Membership Numbers 2016

[Mug Punter]

Release today: "The Sydney Swans have reached 50,000 members for the first time in the Club?s history and in doing so have become the first sporting team in Sydney to achieve the milestone.The membership record follows the Swans return to the SCG for all home games in 2016 and comes on the back of three rousing wins in the opening three rounds of the season.
To celebrate and say thank you, the Swans have welcomed the 50,000th member into their home at the SCG.
10-year-old Zachary Redman was beaming as he was greeted by coach John Longmire and Swans players, who gave him a surprise tour of the Club?s inner sanctum."



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It looks like Buddy has been a great investment both on and off the field. We do support a very clever club.

Clearly heading back to the SCG permanently has been good for us

C'mon barry give us your worst.....

[mcs]

Clearly heading back to the SCG permanently has been good for us

C'mon barry give us your worst.....

Don't get your hopes up Mug - with all those people defecting to GWS, our 50K wont last

Great effort from the club to reach a substantial milestone. Yes we are only one of two afl clubs in Sydney, but there is a multitude of competition for only limited $$$ membership wise. This is no small feat from the club.

[barry]

50,000 is an amazing result and would have been hard to believe a few years ago. The buddy recruit is a masterstroke even if he doesn't win us a flag.

This must surely cement our long term future that we can stop fearing a bottom out and early1990s crowds again . I mean we could lose 20,000 bandwagoners and still have 30k members.

[Swansongster]

Forgive me if I missed it earlier in the thread ... but ... do we know how many of that 50,000 are Melbourne/Victorian members?

[bloodsbigot]

Let's not underestimate the Buddy effect in getting fringe followers to join up. A great investment and from 2017 with the much increased cap he will look cheap!

Great that a 10yo was the 50,000th member, was never going to be any other way :-)

I want to play down the Buddy effect because I like to think swans supporters are more than just supporting a celebrity/flashy/high profile player.

Though I guess Lockett and Capper are players that built the game in Sydney and helped generate the interest that led to the eventual 50k mark so who am I to judge?

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50,000 is an amazing result and would have been hard to believe a few years ago. The buddy recruit is a masterstroke even if he doesn't win us a flag.

This must surely cement our long term future that we can stop fearing a bottom out and early1990s crowds again . I mean we could lose 20,000 bandwagoners and still have 30k members.

Yeah, exactly. Just the fact that our club has a solid financial base now is a relief.

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Clearly heading back to the SCG permanently has been good for us

C'mon barry give us your worst.....

In a sense I'm a bit saddened by moving away from ANZ, because it had cheaper tickets and made seats available for the average Joe. Gave people an opportunity to experience the game. I only discovered this last year as it was the first time I attended an SCG game or ANZ game.

[Meg]

Forgive me if I missed it earlier in the thread ... but ... do we know how many of that 50,000 are Melbourne/Victorian members?

No I don't think that figure has been publicised. Several years ago it was said we had about 10,000 Victorian members. It would be interesting to know if that figure has grown as part of the overall growth.

[barry]

The buddy effect is real. The swans stuggle for media in sydney and therefore need a glamor forward. Capper, lockett, hall, buddy have delivered spikes in support.

Post buddy its a no brainer to go after the next glamor forward

[Sandridge]

50,000! Absolutely amazing!
Thank you so much to the numerous passionate and very smart people who have turned a club that nearly died in the 90s in to the club it is today.
So proud!

[Triple B]

I want to play down the Buddy effect because I like to think swans supporters are more than just supporting a celebrity/flashy/high profile player.

Though I guess Lockett and Capper are players that built the game in Sydney and helped generate the interest that led to the eventual 50k mark so who am I to judge?

It's not that the extra numbers and recent joinups are just supporting Buddy, but the Buddy/Plugger/Capper effect does get people curious enough to actually go to a game.

As we know, the game live at the ground is 1000x better than on TV because you can actually see that unlike League etc. their is action off the ball that TV doesn't pick up and I've little doubt that you need to see the game live to appreciate it. My stock standard line to people who haven't been to a live game is 'You MUST see it live before passing judgement'. I've taken countless friends and work colleagues to games over the years and while not everybody falls in love with it and jump online to join, they nearly all enjoy it and comment how different the live experience was to how they imagined it from their limited TV watching.

[Levii3]

No I don't think that figure has been publicised. Several years ago it was said we had about 10,000 Victorian members. It would be interesting to know if that figure has grown as part of the overall growth.

Andrew Ireland said a few weeks back when the membership count was around 43k that there were over 12,000 members in Vic so now some where between 12 and 14k

[Meg]

Andrew Ireland said a few weeks back when the membership count was around 43k that there were over 12,000 members in Vic so now some where between 12 and 14k

That's great, I think the 'one club two cities' aspect of the Swans is very special.

I love the fact that the players guernseys have 'SMFC' on the back. And I noticed in a recent Swanshop booklet sent to me that there are about five different, very attractive shirts and jumpers for both men & women that you can buy which have 'South Melbourne Swans' written on them with the old-style Swans emblem. Great salute to our history.

[Swansongster]

Andrew Ireland said a few weeks back when the membership count was around 43k that there were over 12,000 members in Vic so now some where between 12 and 14k

Chuckle. Probably more Swans members in Victoria than there are GWS members in the universe.

That said, I'll actually be happy if their support grows to rival ours.

[YvonneH]

We have passed the 52,000 (52,075 according to the Swans membership site). Well done to us. Will it be reported anywhere else, probably not.

[Sandridge]

We have passed the 52,000 (52,075 according to the Swans membership site). Well done to us. Will it be reported anywhere else, probably not.

Absolutely magnificent!!

[dimelb]

Well done us!

And how much of it is down to Bud Franklin and the Sundance Kid?