Im with you on that
Well looks like I went too hard too soon
Rung up EFC again this morning and spoke to somebody higher up the Membership food chain and was told the complete opposite what the two guys I spoke to yesterday said
AFL members with EFC club support are indeed āFlexi homeā members and have all the rights that go along (GF ballots etc) with it and can access home Reserved Seats at a lower price (but this is not advertised) & the Grand Final Guarantee (also not advertised)
So renewed our 4 members with the GTG over the phone
And the poor blokes I spoke to will get a talking to and āimproved staff trainingā
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Sorry Iām confused, can someone please clarify for me, my details below :-
- I am an AFL silver member
- I took out EFC Flexi support 16 game plus paid extra $50.00 for guaranteed GF ticket from EFC.
- I considered this as insurance until my AFL Full membership comes through.
Am I reading this correct that I only need to pay $50.00 (not $230.00) for the GF guarantee as I already am an AFL member?
Exactly. I was a Silver Member with seats and changed to an AFL membership 5 years ago. Main reason was a few mates had AFL memberships and went to all types of different games together.
The main reason I changed it my work life. I work ech sat and sun until 5pm and live in Geelong. I can only go to night games. We have had a lack of games in that time slot for a number of years so itās worked out for me. I look at the draw each year and go hmm, thereās 5-7 Essendon games I can go to each year. i also work every public holiday.
Iām now closer to the full membership so Iāll just stick with it. Iāve got my Wife and Kid signed up even though sheās English and does not like football and has not been for 8 years. Kid is 3 on Boxing Day and has not been yet.
It is rich that some just like to pot those who donāt do what they believe is right. You can all have your membership and Iāll have mine. We all contribute to EFC in our own way.
Have been a VFL/AFL members since day 1, and also now High Mark EFC.
My beef with AFL Membership now is that it is hard to get good seats, and whenever I try to book, not much left except high in the top level.
Is there a trick to getting seats in AFL area, as we would go to more Bomber away games if we can get seats in lower levels.
Not in my experience BF. I found if I didnāt get into the pre sale in early March it was ridiculously tough to get lower level seats especially at Etihad. MCG games in my experience were easier despite them being āblockbusterā games. It was one of the reasons I let AFL Membership go, along with saga related protest, but as others have pointed out, thereās about 20,000 others waiting for full AFL Membership so it wasnāt ever going to upset the AFL what I did. One would think access at Etihad would change soon given the AFL now own the stadium but it seems that change is slow in coming.
My family and I have high mark memberships now and I also have Centre Wing & Medallion Club access through work so feel I have a nice balance now which gives me as much, if not more, than my Full AFL Membership did. I still go to the GF, get prime seats to all our games at either venue and majority of my money goes to EFC.
As far as AFL Membership goes, itās a compelling package and one that is a legitimate option to club membership. I had a robust discussion with Peter Jackson back in 2005 about why our membership package wasnāt more competitive given what AFL Membership offers, the answers given back then were along the lines of being comparative to other clubs packages which I think is complete rubbish given another club wasnāt competing for my membership dollars. Anyhow ancient history now.
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What is this pre-sale in March?
Each year in early March AFL Members had a pre sale window to book tickets to most AFL matches for the season. I havenāt held AFL Membership for about 3 years so it may be different now but there was a specific day to login & book a limited number of seats to matches for the upcoming season. Maybe check the info pack that comes with your membership for those on sale dates?
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Iām confused.
Iām an AFL Silver Member with Essendon Club support.
Can I go to the GF if Essendon make it?
From what I remember of my volunteer days many years ago is that clubs arenāt actually allowed to provide a better deal than an AFL membershipā¦
You may well be right Megz but I felt at the time as though our club membership could offer more than what they were doing at the time. I found myself paying $700 ish for 11 game high mark plus $30-$50 per away game which could amount to as much as $1,000 which is why I went to AFL Membership for around $450 a year (for 40 matches in any combination) & paid a $7 seat upgrade for high demand matches. It was around half the cost of club membership at the time and thatās when the club asked me why the change. They didnāt like the answers that came & threw out a line about club membership being competitive with other clubs. My argument in return was that they werenāt in competition with Richmond or Carlton etc, as I was never going to buy a membership with them. I never expected the club to offer anything better than AFL Membership could but I did expect better value for my club membership dollar.
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I think it goes something like this.
Gold Member from the competing teams get first preference.
Gold Member from non competing teams come next. What generally happens is the allocation of tickets gets exhausted at this point. If you try and buy tickets as soon as they come on sale you get them, but if you try a few hours later they arenāt available.
Silver members with Club Support are next in line. No guarantee of getting a ticket as theyāre all gone in the above preferences.
Not 100% on that though.
Awesome - thanks mate.
And how long does it usually take to get to a gold member? Iāve been Silver for about 12 years
Has it been 12 continuous years?
I was upgraded to gold half way through last year and I reckon i was a silver member for 9-10 years before that.
You shouldnāt be too far away if itās 12 continuous years. When you get posted your AFL Membership pack they give you a number of how far back you are in the queue. You can ring the AFL members number and theyāll tell you if you donāt want to wait.
As you described was how it used to work a few years ago, unsure if thatās the case now though. Order was Gold competing clubs (between 10am -1pm on Sunday before GF), Gold all clubs (2-5pm Sunday before GF), then silver competing & silver all clubs. In my time as an AFL Member I think it got to silver club support in 2013 when hawks played Dockers in GF but every other year it never got past Gold members. Until you reach gold, Iād probably look at purchasing the guarantee off the club.
If itās 12 continuous years then I would be on the phone to them right away. I was about 8 years (from 2004) when i got upgraded to full
Times have changed a bit though. A mate of mine joined in pre season of 2009 & is still almost 4,000 away from full membership upgrade. Apparently only a couple hundred were upgraded last year. Theyāre telling new members itās approx 12-15 years wait for full/gold membership.
Youāll have at least another 5 years before having to worry about missing out on a Grand Final ticket.
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Iāve got MCC membership and it took me 18 years to get in as a Provisional member (2016). The MCC offer of Essendonās home Etihad games for $100 makes it an excellent deal, and keeps me in as an Essendon member.
I suspect Iāll get Restricted membership in 2019.
But itās another 20 years for Full membership.
Provisional membership for now is great with only a handful of games I canāt attend. Once I get to Restricted Iāll be in nirvana.
With life expectancies increasing these memberships are turning over more slowly. Glad I got in when I did. But annoyed I didnāt ask a friend who was a member a few years earlier about whatās involved as Iād be a full member by now.
Have been an AFL club support member since 1994. For a few years now Iāve reserved a seat at Etihad through the club. The benefits of being an AFL member far outway anything on offer from the club. Gives me heaps of flexibility
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