Melbourne to ditch Alice Springs game from next year?

[Gorgoroth 13,017]

57 minutes ago, Jaded said:

We are giving up 4 points for cash. Time to stop this arrangement now that we actually care about winning and making finals. 

Play this at the G and we win. 

Actually we give up 8 points each trip, we never win the week after either. So twice this year and if wil equal 16 points.

 

Problem is we have sod all supporters and of the ones we have too many aren't members or attend games. So we have to sell games to the NT.

[rjay 25,087]

Nothing to do with Alice Springs....poor effort, not enough players turning up today.

 

[Wiseblood 24,637]

Just now, rjay said:

Nothing to do with Alice Springs....poor effort, not enough players turning up today.

 

Spot on.  Good sides win anywhere they play.

[Sir Why You Little 37,125]

We are not a good side yet. That is proven today. 

We need all the home games we can get

[Demon Disciple 12,274]

The moment we have a couple of passengers, we are toast.

Obviously our gameplan needs everyone to be playing well in order for us to to have a chance of winning.

I worry about our overall defence. We seem too easy to score against, needs to be fixed asap.

[What 18,810]

Scrap this [censored] Northern Territory thing.  It is absurd.

We are Mebourne and have no affiliation with Darwin or Alice Springs, and i couldnt give a stuff about either place or the NT.  

We will never play finals as long as this continues. And no point in PJ or the club complaining about the draw either when we are the reason our draw is so bad.

Edited May 28, 2016 by Petraccattack

[The Stigga 1,094]

2 hours ago, Wiseblood said:

Spot on.  Good sides win anywhere they play.

 

This is an outdated view.

Teams are so close on any given day that little differences can decide a result.

This whole Ross Lyon we'll win on Nauru, Mars, anywhere, anytime is horses hit.

 

[Wiseblood 24,637]

Just now, The Stigga said:

 

This is an outdated view.

Teams are so close on any given day that little differences can decide a result.

This whole Ross Lyon we'll win on Nauru, Mars, anywhere, anytime is horses hit.

 

So we only need to win at one stadium?

Super logic, that.

[DSP 1,488]

Very little support from the crowd. A handful over 5k people. We always play like crap up there and even worse the following week (and against Hawks too, yipee).

It has to go.

[The Stigga 1,094]

2 hours ago, Wiseblood said:

So we only need to win at one stadium?

Super logic, that.

I'm not suggesting that.

Just pondering besides cash, what is the net benefit to the side having to travel two more times than we need too?

There is no net benefit.

 

[picket fence 17,500]

On 4/23/2016 at 8:07 AM, Deeoldfart said:

Compelling arguments Jack.

Thank F*^4#8% C%4&*^!!

[Dante 2,739]

 

Once we lose control of the ball we lose the game, we simply don't have the players to retrieve it.

 

[leave it to deever 17,517]

You will not see Geelong relinquishing games from kardiania or whatever its called or crows or port saying we would like more games away from Adelaide.

The logic of being good enough to play anywhere means we should not play at the mcg at all.

Hell we need all the help we can get. We need to get used to winning first and then give away advantages.

 

[Blue-and-red 91]

We can't afford to give up 3-4 games a year to Etihad and Alice Springs, it just doesn't make sense no matter how much we make from it!

[titan_uranus 25,043]

We need the money.

Until we don't need the money, we will keep selling home games.

The only query I have is whether we're financially in a position to reduce the two NT games down to one. I don't want us to sign ourselves up to another three years of two sold games if we are close to being in a position to scale it back. Would prefer to reduce it to one (Alice Springs).

[TeamPlayedFine39 8,510]

I'm not enamoured by our Northern Territory second 'home'.  I suppose the biggest frustration is that has none of the features of home.  When Hawthorn plays in Tasmania, the crowd is very vocally on their side.  When we play Alice Springs against Port Adelaide, they seem to have the most support in the crowd. 

[Bonkers 994]

3 minutes ago, Blue-and-red said:

We can't afford to give up 3-4 games a year to Etihad and Alice Springs, it just doesn't make sense no matter how much we make from it!

I'm not for it, but I can see why the club have done it over the last 2-3 years anyway. The money coming in from these games has been the difference between making a $1M loss or breaking even. When we commenced the agreement we were in a bit of a hole financially. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong here. Hawthorn & the Kangaroos as an example are teams who have benefited from playing in Tasmania as a comparison & been able to make something positive out of playing home games away.

The comment previously about net benefit is a good one, we probably are not going to build a supporter base there, however we are currently balancing the books by playing there. If we want the games to be played all at the MCG we need to play more consistent winning footy. We can then start demanding more games in Melbourne versus teams from Victoria to make our fixture more viable & allow us to drop the NT games. I think that is the commercial reality at the moment, until that happens we are most likely going to keep playing there. It will be interesting to see if we play one or two in the NT next year based on how we have been travelling this year & how the admin currently see the arrangement working out.

Does anyone have some rough figures as to how much the club would make from a home crowd of 25,000 supporters as a comparison to what we made by playing a game in Alice today?

[leave it to deever 17,517]

27 minutes ago, Bonkers said:

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong here. Hawthorn & the Kangaroos as an example are teams who have benefited from playing in Tasmania as a comparison & been able to make something positive out of playing home games away.

Apples and Oranges mate

For those teams they play there enough to call them second home grounds

Alice is a one off event and closer to Adelaide, We lose all the time

 

As for the $ ,,,,winning games drives memberships so call the NT games off for me

[Soidee 1,496]

2 hours ago, Petraccattack said:

Scrap this [censored] Northern Territory thing.  It is absurd.

We are Mebourne and have no affiliation with Darwin or Alice Springs, and i couldnt give a stuff about either place or the NT.  

We will never play finals as long as this continues. And no point in PJ or the club complaining about the draw either when we are the reason our draw is so bad.

All our efforts and marketing should be focussed on Melbourne and the MCG.  Stuff this nonsense in NT. We are Melbourne not Alice Springs.  Our team plays bad every time they go to the desert.

[Old Bear 388]

Any game in the Alice is going to be as good as a home game for Port 

ABC radio commentators  good as said it 

They put a lot into that area which is good for footy but not for US

 

 

[Dr. Gonzo 24,293]

Roos finishes this year so having his contract off the books should negate the money we don't get from NT. I reckon it's time to scrap it, fact is that games at the G today and we more than likely win.

[leave it to deever 17,517]

COACH Paul Roos says it wouldn’t have mattered if his team played at Alice Springs or the MCG – Melbourne wouldn’t have beaten Port Adelaide playing the way it did on Saturday.

COACH Paul Roos says it wouldn’t have mattered if his team played at Alice Springs or the MCG – 

“We enjoy coming up here and we’ve played some good football here"

 

 

The other one plays jingle bells Paul

[faultydet 7,619]

3 hours ago, TeamPlayedFine39 said:

I'm not enamoured by our Northern Territory second 'home'.  I suppose the biggest frustration is that has none of the features of home.  When Hawthorn plays in Tasmania, the crowd is very vocally on their side.  When we play Alice Springs against Port Adelaide, they seem to have the most support in the crowd. 

Fair point.

I ask, why the hell do we play a "home" game, interstate, against THE SAME DAMN TEAM, 3 years in a row?!

Ok, we need the cash, but why are we giving port a free hit at taking support off us for christ sake?

Our home game, but any potential gains in supporters/membership is stupidly pizzed away, by allowing the same side to kick our backside every year.

Jesus melbourne, bloody wake up!

[monoccular 17,573]

On 24 May 2016 at 4:00 PM, Jack Clarry said:

...Coming back from NT always tires them out... and we have Hawthorn the week after... not a good mix... although that could still go any way...

Coming back from Alice should be no more problem that coming from Perth or Brisbane - absolutely no excuse for a poor performance.  Darwin on the other hand is a much longer flight and is far more physically taxing.  

So why not, if something interstate is deemed necessary keep the Alice one and ditch the Darwin one, especially as the AFL in their (total lack of) wisdom refuse to give us, and our opponents for that matter, this fixture immediately before the bye. 

[iv'a worn smith 1,979]

Didn't the Hawks play in Brisbane today?