Club targetting 30,000 members by rnd 1

[Sir Why You Little 34,697]

You assume the Club (both current and previous) aren't looking at all avenues. My understanding they have looked at a number of proposals (Some with potential, some that are not viable).

There are a number of issues (in no particular order) for MFC both present and in the past:

1. Lack of success....46 years of drought...Almost 2 generations of supporters can say they have never seen a flag

2. Lack of regional or demographic representation.

3. Mediocre brand and profile.

4. Lack of infrastructure and poor non match facilities.

5. Poor membership and membership support arrangements.

6. Poor sponsorship history.

7. Historical legacy. (Both good and bad)

8. Lack of brand penetration interstate.

9. Divisive and unprofessional Boards / administration (at times)

10. Poor financial management

There are possibly other

The natural advantage MFC had in the 1950s and 1960s has been eroded by the changing face of the game. MFC has traditionally been slow to realise that.

MFC are in a difficult predicament where there are no low lying fruit opportunites to quickly turn it around. Schwab and co have taken some of the good initiatives from the old administration and add a few of their own. This will take time. If you have suggestions then let the Club know

i will also add to that list

1. Being removed from the MCG as a training ground & going to the junction oval for 20 odd years. St.kilda Heartland where i doubt we were able to increase support very much

2. as Cameron Schwab said in his Wednesday video this week. "We didn't grow from a suburb, We Grew from a Stadium"

3.Lack of Success in the late 60's & early 70's when football became serious viewing on 7- How often were we telecast on "7's Big Leauge"

4. Once the new Facilities are built at Casey then we should start to build a new generation of members-let's hope so..

[Inner Demon 1]

Do you actually know the facts behind it? And the moneys involved? If think MFC can do that, call the Club and give them the wisdom.

See lack of success.

Any sponsorship we can get is good. But the Volvo deal is small beer against the Tassie deal that the Hawks get. Its all bottom line revenue and its significant. Volvo is not in their league $$$ wise and MFC does not have the brand power to demand more. China is pie in the sky...It might hold something for MFC...then again it might not....Dont hold your breath on it.

Why would you compare our shorts sponsor to another Club's guernsey sponsor??

Our guernsey sponsor deals are in the top half of the comp.

[Wolfmother 182]

Do you actually know the facts behind it? And the moneys involved? If think MFC can do that, call the Club and give them the wisdom.

See lack of success.

I read something about it a couple of weeks ago,

The clubs get about 600Kp.a for the deal... I believe essendon generate around 800-900K for the website...

Although the web is a great new medium to speak to fans if the club runs the site you would need the staff plus be be required to generate the revenue yourself... The increased use of twitter and facebook may allow for greater information to be supplied to the member but maintain the revenue from telstra

[2014-Flag 0]

In reflection given the 43 years of drought and the 3 years of hell we have endured our membership has grown steadily. The Hawks even at their darkest moments of the past decade had:

1. A terrific legacy of success from 1971 to 1991 (8 Flags, 11 GFs) where they developed and matured a galaxy of stars. All the supporters they would have pulled then are now affluent 30+/40+ something who are the backbone of their membership today. Even at their worst they have always had at least 30,000 members.

2. They were blessed by the Saints on two occassions.

a) When the Saints pulled out of Waverley to go to Darklands and Moorabbin. Hawks handed toop class training venue on a platter.

b ) When the Saints (again!) pulled out of playing games in Tassie that the Hawks got 100% of a goldmine of sponsorship deal (with no sponosrs contras) which has yielded them Tassie members (5k).

3. List management - Generous PP system that has since changed. Good draft picks in quality years (99,01 and 04). Two excellent trades.

The websites are owned by Telstra(?) and I find the websites about as informative as a Hun front page. Unfortunately the club is tied to that deal.

I think given the difficult parameters that MFC is in, the Club realise there aren't ready breakout opportunities but a number of smaller initiatives that will take time to pay dividends.

Next time try a get to a Club function and see if you can corner a MFC director and enquire of the challenges and the strategies going forward. I hardly think their strategy is something they will blaze in public.

I don't agree there aren't any breakout strategies open to Mfc in developing new markets. You went through the opportunities which Hawthorn used to build its list. Hawthorn very acutely took advantage of st kilda's lack of foresight on those issues. We could have too - we were just too slow and too lacking in imagination,and probably stuck in the old ways of doing things.

There are always breakout strategies available to organisations with strategic strengths (as we have got) and a strong organisation (which we now have got). All it requires is some lateral thinking and innovative ways of looking at things. Off the top of my head I listed four possible directions in post #35 & #42 on here. I could have listed another half dozen, but it requires far more of course than a simple post on here, especially a strong basis of fact and planning which is the basis of decision making.

But on the general point that you made that the club has examined all the alternatives and there are no breakout strategies available to them - well I would never accept that. With the right commitment they can be identified. It is a question of getting to them before the other guys and taking advantage of them.

Edited March 21, 2010 by 2014-Flag

[Rhino Richards 1,467]

Why would you compare our shorts sponsor to another Club's guernsey sponsor??

Our guernsey sponsor deals are in the top half of the comp.

The quantum of $$$ involved with Volvo will not have the impact of a Tassie type deal. In most cases any sponsorship money is good revenue.

I think our current sponsorship deals are promising but our sponsorship history has been a weakness for us financially.

...

I think we are arguing semantics. I dont think at the present time there are "breakout" strategies of the type the Hawks have enjoyed. I think with the current administration under Schwab, there is the commitment to finding succesful solutions. However there are no easy ones. I think the present administraition is laterally looking at opportunities. But to date none have been identified as the big strategy. In all fairness you have put four untested ideas down. That's good. Tell the Club. But its not clear they are anymore than the 100s of paper ideas that get put forward, reviewed and determined by the MFC admin.

My comment on the Hawks was in reference to their financial recovery in comparison of MFC. The two deals that the Saints overlooked (Waverley and Tassie) were extraordinary, one off type deals that literally fell into the Hawks lap. The Hawks were blessed with manna from heaven. Not too much innovation or nous required there. However they were extreme and very profitable cases which in the absence of deals like that I would be surprised for MFC to make such a rapid phoenix like rise. MFC did however take the opportunity when the Kaspersky deal fortuitously came across their desk.

Given the situation and legacy MFC has, the MFC admin needs to do exactly as you say. I have no evidence to suggest they have not been doing this nor wont be doing such going forward.

[jayceebee31 671]

More than 4500 members need to be signed this week- sorry Jimma- the team let you down in the critical match against Fremantle for momentum..Told you all this would happen. However we will win this week regain momentum and reach the budgeted 31000. I hope.

[H_T 2,941]

More than 4500 members need to be signed this week- sorry Jimma- the team let you down in the critical match against Fremantle for momentum..Told you all this would happen. However we will win this week regain momentum and reach the budgeted 31000. I hope.

*scoff*

Reference:

And that's the only number that matters from an internal perspective. Whether they achieve promotional milestones isn't ruffling feathers, frankly, if they'd hit 30,000 by Rnd 1 we'd have been MILES ahead of the 31,000 target so it would've been champagne corks.

If we can get to 27,500 for Rnd 1 that will be quite satisfactory.

[jayceebee31 671]

*scoff*

Reference:

HT-- Thanks for misrepresenting my post-- no words were underlined. However, thanks for showing up that I was right.

[H_T 2,941]

HT-- Thanks for misrepresenting my post-- no words were underlined. However, thanks for showing up that I was right.

That is because I underlined it. Emphasising your big call.

We shall receive some rain in Melbourne by Round 6.

Can't wait to tell everyone once it does rain.

The law of averages would suggest it is bound to happen given the circumstances of our weather patterns.

[2014-Flag 0]

The quantum of $$$ involved with Volvo will not have the impact of a Tassie type deal. In most cases any sponsorship money is good revenue.

I think our current sponsorship deals are promising but our sponsorship history has been a weakness for us financially.

I think we are arguing semantics. I dont think at the present time there are "breakout" strategies of the type the Hawks have enjoyed. I think with the current administration under Schwab, there is the commitment to finding succesful solutions. However there are no easy ones. I think the present administraition is laterally looking at opportunities. But to date none have been identified as the big strategy. In all fairness you have put four untested ideas down. That's good. Tell the Club. But its not clear they are anymore than the 100s of paper ideas that get put forward, reviewed and determined by the MFC admin.

My comment on the Hawks was in reference to their financial recovery in comparison of MFC. The two deals that the Saints overlooked (Waverley and Tassie) were extraordinary, one off type deals that literally fell into the Hawks lap. The Hawks were blessed with manna from heaven. Not too much innovation or nous required there. However they were extreme and very profitable cases which in the absence of deals like that I would be surprised for MFC to make such a rapid phoenix like rise. MFC did however take the opportunity when the Kaspersky deal fortuitously came across their desk.

Given the situation and legacy MFC has, the MFC admin needs to do exactly as you say. I have no evidence to suggest they have not been doing this nor wont be doing such going forward.

I think it is time to be constructive. I'm not suggesting, Rhino, you are anything else but this. Others on this site seem to want to tear down the good work that has been done by the Club in its current form, I am not one of them, either are you.

I view sites such as this as a means of tapping into feedback from dedicated supporters who want to see the Club SUCCEED in the longer term. The clubs should use this that way.

My contention re Hawthorn is i dont believe their opportunities are unique. They come by from time to time. My challenge is we should learn from them as to how the MFC were outgunned by the Hawks on THESE issues, and we should analyse why we were and make sure we do not miss out on similar opportunities in future.

Take Darwin. About half the population of Tasmania, but one that is getting huge injection of funds from both locally and federally and indeed internationally because of the appalling state of indiginous welfare ( to which no one in my view could argue). AFL is not only the indiginous game, it is also the one where the indiginous players have an inate and unique ability. it is also one where this is fundamental to the future of the MFC given its fabulous indiginous playing roster.It would also have hugely beneficial affects on the demographic which is of most concern to policy makers ie 14-25 male indiginous youth.It is also a key operating environment for huge mining, oil & gas, and pastoral companies who have both an employment and PR interest to promote the interests of their local populations. How better than through their local indiginous game. Maybe also a source of substantial sponsorship dollars. Surely better than MFC's current major sponsors, allegedly the lowest in the AFL in terms of total dollars contributed.

What if we did a deal with the NT government,similar to hawthorn's tasmanian deal? The benefits to both parties are different but if anything more profound. It creates a unique role model to indiginous children, and a whole new goverment backed market for the mfc. It might even pre-empt Gold Coast in capturing that market, and provide additional members and sponsors.

Another one, which is tied to the internet which i mentioned previously, is our unique connection to the MCG. There are someting like 400k people who tour the MCG outside playing times every year, of which about 60% are overeas based. What if we were to insinuate our way into this group, provide presentations as to what Aussie rules is all about, give them free scarfs and lapel badges, AND free overseas memberships for a year which entitles them to four free games a year to the MCG. We also get our web act together and give them access to replays of MFC games when they get back to their home countries, even in hindi or mandarin. How many of them would sign up fully paid the next year as overseas members or full members when they emmigrate? Even if they didn't what have we got to lose? The AFL would love it, and may even fund it.

Further, about 20% of those people are potential immigrants, often overseas students particularly from the sub-continent. There are about 250k students from the subcontinent in melbourne at any one time. If we position ourselves as THEIR club, so it becomes fashionable for them, when they arrive in melbourne to join us, where do you think that will take the MFC. Make the MFC a key place for them to socially network and meet others - a "cool" place to be. Not attractive to the old burgers of the long room maybe, but directs us to an incredibly strong and prosperous 21st century future, and into a wealthy tertiary educated market which goes with our current demographic.

At the moment these are only ideas. I realise they can be dismissed as "only one of hundreds that come in every year". As someone who has run a number of high powered marketing depertments here and overseas, that is the standard response from Product Managers who come across ideas they didn't invent themselves, and is the bane of their senior management who are interested in original and innovative thought.

Now i don't know whether these have any traction at all, but at least they are constructive, and demonstrate that the break out options are real and should be explored.

I wait with baited breath to see whether anything changes.

Edited March 22, 2010 by 2014-Flag

[Roost It 1,434]

2014 - Talk to the people who run our club

[Inner Demon 1]

The club's already working on the potential Darwin link. It's not random that we're playing a home game there this year.

[Sir Why You Little 34,697]

I hope Darwin becomes the Football suburb that the MFC never had.

3-4 games a year up there would be a massive injection of supporters and cash flow.