AFL 2014

[yob]

Further expansion of Adelaide Oval may not be such a pipe dream considering both Port and Adelaide have practically sold out their membership.

[Simmo79]

Barca's membership is a bit overblown. IIRC their memberships aren't related to matchday attendance at all.

Neither are Hawthorns.

I'm included on that list, have been for the last 8 years. Matches attended using that membership, 1. All AFL clubs are at it.

Hell, you have to be a "member" at Arsenal to buy the tickets that the season ticket holders return.

Same at Man Utd. But I've not come across Euro clubs engaged in a pissing match about membership tallies, as it's mostly an Australian insecurity

[yob]

Ultimately you've got to measure something. People place too much emphasis on attendance as an indicator of financial health for a football club. Matchday attendance in the AFL means nothing - the home fans got in by scanning their membership, most of the away fans got in by.... scanning their membership. Sponsors aren't attracted to big crowds, it's big membership. If you look at cashflow statements of AFL clubs, membership typically outsizes matchday revenue by a factor of 10 to 1 (if they haven't been simply combined like some).

If fans want some measure of control over the destiny of their clubs, without the interference of the central administration, then it's all about the money.

[bazza]

Some of the NRL crowds these days were in the 6-8k bracket also for memory.

4/64 NRL crowds below 9,000 this season - 1 below 7,000

http://stats.rleague.com/rl/crowds/2014.html

[bazza]

GWS - keen to see the breakdown of Sydney/Canberra/Melbourne based memberships. I suspect the welfare membership parking that used to occur with North Melbourne (fellow fans buying a membership of the povo club) has transfered to GWS in some form.

AFL figures obtained by Fairfax Media show a massive gulf in membership earnings between the Perth clubs, Collingwood and the rest during 2013, while infant club Greater Western Sydney technically made a loss on membership of $400,000 as a result of extra "fan development" costs.


http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/a ... z30zZPCBfL

[Simmo79]

Hopefully that article will kill any last interest in membership numbers. Cash is king.

[yob]

Why stop there

Let's not be interested in anything

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxK_nA2iVXw

[Rob]

Barca's membership is a bit overblown. IIRC their memberships aren't related to matchday attendance at all.

Neither are Hawthorns.

I'm included on that list, have been for the last 8 years. Matches attended using that membership, 1. All AFL clubs are at it.

Hell, you have to be a "member" at Arsenal to buy the tickets that the season ticket holders return.

That's the case at West Coast and Fremantle as well. Their waiting list members get first dibs on the seats put up for sale by reserved seat holders.

Funnily enough, neither club appears to give a sh*t about the pissing contest.

[yob]

Why is the reuptake for Freo matches poorer than West Coast? Noticed over the years that a sellout at Freo games is 4-5k smaller than the West Coast equivalent.

[Rob]

Why is the reuptake for Freo matches poorer than West Coast? Noticed over the years that a sellout at Freo games is 4-5k smaller than the West Coast equivalent.

Probably because Freo only brought the system in a couple of years ago. But even then it's not a great incentive unless you know for sure that you're not going. You only get about half the value of the seat back, and even then it can only be used either at the team store or for next year's membership.

[bazza]

Hopefully that article will kill any last interest in membership numbers. Cash is king.

Good thing about membership for the clubs is that you have the members name, email, address etc - so in the future you can get more cash out of them

[Simmo79]

also works in reverse as well. Graduated membership levels allow a member to downgrade their seats/# of games as life dictates. It's definitely a worthwhile system. But counting a person who pays less than $100 per season the same as person who spends ten times as much is pretty misleading as far as comparisons go -> count cash, not the number of members.

[yob]

But counting a person who pays less than $100 per season the same as person who spends ten times as much is pretty misleading as far as comparisons go ->

Well, no it isn't. It's a number. It can be skewed in any which number of ways.

count cash, not the number of members.

Good idea - if you're fixed upon a particular outcome. But there's more to it than that.

Take myself for example. I am an AU member, don't have a season ticket, attended 1 game (which I drove 26 hours round trip for). I'm not less of a member or supporter, I'm just someone who f***ing lives somewhere else.

The higher dollar membership does not necessarily make for a more genuine supporter. $150 is more to a bogan than $400 is to a cashed up bogan. And personally, I think it's less of a measure of supporter loyalty that they need to have more value built in to a membership (for example a season ticket) in order to buy it. Compare that to us "country supporters" - our $60 gets us a f***ing beer glass and a keyring. That's passion.

[RobertHeatleyStand]

If anyone know a better place for this by all means move it there

The richest codes in world sport:

No surprise the Yanks lead the way
NFL - $9.5 billion in 2013
MLB - $8.5 billion for 2013 (estimate)
NCAA - $8.5 billion
v
v
EPL - $5.5 billion
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
Then there's the Aussie sports
ALF - $446 million
NRL - $314.3 million
Cricket - $164 million

FFA - refuse to release financial details
I know they were around $90 million a few years back and suspect they're a little higher now

[yob]

Chop $765 million off the NFL, and something similar for the AFL in the coming years.