2018 Membership Thread

[Grapeviney 8,815]

45 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

but you said "because the new cost of it is no doubt much closer to its real value". So, you think that $299 is a fair price just for the opportunity to purchase a ticket maybe of less value? I think it is a rip off, and doubly so if you have no choice. 

It's not about fair or unfair, it's simple market forces. When people are forking out thousands of dollars for limited GF tickets off scalpers and resellers, as Richmond fans were this year, then $299 insurance premium + ticket cost simply becomes the total cost you pay for a ticket.

You're paying $300 now to avoid having to pay $1200 in GF week, or the $450-$650 price tag of a premium membership. Whichever way you do it, you've got to pay somewhere along the way. 

There's no point pricing the GFG at $75 and having 25,000 members subscribe to it if you only have 15,000 tickets. 

Edit: If we do make a GF and the allocation is undersubscribed then we will know the club has got the price point wrong, but I'd be surprised. If anything, it may go up in the future as the team improves and a GF appearance becomes a real possibility. 

Edited November 1, 2017 by Grapeviney

[daisycutter 28,485]

20 minutes ago, Grapeviney said:

It's not about fair or unfair, it's simple market forces. When people are forking out thousands of dollars for limited GF tickets off scalpers and resellers, as Richmond fans were this year, then $299 insurance premium + ticket cost simply becomes the total cost you pay for a ticket.

You're paying $300 now to avoid having to pay $1200 in GF week, or the $450-$650 price tag of a premium membership. Whichever way you do it, you've got to pay somewhere along the way. 

There's no point pricing the GFG at $75 and having 25,000 members subscribe to it if you only have 15,000 tickets. 

Edit: If we do make a GF and the allocation is undersubscribed then we will know the club has got the price point wrong. 

i understand your argument, but you are just justifying the club acting as a scalper which in my book is gouging.

i see a few things wrong

1. it is too dear

2. it is bundled with no choice for ga home/away member reserved seats

3. the % increase from previous year is too great

4. there was no full disclosure to members prior to availability (especially for auto renewal members)

there must be a better, fairer way

just my 2c worth. 

[Grapeviney 8,815]

7 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

i understand your argument, but you are just justifying the club acting as a scalper which in my book is gouging.

i see a few things wrong

1. it is too dear

2. it is bundled with no choice for ga home/away member reserved seats

3. the % increase from previous year is too great

4. there was no full disclosure to members prior to availability (especially for auto renewal members)

there must be a better, fairer way

just my 2c worth. 

Fair enough dc, i just don't see the club's behaviour as predatory in the same way you do, although I definitely agree that ht shouldn't have been docked that amount automatically and without notification in a year when it's gone through the roof. 

But on point 3, that's a consequence of our improvement from no-hopers to maybes. The GFG was basically worthless in the past, effectively making it a donation to the club. Now it's a real product and its value is always going to fluctuate relative to the likelihood of the MFC making the granny. 

Let's just hope we get to use it in 2018.  

[Deeoldfart 7,720]

Like some others, I went very cool on footy after our gutless 'end of year fade-out'.  Unlike previous years, my interest in the finals series was barely lukewarm, and it is only now, with the trade period gone and draft approaching, that my interest has been somewhat rekindled. But I always knew that my support for Melbourne will live as long as I do ....... it's in my DNA.  A few days ago I renewed memberships for myself and five other family members.  It will be their Christmas gift, and they can 'like it or lump it' but I am very confident that it will be the former.  

[HardBallGet 127]

17 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

That's good to know.  Thanks

I couldn't find on the website if someone wanted to buy a new GA Home + Reserved seat membership.  Will have another look when I have more time.

I rang the club about this a few weeks back. If you have an existing reserve seat package you can continue without the $429 reserve seat gfg bundle paying only slightly more for your demon seat package than you did last year. However you cannot purchase a new reserve seat package without the gfg bundled in. If like me you purchased a gfg and demon seats in 2017 you were automatically transferred into demon seats plus for 2018 with the gfg at a cost of $429. 

[Lucifers Hero 36,991]

1 hour ago, HardBallGet said:

I rang the club about this a few weeks back. If you have an existing reserve seat package you can continue without the $429 reserve seat gfg bundle paying only slightly more for your demon seat package than you did last year. However you cannot purchase a new reserve seat package without the gfg bundled in. If like me you purchased a gfg and demon seats in 2017 you were automatically transferred into demon seats plus for 2018 with the gfg at a cost of $429. 

Thanks HBG.  Again, it seems like poor membership communication on renewals. 

 

 

The new 'packaging' concept seems a back door way of raising revenue, especially as there are limited GF tickets available.  At some point the club will need to cap the number of memberships with the gfg (as Bulldogs did post 2016) and then new members will only be able to buy the vanilla GA membership.

To me it seems that without a 'reserve seat' option it is one less offering to help attract new members!  Or offer a mid point for those who want to opt out of the gfg.  Oh well, hope the club hasn't inadvertently deterred potential new members.  We need every member we can get!

[Lucifers Hero 36,991]

It looks like a lot of people held off to the last minute for the Oct 31 cut off for Christmas membership mail. 

That and the Nov 1 Direct Debit renewals have kicked in and today's number is 21,559!

Still about 1,478 short of 2017 figure around this time (23,037) but improving!  

[Red and Bluebeard 2,031]

On 01/11/2017 at 7:58 AM, hardtack said:

I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one Ding. The problem is, and this is my biggest issue, the GF guarantee fee is automatically charged with the membership renewal... I believe they should not have done that and that it should be something you opt into, rather than out of. If that had been the case, then I probably would have held off until later in the season.

My son has been through a lot having had an arthroscopy at age 13 two years ago, and more recently a full knee reconstruction after reinjuring the knee in what was essentially his first game back this year; so I think he’s had enough disappointments for one so young. If we make the GF and I couldn’t get seats after promising him I would, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself (not to mention the personal disappointment after waiting 54 years to actually see us win a GF... could only listen on the radio back in ‘64).

 

Sandra Sully stuff hardtack, but I am very sorry to hear this. Hope the young bloke is going well and has an injury-free season next year.

[Diamond_Jim 11,738]

Does anyone know how many clubs have closed GFG categories (ie there is a waiting list).

As posted earlier Footscray is a closed list and I suspect many of the other bigger clubs are closed as well.

I see a new/increasing revenue spinner here as they up the price and people have to pay up or lose out to those on the waiting list.

Cannot stand auto renewals of anything. AFL membership moved to that last year. At least I got an email saying they were going to renew next week unless I opted out.

[daisycutter 28,485]

6 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Cannot stand auto renewals of anything. AFL membership moved to that last year. At least I got an email saying they were going to renew next week unless I opted out.

agree on both. communication prior to renewal with new pricing and opt out should be mandatory. a lot of my insurance policies have ended up auto renewal but have had prior notification. in most cases i have switched

[deebug 1,754]

That's why i just pay for it at the local post office, i know it's the old way but at least I'm in control.

[M_9 1,639]

17 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Does anyone know how many clubs have closed GFG categories (ie there is a waiting list).

....

As far as I know all the major Victorian clubs have a long waiting list (and charge a huge quid) for GFG membership packages. I let mine lapse in 2000 and I was filthy at having to leave the prelim (when Farmer blitzed) at 3/4 time to queue up, Promptly re-joined the next year. I'm pretty sure what I pay is substantially less than what my mate (a Tigers' man) pays. He lives in NSW and rarely gets to a game, but 30 years of loyalty paid off this year.

[Diamond_Jim 11,738]

2 hours ago, M_9 said:

As far as I know all the major Victorian clubs have a long waiting list (and charge a huge quid) for GFG membership packages. I let mine lapse in 2000 and I was filthy at having to leave the prelim (when Farmer blitzed) at 3/4 time to queue up, Promptly re-joined the next year. I'm pretty sure what I pay is substantially less than what my mate (a Tigers' man) pays. He lives in NSW and rarely gets to a game, but 30 years of loyalty paid off this year.

Thanks M9

In 2015 the Bulldogs charged $110 as the add on that got you the GFG. After the 2016 GF this category maxed out.

My friend who is a Doggies supporter thinks there are 12K in the Bulldogs Social Club (the GFG category) though this seems high to me .

If he is correct at $200 per member for the 2018 season that is a cool $2.4M extra

[Demon Disciple 10,923]

4 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

Still about 1,478 short of 2017 figure around this time (23,037) but improving!  

After that round 23 performance, who could blame anyone questioning whether to sign up again or not.

I reckon we will struggle to beat last years membership tally, our second half of the year was truly uninspiring.

[Salems Lot 2,369]

I will, just not yet!!

 

[John Crow Batty 8,252]

Club induced inertia prevented me from cancelling my auto renewal. People may bag casual not fully committed members but they are the ones that bring true riches to the club. Die hard supporters just keep the club away from oxygen support. We may lose up to ten thousand next season and perhaps another ten thousand bandwagon jumpers who would have joined if we we did make the finals.

[old dee 22,847]

Anyone who makes the bet to pay for a gauranteed GF ticket is a poor gambler. We have not made a finals match for a decade and a half let alone an GF.

We have played in a GF twice in the last half century. The odds are terrible for it happening in 2018. 

Still I suppose the club needs the money.

[Rogue 585]

52 minutes ago, old dee said:

Anyone who makes the bet to pay for a gauranteed GF ticket is a poor gambler. We have not made a finals match for a decade and a half let alone an GF.

We have played in a GF twice in the last half century. The odds are terrible for it happening in 2018. 

Still I suppose the club needs the money.

What we did 10 years ago, or half a century ago, isn't very relevant.

Whether it's a good bet or not comes down to how likely you are to get a grand final ticket if you don't have the guarantee, and how much you care if you miss out.

People are throwing around the $1000/$1200 amounts like there's an easy way of nabbing a grand final ticket, but the sad truth is there are many supporters who'd happily pay that in their grand final seasons but miss out entirely.

What's it worth to you to be at our next flag?

[daisycutter 28,485]

10 minutes ago, Rogue said:

What we did 10 years ago, or half a century ago, isn't very relevant.

Whether it's a good bet or not comes down to how likely you are to get a grand final ticket if you don't have the guarantee, and how much you care if you miss out.

People are throwing around the $1000/$1200 amounts like there's an easy way of nabbing a grand final ticket, but the sad truth is there are many supporters who'd happily pay that in their grand final seasons but miss out entirely.

What's it worth to you to be at our next flag?

our last two grand final appearances certainly weren't worth paying money, let alone big money to see

[hardtack 10,126]

8 hours ago, Red and Bluebeard said:

Sandra Sully stuff hardtack, but I am very sorry to hear this. Hope the young bloke is going well and has an injury-free season next year.

Well, he will definitely have no injuries next year as he won’t be able to participate for 12 months from the date of the operation, meaning he will miss the entire 2018 season. Hopefully he will be good to go for the 2019 preseason, but he’s concerned that the jump in pace and physicality going from under 15s to under 17s may be a bridge too far. 

[old dee 22,847]

3 hours ago, Rogue said:

What we did 10 years ago, or half a century ago, isn't very relevant.

Whether it's a good bet or not comes down to how likely you are to get a grand final ticket if you don't have the guarantee, and how much you care if you miss out.

People are throwing around the $1000/$1200 amounts like there's an easy way of nabbing a grand final ticket, but the sad truth is there are many supporters who'd happily pay that in their grand final seasons but miss out entirely.

What's it worth to you to be at our next flag?

Not much Rogue because I doubt I will be alive.

if you had not purchased the guarantee over the last decade you would now be well in front of your grand price.

It might make emotional sense but not a financial one. 

Edited November 2, 2017 by old dee

[old dee 22,847]

3 hours ago, daisycutter said:

our last two grand final appearances certainly weren't worth paying money, let alone big money to see

Yes dc if the next one followed a similar course you would be asking for a refund.

[Rogue 585]

4 hours ago, old dee said:

Not much Rogue because I doubt I will be alive.

if you had not purchased the guarantee over the last decade you would now be well in front of your grand price.

It might make emotional sense but not a financial one. 

I haven't posted much for a season or two, but I reckon you're still rolling out that same line. Hopefully you're saying that the season after our next flag!

At the risk of repeating myself, it's worth noting that every grand final there are people who literally cannot get a ticket, despite being willing and able to buy one. That's what the guarantee covers.

Fwiw I have not purchased one over the last decade, and $300 seems pretty steep to me.

Edited November 2, 2017 by Rogue

[old dee 22,847]

4 hours ago, Rogue said:

I haven't posted much for a season or two, but I reckon you're still rolling out that same line. Hopefully you're saying that the season after our next flag!

At the risk of repeating myself, it's worth noting that every grand final there are people who literally cannot get a ticket, despite being willing and able to buy one. That's what the guarantee covers.

Fwiw I have not purchased one over the last decade, and $300 seems pretty steep to me.

Me too I simply don't have the $300 to splash on a long odds bet.

If by a miracle we should make a GF in the next few years and I cannot get a ticket I will like tens of thousands of others have to watch it from the lounge room.

 

[Red and Bluebeard 2,031]

9 hours ago, hardtack said:

Well, he will definitely have no injuries next year as he won’t be able to participate for 12 months from the date of the operation, meaning he will miss the entire 2018 season. Hopefully he will be good to go for the 2019 preseason, but he’s concerned that the jump in pace and physicality going from under 15s to under 17s may be a bridge too far. 

:-( I am sure that he will be so keen after so long out that he will tear into them like Jack Viney!