Yes Donald.
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Our youngest lad Oliver brought home an Auskick form last year from school wanting to play
The form was obviously a Sydney Swans grass roots thing which i thought was a bit strange as weāre down in the southern highlands which I assumed was GWS territory
But anyways I took the form and laminated a copy of his Essendon membership onto the front before sending it back to the school
The sports master had a chuckle about it (found out that he also hates the Swans)
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11k members in 1993
Average home crowd 41k
79k members in 2018
Average home crowd 48k
Hmm.
I daresay every clubās in the same boat. Clubs are making zillions more off memberships. Doesnāt mean many more, or any more, people are coming to the footy. But itās just not a figure that means much if every club is adding ~5% a year.
Weāre going to reach a singularity point soon where thereās more footy club members than people on earth.
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is that why you got 4?
You do realise itās not all about bums on seats on game day.
Itās about financial as well as emotional buy in.
Itās about growth of the tribe.
Itās about lotās of different things.
Iām a member, and I only get to a handful of games a year, so Iām not a bum on a seat.
Iām a member to support my club.
To give it more finances.
To help it grow.
Amongst other things.
You are looking through a very narrow lens.
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The numbers are a joke IMO & are a nice talking point for media & clubs to Spruik about their respective followings and internal back slapping for membership & operations departments. For me, the most pertinent number is the revenue that those memberships bring in. Thereās been a joke getting around on radio about Richmond having 20,000 pets signed up. Thatās obviously tongue in cheek but I feel the number is merely recognition of all the members that have made a financial contribution, no matter how small, to their club in 2018. Those numbers donāt necessarily reflect attendance given thereās so many non access memberships, such as the digital membership, Essentially a donation to the club. Thereās many on here I know of who live interstate and canāt possibly attend even half the matches, yet fork out for High Mark each year.
I know the club and Etihad Stadium copped lots of flak last Friday night for lack of GA tickets, Ticketmaster sold all GA allocations and a limited number of standing room while there were many seats on level 2 empty. What the misunderstanding is, that the club has sold those seats to members but those members donāt necessarily roll up on game day. Itās an issue I see becoming more prevalent the longer we play 7 home matches at Etihad per year. Sorry to be so long winded but membership sales and attendances arenāt necessarily mutually exclusive.
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i;d be interested to see how much out of state/never shows take away seats from people that would go but are priced out because people that never go/ canāt go weekly buy the seat to āhelp the clubā
I know you and darli give your ticket out most weeks but thats not a majority thing to do.
Iām not really looking at it through any lens.
Iām happy people support the club. Obviously. And the financials of the game is incomparable now to then.
I just think the tally, if it ever had a point, has become increasingly separated from reality.
It looks to me like they were handing out freebie memberships in the past few weeks. Presumably to get to the 80 mark.
Is Roy Morgan a business unit within AFL house?
What a load of absolute horseshit.
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If we were we would have made 80kā¦
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Almost 80k?! That is an amazing effort, especially considering what the season looked like half way through
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I always offer up my tickets if we are unable to go
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Jesus Christ have I got a couple more sprogs I donāt know about?! FML!
breakdown on the membership categories
Short and sweet: The key to AFL membership growth
Peter Ryan (from that Age paper) August 2018 ā 8:00pm
More than a quarter of the one million members of AFL clubs in 2018 hold memberships that give them access to fewer than 11 games during the season.
However, AFL chief Gillon McLachlan says that shows the AFL and their 18 clubs now offer tailored membership packages that better reflect supportersā needs.
Although membership numbers have been on the rise for the past 30 years, the 11.1 per cent increase in membership between 2017 to 2018 was the biggest year on year jump since the Giants entered the competition in 2012.
It was also the first time for 30 years the increase has exceeded 100,000, with the total figure rising from 907,561 in 2017 to 1,008,494 this season.
Most of the growth in the number is understood to have been due to an increase in sales of three and five game membership packages, while Richmondās barnstorming run has also propelled membership numbers with the Tigers attracting 28,000 more members this season.
āClubs and the AFL working with the clubs are able to better understand their audience and offer packages that work for everyone,ā McLachlan said. āWe used to have an 11-game membership package and now weāre able to talk to people with different needs, such as three-game, five-game or kidsā memberships and we are better able to understand the needs of our supporters.ā
Club sources told The Age that the decision to make restricted game memberships part of a proportion of Auskick packages this season contributed to the growth, however an AFL spokesperson said the change had not had a material effect on the shift in numbers.
In previous years Auskick members would have received free entry to games as part of their registration but the new approach now gives clubs the opportunity to communicate directly with young members.
Clubs believe the approach will help to attract and retain supporters who are beginning to support clubs and attract those who are being exposed to the game for the first time.
The rusted-on supporter base remained strong with 456,633 memberships bought in 2018 that could be termed traditional memberships.
These ātraditional membershipsā enable members to attend about 16-17 games per season or attend a clubās 11 home games and also create the opportunity for members to purchase finals tickets in the first three weeks of finals.
In figures released to The Age the AFL confirmed that 345,079 people had 11-game home membership and 111,554 people had home and away memberships that normally guaranteed entry to at least 16 games.
There were also a number of hardcore football supporters who held stadium memberships or AFL memberships, with the exact number of members in that category unavailable at this point.
However in a sign of the changing market and in recognition of the changing connection of supporters to the game in different parts of the country the AFL sold 272,599 memberships that were either general admission, three game, five game or fewer than 11 game memberships.
Some clubs package up premium games with other games as part of their membership offering while clubs in emerging markets such as Greater Western Sydney need to take a non-traditional approach to membership.
The AFL believe the Giants have been one of the success stories with their membership figure rising to 25,243 this season after attracting 10,241 members in their first season, while McLachlan said he believed the Gold Coast would be able to attract more than the 12,108 members they signed this season when they started winning.
The 279,261 members remaining to reach 1,008,494 included members of clubs without entry rights, AFLW members, those with stadium or AFL memberships and Auskick members.
McLachlan said the growth in membership numbers was a sign that clubs were becoming more adept at catering to members needs.
AFL MEMBERSHIP BREAKDOWN 2018
Total AFL members: 1,008,494
11-game home membership: 345,079
Home and away membership (at least 16-17 game memberships): 111,554
Five-game, general admission or less than 11 game membership: 121,413
Three-game membership: 151,186
Remaining membership categories: 279,261 (member of a club without entry rights, AFLW member, Auskick membership, stadium member or AFL member)
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Time for the EFC to offer a special little something for the 80,000th member. Go on just do it.
Surely now its time to switch to the G. How the hell we gonna fit everyone in?
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Well we found a way with room to spare.
Iāve said for a while now that I feel the Etihad MCG home game split is out of proportion and probably holding us back a little IMO. I think tailoring a package to suit the GA population is very difficult given the capacity at Etihad. When we have a big crowd at matches, thereās usuallly a large amount of GA or walk ups. There were lots of people still outside Etihad on Friday night well after the ball was bounced.
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