could somebody please explain how the money take from a game is worked out?

if for instance 50000 people go on monday and 30000 are paying visitors and 20000 are MFC members is it the same money if 40000 are paying visitors and 10000 are MFC MEMBERS?

as a member i have paid my admission money in my membership whether i go or not[ ill be there]

HOW IS IT WORKED OUT/

I'm curious about this one too.

I'd love to know what our real stadium deal is at the moment, how it works out; my hot chips and my brother's two hot dogs with far too much sauce - how much is that earning for the club? Or is it a matter of us getting paid for the gate, and the stadium taking it's cut of that plus sharing catering profits (which must be massive, bastards).

Then there's the issue of how it breaks down for members v non-members attending. Is it better for the club to have random stragglers wander in and pay at the gate, or to have pre-paid members attending?

And just at the most simplistic level, how much is one more attendance at a game typically worth?

$10?

$20?

I think having a number in our heads would make it that more tangible that we're doing the club some good when we bring people along or persuade others to go.

without knowing any exact details here are a few things i would assume happen...

Melbourne FC members showing up to home games doesn't make any money for the club, as they've already paid the club for their admission.

I would assume members of away clubs showing up to our home games result in the away club making a payment to the MFC for their admission. Therefore the clubs profit on all the members with away game membership when they don't show up to games.

Not sure about this one, but I would assume that the MCC and AFL members may pay the club when people show up to our home games too. But this is purely speculation, it could be done a number of different ways.

The MCC would place a cost on what it takes to run the MCG for a game, and this would be the target we need to meet before we make money.

Lets say for simplicity's sake, that every person through the door makes $10 gross profit. We know we break even at about 20,000 people, so that means it costs us about $200,000 to put on a game at the G. But after that 20,000th person comes through the gate, we make $10 clear profit for every person who comes through the gate. That's why when we have a game like Queens Birthday, we make a heap of money, in this example a crowd of 70,000 results in a $500,000 profit.

Melbourne FC members showing up to home games doesn't make any money for the club, as they've already paid the club for their admission.

If so, why is there a great push for members to attend games?

Too many assumptions there - would be good to find out more info

If so, why is there a great push for members to attend games?

Too many assumptions there - would be good to find out more info

well you'll find that there's a push to get more members... this is because the money goes directly to the club...

the great push is to get supporters to attend games, as not all supporters are members, so there will be people paying at the gate... and often if members come to games, they won't attend alone, so there is a chance they will come with non-members who pay to attend the game, which also increases gate receipts...

also clubs with more members are likely to draw bigger crowds... this is adventageous for the stadiums to have larger crowds, so these clubs receive a better deal regarding the costs of hosting a game... the stadiums make up the difference as they would receive more revenue from bar sales and the food vendors for the higher drawing games...

What about our home games where opposition members get in for free i.e Tassie Hawks - to compensate their members for Tassie games?? 40,000+ attendance & no money is exchanged!!!

well you'll find that there's a push to get more members... this is because the money goes directly to the club...

I posed the question of why, if your assumptions were correct, there was a push to get members to games.

I'm well aware that there are benefits to getting supporters signed up as MFC members.

I'm convinced that even if you're a member it still earns the club some money to turn up to games.

Here comes some thinking out loud, bear with me -

My understanding is that the club gets a kind of a 'bounty' based on how many people turn up to eat the stadium's "food", drink it's beer and throw chips at it's seagulls. Gate takings are only one aspect; three beers, a hot dog and a bucket of chips works out to aboout... $127 at the MCG... or...

Lets say a typical patron buys between $10 and $20 worth of 'stuff', on top of gate.

10,000 people means $100,000 to $200,000 worth of crap sold, with a pretty small margin of the total price going to actual expenses (plastic cups, a paper bag, payment to the pigeon/rat catcher, plus a courtesy stomach pump for every tenth visitor). The bigger the crowd, the smaller the relative costs get because an unused bar has the same expenses as a full one.

So, just on food and drinks you could easily see a half million gross profit from a 50,000 crowd.

Sponsors and those annoying ads bring in some more.

Then of course you've got corporate boxes, and finally the gate takings from non-members (plus those who have upgraded their seat beyond their normal member entitlement).

If I was making a wild guess, I'd say it's worth about $10 a head for the Melbourne Football Club, with a 20,000 attendance breaking even and a 50,000 attendance bringing us $300,000, a good cut of the afternoon's take, which would likely be approaching a cool million overall.

A boutique stadium has, obviously, much lower initial capital costs (MCG is well into the hundreds of millions to build, 800 sounds right but I'm not sure) as well as much smaller overheads to keep all of it's facilities open on gameday.

Lets presume the club's cut at a small stadium is much better. 25,000 people might make the stadium three hundred thousand, of which we could reasonably hope to get a hundred an fifty? So still $10 a head, but with a break-even at 10,000 instead of twenty.

Ok, I'm done thinking out loud, anyone else want a go?

I posed the question of why, if your assumptions were correct, there was a push to get members to games.

I'm well aware that there are benefits to getting supporters signed up as MFC members.

if you read the next paragraph i attempted to explain (not very clear, was half asleep)...

i said the push to get people to show up to matches wasn't directed at members, but at melbourne supporters in general... not all supporters are members... so those people who aren't members have to pay to get in at the gate...

further, if more members do attend, there is an increased likelyhood they would bring non-members along with them, which also increases great receipts...

What about our home games where opposition members get in for free i.e Tassie Hawks - to compensate their members for Tassie games?? 40,000+ attendance & no money is exchanged!!!

there would be some arrangement between the clubs, something along the lines of the following... all hawthorn members who showed up to the game would have to scan their membership cards... the MFC would then charge hawthorn for all of the members who attended the match...

I'm convinced that even if you're a member it still earns the club some money to turn up to games.

Here comes some thinking out loud, bear with me -

My understanding is that the club gets a kind of a 'bounty' based on how many people turn up to eat the stadium's "food", drink it's beer and throw chips at it's seagulls. Gate takings are only one aspect; three beers, a hot dog and a bucket of chips works out to aboout... $127 at the MCG... or...

Lets say a typical patron buys between $10 and $20 worth of 'stuff', on top of gate.

10,000 people means $100,000 to $200,000 worth of crap sold, with a pretty small margin of the total price going to actual expenses (plastic cups, a paper bag, payment to the pigeon/rat catcher, plus a courtesy stomach pump for every tenth visitor). The bigger the crowd, the smaller the relative costs get because an unused bar has the same expenses as a full one.

So, just on food and drinks you could easily see a half million gross profit from a 50,000 crowd.

Sponsors and those annoying ads bring in some more.

Then of course you've got corporate boxes, and finally the gate takings from non-members (plus those who have upgraded their seat beyond their normal member entitlement).

there could be something along these lines... there may be a contract in place that clubs receive a share of catering and bar sales, or a fee per head that enters the ground... or the MCC keeps it all to themselves... would depend on the stadium deal... wouldn't surprise me if we don't get something like this while collingwood do given they have a much better stadium deal...