I think we all need to hop on Neeld's Reality Bus here for a second. I think 2021 AFL total crowds will be a good 10-15% off 2019 AFL total crowds based on COVID alone.  There could be another outbreak in mid-winter and things could shut down again as happened in Europe mid-winter particularly as international flights start again and due to slow vaccine roll out. Based on this threat alone, and a few of the elderly maybe reconsidering attendance this is a reasonable estimate.  Before making this a club issue, we will have to normalize numbers against COVID, which wont be easy until we have played ~10 rounds and can start digesting the numbers with a bit more confidence.

Edited March 21, 20214 yr by RickyJ45

On 3/20/2021 at 6:17 PM, Sir Why You Little said:

Club has got to win the Supporters back

It’s that simple

Getting tickets was a nightmare so I reckon a lot of people stayed away. 
We must keep winning 

I agree with you SWYL getting tickets is absurd and then as a Premium Member end up at the opposite end of the ground behind the Dockers cheer squad and surrounded by Dockers supporters ( who were pretty friendly bunch) did not enthuse myself or my two daughters, as one of the attractions of paying premium memberships is to sit with Demon supporters in familiar surrounds, what the hell is going on.

Just now, DeeZone said:

I agree with you SWYL getting tickets is absurd and then as a Premium Member end up at the opposite end of the ground behind the Dockers cheer squad and surrounded by Dockers supporters ( who were pretty friendly bunch) did not enthuse myself or my two daughters, as one of the attractions of paying premium memberships is to sit with Demon supporters in familiar surrounds, what the hell is going on.

I heard stories like this all week. Throughout the AFL, wasn’t just MFC. 

 

4 hours ago, Mika98_99 said:

Earlier in this thread it was mentioned that the President did not attend yesterday's match. Very rare for a sitting President to miss the first home game of the season. Out of interest JJJ as you attended the President's Function, was his absence addressed/reason given and who actually spoke on his behalf?

Vice President spoke on his behalf.
 

Glenn has been in Perth for personal reasons for about 2 weeks. He decided to stay and support the AFLW team this weekend. 
I’ve been lucky enough to talk about many things with Glenn over the past 5 years or so and he’s a very good man. Smart, articulate and knows where he can bring value to the MFC. He doesn’t meddle in the footy dept and believes his value is around governance and corporate strategy. It’s fair to say he’s found some political factions and community groups more difficult to deal with than he first thought. Otherwise we’d have a home or at least a plan that involved a training base at Jolimont.
 

He’s passionate to a fault and believes in the people who are in positions of authority at the club.
We do differ on the coaching front though...

11 hours 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.

No the club struggles because the players don't win often enough. Not because people do or don't turn up to games.

5 minutes ago, 4_Kent_Watts said:

No the club struggles because the players don't win often enough. Not because people do or don't turn up to games.

Now there it is!

7 minutes ago, 4_Kent_Watts said:

No the club struggles because the players don't win often enough. Not because people do or don't turn up to games.

It's all related. Supporters turn up, dollars in the bank, greater investment in footy department, also creates better atmosphere at games so players don't feel like they're playing park footy.

12 hours ago, JJJ said:

Vice President spoke on his behalf.
 

Glenn has been in Perth for personal reasons for about 2 weeks. He decided to stay and support the AFLW team this weekend. 
I’ve been lucky enough to talk about many things with Glenn over the past 5 years or so and he’s a very good man. Smart, articulate and knows where he can bring value to the MFC. He doesn’t meddle in the footy dept and believes his value is around governance and corporate strategy. It’s fair to say he’s found some political factions and community groups more difficult to deal with than he first thought. Otherwise we’d have a home or at least a plan that involved a training base at Jolimont.
 

He’s passionate to a fault and believes in the people who are in positions of authority at the club.
We do differ on the coaching front though...

Thanks JJJ for the response and the update. 

19 hours ago, Demonland said:

This is what I don't get. Fair enough the Government has limits (which hopefuly will be eased in the coming weeks) but it's all just theatre in the way seats are allocated. They didn't seat anyone next to us presumably because I could pass on something to them or vice versa but there was someone in front of me that I was yelling directly into and also someone behind me that was yelling directly into me.

I went by myself (in the members) and there was someone sitting in the seat next to me and then about 5 empty seats on the other side, so was a little confused by the process. Uncertain if the empty seats were ppl who didn't rock up or if they were not allocated. So a little hard to judge but from looking around it did seem a somewhat confusing set up. 

Also saw a bloke stand up in a crowded area and yell and saw spit particles flying everywhere. Hopefully we start pumping out these vaccines then aha 

 

38 minutes ago, roy11 said:

I went by myself (in the members) and there was someone sitting in the seat next to me and then about 5 empty seats on the other side, so was a little confused by the process. Uncertain if the empty seats were ppl who didn't rock up or if they were not allocated. So a little hard to judge but from looking around it did seem a somewhat confusing set up. 

Also saw a bloke stand up in a crowded area and yell and saw spit particles flying everywhere. Hopefully we start pumping out these vaccines then aha 

 

the covid plan seems to be about pods in the sense that you construct a pod of say 40-50 and then have a gap between the next pod.

Each pod can contain strangers but the rationale is that infection is limited to the pod.

Works okay at 50% but gets harder at 75%.

Conversely at 20% like our game on Saturday the pod system can create unneccesary crowding

Blame the computer algorithms that the ground manager is using. It was ridiculous to see level 4 unoccupied. Even level 3 was sparse.

fwiw, north melbourne v port adelaide drew just over 13,000 under the roof on sunday; north have just on 36,000 members at the moment, and tbh it sounded like there was more than 5,000 pear supporters there

14 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

It's all related. Supporters turn up, dollars in the bank, greater investment in footy department, also creates better atmosphere at games so players don't feel like they're playing park footy.

Stop making so much sense Dr. Gonzo

We are and always will be the weakest supporter base in the AFL

We have about 20k passionate paid up supporters who turn up win, lose, draw, rain & hail

20k paid up supporters, who turn up when we’re winning (at least paid up)

Then the barrackers, probably another 20-25k, these are the ones that don’t pay memberships & don’t care 

All clubs have barrackers but ours outnumber  our members by 10 times 

Its embarrassing & we deserve everything we get 

2 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

fwiw, north melbourne v port adelaide drew just over 13,000 under the roof on sunday; north have just on 36,000 members at the moment, and tbh it sounded like there was more than 5,000 pear supporters there

Ohh that’s ok then North had less there than us, great comparison 

3 minutes ago, Billy said:

Ohh that’s ok then North had less there than us, great comparison 

no, but it's comparable as two local sides with relatively commensurate membership bases playing at home against an interstate side for the first time in front of crowds since 2019

port clearly have more melbourne-based fans than freo

7 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

no, but it's comparable as two local sides with relatively commensurate membership bases playing at home against an interstate side for the first time in front of crowds since 2019

port clearly have more melbourne-based fans than freo

I have an X SA friend who goes to every Vic. Port Game well except the Cats where no one gets in. He tells me that before the virus they would get 10K to most G games.

52 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

no, but it's comparable as two local sides with relatively commensurate membership bases playing at home against an interstate side for the first time in front of crowds since 2019

port clearly have more melbourne-based fans than freo

Excellent point but will the heat go onto North?

Highly doubt it ... the footy public & media will pounce at every opportunity to get stuck into Melbourne supporters

Demon fans who want to beat themselves up over this issue astonishes me.  You're allowing yourselves to be bullied

We are a small club with a small supporter base that has played 1 finals series in the last 14 years. 

Getting 21k is quite a high figure when considering how [censored] we've been for the last decade and a half.  We also have a number of older members in the Covid-Kill zone

Do they expect us to be masochists?  North fans don't bother turning up and we get crickets

And the club achieving 50k members 2 years ago was a minor miracle all things considered ... the club is damn lucky we're still here in any capacity

Trying winning more games than we lose for a change and watch the crowds increase

 

Edited March 22, 20214 yr by Macca

15 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

It's all related. Supporters turn up, dollars in the bank, greater investment in footy department, also creates better atmosphere at games so players don't feel like they're playing park footy.

Lol.

The crowd number is a direct correlation to our performances over the last two years.

Suck it up.

Over to the players.

Inspire us.

1 hour ago, Macca said:

Excellent point but will the heat go onto North?

Highly doubt it ... the footy public & media will pounce at every opportunity to get stuck into Melbourne supporters

Demon fans who want to beat themselves up over this issue astonishes me.  You're allowing yourselves to be bullied

We are a small club with a small supporter base that has played 1 finals series in the last 14 years. 

Getting 21k is quite a high figure when considering how [censored] we've been for the last decade and a half.  We also have a number of older members in the Covid-Kill zone

Do they expect us to be masochists?  North fans don't bother turning up and we get crickets

And the club achieving 50k members 2 years ago was a minor miracle all things considered ... the club is damn lucky we're still here in any capacity

Trying winning more games than we lose for a change and watch the crowds increase

 

North will get little comment because they were not playing at the G. The whole thing was about utilising the G better not about how many supporters turn up Macca. 

Fair weather supporters can [censored] right off imo.

You either support the club or you don't.  

If there was ever a time for people to be champing at the bit to get to a game - having not been able to attend for so long - that was it.

19 minutes ago, JTR said:

Fair weather supporters can [censored] right off imo.

You either support the club or you don't.  

If there was ever a time for people to be champing at the bit to get to a game - having not been able to attend for so long - that was it.

Agreed, I know way too many of these. Turn up a few times a year when it suits and we're up

2 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

no, but it's comparable as two local sides with relatively commensurate membership bases playing at home against an interstate side for the first time in front of crowds since 2019

port clearly have more melbourne-based fans than freo

Yes and North are in the conversation for relocation. That's my point exactly, is that where we want to be?

26 minutes ago, danielE288 said:

Agreed, I know way too many of these. Turn up a few times a year when it suits and we're up

So how do you propose to fix human nature?

47 minutes ago, JTR said:

Fair weather supporters can [censored] right off imo.

You either support the club or you don't.  

If there was ever a time for people to be champing at the bit to get to a game - having not been able to attend for so long - that was it.

So you want to return all the members money how did not go on Saturday  and tell them to f off? That a great way to end the club. 

40 minutes ago, JTR said:

Fair weather supporters can [censored] right off imo.

You either support the club or you don't.  

If there was ever a time for people to be champing at the bit to get to a game - having not been able to attend for so long - that was it.

 

20 minutes ago, danielE288 said:

Agreed, I know way too many of these. Turn up a few times a year when it suits and we're up

Every sporting club in the world would have the same sort of proportional amount of 'so-called' fairweather supporters

People like winners so they therefore don't like losers. 

So they stay away

I know a stack of people who went 23 years without finals ('65-'87) and have then witnessed 1 finals appearance in 14 years ('07-'20)

To say that are angry at the club would be understating things

But they are still members and they still go to the games.  But they don't get stuck into their fellow supporters.  They understand why people stay away

The club itself only has itself to blame ... they serve up mostly dross so what do they expect?

We supporters & members are the reason the club still exists.  They ought to be bloody grateful they have still got us

And for all that feral support that the Tigers got between '83 & '16 it amounted to diddly-squat.  And they stayed away when their team was a cellar dweller.  They very nearly went under as a consequence

41 minutes ago, old dee said:

North will get little comment because they were not playing at the G. The whole thing was about utilising the G better not about how many supporters turn up Macca. 

MACCA  get your facts straight please!

We have won more games than lost in the last 3 out of 4 years 

2017   12 W  10  L

2018   16 W   9   L 

2020    9 W     8 L 

Sime of your reasons are so condescending "Small Club with Small supporter base"

In 2017/18 we were SIXTH and FOURTh in AFL crowds attracting more than 1 million on 2018 !!!

Consequently the 52k plus membership in 2019 where we blew a chance of consolidating that figure.

Age and Covid and other reasons don't cut the mustard as people should be getting out and resuming life with the vaccine in the offing.

As that little kid in the Wife  Swap program ad says " Your rules ( reasons) are rubbish."

You either support or not!

41,000 members and only 21,000 present 

Lets see how many vs Cats if we win the next 2 or even the Giants game and the Cats are back on the winners list!