On 14/03/2012 at 01:58, Jonesbag said:

we are well beyond panic mode on this link now, i personally need some reassurance from the club, something along the lines of 'we have a sponsor but we will annouce it the week before the first game'. If we go into the rd 1 clash without a front sponsor ill die from embarressment. My mates give me enough crap about melbourne without this happening.

come on MFC let your fans know whats going on PLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAASSSSSSEEEEEE

Seriously, the amount of panic merchants on this site is just ridiculous. I mean really, people like Jonesbag who claims If we go into the rd 1 clash without a front sponsor ill die from embarressment.... Get a grip will you. I suggest to everyone to take a deep breath and concetrate on things you can control - worrying about if the MFC have a front of jumper sponsor by round 1 is completely pointless..

  On 14/03/2012 at 04:44, old dee said:

How do we know it is not happening?

If we are all members!

they would not ring us.

Anyone out there had a call?

I haven't signed up yet and I had a call last week.

Told them that I would sign up in the next month when my cash flow problem was resolved.

The lady was very polite and understanding.

  On 14/03/2012 at 05:25, jako13 said:

Every year just before that season starts they do a membership drive to pull in the ones that have lapsed. Quite some members deliberately wait until the drive, where as stated many players and staff do the ring around. I wish people on here would quit with the sky is falling attitudes. The club is finally in a financially strong position, albeit less one major sponsor, said sponsor may or may not be in the bag, but in the overall scheme of things is really quite minor compared to say 10 years ago. I've already said it it about 5 pages ago - the FOJ sponsor at the absolute maximum would make up 5% of the total turnover, much more likely to be about 2 to 3 %. The only real setbacks are us supporters who can't get this years up to date jumper yet, and the ribbing we may cop from [censored] opposition supporters who think that not having a FOJ sponsor all of a sudden means 30 to 40 odd million dollars of turnover has disappeared in an instant. Calm down people it'll happen when it happens, if that is prior to season start fantastic, if not the sun will still rise tomorrow and the Dee's will still be playing at the MCG thanks to all the hard work of Jimmy, Don, Cam et al. Oh and the 1 billion dollar tv rights deal....

Correct.

$40 Million is projected to go through the club in 2012...A $2 Mill Sponsor would be great to have now, but the club will not go under or mysteriously explode if it is not yet clinched.

The second major sponsor is very important, but still just a part in a bigger operation.

Membership drive is just as important.

  On 14/03/2012 at 05:50, hells bells said:

I haven't signed up yet and I had a call last week.

Told them that I would sign up in the next month when my cash flow problem was resolved.

The lady was very polite and understanding.

Thanks for the info Hells bells.

So they are ringing people.

that being the case there appears to be a lot reluctant x members out there.

Not real a surprise I guess

Does it really matter if we don't have a sponsor on the FOJ? Or the back for that matter.

If we are in a solid financial position; does it really matter if we don't have a sponsor at all.

From my point of view the sponsors logo/s make the jumper look tatty.

I much prefer just the plain guernsey.

  On 14/03/2012 at 07:59, skills32 said:

Does it really matter if we don't have a sponsor on the FOJ? Or the back for that matter.

If we are in a solid financial position; does it really matter if we don't have a sponsor at all.

Wouldn't you prefer to be in an even better financial position?

Just because we're out of debt, doesn't mean we're rich. Pretty sure we still get handouts from the AFL each year?

  On 14/03/2012 at 09:14, rhaz said:

Wouldn't you prefer to be in an even better financial position?

Just because we're out of debt, doesn't mean we're rich. Pretty sure we still get handouts from the AFL each year?

Exactly rhaz. I'd much rather thrive than survive

I'm (currently) one of the lapsed members from last year. I fully intend to re-sign before the season starts but just haven't got around to it. I received my renewal notice in November last year, and reckon I have received it at that time each year for the last 8-9 years. Very surprised to hear the suggestion that the club hasn't contacted the lapsed members.

Every team gets hand outs from the AFL, every team gets a cut from the media rights. Some clubs get preferential fixtures which maximize attendance, sponsorship etc. other clubs including ours get a bigger cut as we get slammed year in year out in the Sunday fixtures, lack of friday night big stage games etc. no we aren't rich however we're not in major difficulty either. There is no real stress from my perspective there rhaz. An FOJ sponsor worth somewhere between 1 and 2 mill is money that for us is life changing, for running an AFL football club with a budget of 40 mill, not necessarily a major component. We get one of note, we will become that very strong club financially that you are looking for once we start achieving on field success, and over an extended period.

  On 14/03/2012 at 07:59, skills32 said:

Does it really matter if we don't have a sponsor on the FOJ? Or the back for that matter.

If we are in a solid financial position; does it really matter if we don't have a sponsor at all.

From my point of view the sponsors logo/s make the jumper look tatty.

I much prefer just the plain guernsey.

I'm struggling for words to reply to this post. It is seriously the most bizarre opinion that I have ever read on this site.

Melbourne has one of the smallest budgets in the AFL. Over the last decade the teams with the biggest budgets have been at the top. If you are happy to be spending half as much as Collingwood and Geelong and not making finals, sponsorship isn't important, having a nice plain jumper is.

So, we had our official season launch last night, great opportunity to announce our new sponsor.

Oh that's right, the timing wasn't right because it was the International Day of Action For Rivers and Against Dams and that would've got more exposure in the media. It was also a day where 2 firemen saved an 8 week old kitten that was stuck in a tree, and that a bronze statue of Knut, the famous polar bear, was unveiled at the Berlin zoo.

And still we wait, twiddling our thumbs. It's gunna happen in a matter of days...

I was speaking to a senior at DHL who are big in sponsoring F1. He gave me great insight into sponsorship negotiations and reasons why there is no communication from clubs until it is a done deal. First things first the ROI in sponsoring sport clubs is in most cases not good. There are many good examples of sporting goods companies sponsoring players and getting a very good return (Nike and Tiger Woods) but sponsoring a whole club doesnt provide much of a return.

If we our questioning the competency of staff over not communicating about where we are at on sponsorship negotations, we would be horrified if we got insight into how many companies go down the negotiation route only to pull the pin at various stages. We got a small insight on the leaked information on a start then stop deal with Bank of Melbourne. The fickle nature of sponsorship deals applies not only toour club - thats all clubs)

  On 14/03/2012 at 07:59, skills32 said:

Does it really matter if we don't have a sponsor on the FOJ? Or the back for that matter.

If we are in a solid financial position; does it really matter if we don't have a sponsor at all.

From my point of view the sponsors logo/s make the jumper look tatty.

I much prefer just the plain guernsey.

Yes, it does matter.

If you can't get a company to sponsor the club, it essentially means that the brand isn't indicative of the price asked for sponsorship, or, the brand just ain't worth that much.

It's very important. Why do EPL teams have sponsors?

  On 14/03/2012 at 04:44, old dee said:

How do we know it is not happening?

If we are all members!

they would not ring us.

Anyone out there had a call?

Bought my membership yesterday but had no contact from the club prior to that apart from the renewal notice last november

As this is the appropriate thread - can someone tell us what Cam Schwab said at the dinner last night that made them feel that the China "deal" is no longer?

Cheers.

  On 15/03/2012 at 00:14, Cudi_420 said:

It's very important. Why do EPL teams have sponsors?

Because most barely struggle to pay for their players as there is no salary cap.

No major leagues in the US (excluding soccer) have sponsors on the uniforms. I'm not for or against but US sports is the biggest.

  On 15/03/2012 at 02:17, billy2803 said:

As this is the appropriate thread - can someone tell us what Cam Schwab said at the dinner last night that made them feel that the China "deal" is no longer?

Cheers.

I didn't hear Cam Schwab say anything about it but Don McLardy said something along the lines of "it's a difficult market .. we have a number of opportunities we're progressing" earlier he mentioned that "we have contingency plans in place". On that basis I'm not expecting an imminent announcement. Others may have interpreted this differently.

  On 15/03/2012 at 03:25, old55 said:

I didn't hear Cam Schwab say anything about it but Don McLardy said something along the lines of "it's a difficult market .. we have a number of opportunities we're progressing" earlier he mentioned that "we have contingency plans in place". On that basis I'm not expecting an imminent announcement. Others may have interpreted this differently.

Thanks Old. My money is on one of 2 things;

* Energy Watch find themselves on both front and back (similar to the W.Bulldogs), with a slight increase in what they have already invested (ie an extra $250k)

* Volvo become the FoJ sponsor for a slight increase to what they have already committed (meaning they spend around $750k a year)

Whatever way this pans out, it's looking better by the day that B59 is buying me a beer!

  On 14/03/2012 at 05:37, Cudi_420 said:

I agree, but that sort of rationality around here won't get you far.

Don't you realise that this is the magical, amazing, can-do-no-wrong Melbourne Football Club?

They're trying oh-so-hard to sign a sponsor. It's hard work, it is. How can you be so mean! You're a mean, mean man...

Number one on my pet hates list is posters who pick out the pick out the absolute minority that see no wrong in everything the club does and carry on as if everyone on here thinks that way and they're the only glorious, rational, smart ones that see the light. It's especially frustrating when I know the poster doing it has been around long enough and is intelligent enough to know that the "rose coloured glasses" brigade aren't representative of everyone; nor are the "sky is falling" brigade.

  On 15/03/2012 at 03:32, billy2803 said:

Thanks Old. My money is on one of 2 things;

* Energy Watch find themselves on both front and back (similar to the W.Bulldogs), with a slight increase in what they have already invested (ie an extra $250k)

* Volvo become the FoJ sponsor for a slight increase to what they have already committed (meaning they spend around $750k a year)

Whatever way this pans out, it's looking better by the day that B59 is buying me a beer!

I don't think Volvo is still with us Anyone know????

  On 15/03/2012 at 04:27, Bossdog said:

I don't think Volvo is still with us Anyone know????

Just the Brighton dealership.

  On 15/03/2012 at 04:27, Bossdog said:

I don't think Volvo is still with us Anyone know????

Wasn't it a dealer of Volvo that signed up a couple of weeks back? Check on this thread somewhere, maybe 4 or 5 pages ago. either that or check in the news section of the MFC website.

Actually, take a look on the sponsors page - Altitude Volvo is one of our sponsors.

  On 15/03/2012 at 04:24, Nasher said:

Number one on my pet hates list is posters who pick out the pick out the absolute minority that see no wrong in everything the club does and carry on as if everyone on here thinks that way and they're the only glorious, rational, smart ones that see the light. It's especially frustrating when I know the poster doing it has been around long enough and is intelligent enough to know that the "rose coloured glasses" brigade aren't representative of everyone; nor are the "sky is falling" brigade.

Yes, the vast majority is in the middle - we see the sky falling but through our rose coloured glasses.

  On 15/03/2012 at 05:51, rpfc said:

Yes, the vast majority is in the middle - we see the sky falling but through our rose coloured glasses.

very good rpfc you take the prize so far for the 15th March.

  On 15/03/2012 at 04:33, billy2803 said:

Wasn't it a dealer of Volvo that signed up a couple of weeks back? Check on this thread somewhere, maybe 4 or 5 pages ago. either that or check in the news section of the MFC website.

Actually, take a look on the sponsors page - Altitude Volvo is one of our sponsors.

I think Mini should owe us some money with the free advertising we have given them.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/melbourne-footy-star-colin-sylvia-questioned-over-south-melbourne-crash/story-e6frf7jo-1226174405534