Diamond_Jim

Sounds like the negotiations for the new Perth Stadium were very tense. I see that the new Stadium manager will be selling "Stadium Memberships" like they do at Docklands. At the new stadium which seats 50k they will have only six thousand general admission seats. The returns to West Coast could be huge. Probably not as good for Freo but they must be starting to attract the overflow like Port in Adelaide. http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/done-deal-afl-agree-to-move-to-new-perth-stadium/news-story/9d1595f25b949b221cd1300fe78cc5ba

to get a substantive return at the MCG home games you need regular (say 4 games) crowds of 55k and on say three (non finals) occasions punch into the 70's. That is home games and does not include the blockbuster when it is an away game. That way fans buy reserved seats... you get corporate suites opening ... sponsorship etc. Realistically those figures probably require a 50% rise in MFC membership at least (and I am talking real members ... not 3 game interstate members). To achieve that following we would need 10 years of sustained success. (Finals appearances in at least 7.) In the last 50 years we have had one such period and even then there was a lot of up and down success. In both our grand final years we "fell" into the final positions so there was minimal momentum built up during the year. Must admit though... 1988 was a fun ride. In the meantime the power house teams will go away from us. If the Dogs and Saints get a good Docklands deal they also will leave us behind. One rung up on North but that is small comfort. Sure the AFL will give us a hand out but do we always want to be holding out the begging bowl. Would love to make it as we are but I just cannot see us breaking the cycle.

The hype begins... http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-10-29/vfl-star-attracting-interest-from-a-dozen-clubs "The same kid with the raking left boot now has a dozen AFL clubs clamouring for his services. West Coast, which has five picks in the top 40 of the NAB AFL Draft, is arguably the keenest." Mid to late second round is my guess........ mmmm Watts for Fritsch anyone? Can't see it myself given how desperate we are for outside mids.

thanks for that jnrmac.... I had thought the break even was around 30k for the MCG but you are probably right. Those figures for Geelong are scary but I assume they pick up the annual stadium maintenance costs which in our case are borne by the MCC. It is important that fans understand stadium economics. After one hits the break even point every extra attendee is almost pure profit. The reserved seat revenue is also an incredible money spinner for the bigger clubs. Take Adelaide... it has more members than seats available at the Adelaide Oval. People literally assign their seats to friends etc if they are not using them for a year or two because they fear the long waiting list to regain their seat. Personally I love going to MFC games and having several rows of seats to myself and being able to move in and out of the sun as the mood takes me but it is a spiral to financial irrelevancy. Dare I say and please don't shoot the messenger but MFC could be better off at a boutique 30k seat stadium along the lines Eddie McGuire was spruiking a year or so back.

Gotta love the Guardian critics ... a fantastic line: "The updated Snatch is not so much a diamond in the rough as a turd in the punchbowl, contaminating all who touch it." https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/oct/28/snatch-gangster-tale-old-pony-guy-ritchie

Understand completely PF but I would go a little further. This year should have been the 8.... next year has to be 6 with a chance to push for 3 or 4. Tired of the mediocrity shown by this club. Not sure the Pollyanna's on this forum understand the damage done to this club by the late season fade out. It simply must not happen again. Remember with five games to go we could have gone top 4 and instead we won 2 out of 5 with almost our best 22 on the park. Moreover 4 out of those 5 games were against teams that well and truly missed the 8.

Interesting Macca those two English races are not on the classics list ... the English Classic (King George VI) is 2400 metres so I assume she likes it a little shorter. Surprised that she is missing the Dubai Cup at US$10M which is 2000 metres. Oh to have such choices !

Thanks for the link Maca. I see the Laurel is no longer run being overtaken by the Breeders Cup. Interesting to see what is the next race Winx is set for assuming she wins today.

So what is considered the best WFA race in the world these days for the classic mile and a half. Is it the Arc de Triomphe, the Laurel international or the Dubai race (forget the name) or the Cox Plate. Cannot really see the Cox plate ever being at the top because of the flight times to Australia and our quarantine rules. Seems that Winx is on a hiding to nothing today. The field is weak according to the pundits. Hope she wins. Cheers

we could win for years but the money deals are stacked against us ... time for a new pack of cards

It's the money mate ... we can't and never will catch up financially under this system

This structured fixture is increasingly becoming a joke. When finals positions are decided by a few percentage points a compromised draw is a travesty. Sure it maximises revenue for the game but equally it entrenches the revenue streams in the larger clubs.

There was an article in the Age a few days ago about the negotiations between the AFL and St Kilda/Footscray concerning their very bad stadium deals. It seems that while the deals will be revisited the clubs are arguing they should also be compensated for all the money they lost through the bad deal over the years. Good ambit claim and of course it ignores the equalistaion payments they got during these years. The concern for the MFC is that if these clubs get a good deal and start making regular money out of Docklands, MFC falls further behind as our crowd numbers make most games at the MCG line ball.

Agree playing these two teams in Melbourne we stand a god chance of winning both. Playing in the NT turns these into 50/50 games at best. Let's Ditch Darwin !

Given that he was a high profile transfer to the Dogs who no longer want him and one assumes he was shopped around during trade week the apparent AFL consensus would be .... No The only reason you might take him is to provide depth via Casey and act as a mentor to Weideman. Given that would be low dollars/profile I could not see him accepting that role.

I suppose the point I was trying to make is that given the annual turnover of the big clubs a premiership is nice from a cash viewpoint but not a panacea. Rather you need sustained success and several premierships such as Hawthorn have delivered. Will be interested to see how Geelong's stadium deal goes from a financial viewpoint. They have a "clean" stadium so they get all the ground advertising but of course they have only about 8 games at the stadium.

Seems that in the short term Tigers made an extra $5 Million from their premiership through sale of memorabilia etc. Of course there should be more to come in increased sponsorship and memberships. In a way I am surprised that for a club as big as Richmond it is so little. Nice to have but it demonstrates that continued success is vital. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-10-25/tigers-rake-in-the-cash-from-fairytale-flag For the Guernsey clash people there is this little gem: "Ironically, the canary-yellow clash strip Richmond donned in the Grand Final against Adelaide, amid heavy criticism from the likes of club legend Kevin Bartlett, has sold out and more will be available in November."

the wonders of Google seems like they went to AAMI Park as it was then called: "Earlier, tens of thousands of fans congratulated the team who were presented to the crowd at AAMI Park at about 8pm. " http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/afl/collingwood-player-live-it-up-at-aami-stadium/news-story/1fe215a7b0b16111289e1a0ac9775f64?sv=4d6b7ef20e1f311c160642caded2aec8

Because of the Commonwealth games the GCS home games for a lot of the 2018 season are to be played at the Gabba and in Townsville. The MFCSS in me suggests that we will get a trip to Townsville to add to our two NT games. I see the China experiment is continuing.

To be fair these teams also carry a heavy travelling schedule.

Will be interesting to see how Bulldogs fare with prime TV games. If as I suspect they drop down the media scene it underscores how hard it is to break into the big league. By contrast Richmond will come from a reasonable Friday night base to a much larger number. Have to start somewhere but from a sponsorship basis maintaining any continued presence in high profile game will be challenging. If we have a ten year goal it is to take Hawthorn's spot in the media spotlight. That will be a challenge given that Hawthorn have been relatively successful for 30 years.

Collingwood FC burnt a few bridges with the Collingwood Council when they vacated the ground a few years back and of course the Council now represents an affluent area of Melbourne which is not necessarily enamoured with Collingwood FC. There does however seem to be a lot of government money floating around for "community sporting facilities" eg Whitten Oval, Kardinia Park etc so perhaps the Council might let the pies come back if it meant getting the maintenance costs off their books. Does anyone know the ownership and cost structure for the Lexus centre and the adjoining oval. Hard to see the MFC having the money to buy it but perhaps a deal could be found.

MFC used to own a magnificent terrace house in Jolimont Terrace or thereabouts. We sold it back in the 90's if not before when realising non core assets was in vogue. Pity we did not re-invest the money in a HQ but that fails the modern Business 101 test. Not sure I would call Docklands ... "greenfield" ... the first sod was turned there over 30 years ago. FWIW Toorak (or Prarhan ) oval would be my pick. Not sure who owns/uses it these days and how the sharing rights would work.

he get's it on merit I thought. 2017 did not exactly merit a gold star

Thanks Ethan... so the catch is you lose the occasional sports program such as overseas tours by the cricket team, NFL etc. plus of course the soccer if you are into those things. At least being able to do it online avoids the interminable phone waits.