Sydney Swans: Most Fans, Least Loyal

[DLBIA14]

Interesting figures. Could be understood if you talked to most people in Sydney. Ask any random off the street which AFL club they support and they'll probably say the Swannies without attending a game or watching a match in months. How do you think the club should capitalise on our numerous, but flaky supporters?

Loyalty Clear as Black and White

[aardvark]

Wow we actually beat Collingwood at something !!

[Cheer Squad]

Interesting figures. Could be understood if you talked to most people in Sydney. Ask any random off the street which AFL club they support and they'll probably say the Swannies without attending a game or watching a match in months. How do you think the club should capitalise on our numerous, but flaky supporters?

Loyalty Clear as Black and White

LOL, everyone knows we've got the most fickle supporters in the AFL. Our support in Sydney is a mile wide and an inch deep. To change that, you'd have to change the nature of Sydneysiders.

Good luck with that one!

[stellation]

Wow we actually beat Collingwood at something !!

Don't get too excited, RM usually get their stats from phone calls and Internet surveys- if you assume that 50% of Collingwood fans can't afford a phone or Internet access then they'd thump us in numbers!

[DLBIA14]

LOL, everyone knows we've got the most fickle supporters in the AFL. Our support in Sydney is a mile wide and an inch deep. To change that, you'd have to change the nature of Sydneysiders.

Good luck with that one!

With all due respect, some of us ARE Sydneysiders who weren't brought up on the game, but learned to love it anyway. Change is possible. Not to the majority, but our loyal fanbase has the capacity to increase even by a few percent which would make a good difference in crowd figures/memberships ect.

Untapped potential I say.

[Doctor]

I agree. It would be interesting to know how many of those fans of us and Brisbane wouldn't have picked a team at all had Sydney and Brisbane not been in the AFL. It hows you how important it is to have us there. GWS may even have a chance over time!

[Teasdale77]

LOL, everyone knows we've got the most fickle supporters in the AFL. Our support in Sydney is a mile wide and an inch deep. To change that, you'd have to change the nature of Sydneysiders.

Good luck with that one!

We've made great progress since the early 90s when the team was an annual cellar-dweller and 12,000 was a good crowd. However, I reckon another 3 to 5 year stint at the bottom of the ladder (as some have advocated to get good draft picks) would see crowds fall to 15,000 or so.

I'm also a Sydney Kings and Sydney FC supporter so I certainly have broad exposure to the sporting fickleness of Sydneysiders

[R-1]

Unsurprising when you think about the polling methodology. When you're the largest city in the country's only team, a lot of people are going to call themselves fans whilst not meeting any reasonable definition of the term.

[Donners]

I consider myself a huge fan of the Swans, but haven't been to a game since 1994, so I certainly wouldn't have improved those results...

[Primmy]

Now that's a statement we will have to get our heads around Donners!!

[Sandridge]

So Collingwood fans are more loyal because one in three of them have been to a see them play in the last 12 months? Well, why wouldn't they go and watch them with the team and the success they've had in the last year?

This "Collingwood fans are more loyal" thing has annoyed the hell out of me for years. Being louder and more obnoxious DOESN"T make them more loyal! It just means they're louder and more obnoxious!

[Bas]

From readiing the article, you can tell that it was a seriously flawed surevy and supports the old saying of : "there are lies, then damn lies and then there are statistics"

The article gives it away here:

Swans fans are at the bottom of the loyalty ladder, even making Roos and Port Adelaide fans look good. Sydney supporters are more likely to attend NRL than AFL. Brisbane supporters sit on the fence, attending equal numbers of AFL and NRL matches

It's obvious from this how flawed their survey was.

Another example of crap journalism. If they wanted to improve their survey, they should have asked how many have actually attended games and then how many of these are Club members. That would be a good starting point.

The meeting I went to last year mid season held by the Swans marketing dept indicated to me that they weren't any wiser on how to improve membership. They weren't even interested in suggestions after the meeting. As far as I'm concerned, it's their job, they get paid for it and they can work it out themselves.

I feel better for having had that last rant..

[Damien]

We do have fickle fans, there is no doubt about that. We have had a final at ANZ get 72K and a final get 19K!!, we have had insane surges in crowd numbers at times but considering in less than 15 odd years our hardcore base has increased at least 5 times over, it's quite an acheivement plus we have a much greater capacity to grow than most Melbourne clubs.

Any negative comparison to North or Port is a joke by the way, North have whored themselves off to yet another city (Hobart) for the next two years and Port's rescue package makes the Swans 90's survival package look like pocket money.

[Kirkari]

This is just a bit of complete BS to excuse putting that idiot's picture in the paper ahead of finals. I'd love to know where those 1 million Swans fans are hiding out, and what criteria makes them "fans".

And as Sandridge points out, the year after a Premiership and the team in great form, you would hope your fans are showing up. Try it again the year after they finish in the bottom 4 and come out getting thrashed every week.

I disagree with Bas's sentiments on the membership dept though. I believe they're very interested in improving membership and suggestions on how to do so. Just because they don't implement them (or maybe even respond to them) doesn't mean they're not considered. But like any time professionals get input from interested amateurs, I'm sure they get a lot more suggestions that they've already thought of and either tried or decided against for any number of reasons, than new, practical and effective ones.

[Damien]

I disagree with Bas's sentiments on the membership dept though. I believe they're very interested in improving membership and suggestions on how to do so. Just because they don't implement them (or maybe even respond to them) doesn't mean they're not considered. But like any time professionals get input from interested amateurs, I'm sure they get a lot more suggestions that they've already thought of and either tried or decided against for any number of reasons, than new, practical and effective ones.

Understand your point and I'm a big fan of the current Membership team, but the (or maybe even respond to them) comment worried me there. From what I know (my own experience), our current membership team is quite outstanding at responding to members concerns and feedback, but if a Membership team of any AFL club didn't respond to its member contact, no matter what it is, then they are one hell of a failure of a membership department. Nothing like disenfranchising your ONLY stakeholders by failing to make them feel like they have buy in.