AFL Members w/ Essendon Club Support screwed over

I’m not sure why exactly but my own theory is that the clubs know the AFL Membership package is better value & more compelling so the GFG is their one point of difference and as such can place caveats on who they sell them to. I think the AFL Membership contribution to club support clubs is around $150 per membership whereas a Flexi 6 is $180 by itself. Maybe this is all those clubs way of getting more membership dollars out of their supporters by incentivising club membership?

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As I understood AFL Membership is about $670 per year for Full Members and of this a small amount of $50 goes to the Club if you nominate a Supporter Club.

We then get a discount on our HiMark Membership of about the same.

In any case, I cannot complain about what EFC has done, my compliant is with the AFL who promised me a free guaranteed GF seat with my AFL Membership when I joined in 1979. It is just their greed that has expanded numbers and now made it expensive and nearly impossible to get a GF seat.

The AFL Membership lady told me that in 2017 $160 went to the clubs from AFL Membership which is the base cost of an 11 game membership set by the AFL

Clubs then if they so desire increase the base cost on their membership packages

Essendon’s 11 game in 2018 is $190 while the 6 game is $180 (work that one out for a bit of price gouging!)

The fact remains though that an AFL Silver Membership is an EFC 11 game membership and you can use it like one without even accessing the AFL part

You can use it to enter all EFC home games in the GA sections of the MCG & Etihad, purchase reserved seats from the EFC sections you never need to set foot in the AFL Members part if you don’t want

If only the AfL would allocate a far greater proportion of GF tickets to the clubs competing in the GF.

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Yep. There’s the solution.

Also it’s a matter of personal choice. If an AFL membership suits your needs then more power to you. I choose a club membership because I want all of the money I spend on membership to support the club. It’s my choice thus I don’t have the right to whine because my Club membership doesn’t offer the same advantages as an AFL membership.

Can’t have it both ways folks.

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Agree wholeheartedly.

What people don’t understand is that AFL Membership is two Memberships in one

You are (or were as seems to be the case) a Full Essendon Flexi 11 member and you could use your card exactly the same as a Flexi 11 Home and had the same entitlement as one, walk-in to the GA sections of Etihad & MCG, buy upgrade tickets from Essendon member allocation for H&A and Finals, buy Essendon reserved season seats, voting rights etc and the base cost of that went straight to the club and then on top of that you pay for the AFL Membership part giving you access to 29 other games and access to the AFL Reserve at the MCG

Now for whatever reason, Richmond in 2017 downgraded their club support members and Essendon has seen that and thought “hey what a great idea to screw these chumps into paying more moolah” have done the same in 2018. Nobody at Essendon has yet explained the logic of why one should buy a duplicate membership just for the chance to enter a Grand Final ballot where realistically you have no chance of success anyway

I’m not sure I’m fully across all the deets on this, but IIRC, you can only buy the GFG on a Silver or above M/ship?

And by the sounds of it, the AFL one is giving you the equivalent of a Bronze.

Also, if what has been stated is correct, and the AFL one gives you a chance at a GF ticket itself,… then …??

Essendon Bronze Reserved seat holders, General 11, 6 & 4 game members can buy the GFG for $55 - Essendon Gold/Silver reserved seat holders get an automatic GF ticket

AFL Gold Members with club support have a virtual automatic GF ticket (if their club plays in the GF) and then an 75% chance via non-competeting club allocation

AFL Silver Members with club support have no chance at a Grand Final ticket in the AFL section (as all get gobbled up by Gold Members regardless who is playing) and the issue is with Essendon’s policy change they have no right at all in Essendon’s ballot now also

So they are Essendon Flexi 11 members without all the rights and entitlements of Flexi 11 members and the insulting advice from Essendon membership staff to “buy an Essendon membership” doesn’t help matters

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You claim that the AFL gives the club $160 from your membership as the AFL has decided that is the base cost of a club membership. An 11 game flexi membership from the club costs $190, so presumably at a minimum you are paying them $30 less than a club member. That’s presuming you are correct about your $160.

That was the figure the AFL Membership told me

In 2017 the base cost of an 11 game membership set by the AFL was $160 and that is what the AFL passed on to the clubs, then it’s up to the clubs if they want to gouge more or not

Melbourne’s base 11 game is $220 :hushed:

AFL membership with club support is not the same as a regular club membership to the club, notwithstanding your voting rights etc.

As mentioned before, AFL Membership is two seperate memberships (Club 11 & AFL) on 1 card

IIRC club membership was around 10k in 1993
AFL allocation to competing GF clubs has not increased proportionately in line with the growth in club membership.
The AFL has set up and maintained a de facto scalping scam.
If clubs get tix for nix and on sell them at prices far in excess of ticket prices for competing members that’s no different from scalping at the ground .
Competing clubs with high membership have to find a way to equitably distribute tickets There is some sense in favouring those with direct club membership.
Instead of such outrageous bonuses to the CEO and others, the AFL could always give a direct subsidy to the non- competing clubs.

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Apart from the GF portion the AFL Membership suits me better because I work during the day on the weekend. We haven’t have many prime time spots over the last few years, so a pure EFC Membership would have been a total waste of money. I’m all for supporting the club, and do with my wife (who does not even know where the G is) and Child Fletch are both members.

Go back through the thread this year and the last few and there’s always Pure Club members having a snipe at AFL Members. We know there’s a portion that goes to the club but as described above we contribute in other ways.

We do however root the system in that a dozen of us from different clubs have the AFL Membership. We have a pool of numbers and use them when we need them. Suits me because I can sit with 3-4 mates at different games even if they are not Bombers games. I guess I get to go to the footy even when EFC has played on that Sat arvo.

I can definitely understand why people buy an AFL Membership, I did it myself for a number of years (although I also bought a club membership during this time).

The problem I found with club membership was the restrictive nature of reserved seating and taking guests to the game. Back before we were married, my wife and her family were keen Richmond supporters & going to games with her meant that I had to fork out for tickets to those games in addition to my (sole) club membership which was a High Mark membership. It was costing me a small fortune to go to the footy each year & if my wife wanted to come with me to an EFC game, we’d have to sit in GA to sit together which is ludicrous when you’ve already paid approx $65 a game to sit in high mark seats. I just found it all too restrictive so my in laws suggested I join them as AFL Members & it worked out great. I could still buy a seat package for Etihad through the club, attend games with the inlaws & my best mate who’s a hawks supporter for less money than I was spending before. Add to this, when I became a full AFL Member, I was basically assured a GF ticket if I wanted to go.

Since then a lot of things changed. My wife was converted to a bomber & since we’ve had kids we don’t go to many non EFC games any more. Couple that with my feeling uneasy about giving the AFL anything post saga & the choice was easy for me to go back to club membership. I’m also fortunate that I can access centre wing & Medallion Club through work so there’s nothing AFL Membership offers me now that I can’t already access.

I can definitely understand why people buy AFL Memberships as everybody’s circumstances are different and personally I won’t bang the drum that you should have a club membership. I do have some sympathy for the EFC support AFL Members that won’t be able to access GF tickets if we make it, I saw plenty of it through my inlaws friends as Richmond supporters this year. I think it’s tough that the club has removed an add on without telling those affected beforehand, Richmond people discovered that in the harshest possible way this year but I also understand the club is allocated X amount of GF tickets to distribute to the membership, I guess it’s up to the club to decide how it does that but communication NEEDS to be better. Those affected should definitely raise it at the members forum this week.

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So as an AFL silver member what is the best option for them to get a guarantee for grand finql tickets?
obviously buy a Essendon membership as well but at what price including the guarantee?

The only guaranteed way to get a GF ticket is through a scalper.

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There is no guarantee now, that is the issue facing Bullwinkle’s family. As a silver club support member, you’re third in line for the AFL Members allocation behind Full competing club support members, the rest of the full members then its club support silver. The on sale times used to be on the Sunday before the GF 10am-1pm for full competing club support members then 2pm-5pm for other full members then 9am Monday for competing club support silver members. To put it in perspective, tickets are usually sold out by 2:30pm that afternoon.

The only year I can remember silver club support members getting a crack at a GF ticket was 2013 when Hawthorn played Freo, purely due to Freo having less than minimal support here in Vic & WA based supporters unable to access that allocation.

It seems in the past, the club offered our club support members the grand final guarantee for around $50 to ensure they got a chance at a ticket. As some are reporting here, that’s been taken away by the club seemingly without notice which I think is the harsh bit. To answer your question in short, BF is correct from 2018, it’ll be a scalper job if you want a ticket an AFL EFC Club Support silver member if you choose not to buy a club membership & the guarantee in addition to the AFL Membership which is also a costly exercise.

Bottom line is that it’s the clubs decision who they sell that package too but IMO they must be better at communicating those changes before they come into effect.

Agree on the communication issue. It is surprising that some Board members were not aware/ informed of a decision taken at operational level.

Congrats on the conversion.
How did the wife feel about tigers winning the flag?
Any residual feelings for them?

She was obviously hoping they’d win on the day but make no mistake, she’s a bomber now, as are our kids.

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Thanks for the detailed reply.
I have been an Essendon member for 26 years now up to 7 years ago I was a highmark member. I was paying around $1000 dollars a year which included level 2 seating.

At that time 2 of my girls needed braces and simply would of struggled paying that much ongoing.
I chose to go to AFL membership because once a gold member it is much easier to get a grand final ticket but was told that could be as long as 12 years to obtain.

I am now in a better spot financially so I would be happy to pay both if needed but is there an option to get a guarantee through a club membership?