.

As it stands, the seven home games are far too few.

As of 2026 there will be no more Tassie games and it will be 9 games in Melb and 2 in WA.

 

[tazaa]

Interestingly it was mentioned on SEN Tassie this morning that the two games that we are giving up are likely to be picked up by other clubs. Also suggested the two games next year will be the last time we play home games in Tassie

I posted this in the membership thread on Thursday night.

I fully expect two other clubs to step in and play away “home” games in Hobart.

Bookmark this.

One will be the Cats as the Spriit of Tasmania docks at Corio Bay now.
And the other may be Hawthorn.

GWS will be the home team for one game and then raffle the other.

And then this get reported Friday morning.

The AFL does not want us in Tasmania.
We just aren't good for brand.

And if how many millions are going to go into this new Tassie club, they will want to see big crowds until that happens.
Hobart games will settle at 3 until 2028.

 

[tazaa]

If its 9 and 2 going forward from 2026 then its a great deal. Good money for those two games and 9 home matches in Melbourne. I think all North fans understand that 11 at this point is simply not possible.

But we have all been down this path before. 1 becomes 2, then 3, then 4, then the Busselton Kangaroos are a possibility

North says 'no' to cap on home games despite majority vote

North members vote for a cap on home games ... but not enough

www.afl.com.au

Remember this vote brought forward by WANM in 2013.

I hated the move from 2 to 3 and then to 4, all because Hawthorn was doing it.
And then even trying to cap it at 4 this was argued by the club as a restraint of trade.

I have to say in the 11 years since, the membership value and experience has been equally as abysmal.
Time to bring home games back to 9 and lock that in for a few years.

 

[GoRoos2023]

North says 'no' to cap on home games despite majority vote

North members vote for a cap on home games ... but not enough

www.afl.com.au

Remember this vote brought forward by WANM in 2013.

I hated the move from 2 to 3 and then to 4, all because Hawthorn was doing it.
And then even trying to cap it at 4 this was argued by the club as a restraint of trade.

I have to say in the 11 years since, the membership value and experience has been equally as abysmal.
Time to bring home games back to 9 and lock that in for a few years.

I reckon we could get passed now.

 

[tazaa]

I reckon we could get passed now.

Its hard.
You need 75% of the vote on the day to win and this is deliberately done to ensure any member initiated vote is hard to get across the line.

Similar to relocation too.
If the club ever decided to want to move away from Arden St, than that would also require 75% of the majority vote.

Similar to anyone who wants to be nominated to represent the club on its board.
There is a vetting process that the club has put in place where by they get to vote on who is allowed to be nominated. This was apparently done so that the average joe doesn't waste the clubs time with an underqualified candidate request. Think back to that * group who tried to reinstate Sheedy during Knights failed tenure.

I get all that, but for a member run club there isn't much sway the members have, if at all.

#SUABAM

 

[Uncle_Leo]

North says 'no' to cap on home games despite majority vote

North members vote for a cap on home games ... but not enough

www.afl.com.au

Remember this vote brought forward by WANM in 2013.

I hated the move from 2 to 3 and then to 4, all because Hawthorn was doing it.
And then even trying to cap it at 4 this was argued by the club as a restraint of trade.

I have to say in the 11 years since, the membership value and experience has been equally as abysmal.
Time to bring home games back to 9 and lock that in for a few years.

I emailed the club furious when North moved 2 games to Hobart

Eugene Arocca rang me and brought me in to meet with him to explain why we needed to do it and said if I have any other ideas to email him and he would try implement them, a couple were which I was amazed by.

Fast forward 14 years and I have my seats moved without being told. Truly a rewarding and fulfilling membership

 

[Augustine]

As of 2026 there will be no more Tassie games and it will be 9 games in Melb and 2 in WA.

Ok, if true, I can make peace with this.

One season of madness for contractual reasons then 9 home games at Docklands every season.

It’s still weird to play West Coast or Freo in Perth as the home team but I can live with it as long as we have 9 home games at Docklands.

 

[Ruckle]

Ok, if true, I can make peace with this.

One season of madness for contractual reasons then 9 home games at Docklands every season.

It’s still weird to play West Coast or Freo in Perth as the home team but I can live with it as long as we have 9 home games at Docklands.

We did it in the inaugural year for the weagles I think. We played one game at WACA and one at Subi. Cant remember which was our " home" game. I know we got flogged at Subi as I was there. Couldnt go to WACA game as was a teen and parents wouldnt take me then to that. We might have won that. I know we did in 89 when Floss kicked 6 in the deluge.

Anyway , if this leads to 9 in Melbourne then its as good a deal we the Melbourne based supporters have had in a while. Yay if it works out.

 

[Augustine]

We did it in the inaugural year for the weagles I think. We played one game at WACA and one at Subi. Cant remember which was our " home" game. I know we got flogged at Subi as I was there. Couldnt go to WACA game as was a teen and parents wouldnt take me then to that. We might have won that. I know we did in 89 when Floss kicked 6 in the deluge.

Anyway , if this leads to 9 in Melbourne then its as good a deal we the Melbourne based supporters have had in a while. Yay if it works out.

We really have a tradition of selling home games don’t we.

Perth
Sydney
Canberra
Gold Coast
Hobart

Soon to be Perth again and Bunbury.

You’d think us members would be used to it by now.

I honestly don’t mind selling two games, but I just find selling four to be way too many. Our members should get nine games.

 

[big_e]

We did it in the inaugural year for the weagles I think. We played one game at WACA and one at Subi. Cant remember which was our " home" game. I know we got flogged at Subi as I was there. Couldnt go to WACA game as was a teen and parents wouldnt take me then to that. We might have won that. I know we did in 89 when Floss kicked 6 in the deluge.

Anyway , if this leads to 9 in Melbourne then its as good a deal we the Melbourne based supporters have had in a while. Yay if it works out.

We played two games in WA in 1987, one at Subi and the other at the WACA, but both were listed as away games for us.

AFL Tables - West Coast v North Melbourne - Fri, 7-Aug-1987 6:40 PM (8:40 PM) - Match Stats

AFL Tables - West Coast v North Melbourne - Sun, 3-May-1987 12:10 PM (2:10 PM) - Match Stats

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/255532156821 - Image 11 has the full fixtures for that year.

 

[Ruckle]

We played two games in WA in 1987, one at Subi and the other at the WACA, but both were listed as away games for us.

AFL Tables - West Coast v North Melbourne - Fri, 7-Aug-1987 6:40 PM (8:40 PM) - Match Stats

AFL Tables - West Coast v North Melbourne - Sun, 3-May-1987 12:10 PM (2:10 PM) - Match Stats

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/255532156821 - Image 11 has the full fixtures for that year.

Yes perhaps it was done as we were in such bad shape we were better off playing away twice than hosting the Eagles in Melbourne and the losses that may have created. Selling games was perhaps not a thing yet but preventing a further financial hit was? Either way I recall it was pretty grim, also recall thinking a game in front of 9000 or so at the G against Sydney in late either 88 or 89 was possibly " our last game ever" .

What a club, we are all nuts....