14 hours ago, adonski said:

R1 March 23, MCG 1.45pm Saturday afternoon vs Port Adelaide

Underwhelmed.

Wrong magpies

Are people really disturbed that we are playing round 1 at home on a Saturday afternoon?? Perhaps they would prefer Hawthorn's twilight game in SA, North's Sunday evening game over in the West or the Saint's 1.10 pm game against Gold Coast on a Sunday lunch time? There's no pleasing some people. 

So Crows in the Alice and Freo in Darwin looking most likely.

Pumped we are playing Port at home. We couldn’t beat them this year so we owe them a proper stuffing

we had our biggest crowds for years in 2018 so I wouldnt be too worried about money. We’ll get some big games throughout the year and push our membership towards 50K

We will destroy them and kick the season off in style.

Hopefully we get a return game against them at Adelaide Oval too, we play that ground very well.

Edited October 28, 20186 yr by Petraccattack

Round one, 2019 

Thursday, March 21

Carlton v Richmond at the MCG, 7.20pm AEDT

Friday, March 22

Collingwood v Geelong at the MCG, 7.50pm AEDT

Saturday, March 23

Melbourne v Port Adelaide at the MCG, 1.45pm AEDT

Adelaide v Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval, 4.05pm ACDT

Western Bulldogs v Sydney at Marvel Stadium, 7.25pm AEDT

Brisbane v West Coast at the Gabba, 7.20pm AEST

Sunday, March 24

St Kilda v Gold Coast at Marvel Stadium, 1.10pm AEDT

Greater Western Sydney v Essendon at Spotless Stadium, 3.20pm AEDT

Fremantle v North Melbourne, Optus Stadium, 3.20pm AWST

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What an absolutely horrendous round of footy. The geniuses at City Hall have done it again. No idea. 

So boring having Carlton and Richmond open the season every year.

3 hours ago, praha said:

Crazy talk. To lose money on an MCG home game you need a sub-23k crowd. We'll get 45k-50k imo.

How would it work if 40k of the 50 were Dees members bringing their own cheese platters?

So the Freo v North game would be 5:20pm AEST?

I hope Sunday twilights don’t change from the already horrible time slot of 4:40

8 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

So the Freo v North game would be 5:20pm AEST?

I hope Sunday twilights don’t change from the already horrible time slot of 4:40

6.20 I think as WA don't have daylight saving.

14 hours ago, Pates said:

Two schools of thought on the round one fixture vs Port.

Positive side:

- home game to start the year (always what you want)

- against an interstate team provides greater opportunity for a win

- potentially fly under the radar a little bit which can be good early in the year

Negative side:

- shafted commercially to start to year makes us less attractive to sponsors, 1pm timeslot is a dead timeslot on pay TV

- though an interstate team against us at the G provides a great opportunity for a win, I would prefer kicking the year off against a tough Melbourne team to get us in the big game frame of mind. A loss could also get us front and centre for a bollocking from the media

- AFL (and us) have missed a really good opportunity to build on what a great round one we had last year. Great crowd, two Vic teams, traditional rivals, we played two ripper games and a final with 90k+. I would’ve thought Cats v Dees Saturday arvo/night would be a great thing to build on

This.

I can't understand the AFL's thinking here. Quite bizarre.

6 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

Port is not a good start to the season financially.  We will probably lose money or barely break even.

Last year the majority of our Home games at the G were against i/state teams or small Vic teams both of which are terrible for our Revenue.  Add to that our two Home games in NT and our revenue from Home games becomes rather meagre.  In 2019 we will be relying on the QB vs Coll games to top up the coffers (ANZAC Eve is Away). 

Oh, and please no more gifting Carlton and Essendon 4 - 6 Home games each at the G.  It is not their home ground.  Let them play at Marvel!!

I reckon we'll get 35k+ to this game, which means well and truly makes us money. Besides the end of the season, where finals are up for grabs, Round 1 is probably the best time to draw a crowd against an interstate side. We play this game in the middle of the year and I don't think we draw as many.

But that is not to say I'm not disappointed by this fixture. A real opportunity missed to maximise gate return or merely crowd numbers against another Victorian club.

11 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

6.20 I think as WA don't have daylight saving.

  Cheers, I thought Sunday twilight games no matter where they are played always commenced at 4:40 AEST, or is it different in the early rounds? 

Pretty boring looking round anyway, we’ll just have to enjoy our replay from Saturday arvo right through until Sunday night. 

39 minutes ago, A F said:

I reckon we'll get 35k+ to this game, which means well and truly makes us money. Besides the end of the season, where finals are up for grabs, Round 1 is probably the best time to draw a crowd against an interstate side. We play this game in the middle of the year and I don't think we draw as many.

But that is not to say I'm not disappointed by this fixture. A real opportunity missed to maximise gate return or merely crowd numbers against another Victorian club.

I think there's an upside to having Game 1 at th G for membership sales at the ground, rather than Dees playing there in Round 2 for the  first MCG game

2 hours ago, beelzebub said:

Underwhelmed.

Wrong magpies

The real story here is the AFL scheduling a train wreck for the opening game. It will kill the Blues season from Day 1. I can hear the post mortem now;

 

"...what were they thinking..."

 

 

Fair comments by those that suggest a crowd of 25K+ will break even/make money.  But this for the majority of the season from smallish crowds vs i/state and small Vic clubs is not financially beneficial. 

But, my comment re financial impact of Home game opponents was that if the majority are vs 1/state or small Vic teams we are being disadvantaged.  Imagine the difference to our bottom line if we played Ess, Hawth, Rich or even Carlton at Home at least once each season.  Anyway, I feel we have earnt the right to host those clubs at the G.

Will eagerly await the fixture to see how we fare.  I bet Carlton do better than us at the G and they aren't even a tenant!  Ditto Essendon but to a lesser extent.

 

Edited October 28, 20186 yr by Lucifer's Hero

Just now, Lucifer's Hero said:

Fair comments by those that suggest a crowd of 25K+ will break even/make money.  But this from smallish crowds vs i/state and small Vic clubs are not financially sustainable. 

But, my comment re financial impact of Home game opponents was that if the majority are vs 1/state or small Vic teams we are being disadvantaged.  Imagine the difference on our bottom line if we played Ess, Hawth, Rich ore even Carlton at Home at least once each season.  Anyway, I feel we have earnt the right to host those clubs at the G.

Will eagerly await the fixture to see how we fare.  I bet Carlton do better than us at the G and they aren't even a tenant!  Ditto Essendon but to a lesser extent.

 

A number of Carlton fans I know have just about given up footy. There's only so much longer that the AFL can justify Carlton as a 'big' crowd-drawing club. 

FWIW, if this rebuild fails for them, I reckon their membership will dip below ours.

16 hours ago, Pinball Wizard said:

We played Port Adelaide at the MCG in Round 1, 2013 and were humiliated.

 I’m not talking about revenge but it’s time to put them in their place.

Don't worry we have long memories, a royal spanking is on the cards.

Edited October 28, 20186 yr by Win4theAges

16 minutes ago, A F said:

A number of Carlton fans I know have just about given up footy. There's only so much longer that the AFL can justify Carlton as a 'big' crowd-drawing club. 

FWIW, if this rebuild fails for them, I reckon their membership will dip below ours.

Just revoke their license to operate . . . can we do that?

19 minutes ago, A F said:

A number of Carlton fans I know have just about given up footy. There's only so much longer that the AFL can justify Carlton as a 'big' crowd-drawing club. 

FWIW, if this rebuild fails for them, I reckon their membership will dip below ours.

If we are serious about expansion, Carlton membership is what we have to surpass. Won't happen in 2019 but 2020 is a possibility.

Shame about the prelim performance.. probably cost us 2-4k of new members immediately signing up.

The other impact of the low key first round fixture is on reserved seats. No encouragement to sign up to a season of reservation as we all know there will be plenty of seats.

19 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

If we are serious about expansion, Carlton membership is what we have to surpass. Won't happen in 2019 but 2020 is a possibility.

Shame about the prelim performance.. probably cost us 2-4k of new members immediately signing up.

The other impact of the low key first round fixture is on reserved seats. No encouragement to sign up to a season of reservation as we all know there will be plenty of seats.

Yep, exactly. If Hawthorn have a period of rebuild too, there's a chance they could dip to 55-60k members and we could catch them too. 

Win one flag and we can legitimately aim for 60k members. Win a second or more and have some sustained success, and 70k in 5 years is within reach.

Edited October 28, 20186 yr by A F

I suppose it is better to play Port Rnd 1 on a Saturday and get 40,000 rather than a Rnd 14 Sunday twilight match and get 23,000. 

The AFL have to please 17 other clubs.

When's the last time we travelled in round 1?

Seriously, lol at demonland and some of the complaining posters.

 

9 minutes ago, stevethemanjordan said:

The AFL have to please 17 other clubs.

When's the last time we travelled in round 1?

Seriously, lol at demonland and some of the complaining posters.

 

Not complaining..just not particularly excited about Port...as an opening round. 

Youd think the AFL might like to start with an emphatic BANG ...footy's back. Surely they could find us a Victorian team.

2 hours ago, A F said:

A number of Carlton fans I know have just about given up footy. There's only so much longer that the AFL can justify Carlton as a 'big' crowd-drawing club. 

FWIW, if this rebuild fails for them, I reckon their membership will dip below ours.

It has to be said HOW THE FARRRCK DO CARLTON get to open the season???

Someone must have Goat photo's

Deescraceful