Round 1 Crowd

[Billy 2,576]

33 minutes ago, ManDee said:

Billy I am a supporter, I pay my membership and rarely attend. Five hours of driving is disincentive enough even without covid and ticketing dramas. I think you mean barrackers. We certainly lack barrackers. Winning will get the barrackers out,  when it happens it will blow your socks off.

Yep fair enough, l also live 4.5hrs away & try to get to 6 games a year

Its a 9hr trip in a day, but my love for the club makes me do this

You are correct about the barrackers it’s an embarrassment to the club

l would love to here the excuses from Melbourne based Demonlanders who couldn’t be bothered turning up

 

 

 

[Kent 2,920]

16 minutes ago, Demons11 said:

Unfortunately you can’t get 10 tkts together, 6 in the max. 

My point is that you dont need ticketek in the members

There were no checks on who was sitting in each seat. It was beyond a joke. We were placed in seats crowded together no social distancing while acres of spare seats were all around us 

Then you go to the bar and they are counting how many have entered but not checking how many have left

It is Monty Python stuff

[Pulp Fritschon 775]

I went to the Dogs marvel game and the whole herded like cattle into sections, specific entry and exit points, although understandable was a real turnoff for me. 

As a 5 game country member Freo at the G had little appeal other than being round 1. 

 

 

[DubDee 26,685]

I think we should have switched our game. I would have wanted as many Bombers fans to witness that capitulation as possible!

[george_on_the_outer 7,877]

I tried to get a ticket for a wheelchair friend who has a seat in the Tridents area. 

Put in application on the Tuesday before, and am still waiting for a ticket.

I spoke with another wheelchair seated person, who put in an application on the Sunday before, and only got a ticket after calling the club on Friday.  45 minutes waiting for to talk to someone at Ticketek, only to be met by a " we don't have enough staff" recorded message.  Call the club and then Ticketek offered a seat in general admission, despite them paying for Tridents membership, and having allocated wheelchair seats in that area.  Again a call to  the club who found them a seat in that area. 

At the game there were 3 unoccupied wheelchair seats in the area. 

Easy to get a ticket?  Hardly. 

At the match the view across the ground was telling.  People clumped together in bays, but then whole bays without a single individual.  Top deck Ponsford ...no-one.  Top deck Olympic...no-one.  Yet if you wanted a seat Ticketek would sell you one in GA, even if you had a membership.

 

[The heart beats true 18,201]

Are Melbourne supporters fickle, or are they just responding to the fickleness of the team?

?‍♂️

[Dr. Gonzo 24,468]

2 hours ago, JJJ said:

I was at the Presidents Function and spoke to about 20-25 people and the lack of crowd came up in conversations as it became obvious that we were going to have a small crowd. 
 

Only 3 people were critical of supporters for not turning up that I can remember. Most signalled unhappiness with the club in one way or another as a reason that they could’ve stayed home if they didn’t have the lunch to attend. There was a sense of empathy to supporters who watched from home.

I also found theres a decent amount of apathy regarding the club, the poor list after Roos began the rebuild almost a decade ago, the coach, the board, the President, lack of marketing, untrustworthy playing group etc etc.

Whilst I don’t share all of those opinions, I couldn’t blame anybody for feeling that way. When asked to rise to the occasion, this coach and playing group have repeatedly failed.So even against an injury riddled team, I was not confident of a good result.

When you throw in the ticketing (when some fans in their 60-70’s are receiving QR code’s for tickets you can expect confusion) and a global pandemic you get 21,000 people turn up.

It’s up to the club to fix this. Win games. Get on the front foot publicly. Don’t be a doormat for other clubs and the AFL. Who knows, it might galvanise the weary.

Chicken and egg. Supporters need to show they actually give a crap first and the rest will follow.

All those excuses are incredibly pissweak. Still ropeable about this, MFC supporters living up to the stereotype. Another post complaining about the MCC Dining Room and the bars, give me strength. In the outer we had great seats, beautiful weather, cold beer and watched a comfortable win. But then I go to watch and support the team not socialise in the MCC.

[Dr. Gonzo 24,468]

1 hour ago, Kent said:

Not in my experience nor the other 10 or 12 members that i regularly meet at the G

Try and get a location that you want and 10 tickets together. It is a nightmare for Melbourne membres whose average age and computer skills are probably at the lower end of the clubs

So book 2x 5 groups surely it's not the be all end all if you can't all sit together. I get it's not ideal but it's better than nothing.

I had the same issue in the AFL members so booked 2 lots of tickets. Funnily enough we were able to sit directly behind our mates 2 rows apart.

[Dr. Gonzo 24,468]

37 minutes ago, george_on_the_outer said:

I tried to get a ticket for a wheelchair friend who has a seat in the Tridents area. 

Put in application on the Tuesday before, and am still waiting for a ticket.

I spoke with another wheelchair seated person, who put in an application on the Sunday before, and only got a ticket after calling the club on Friday.  45 minutes waiting for to talk to someone at Ticketek, only to be met by a " we don't have enough staff" recorded message.  Call the club and then Ticketek offered a seat in general admission, despite them paying for Tridents membership, and having allocated wheelchair seats in that area.  Again a call to  the club who found them a seat in that area. 

At the game there were 3 unoccupied wheelchair seats in the area. 

Easy to get a ticket?  Hardly. 

At the match the view across the ground was telling.  People clumped together in bays, but then whole bays without a single individual.  Top deck Ponsford ...no-one.  Top deck Olympic...no-one.  Yet if you wanted a seat Ticketek would sell you one in GA, even if you had a membership.

 

That is ****house and I agree the social distancing was laughable. They basically had people sitting on the aisles and left the middle sections of the bays empty. What's the point?

[Dr. Gonzo 24,468]

37 minutes ago, The heart beats true said:

Are Melbourne supporters fickle, or are they just responding to the fickleness of the team?

?‍♂️

1st game at the G in 18 months. Anyone who didn't go in some kind of protest against the club, pull your head out of your [censored]. You are the reason this club struggles to realise it's potential.

[Diamond_Jim 12,778]

39 minutes ago, george_on_the_outer said:

At the match the view across the ground was telling.  People clumped together in bays, but then whole bays without a single individual.  Top deck Ponsford ...no-one.  Top deck Olympic...no-one.  Yet if you wanted a seat Ticketek would sell you one in GA, even if you had a membership.

Couldn't agree more.

Having no one on the top decks was madness.

If people had been allowed to find their own seat (take a note of the seat number for tracing if necessary) life would have been fine. Seemed that they deliberately put people into 100 person pods and then  a break.

[The heart beats true 18,201]

4 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

1st game at the G in 18 months. Anyone who didn't go in some kind of protest against the club, pull your head out of your [censored]. You are the reason this club struggles to realise it's potential.

While I was just posing the question I think it’s a bit rich to blame supporters for the clubs on field struggles. Most Melbourne supporters have lived their entire life without a premiership, and have realistically seen their team play finals no more than a half dozen times. If they aren’t showing up it’s probably because they are pessimistic given what they’ve endured.

[Demons1858 1,828]

2 hours ago, Steno said:

The MCC was a mess...

family members totalling 10 gave up trying to work out sitting together and didn’t attend.

I got seats (meters from Saty). I got seats for my young children directly behind tall large men. I struggled to see, they had no hope. The men were apologetic and tried to move/help. There was no ability to choose where to sit (or change what ticketek deemed best).

Half time tried to get a beer... no tap beer and 3 quarter time they had run out of beer cups. Imagine if a crowd had turned up!

 

10 is a lot of tickets, not surprised it was an issue due to social distancing

[old dee 24,084]

2 hours ago, JJJ said:

I was at the Presidents Function and spoke to about 20-25 people and the lack of crowd came up in conversations as it became obvious that we were going to have a small crowd. 
 

Only 3 people were critical of supporters for not turning up that I can remember. Most signalled unhappiness with the club in one way or another as a reason that they could’ve stayed home if they didn’t have the lunch to attend. There was a sense of empathy to supporters who watched from home.

I also found theres a decent amount of apathy regarding the club, the poor list after Roos began the rebuild almost a decade ago, the coach, the board, the President, lack of marketing, untrustworthy playing group etc etc.

Whilst I don’t share all of those opinions, I couldn’t blame anybody for feeling that way. When asked to rise to the occasion, this coach and playing group have repeatedly failed.So even against an injury riddled team, I was not confident of a good result.

When you throw in the ticketing (when some fans in their 60-70’s are receiving QR code’s for tickets you can expect confusion) and a global pandemic you get 21,000 people turn up.

It’s up to the club to fix this. Win games. Get on the front foot publicly. Don’t be a doormat for other clubs and the AFL. Who knows, it might galvanise the weary.

Probably not helped by the fact we have a higher ratio of older members than most clubs.

[Dr. Gonzo 24,468]

5 minutes ago, The heart beats true said:

While I was just posing the question I think it’s a bit rich to blame supporters for the clubs on field struggles. Most Melbourne supporters have lived their entire life without a premiership, and have realistically seen their team play finals no more than a half dozen times. If they aren’t showing up it’s probably because they are pessimistic given what they’ve endured.

Cry me a river. First game of the year. First chance to support the team live in 18 months. Chance to make a statement with a decent crowd at OUR home. Chance to support the CLUB with a decent turnout. 21k is laughable, the other clubs will rightly be looking at that and asking questions.

[old dee 24,084]

18 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

1st game at the G in 18 months. Anyone who didn't go in some kind of protest against the club, pull your head out of your [censored]. You are the reason this club struggles to realise it's potential.

Don't agree Dr, you are blaming the members for decades of poor management and poor players. 

[old dee 24,084]

Just now, old dee said:

Don't agree Dr, you are blaming the members for decades of poor management and poor players. 

I keep saying we should be playing these games at AFL central and games like saints at the G.

[waynewussell 6,976]

Yesterday’s attendance of 21365 was the 4th highest out of a total of 15 occasions that Melbourne have met Freo at the MCG (3^rd highest on a Sat aft). Here is the complete list.

Year	Result	Attendance	Day / Time
1996	W	15494	Fr (n)
1997	W	15036	Sat (aft)
1998	W	20365	Sat (aft)
1999	L	19178	Fr (n)
2003	L	17009	Sat (aft)
2005	L	21963	Sun (aft)
2006	W	23368	Sat (aft)
2007	L	16654	Sun (aft)
2008	W	19423	Sun (aft)
2009	W	13004	Sun (aft)
2011	W	19092	Sun (aft)
2013	L	13768	Sun (aft)
2017	L	27829	Sat (aft)
2019	W	20211	Sat (aft)
2021	W	21365	Sat (aft)

 

[JJJ 1,348]

1 minute ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Cry me a river. First game of the year. First chance to support the team live in 18 months. Chance to make a statement with a decent crowd at OUR home. Chance to support the CLUB with a decent turnout. 21k is laughable, the other clubs will rightly be looking at that and asking questions.

I’m ok with us getting the blow torch. We should. Maybe it would make the club ask themselves why people didn’t turn up? That’s the biggest issue. Why didn’t they? It’s completely in the clubs hands. The playing group need to perform and the club on a broader level needs to engage better.
 

This idea that people turn up regardless is rubbish. 

[Ugottobekidding 1,244]

13 minutes ago, old dee said:

Probably not helped by the fact we have a higher ratio of older members than most clubs.

Yes, they need to take precautions. You cannot blame them, risks are high.

[Ugottobekidding 1,244]

3 minutes ago, JJJ said:

I’m ok with us getting the blow torch. We should. Maybe it would make the club ask themselves why people didn’t turn up? That’s the biggest issue. Why didn’t they? It’s completely in the clubs hands. The playing group need to perform and the club on a broader level needs to engage better.
 

This idea that people turn up regardless is rubbish. 

They are quite out-of-touch with the general supporter base. How much preseason info did you see to drive membership sales or interest in the club.

[Diamond_Jim 12,778]

The club also has to realise that it is competing with the TV product of other clubs. If you watch say 2 or 3 TV games your desire to physically attend is impacted if you think it's going to be a lacklustre game.

Many of us have just got tired of MFC mediocrity (often worse than mediocre)

[boydie 655]

We never get crowds against interstate sides, matches against Freo, GWS, Gold Coast, Port etc and always around the mark that turned up yesterday.

Theres a myth that we have large supporter base in hiding after the Geelong and Hawthorn finals. There were lots people at those matches who were neutrals just supporting Melbourne out of pity after years of failure. A few of my friends who support other sides came to those games and did exactly that.

[Demons11 7,151]

2 hours ago, Kent said:

My point is that you dont need ticketek in the members

There were no checks on who was sitting in each seat. It was beyond a joke. We were placed in seats crowded together no social distancing while acres of spare seats were all around us 

Then you go to the bar and they are counting how many have entered but not checking how many have left

It is Monty Python stuff

I had the save experience once there but I was talking about the booking of tickets.  

[Dr. Gonzo 24,468]

14 minutes ago, boydie said:

We never get crowds against interstate sides, matches against Freo, GWS, Gold Coast, Port etc and always around the mark that turned up yesterday.

Theres a myth that we have large supporter base in hiding after the Geelong and Hawthorn finals. There were lots people at those matches who were neutrals just supporting Melbourne out of pity after years of failure. A few of my friends who support other sides came to those games and did exactly that.

R23 2018 vs GWS 37k

R1 2019 vs Port 38k

If this was a random game in a normal season I could understand though still be disappointed.

This was round 1 and the first game we had the chance to go to the footy in 18 months that is what makes it incredibly disappointing. 35k should have been the minimum and as I've said anyone who couldve gone but didn't should question their loyalty to the club. I'm not talking about people worried about covid, or travelling from regional areas, or have young kids etc. I'm talking about those who otherwise would've gone but didn't because of "disenchantment" with the club.