membership

[DST]

Was thinking about the drop off of Sydney members and thought maybe the availability of GA memberships due to the new stand might be an issue.

Can any Sydneysiders confirm whether the club has had to restrict GA memberships due to the Hill Stand construction.

If that is the case you may see a rebound next year by a couple of thousand when they are opened back up again.

DST

[Donners]

Do the numbers here included all the people that promise each week to tear up their membership over one issue or another?

I said I wouldn't get one when Everitt was signed, and I stood by that. Admittedly, it wasn't the sole reason, but it was a factor.

[Danzar]

Roy Masters has been death riding the Swans for 20 years and comes up with an article like this at least once a year. Most of that article is pure fiction.

Absolutely! He was at it again on the weekend. I reckon he fires out a League-biased anti-AFL article monthly.

I suspect he is seeing his beloved Rugby League dying a slow death before his eyes and he blames it on AFL.

Pity he fails to see that it is League that is eating itself.

[j s]

how many members did the swans finish on for 2008?\


Official Website of the Australian Football League > NEWS ARTICLE > Clubs set record membership tally


does that include all forms of membership, even members who dont get a seat

seems low

It's the number the AFL uses for calculating Grand Final seat allocations to participating clubs (ie the number of members with GF ticket elegibility) so, yes, it would include Victorian members.

[Pace To Burn]

It would have to do with the cost i would think. We live in the most expensive city in terms of mortgage pressure and assoc costs and people have better things to spend their money on, especially when every game is on free to air live. If you look at melb as a comparison, i went to a friday night game there(it was a couple of years ago) and it only cost me $12 to get in at telstra dome, at the time i think the cheapest ticket at the SCG was about Double that. If this is similar in terms of costs of membership maybe that is a reason also.

[Doctor]

There are a lot of reasons; cost, transport, no culture of membership of a footy club in Sydney, other committments etc. No mention in his article of the appalling size of rugby league crowds, or that they couldn't/can't fill the ground at Homebush for either State of Origin game, the Aus v France rugby Test or the All Blacks Test next weekend.

[Xie Shan]

Does anyone know roughly how many Melbourne-based members the Lions have? Cuz their total membership of 22,000 also is quite low (though Brisbane has a much smaller population than Sydney). Where are the numbers going to come from in Western Sydney and the Gold Coast?

[hammo]

Sydney and Brisbane also don't have the membership culture that the Victorian clubs have.

As far as the redevelopment goes, I think that did affect the total memberships on offer although I'm not sure it reached capacity this year.

Memberships are expensive and go up every year (and we have one less "home" game this year also, so cost per match has increaed). I'm not surprised that the Swans' numbers are down based on increased cost pressures in Sydney and the fact that they're bloody expensive.

[reigning premier]

Roy Masters has been death riding the Swans for 20 years and comes up with an article like this at least once a year. Most of that article is pure fiction.

Stopped reading after 3 paragraphs..... Guy has a serious axe to grind and no one's listening...

[big bear]

Roy Masters has been death riding the Swans for 20 years and comes up with an article like this at least once a year. Most of that article is pure fiction.

Is this the same failed league coach Roy Masters. A complete tosser.

Seriously if the team continues to be selected by a shrink the membership is sure to drop by 4.

[SimonH]

I just don't think they've been pushing anywhere near as hard to promote membership as they did in the early 2000s, which I put down to the redevelopment. I am one of the 7.1% who dropped off from 2007-2008, which is for a whole lot of personal reasons unrelated to anything else.

I hope and trust that they will go like the blazes at the start of 2009 when they have a lot more decent-quality seats to sell-- and drop prices accordingly in order to fill them. They might even get me back on board.

Obviously less of a membership culture in Sydney, too: we have 19,000 Syd-based members and get mid-to-high 20s to our SCG games. The Pahhhhhhr have 34,000 members and get 20,000 to their games. The same point could be made about most Melbourne clubs as well-- many of whom presumably offer certain classes of membership for chickenfeed (presuming that there aren't tens of thousands of Victorians who like throwing away hundreds of dollars for nothing but a warm glow and a badge).

[Nico]

I just don't think they've been pushing anywhere near as hard to promote membership as they did in the early 2000s, which I put down to the redevelopment. I am one of the 7.1% who dropped off from 2007-2008, which is for a whole lot of personal reasons unrelated to anything else.

I hope and trust that they will go like the blazes at the start of 2009 when they have a lot more decent-quality seats to sell-- and drop prices accordingly in order to fill them. They might even get me back on board.

Obviously less of a membership culture in Sydney, too: we have 19,000 Syd-based members and get mid-to-high 20s to our SCG games. The Pahhhhhhr have 34,000 members and get 20,000 to their games. The same point could be made about most Melbourne clubs as well-- many of whom presumably offer certain classes of membership for chickenfeed (presuming that there aren't tens of thousands of Victorians who like throwing away hundreds of dollars for nothing but a warm glow and a badge).

Simon, Victorians love their clubs. When Hawthorn had their drive some years ago they were signing up their dogs, cats and budgies. Interesting this finanacial pressure thing: Sydneysiders tend to take that line and so do Victorians believe it or not, but I suspect it comes down to priorities. Vics will put their seasons ticket before anything and a lot of them know they have no chance in hell of seeing a GF, so buy the base ticket to show they are supporting their club. If you get a chance one day and listen to SEN on line you will see what I mean. 5-6pm Monday to Thursday all the ratbags ring up.

[31 hard at it]

(tens of thousands of Victorians who like throwing away hundreds of dollars for nothing but a warm glow and a badge)

I am still waiting for the warm glow but the badge goes everywhere with me1

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

Does anyone know roughly how many Melbourne-based members the Lions have? Cuz their total membership of 22,000 also is quite low (though Brisbane has a much smaller population than Sydney).

I worked at the Dome & would say that there were about 2000 or so set-seat Lions Members all together on the half forward line & forward pocket last Saturday.

I know a lot of Lions members were very peeved that there were so few games in Victoria & so little was done to cater to them.

I heard that had about 6-7000 members in Victoria. Can anyone confirm this?

Am furious at the allegation Masters makes in his article. Things like saying that the Swans have 22% turn-over in memberships. Where did he come up with this figure? Did the Swans give that to him? If not what is the truth?

However there IS a lot of smoke & daggers in relation to AFL in NSW at the moment. If Masters claims CAN be verified as indeed being correct it does give wait to the arguments of many diehard AFL fans who fear the AFL is going into Sydney with its second team too fast.

JF

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

Obviously less of a membership culture in Sydney, too: we have 19,000 Syd-based members and get mid-to-high 20s to our SCG games. The Pahhhhhhr have 34,000 members and get 20,000 to their games.

I heard up to 8000 of these are actually SANFL members (that are counted in AFL membership tallies) who take the A & B options which means they get to watch both Crows & Port games. Most are Crows supporters who pay the extra to get a guaranteed seat at the away Showdown. Most will not turn up to many other Port home games, or will turn up to big event matches to just watch the game & barrack against Port.

Comparing Adelaide & Melbourne footy membership culture to that in Sydney is completely useless as you are not comparing apples to apples. Regardless of Masters diatribe the facts remain
-we are Sydney's NUMBER 1 crowd-drawing club team since 1995
-we have drawn from memory 8 crowds of over 50000 to mere club games, something only the Broncos in the NRL could hope to match
-we have probably double the amount of club members/season tickets than any other club bar probably the Waratahs in Sydney. Sydney FC for example has 6500 club members from memory (which isn't too bad for a new entity in a membership-unfriendly environment)
-we have attracted new fans like no other code. The amount of people who follow the Swans who never used to follow sport at all is astounding. We are really the only code that seriously markets to women as well.

Nobody thinks the road again is going to be easy. But hey, we have had 4 crowds of 50000 in the last 12 months alone.And are disappointed with crowds of 34000 against Essendon & 57000 against Collingwood. All this despite media attention that whilst improving is nowhere the blanket attention the NRL gets.

JF