The comment about our Auskick numbers is very worrying. My kids are told constantly at school that "Melbourne Suck" and my daughter now reckons that she supports the Bulldogs. If we can't win any games and continue to get constant bad publicity we have little hope of any kids barracking for us.

The board (old or new) needs to come up with a realistic plan over the next couple of months covering our many challenges. If they can do this part, perhaps we can have a "call to arms" among our members and supporters - perhaps a half year membership for $50 for new members and maybe most existing members might be willing to kick in an extra $50 each. This could raise $1 million if 5,000 new members took up the offer and 15,000 existing members put in their $50.

I know this type of thing is not well accepted around here but the Bulldogs did it several years ago and it helped save their club and re-awakened the population in the West (where I live) to support them.

The better idea, of course, is to get new sponsorship but this might be very difficult until we can regain respect. It might end up being up to us to do something about it!

WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT? going bust, going to the gold coast, to tasmania or merge with nth. WE ARE THE MFC not the bloody afl DO YOU ALL SUPPORT THE MFC OR AUSSIE RULRS FOOTBALL[afl]? so we might go to another league but we go with our heads up and our demons scarves around our necks.

our name wouldnt protect us in the afl but so what theres still the vfl and then we could still play collingwood.

DONT TAKE MERGER OR RELOCATION take our team,tradition AND SUPPORTERS to somewhere else.

if anybody talks merger or relocation they will have another fight on their hands i got up and fought the merger before and lost[may they burn in hell] it seems a bit funny burning in hell as they didnt want to be DEMONS but hawks. ill do it again

  AlphaDee said:

The comment about our Auskick numbers is very worrying. My kids are told constantly at school that "Melbourne Suck" and my daughter now reckons that she supports the Bulldogs. If we can't win any games and continue to get constant bad publicity we have little hope of any kids barracking for us.

The board (old or new) needs to come up with a realistic plan over the next couple of months covering our many challenges. If they can do this part, perhaps we can have a "call to arms" among our members and supporters - perhaps a half year membership for $50 for new members and maybe most existing members might be willing to kick in an extra $50 each. This could raise $1 million if 5,000 new members took up the offer and 15,000 existing members put in their $50.

I know this type of thing is not well accepted around here but the Bulldogs did it several years ago and it helped save their club and re-awakened the population in the West (where I live) to support them.

The Bulldogs membership is down 7,000 this year on last year and they are near the top at the moment. Rattling tins raises emotions but not enough to provide long term sustainable finances.

  sideshowbob said:

I am quoting last year's figures. Well done. Just point to the bit in the article where she says she's only talking about this year and then i'll go away.

OK. Here is the part where she talks about our attendances:-

"Melbourne's projected membership of 30,000 is currently struggling at just over 24,000; its home-game attendances have been poor with a 0-4 win-loss ratio to date."

Our projected membership of 24,000 is projected for 2008, not 2007. Then she talks about our "home-game attendances in the same breath as out "win-loss ratio to date." She's talking about this year's "home-game" attendances.

Now please go away as promised.

  Rhino Richards said:

The Bulldogs membership is down 7,000 this year on last year and they are near the top at the moment. Rattling tins raises emotions but not enough to provide long term sustainable finances.

Agree totally, but it saved the bulldogs and gave them some breathing space while they rebuilt their club.

  AlphaDee said:

Agree totally, but it saved the bulldogs and gave them some breathing space while they rebuilt their club.

They have not been saved yet. MFC and NMFC have just fallen further.

No doubt we are in massive trouble. It is funny how kids react to "superstars". I have seen so many little bastards running around with #23 Hawthorn Jumpers that it makes me sick (Buddy Franklin for the viewers at home). An Iconic superstar gets kids on board, so does wins. We have Neither.

We need a stronger board, and some marketable kids. Which brings me to my next point. Should the dees just blood kids all season long and see what happens? Could set us up in the future, call this season a write off (unless we string together 5 in a row it is a write off anyway) and hope we land a marketable kid/ groom our own marketbale kids (morton and Aussie seem likely types) for the future.

TO all those D haters.

Go and get farked.

MCC owes it bigtime to MFC and should cough the fark up!!!

Those pleb carlton, collingwood, essendon and rich MCC supporters should subsidise the mighty MFC because we came first.

GO and eat sh2t you bogans

  Real Demon said:

I'm really stuggling to to get my head around this Casey idea.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Casey idea came to life because we just happened to play the Roos out there in a preseason game.

As a result, and with mounting bad press on the club about a disjointed preseason training arrangement, the club has thought......."hey, what about a base at Casey?"

You're wrong.

  Real Demon said:

Do we know anything about the demographics out there, whether we indeed have much of a supporter base in the outer east? Being in an area, doesn't simply equal getting members and supporters in that area.........otherwise the Saints wouldn't be up and relocating to Frankston. It's not like we go out there (Casey) one day, and pick up 10,000 members / supporters the next!

The demographics are young families with impressionable kids. Get into the schools with community programs, and MFC would have the inside running on picking up thousands of extra members. It has to be seen as part of a long term plan though - there's no sustainable quick fixes (just watch NMFC's memberships drop in future years).

  Real Demon said:

Any permanent move to any location sure be done with the appropriate planning and due diligence. We can't afford to manage the club on the run anymore!

Quite correct, but do it soon before MFC is trapped in a rectangular stadium!

  Rhino Richards said:

Its not so much the numbers of members (thats good) but the $$$$ they bring through the type of membership they buy. Remember 4 MCC/MFC members at $40 is the same dollars as almost a full paying member. The other issue is how else in footy gear, raffles and other Club things do the members contribute. I would suggest that is low for a number of reasons. One of the major ones lack of facilities.

I heard from a CFO that the real leverage of profitability for a Club is sponsorship. That is not to decry membership but the marginal profit is higher.

On one hand you say that it's more about the cost of the membership they buy. On the other hand you're saying that the money from memberships isn't really that important. Which is it?

Fwiw, I've written before on this one, and suggested that it's not really the money from members, but what that then represents to sponsors.

  Rhino Richards said:

The difference with rugby league and its Clubs is it is silently financed and funded from News Corp. Take that away and that sport dies. The AFL has the TV rights which is much much more lucrative than the NRL rights.

So the AFL gets even more money than the NRL, we have more members than Rugby Clubs, and yet we're labelled as a laughing stock of a sporting Club with no supporters, etc? Hmm.

  casey scorp said:

Get into the schools with community programs, and MFC would have the inside running on picking up thousands of extra members. It has to be seen as part of a long term plan though - there's no sustainable quick fixes (just watch NMFC's memberships drop in future years).

I agree with this. Not sure I'm with you on the rectangular stadium being the death of us, though.

Why would THE founding Club be killed? Simple: pure and unadulterated corporate greed.

Our brand is meaningless? Well, as other posters have already stated, what exactly are the other clubs ‘brand(s)’ apart from revenue for the AFL? What is Collingw&%$’s brand? What is Richmond’s brand? What is the Dogs or the Roos brand? Cartel was and, without Pratt probably still would be, a basket case. Did the AFL ever summon them to their slaughterhouse because of the meaninglessness of their brand? The conjured ‘clubs’ like Adelfade and the Wiggles stand for nothing vis-à-vis the history of THIS competition.

Vlad is on a mission to increase the size of his and his successor’s pay packets. Antecedent cows to the killing floor have dodged the bolt of death. Whilst the sacred cow known as Cartel was spared, Vlad’s greed has decreed that nothing other than a cash cow is sacred. Hence our moment of truth on the killing floor of the AFL’s slaughterhouse.

By killing the founding Club, Vlad runs the risk of losing tens of thousands of followers of the game (of which I shall be one). However, by spreading it’s carcass over the Gold Coast or Western Sydney, he is potentially gaining hundreds of thousands of more followers of the game. Hundreds of thousands more followers equals hundreds of millions of dollars more revenue for the AFL and that equals tens of thousands of dollars more for the pay packet of Vlad, his cohorts and their successors.

If the AFL actually gave a flying about the history and traditions of our game, the last Club that would be sent to the slaughterhouse would be OUR GREAT CLUB. THE ORIGINAL CLUB AND THE GREATEST CLUB.

So the next time you hear some male chicken sucker in the media pleasure themselves over the ‘meaninglessness’ of our brand, you can always find solace in the fact we’ve been summoned to the AFL’s slaughterhouse for the benefit of Vlad’s hip pocket.

My take on our posts so far indicate alot is going to fall onto the shoulders of PMAC our new CEO

I think the corporate dollar will have far more of an impact in our long term survival that membership drives like North and the Bulldogs have been doing

Memberships should be an ongoing commitment all year round anyway

For years our supporter base has been poor which you could agrue is through lack of onfield success which is probably where the *fickle* supporter tag comes from

Some even blame the MCC but i am sick of hearing about that

the onfield success would need to be for long term and not a yoyo effect which elimates the theory of a quick fix is best (buying eight 28- 30 year old rejects)

Looking at our current list i cannot realistically conclude making any decisive upward ladder progress until 2010

Anything quicker than that would need some exceptional luck by the recruiting department and more so luck in the fast track in the development of current players

I want to see Bailey and his chosen assistants be given every oppurtunity to mould his football side his way and without interference from nervous board members like i have seen at StKilda and Richmond over many years

I expect some big changes at the end of the year concerning our player list

From what i have seen for ages is our marketing has been abysmal and its very dishearthening to see some Obituary notices look better than our adverts

Our Radio/TV adds rarely heard/seen

I see more excitement on a Warcraft Guild website than i see on ours yet we are celebrating 150 years

I think others have spoken on the football department facilities well enough to asses we have got some major problems to solve

I am alarmed at the amount of dollars it is going to require to keep some clubs operating competitivley in victoria for the next few decades

As Ron says ITS UP TO US but i would like to hear it more often