2 hours ago, At the break of Gawn said:

I thought 2026 memberships weren't available yet?

The Saints are obviously doing it - good on them!

2 hours ago, DeeZone said:

58,191 for 2025, guess we are back to 2021 pre- premiership numbers, it was nice to get that three year bump particularly 2023 when we actually achieved 70,000. The boys really played some exciting football and we all hoped it would last. I guess we just have to buckle up and wait for the next wave, just hope it’s not to long.👍😁

I would prefer a bit more action than a reliance on hope - I appreciate the circumstances are a little different but compare what we did re Kossie's re-signing compared with Nasiah.

47 minutes ago, Harvey Wallbanger said:

The AFL doesn't want that disclosed. Just total numbers which the AFL announced recently (August 8, 2025) by a tiny percentage (2.8%) 1,324,304 from 1,319,687 in 2024. The AFL's official cut-off for 2025 members is 31 August 2025 and they are required to be provided by the Clubs in early September.

Thanks HW.

What the AFL wants, the AFL gets.

Such a persistent, frustrating and depressing theme...

(Though, btw, is membership income not in annual reports?)

Edited August 22Aug 22 by Timothy Reddan-A'Blew

15 minutes ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

Thanks HW.

What the AFL wants, the AFL gets.

Such a persistent, frustrating and depressing theme...

(Though, btw, is membership income not in annual reports?)

In our case under the heading - Membership, Annual Reserved Seating and General Fundraisng - last year $12.6 million. $12.5 million in 2023.

1 hour ago, Harvey Wallbanger said:

In our case under the heading - Membership, Annual Reserved Seating and General Fundraisng - last year $12.6 million. $12.5 million in 2023.

It will be interesting to see if that figure falls(?) in proportion to the membership number fall in 2025. I suspect not, in that the post-2021 membership increase may have been skewed to low/new-commitment 3-game-type memberships.

Edited August 22Aug 22 by Timothy Reddan-A'Blew

afl-member-numbers-ladder

2025 AFL CLUB MEMBERSHIP LADDER (asterisk denotes club membership record this year)

• 1. Collingwood* – 112,491 (2024 tally: 110,628)

• 2. West Coast* – 107,079 (2024 tally: 103,498)

• 3. Carlton – 100,743 (2024 tally: 106,345)

• 4. Richmond – 92,531 (2024 tally: 98,489)

• 5. Geelong* – 92,379 (2024 tally: 90,798)

• 6. Hawthorn* – 87,204 (2024 tally: 83,823)

• 7. Essendon – 85,568 (2024 tally: 83,664)

• 8. Adelaide* – 81,067 (2024 tally: 75,477)

• 9. Sydney* – 76,674 (2024 tally: 73,757)

• 10. Brisbane* – 75,115 (2024 tally: 63,268)

• 11. Port Adelaide* – 72,656 (2024 tally: 66,015)

• 12. Fremantle* – 66,179 (2024 tally: 62,237)

• 13. Western Bulldogs* – 65,584 (2024 tally: 62,328)

• 14. St Kilda* – 65,509 (2024 tally: 60,467)

• 15. Melbourne – 58,563 (2024 tally: 65,479)

• 16. North Melbourne* – 56,283 (2024 tally: 50,628)

• 17. GWS Giants* – 37,705 (2024 tally: 36,629)

• 18. Gold Coast Suns* – 30,107 (2024 tally: 26,157)

Very sad for mfc. With those numbers and our lowly finish, another year of off-broadway fixture. Sponsors must be getting nervous.

Unbelievable that WCE holds its mumbers despite 5 years of terrible performance.

Wow. That's embarrassing.

We had the largest drop in memberships for the year with -10.6%

In a year where 14 clubs achieved record membership numbers, and some increased their number by more than 10%, our result is more than 10% below our 2024 number and more than 17% off our record from 2023. That is disgraceful.

What's even worse is that, despite barely winning a game for 6 years, North is on track to surpass us next year. That would leave us as the smallest Victorian club, despite winning a premiership in the past 5 years.

What can we do about this?

• More flexible membership options, with better value provided. Every year we pay more for less. In particular we need to remove the GFG from the reserved seat package.

• Better member communications and social media presence. Engage with the supporter base. Should the club have a presence on Demonland?

• Deliver a better brand of football that people actually want to watch (more wins would be nice as well).

• Change the prevailing narrative that we are a divided and unprofessional club.

• Provide realistic opportunities for members, particularly kids, to engage with players (ie don't hold open training sessions on school days).

• Publicly advocate for the club and the players. I can't stand Chris Scott, but he never would have let the AFL get away with suspending May.

• If we are going to cop [censored] fixtures (eg West Coast @ Marvel), find a way to embrace these and deliver something of value to get people to come along.

Like it or not, these are the sorts of numbers that surely impacted our decision on Goody.

Alarm bells ought to be ringing at the club. These are disgraceful figures. To win a flag and then within 5 years be the smallest Victorian club is an unmitigated disaster.

We'll likely have the lowest VIC membership of all clubs when North overtake us next year (if you look at how they've narrowed the gap over the last couple of years)

St Kilda, who have won 1 final in 16 years, have left us for dead.

Amazing how far you can fall in the space of 4 years. Players, coaches, high performance and admin should all be ashamed of themselves at these figures.

1 hour ago, Lucifers Hero said:

afl-member-numbers-ladder

2025 AFL CLUB MEMBERSHIP LADDER (asterisk denotes club membership record this year)

• 1. Collingwood* – 112,491 (2024 tally: 110,628)

• 2. West Coast* – 107,079 (2024 tally: 103,498)

• 3. Carlton – 100,743 (2024 tally: 106,345)

• 4. Richmond – 92,531 (2024 tally: 98,489)

• 5. Geelong* – 92,379 (2024 tally: 90,798)

• 6. Hawthorn* – 87,204 (2024 tally: 83,823)

• 7. Essendon – 85,568 (2024 tally: 83,664)

• 8. Adelaide* – 81,067 (2024 tally: 75,477)

• 9. Sydney* – 76,674 (2024 tally: 73,757)

• 10. Brisbane* – 75,115 (2024 tally: 63,268)

• 11. Port Adelaide* – 72,656 (2024 tally: 66,015)

• 12. Fremantle* – 66,179 (2024 tally: 62,237)

• 13. Western Bulldogs* – 65,584 (2024 tally: 62,328)

• 14. St Kilda* – 65,509 (2024 tally: 60,467)

• 15. Melbourne – 58,563 (2024 tally: 65,479)

• 16. North Melbourne* – 56,283 (2024 tally: 50,628)

• 17. GWS Giants* – 37,705 (2024 tally: 36,629)

• 18. Gold Coast Suns* – 30,107 (2024 tally: 26,157)

Very sad for mfc. With those numbers and our lowly finish, another year of off-broadway fixture. Sponsors must be getting nervous.

Unbelievable that WCE holds its mumbers despite 5 years of terrible performance.

WCE can be explained because you want to be in the queue otherwise you miss your place by the time they become good again.

There's two ways the club can go here.

One is to seriously look at ideas and suggestions like @poita's above. Be creative. Be fun. Think seriously about what Melbourne fans want rather than what's cheap or seems inoffensive from a corporate point of view.

The other is to do what we've done before: blame the supporters. It doesn't work on any level. First, even if the message was getting out to all Melbourne supporters, very few people are shamed into turning up or buying memberships. Second, the message NEVER gets out to all supporters. And the people who hear it over and over again are the die-hards. Wagging a finger at the people who go every week, in every weather, no matter how badly we're playing or how ludicrous the company line is... it's such a bad policy.

Of course, the most important thing for building the member base is going deep in finals multiple times in a row. I hope that happens in my lifetime.

If we sign up Buckley and have some good PR over Summer how much of a bounce will we get? Maybe back to 2023s figure (65000)

27 minutes ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

There's two ways the club can go here.

One is to seriously look at ideas and suggestions like @poita's above. Be creative. Be fun. Think seriously about what Melbourne fans want rather than what's cheap or seems inoffensive from a corporate point of view.

The other is to do what we've done before: blame the supporters. It doesn't work on any level. First, even if the message was getting out to all Melbourne supporters, very few people are shamed into turning up or buying memberships. Second, the message NEVER gets out to all supporters. And the people who hear it over and over again are the die-hards. Wagging a finger at the people who go every week, in every weather, no matter how badly we're playing or how ludicrous the company line is... it's such a bad policy.

Of course, the most important thing for building the member base is going deep in finals multiple times in a row. I hope that happens in my lifetime.

Agree, other than the last paragraph.

If going deep into finals was the main thing, North and St Kilda (and the Dogs) wouldn’t be increasing their memberships.

What are they doing that we aren’t?

We need to take a long, strong look at everything we’re doing on this front. Seek proper feedback from members, and listen to it. Get creative. Get modern. Get youthful. We’re being left for dead by clubs who have less recent on-field success than us. What will happen if North or St Kilda start playing finals?

26 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Agree, other than the last paragraph.

If going deep into finals was the main thing, North and St Kilda (and the Dogs) wouldn’t be increasing their memberships.

What are they doing that we aren’t?

We need to take a long, strong look at everything we’re doing on this front. Seek proper feedback from members, and listen to it. Get creative. Get modern. Get youthful. We’re being left for dead by clubs who have less recent on-field success than us. What will happen if North or St Kilda start playing finals?

There was a lot of unrest and most had no confidence in Goodwin continuing his tenure. It'll be interesting to see how the numbers look early next season.

Btw on St Kilda and North. How many of those memberships are token memberships?

It would be better to know the actual dollar value/revenue.

At the end of the day money talks.

Better to have 60,000 members that pay 500 on average than 75,000 members that pay 150.

Ouch, that's a serious drop. Only 2k members ahead of North who are the lowest ranked VIC side for memberships. Then we enter expansion club territory...

If that's not a wake up call, I don't know what is.

20 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Agree, other than the last paragraph.

If going deep into finals was the main thing, North and St Kilda (and the Dogs) wouldn’t be increasing their memberships.

What are they doing that we aren’t?

I'd love to know what St Kilda are doing, because that's a spectacular result for a team with a genuinely shocking list and a decade of mostly terrible seasons behind them.

I can see why North supporters would be hopeful. Although, I'd be more hopeful as a Richmond supporter, and they had a big drop.

We flirted with fulfilling our middle club potential and then supporters were confronted with the stark reality that not only was the vaunted "dynasty" a mirage, but that sustained success was completely out of the question. From 70,000 to 58,000 in two years looks to me like the response of a supporter base that feels their excitement was completely unwarranted.

Interesting that our home attendances actually went up.