35 minutes ago, george_on_the_outer said:

Rubbish statistics........Average is because clubs play other sides.

Play Collingwood twice and your average goes up, without a single extra Melbourne supporter turning up.

Loss of members in a year = higher average, because of simple arithmetic.

Why is Geelong so low?.....lack of seating at their ground.

Why is WCE so low? High membership numbers compared to what they can fit in the ground. Same as Geelong.

I tend to agree. More important for the club should be the revenue per member.

How many of those St Kilda "members" joined after the NAS signing? I believe they had an special membership.

Ditto pet memberships.

On home attendance, again it is a moot point. Even if Jeelong was a sellout crowd every week, there is no way they could match their membership number (GMHBA is 40k capacity).

It should be based on attendance/venue capacity. However, with teams playing "home" games interstate or in different venues (see Marvel) it all becomes very disingenuous.

22 hours ago, praha said:

I know we have had trouble on field and in the lockroom but I would immediately be gutting the marketing and membership departments. To lose that amount only four years after a flag... that is just absolutely shocking. Really reminds me of 90s Melbourne, run like an amateur club that hasn't moved into the professional era.

I imagine signing Buckley won't prompt a bump in membership but nothing short of a trip back to finals would help. We are at real risk of falling behind North next year.

Don't worry about North, we're at risk of falling behind GWS and the Suns in the next decade.

20 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

is anyone actually surprised?

also, i would be more curious to see revenue from membership vs total membership - the latter is very rubbery in terms of calculated figures

we're a small club with the team towards the bottom of the ladder; we might be at the bottom of the ladder for membership totals, but we are mid-table for crowd attendance:

Blockbuster MCG home games against Tigers and Pies help that. If Carlton and Essendon played more games at the G instead of Docklands their numbers would be far better.

Measure crowd numbers against interstate clubs instead when opposition supporters don't beef up the numbers for a true reflection.

2 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

If we can just lose another 10k members we'll be top of the pile 😉🤣

I got sent this by a friend today and while the data doesn't allow for ground capacity as part of the %, it does reflect well on us and should be dragged out every time we get bashed for low crowds.

Also - GWS with 37k members?!?

21 minutes ago, D Rev said:

Also - GWS with 37k members?!?

Yeah apparently their membership numbers soared when the AFL decided to allow imaginary people in the count.

Couple of things in this. Playing at the MCG no doubt skews this a bit. Small membership in a big stadium means we get bigger numbers to our home games especially against other victorian teams. 80k in a home game against the Pies does not mean the game had 130% attendence by Melbourne supporters

Another issue, Freo are top of the pop because they sell out Optus every week. But so do West Coast who end up 16th because they are a much bigger club. Means the rankings aren't particularly useful.

A better way to work out how well our members represent themselves would be by looking at our home crowds against non-victorian teams, especially teams like Freo, GWS, West Coast, Port Adelaide and Gold Coast who tend to have low interstate attendence.

From that group this year we had home games against GWS, Gold Coast, Freo and West Coast. Our average against those teams was 22,345

1 minute ago, KozzyCan said:

Couple of things in this. Playing at the MCG no doubt skews this a bit. Small membership in a big stadium means we get bigger numbers to our home games especially against other victorian teams. 80k in a home game against the Pies does not mean the game had 130% attendence by Melbourne supporters

Another issue, Freo are top of the pop because they sell out Optus every week. But so do West Coast who end up 16th because they are a much bigger club. Means the rankings aren't particularly useful.

A better way to work out how well our members represent themselves would be by looking at our home crowds against non-victorian teams, especially teams like Freo, GWS, West Coast, Port Adelaide and Gold Coast who tend to have low interstate attendence.

From that group this year we had home games against GWS, Gold Coast, Freo and West Coast. Our average against those teams was 22,345

Please let’s just enjoy being second on a ladder, any ladder. 😜

22 minutes ago, D Rev said:

Also - GWS with 37k members?!?

I suspect they give out a truck load of memberships to the local community.

Just like St Kilda offer a free 3 game membership to every kid in the SMJFL.

5 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

Please let’s just enjoy being second on a ladder, any ladder. 😜

We've already got the AFLW ladder for that!

31 minutes ago, D Rev said:

I got sent this by a friend today and while the data doesn't allow for ground capacity as part of the %, it does reflect well on us and should be dragged out every time we get bashed for low crowds.

Also - GWS with 37k members?!?

Those membership numbers are damning. No doubt there is funny numbers in these stats but to be essentially a bees [censored] in front of North, who have failed for the last decade and behind the Doggies and Saints despite winning a premiership only 4 years ago is a worrying sign. For WC to get over 100K members despite being a failure for the past 5 years is amazing.

I have no doubt that the last 2-3 years of poor governance and leadership and constant media scrutiny has done massive damage to our club. Steve Smith and Paul Guerra have a mammoth task not only to make us successful on the field, but also make us somewhat relevant again.

No wonder why every media personality doesnt think twice before they come around and take a dump on our club.

I've still got a bitter taste in my mouth about this when I saw last month the Dogs and Saints had more members. I know for certain we have more supporters than those 2 clubs. In 2023 I honestly thought we were going to overtake Hawthorn in the next year or two and even get close to Essendon.

Instead we've gone backwards fast. If that rabble of the Saints can sell more hope than us then something is drastically wrong. Our whole membership department, marketing and strategy needs to be reviewed.

Edited 13 hours ago13 hr by At the break of Gawn