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

[Colby Cheer Squad]

Good stuff.

Now to plow that cash into growing our Melbourne market

And a future fund to help generate non-football revenue.

 

[RoyalBlue]

As others have pointed out here, the genius of this deal is how it satiates about 5 stakeholders:

AFL: Sick of hearing from WA clubs about Gather round/Opening Round.
WA Clubs: Pissed they don't get the advantage/attention SA and now QLD and NSW clubs get with Gather/Opening Rounds.
WA Govt: Good news story for footy fans + votes
Marvel Stadium/AFL: Needs more games at Marvel to manage giving Carlton and Essendon more at MCG.
Tassie Govt/Football types: allows them to bring other allegedly higher drawing clubs in for games ahead of arrival of Tasmania side.

If I was a Saints fan I'd be looking at this deal and asking why they didn't do it.

 

[Ichiro #51]

Yes, Tassie members are receiving an email and there is an FAQ on the app covering this. They are automatically being refunded 50% to their payment account if their membership auto-renewed. They can also choose to donate that 50% to the club as a tax deduction through the ASF or they can take it in merch.

Thanks - I just read that on the app. Good to see it confirmed.

 

[Grogg]

And renegotiate Essendon's sweetheart deal that allegedly sees them profit from merch sales and catering within the stadium even when they are not a competing team.

Ken Oath. I remember Funky trying to negotiate a better deal than what the AFL was offering us at Marvel, but given we never heard anything else, assume nothing ever happened. Now would be a good time to try and get that ship sailing again.

And a future fund to help generate non-football revenue.

I don't even know where the extra 40 bucks the club swipe each year goes, but hopefully, this is it.

 

[roos_fanatic08]

No extra trips to Perth.

Makes it an even better result then considering how regularly we play over there.

 

[Horace]

Hopefully the (usual) angst on here about the club not keeping us all informed before the event, can now disappear.

In my opinion, this is, in the absence of being financially able to play all our home games here in Victoria, a very good outcome.

Nine home games in Melbourne.

$2.5M for two "home" games in WA, where we have many very loyal supporters.

Supporters who I venture to say have helped get us across the line in some games that we might not have won without them.

Clearly we would all prefer us to be like other Victorian Clubs who do not need to sell home games elsewhere, but we cannot ignore the cold hard membership facts, which show why we need to find revenue elsewhere and always will need to do that.

Look at the 2024 Membership ladder below:

Three clubs have more than double our number of members. Imagine the difference in membership revenue that means. We should be applauding the club for extracting ourselves from Tasmania and achieving an alternative revenue source.

Rank	Club	Total members
1	Collingwood	110,628​
2	Carlton	106,345​
3	West Coast	103,498​
4	Richmond	98,489​
5	Geelong	90,798​
6	Hawthorn	83,823​
7	Essendon	83,664​
8	Adelaide	75,477​
9	Sydney	73,757​
10	Port Adelaide	66,015​
11	Melbourne	65,479​
12	Brisbane	63,268​
13	Western Bulldogs	62,328​
14	Fremantle	62,237​
15	St Kilda	60,467​
16	North Melbourne	50,628​
17	GWS	36,629​
18	Gold Coast	26,157​

 

[andana]

Bargain

How about joining us for a WA footy trip in 2025? Add on a special WA Roo membership, which guarantees access to our games in Perth & Bunbury.

Option 1: WA Roo $179

• Access 1 x ticket to Optus Stadium home game
• Access 1 x ticket to Bunbury home game
• Exclusive inner sanctum member event in Perth

Option 2: WA Roo Plus $249

• Access 2 x tickets to Optus Stadium home game
• Access 2 x tickets to Bunbury home game
• Exclusive inner sanctum member event in Perth

 

[Zondor]

Now that we know what the deal is, it has to be said that it is a step in the right direction. Sure, ideally all home games played in Melbourne, is what we need to aspire to, but sadly we also need to balance those books. More $$$ for less home games played away from Melbourne is good business. Now onto getting rid of the “Tasmanian” from the Women’s Team. We are North Melbourne! :stern look

 

[backtothedraft]

Brilliant result

 

[Ball Dont Lie]

Great results. Props to Jen and the team for organising.

 

[shintemaster]

All you raging before the club actually announced anything can finally calm down. Great deal.

Settle petal. This club has history of making decisions that negatively impact the members and telling them about it afterwards. The infamous expansion of Hobart games literally the day after the club had its hand out for "debt removal" money from members was a particularly egregious example. Trust goes both ways, this is a good step, but they don't deserve our unwavering support, they need to earn it.

The 4 games to 2 is great. We still have the issue that replacement games are a poor experience for members and no sign of how this will be resolved even though we've been selling home games for decades. The club has work to do still on supporter experience and rebuilding bridges they happily torched.

 

[shintemaster]

They should thank us.

Any chance we could get an MCG game sometime this decade?

 

[see see]

Any chance we could get an MCG game sometime this decade?

Making finals would be a good start.

 

[shintemaster]

Making finals would be a good start.

Sure. Call me crazy but when 4 clubs are full time tenants and 2 others at least are part time I reckon the AFL could wrangle the odd game there for us.

Don't get me wrong, I prefer attending docklands and I think we play our best footy there, but it would be useful if we know where the ground is when we make that first final with this group.

 

[RoyalBlue]

Now that we know what the deal is, it has to be said that it is a step in the right direction. Sure, ideally all home games played in Melbourne, is what we need to aspire to, but sadly we also need to balance those books. More $$$ for less home games played away from Melbourne is good business. Now onto getting rid of the “Tasmanian” from the Women’s Team. We are North Melbourne! :stern look

Great to see you're still on here Zondor!

 

[LETSGOKANGAS]

Reckon half our membership base wouldn't prop up an extra $100 a year to see 11 Melbourne home games?

Theres $2.5M

Simplified it but only needing $2.5M to settle the annual books is encouraging thought it was more like $4M.

 

[hilly]

Any chance we could get an MCG game sometime this decade?

We have double ups against Melb and Rich so that's two at least.

 

[hilly]

Whilst it's a small number I hope those remaining Tasmanian members are thanked beyond a suitable reduction in their membership price for the reduction of games in 2025. I'll leave that to the marketing boffins as to what that could be.

 

[Warrboy]

It’s a good deal all up.

Just a comment on those saying imagine how low the Hobart crowds will be next year. I think the opposite - with supply down demand will be up per game and we’ll see better crowds. Of course the fixture and the form of the team will determine part of that but if they are favourable you’ll see more of the neutrals back to see AFL in Hobart.

 

[Only Forwards]

They should pay us.

No they should schedule us to play against them at the MCG.

they get more games there and so do we by facilitating the deal to allow it.

 

[Dan]

They should thank us.

When news of this popped up on here the other week……I did say that we have done the AFL a big favour.

Obviously for the 2 WA clubs but now it seems that other tenants of marvel stadium are gonna benefit from it too.

I hope this was taken into account at the negotiating table and we asked for other things in return.

 

[Hearts to hearts]

Reckon half our membership base wouldn't prop up an extra $100 a year to see 11 Melbourne home games?

Theres $2.5M

Simplified it but only needing $2.5M to settle the annual books is encouraging thought it was more like $4M.

Honestly, I’d be surprised. Setting aside the emotion of announcing no more sold games interstate, we’d be asking people to pay $50 per extra game every season, on top of memberships that already go up every year, when plenty of them are already struggling with rising prices of things they actually need.

This 9/2 deal feels like a good balance.

 

[Roo316]

Anyone know our first largest fan base outside of VIC? And if so why didn’t we sell the games there?

 

[The Warlord]

As others have pointed out here, the genius of this deal is how it satiates about 5 stakeholders:

AFL: Sick of hearing from WA clubs about Gather round/Opening Round.
WA Clubs: Pissed they don't get the advantage/attention SA and now QLD and NSW clubs get with Gather/Opening Rounds.
WA Govt: Good news story for footy fans + votes
Marvel Stadium/AFL: Needs more games at Marvel to manage giving Carlton and Essendon more at MCG.
Tassie Govt/Football types: allows them to bring other allegedly higher drawing clubs in for games ahead of arrival of Tasmania side.

If I was a Saints fan I'd be looking at this deal and asking why they didn't do it.

Classic North first mover advantage

 

[The Warlord]

Whilst it's a small number I hope those remaining Tasmanian members are thanked beyond a suitable reduction in their membership price for the reduction of games in 2025. I'll leave that to the marketing boffins as to what that could be.

We should do it right and employ a Tasmanian marketing boffin too.

They can put their heads together and work up something suitable for sure