Not that I am into the conspiracy theories, but I have an inkling that the Club may be fudging the figures a little, at the moment, hoping to get a surge when a new sponsor is announced and hopefully, we put in a good NAB Cup performance. I would think that we will see an increase of some significance, by the end of February.

Memebrships counted should only be 11game memberships or higher then have another tally with lesser memberships.

Why?

Members with less than 11 game memberships might just take umbrage to these comments. Some supporters simply can't afford it whilst others, mainly interstaters can't extract maximum value from higher membership without spending thousands of dollars extra to fly over for games..

Segregating membership tallies would be a pointless exercise that would lead to polarisation.

We all support the same team so why should we be classed as different?

Why?

Members with less than 11 game memberships might just take umbrage to these comments. Some supporters simply can't afford it whilst others, mainly interstaters can't extract maximum value from higher membership without spending thousands of dollars extra to fly over for games..

Segregating membership tallies would be a pointless exercise that would lead to polarisation.

We all support the same team so why should we be classed as different?

Couldn't have said it better myself McQueen.

Gday everyone.

As i've mentioned previously club a little slow to update numbers. Figure close to 2011 tally at this time. Our biggest few weeks will be prior to Round 1 and then after

Gday everyone.

As i've mentioned previously club a little slow to update numbers. Figure close to 2011 tally at this time. Our biggest few weeks will be prior to Round 1 and then after

Thanks Red & Blue Flame. There you go 'longsuffering'.

Thanks Red & Blue Flame. There you go 'longsuffering'.

Thanks HT. I will sleep better tonight!

Thanks HT. I will sleep better tonight!

Should have a comparitive update Feb 2nd or 3rd from same time last year. There's a post of mine on page one this thread that gives dates and tally from 2011 at various stages. I'm using that as a guide as we get updates.

edit:

If it's any consolation, they just gave an update of 22,402. (Which is 6 ahead of 24th Jan last year)

Edited January 25, 201213 yr by H_T

Interesting link, regarding twitter and facebook, mediums which our future members will be using.

MFC are very poorly followed here, only GWS has less people who like them on "facebook"

http://sportsgeek.com.au/rankings/afl-social-media-ladder/

so where will all our future members come from?

Edited January 25, 201213 yr by Jordie_tackles

Greater Cranbourne/Casey development corridor ?

Greater Cranbourne/Casey development corridor ?

Yeah good point,

MFC's involvement out at Casey will become very important. If we do a good job out there with demon heartland then it will be a great platform.

Also nothing gets people on board like winning and premierships haha

Yeah good point,

MFC's involvement out at Casey will become very important. If we do a good job out there with demon heartland then it will be a great platform.

Also nothing gets people on board like winning and premierships haha

Success is definitely where we will need to build our supporter base from, I also agree that Casey will eventually give us additional support but again that will come with success and hopefully the local council and community will pump their affiliation with us when that happens.

Unfortunately we're still not cool enough to follow.

Btw I'd follow us on twitter, but I don't have an account nor do I want one!

Interesting link, regarding twitter and facebook, mediums which our future members will be using.

MFC are very poorly followed here, only GWS has less people who like them on "facebook"

http://sportsgeek.com.au/rankings/afl-social-media-ladder/

so where will all our future members come from?

This may be inaccurate as the twitter handle of @DemonsHQ is no longer our twitter handle. It is now @MelbourneFC

As of today they have approx 10,400 followers at the new handle.

Gippy

This may be inaccurate as the twitter handle of @DemonsHQ is no longer our twitter handle. It is now @MelbourneFC

As of today they have approx 10,400 followers at the new handle.

Gippy

That is positive, although i would believe facebook is an indication of our younger supporters, (no offence to anyone) and as we have such a traditionally older membership this seems to be backed up with the facebook figures.

Us being 20K and North 2nd lowest 33K ( not counting GWS, GC is higher than us also....)

Just really thought it pointed at us having the older generation, who support us well now, will we be able to fill out a stadium in 20 years? ect

That is positive, although i would believe facebook is an indication of our younger supporters, (no offence to anyone) and as we have such a traditionally older membership this seems to be backed up with the facebook figures....

..Just really thought it pointed at us having the older generation, who support us well now, will we be able to fill out a stadium in 20 years? ect

This is a fundamental point.

There is no doubt that we have age profile of our membership base is heavily skewed to those who grew up in the glory days. I suspect that many of our supporters are going to " retire" from going to the football over the next decade. This means we are going to have generate a lot of new members just to retain our present numbers. We could attract more new members than any other club without actually climbing up the membership table

I have no doubt the club is acutely aware of this - and that it is one of the reasons for our investment in the youthful Casey growth corridor

Tally update: -

Feb 7, 2012 - 23,422

Feb 3, 2011 - 23,457

Slipped a little comparatively speaking on 2011 figures. It's been a while since last update (ie. there was no update on Feb 3rd), but it's just about on par with last year.

Next update is on Feb 17. Last year's tally then was 25,253. We might get a better indication then.

...........................

Next update is on Feb 17. Last year's tally then was 25,253. We might get a better indication then.

There's also a chance we will sign up a good number at the intra-club at Casey, which I think is on the same day.

There's also a chance we will sign up a good number at the intra-club at Casey, which I think is on the same day.

You might be right. We've just had an update today (not expecting one tomorrow but might be proven wrong). So here it is: -

Feb 17, 2011 - 25,253.

Feb 16, 2012 - 24,195

The gap is widening...but as DeeOldFart mentions the club may sign quite a few tomorrow at Casey....

You might be right. We've just had an update today (not expecting one tomorrow but might be proven wrong). So here it is: -

Feb 17, 2011 - 25,253.

Feb 16, 2012 - 24,195

The gap is widening...but as DeeOldFart mentions the club may sign quite a few tomorrow at Casey....

The cap is widening because a lot of members are waiting to see how we play, our Administration has done a great job over the past 3 years in building interest in our club, both with new supporters and the media. There was expectations that our club would take further steps forward in 2011, this didn't happen. The Club knows it can't put the same positive spin out there for 2012, it has to now rely on the on field performances to grow our club and membership base.

You might be right. We've just had an update today (not expecting one tomorrow but might be proven wrong). So here it is: -

Feb 17, 2011 - 25,253.

Feb 16, 2012 - 24,195

The gap is widening...but as DeeOldFart mentions the club may sign quite a few tomorrow at Casey....

HT - when was last year's intraclub match (was it pre 17th Feb)? I wonder if that is a reason for the gap, or if in fact we are just behind what we were.

HT - when was last year's intraclub match (was it pre 17th Feb)? I wonder if that is a reason for the gap, or if in fact we are just behind what we were.

That did cross my mind billy. Although 1,000 is a fair gap to make up. Someone will have the answer....

I think it's reasonable to assume that given 2011 and the circumstances (particularly the magnitude of 186) and loss of HWSNBN), we could expect a little downturn in figures. However, the pick up of Clark and the revamped FD/coaches I thought may have off-set any setback as such. The other thing is, things may be getting tougher and supporters may be holding off til' later or would like to see how the team performs early on.

Whatever the case, I think there is one hell of a job ahead if they want to reach the target 40,000 in 2012.

That did cross my mind billy. Although 1,000 is a fair gap to make up. Someone will have the answer....

I think it's reasonable to assume that given 2011 and the circumstances (particularly the magnitude of 186) and loss of HWSNBN), we could expect a little downturn in figures. However, the pick up of Clark and the revamped FD/coaches I thought may have off-set any setback as such. The other thing is, things may be getting tougher and supporters are holding off til' later or would like to see how the team performs early on.

Whatever the case, I think there is one hell of a job ahead if they want to reach the target 40,000 in 2012.

Yeah, I think your last sentence about covers it.

The other thing is that the recruiting of Clark, while does excite me in terms of structure and development of Watts, etc, he isn't an A-lister. I don't think it would've generated an unexpected rush of new members - half of them would rather wait and see what he does, and the other half possibly don't know much about him.

The new FD/Coach is an interesting one. I'm one of not many that only has neutral feelings toward Neeld. The one thing I think he lacks is his ability to convince me that we're a united club. I know he hasn't been at the club for long, but he's still the ex-Collingwood Assistant Coach in my eyes.

One thing that Melbourne had lacked for a long time (until Jimmy took over), was that we didn't have a "face of Melbourne". I was once told byt someone many moons ago, that the strong clubs had someone that was the face of the club, so that anytime they were seen in media outlets, walking down the street, or wherever, everyone knew what club they were from. This could be in the form of a president, ceo, coach, captain, or marquee player. It's a bloody true statement when you think of it, especially in regards to the bigger clubs. The closest we have got is Lyon, but even then he is not a massive advertisement for the club.

The theory behind these "faces" is that they are basically a free marketing tool, which creates awareness, which hopefully turns in to memberships. We can cruise along underneath the radar, but it means we have to work harder behind the scenes. Looking at our club as a whole, Neeld may have to be the man to do this over the next couple of seasons, but at the moment, I just find he's not selling us as a club.

Edited February 16, 201213 yr by billy2803

Will post this in here now (can we merge threads mods??! Just kidding!).

H_T, on 16 February 2012 - 02:53 PM, said:

I think performances on the field now would be a good selling point. Neeld seems to me to be a man of letting actions do the talking; instead of just talking.

Here's a little exercise, who are the "faces" or free main marketing tools of these clubs: -

Adelaide -

Brisbane - Jonathon Brown, Voss, Leigh Matthews was

Carlton - Was Elliott for ever and a day, now Judd is

Collingwood - Buckley when playing, then Eddie and will stay that way, also had Malthouse

Essendon - Sheedy, then Hird and now (still) Hird

Fremantle -

Geelong - in the Geelong community, Frank Costa was a very good public figure for their club, in media terms Brownless does very well (IMO)

Gold Coast - Ablett

GWS - Sheedy

Hawthorn - Kennett was, Franklin is probably going to be it in '12

Melbourne - ??? Lyon? More of a media personality than Melbourne ambassador, ***Stynes was, and sold memberships, he aint there now and we've dropped off***

North Melbourne - even sneaky Brayshaw is out and active (mini Eddie)

Port Adelaide -

Richmond - Richo was, not sure who now

St Kilda -

Sydney - Roos was a very good face of that Club,

Western Bulldogs - Smorgon is on the cusp, but not quite

West Coast - Worsfold I'm sure would be their face, especially for the locals

The above list are faces of their clubs. The big clubs were the ones that you could easily name 2-5 different faces. The smaller clubs, you struggle to name 1. These are the people that help sell memberships and are worth their weight in gold.

I also talked about (in another thread) how the face of the club are words & actions figures. While we don't want someone that is full of promises but full of sh!t, it is also hard to build stronger membership numbers based on actions alone.

These faces also sell sponosrhips, as they are regularly in the public domain.

Winning Games will now increase Membership...Be it NAB Cup or regular season....

Winning Games will now increase Membership...Be it NAB Cup or regular season....

Absolutely WYL, and let's hope that we see some early form in both pre and proper season so we can hit that 40k mark.

The cap is widening because a lot of members are waiting to see how we play...

Looking at our club as a whole, Neeld may have to be the man to do this over the next couple of seasons, but at the moment, I just find he's not selling us as a club.

Not exciting enough, dont win enough, don't know enough about them, not value for money, profile isn't high enough. The typical wheelbarrow of antipathy.

As a supporter i demand 100% from the team i follow I find it hypocritical if I in return aren't 100% committed. It borders the repugnant to opt not to be a member for $10 a week. You become so much more than a fair weather supporter, but part of the lifeblood of your club.

As an MFC 'supporter' you have an obligation to become a member in my mind. A historically low supporter base, a supporter base that is weighted towards an older age group. It's a responsibility to get signed up to ensure a strong club.

1000 members could represent anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000 dollars for us this is significant.

To base buying a membership for the MFC on hype or perceived return on investment is so disheartening. Especially when the guy who saved the club has stepped down in the faith that we will cherish and own our 2nd chance.

It's up to us now it's up to the rank and file to beat the drum and even to get new supporters signed up to the MFC.

If we each found one other person to sign up to the MFC we would literally be a juggernaut doesn't seem that hard to achieve.