2022 Western Bulldogs Membership Thread

[GVGjr]

I wonder how inflated the final number is considering I was given a membership by the club when I did not pay for one.

I find it disappointing that we like every other club, play this game of trying to manufacture bigger numbers. The AFL are the biggest components of this by allowing it, so total membership is increasing so they can all line up for another bonus.

At some point clubs need to justify their existence but I don't get why they would fudge the membership numbers because it really doesn't matter that much. We set a target of 50K for memberships but no one would really think less of the club if it achieved 49K in fact if might incentivize some supporters for the following season.

We have money in the bank and plenty of projects that we are working on. The focus for the club needs to be on that plus our on field performances. Pure membership numbers just don't mean much, it's more about the satisfaction of how the supporters feel about their memberships and I think there is room for improvement in that aspect.

[Prince Imperial]

At some point clubs need to justify their existence but I don't get why they would fudge the membership numbers because it really doesn't matter that much. We set a target of 50K for memberships but no one would really think less of the club if it achieved 49K in fact if might incentivize some supporters for the following season.

We have money in the bank and plenty of projects that we are working on. The focus for the club needs to be on that plus our on field performances. Pure membership numbers just don't mean much, it's more about the satisfaction of how the supporters feel about their memberships and I think there is room for improvement in that aspect.

Propaganda when competing with other clubs for sponsors is one reason; the email contacts can also be used for marketing purposes. Giving free junior memberships may increase support in the future.

In the 2018 annual report it was stated that we had discontinued 5000 complimentary memberships so we may be doing this less now than in the past and less than other clubs though it's hard to know.

One way is comparison of membership revenue figures if they are available in club annual reports. Last year we had less than 200 more members than North but we received about $2.2m more than them from this category.

GWS 30k figure is obviously hugely inflated by free memberships. They had about two thirds of our members but received about one fifth of the revenue.

50,989

[Axe Man]

Propaganda when competing with other clubs for sponsors is one reason; the email contacts can also be used for marketing purposes. Giving free junior memberships may increase support in the future.

In the 2018 annual report it was stated that we had discontinued 5000 complimentary memberships so we may be doing this less now than in the past and less than other clubs though it's hard to know.

One way is comparison of membership revenue figures if they are available in club annual reports. Last year we had less than 200 more members than North but we received about $2.2m more than them from this category.

GWS 30k figure is obviously hugely inflated by free memberships. They had about two thirds of our members but received about one fifth of the revenue.

50,989

Agreed. Revenue from memberships is far more important than the total membership numbers.

[Prince Imperial]

51,140

[Eastdog]

51,140

55,000 hopefully next season. Just great to have broken the 50K mark this year.

[azabob]

Hello fellow woofers.

Does any woofer know who is in charge of membership at the club? I'm after a name rather than the generic membership@westernbulldogs

My better half signed up as an aflw member of the dogs on Sunday night and the lack of acknowledgement or engagement after she hit purchase was non existent.

Her words exactly "where is my email saying Welcome to the Kennel"?

No confirmation email of the membership purchase, no idea if she is getting a membership pack like a sticker, no email on how access matchday tickets etc., no link to the online shop to buy merch, no reference to the clubs app or socials

For someone like my better half who is only 5% interested in AFL and only because she started watching her sister play local footy surely this type of early engagement is vital?

To me the above seems a no brainer; but I'm not in marketing or fan engagement.

[GVGjr]

Aza,

Check your messages and good luck.

[GVGjr]

It's certainly an area that you need to make a good first up impression with so a tad disappointing that the acknowledgement and welcome hasn't been sent.

[Grantysghost]

That's probably an automation failure.

All of those things are driven by automated work flows, most likely via a cloud provider such as Azure (Microsoft) or AWS (Amazon).

Point being it may not be the clubs fault.

Terrible impression though let's hope they aren't half arseing it and using Barry's Bargain Basement IT solutions!

[Bulldog4life]

Hello fellow woofers.

Does any woofer know who is in charge of membership at the club? I'm after a name rather than the generic membership@westernbulldogs

My better half signed up as an aflw member of the dogs on Sunday night and the lack of acknowledgement or engagement after she hit purchase was non existent.

Her words exactly "where is my email saying Welcome to the Kennel"?

No confirmation email of the membership purchase, no idea if she is getting a membership pack like a sticker, no email on how access matchday tickets etc., no link to the online shop to buy merch, no reference to the clubs app or socials

For someone like my better half who is only 5% interested in AFL and only because she started watching her sister play local footy surely this type of early engagement is vital?

To me the above seems a no brainer; but I'm not in marketing or fan engagement.

Not in junk mail Aza? Amazing what emails can appear in there.

[azabob]

Not in junk mail Aza? Amazing what emails can appear in there.

Nope. We checked that!

[bornadog]

Nope. We checked that!

Just ring them, they are usually pretty good.

[Grantysghost]

Normal membership cards back next year.

No foreign colours in the scarves.

KWW to be more visible.

[HOSE B ROMERO]

Normal membership cards back next year.

No foreign colours in the scarves.

KWW to be more visible.

Yep i liked what she had to say.

One thing that did catch my attention was when she said ' the bulldogs were the number 1 viewed team on television this year'...??

[Prince Imperial]

Yep i liked what she had to say.

One thing that did catch my attention was when she said ' the bulldogs were the number 1 viewed team on television this year'...??

We had a stack of prime time Channel 7 games this year. There will be a lot less next season.

[jazzadogs]

Yep i liked what she had to say.

One thing that did catch my attention was when she said ' the bulldogs were the number 1 viewed team on television this year'...??

She said that at the East West Club dinner as well - I think it was that we had the highest average viewing numbers, in both men's and women's competitions.

[GVGjr]

Normal membership cards back next year.

No foreign colours in the scarves.

KWW to be more visible.

I know she has copped a bit of criticism of being invisible but her response today ticked off all the area's of concerns I and many others have had with the club. I'm confident she is steering us in the right direction.

She was close to brilliant at the East West function last month and it's why we need to be seeing a lot more of here because she is very relatable to our membership base.

[Grantysghost]

Yep i liked what she had to say.

One thing that did catch my attention was when she said ' the bulldogs were the number 1 viewed team on television this year'...??

That did strike me as unusual as well. I wonder where that metric comes from? Love to see the figures.

Edit: JD has already answered it :)

[bornadog]

That did strike me as unusual as well. I wonder where that metric comes from? Love to see the figures.

Edit: JD has already answered it :)

We also had a huge number of Thursday and Friday night matches - the highest viewing times.

[WBFC4FFC]

The AFL can schedule GC v. GWS on these nights and the Ratings would be the same.

People will watch an AFL match on these nights no matter who is playing.

[Grantysghost]

Total club memberships 2022

https://i.postimg.cc/TYWvq9Sw/5-D4-E84-AA-A9-FA-40-E5-BC6-B-97249-EBD1-F9-E.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[DOG GOD]

Geez to think a club like NM is right on our heels, and Saints have 10k more.

[Grantysghost]

Geez to think a club like NM is right on our heels, and Saints have 10k more.
Saints have really gapped us haven’t they, used to be similar.

[GVGjr]

Geez to think a club like NM is right on our heels, and Saints have 10k more.

Of course there will be the normal conversations on how those numbers are determined but on face value being 10K behind the Saints and on par with the Roo's doesn't sound great but our membership numbers are growing and that is the main thing.

[Grantysghost]

Giants with 32k, hmmmm.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Saints have really gapped us haven’t they, used to be similar.

So of the 4 clubs below us on the membership ladder, 3 are located in still emerging AFL markets and the 4th is a basketcase on field and not so great off it either...

I really hope our club is investigating why we are still lagging behind. If the Bulldog's membership client experiences of some WOOF members is representative of the broader membership population, then that's got to be a factor.

Given our list, high profile players, recent on field success, you'd like to think we'd have shifted the dial a bit membership wise..

[Scraggers]

1138

Not all memberships are equal it seems

[bornadog]

1138

Not all memberships are equal it seems

Freo impressive

[jeemak]

So we're in the historically identical position that we've always been if you believe the numbers - which show we've recorded our highest season total.

That's something to fret over?

[Axe Man]

I don't get the angst either, the membership numbers are so rubbery.

All I care about is that the club generates sufficient revenue from membership (and other means) to adequately fund our football program.

[Grantysghost]

So we're in the historically identical position that we've always been if you believe the numbers - which show we've recorded our highest season total.

That's something to fret over?

I still live in the west, it's crazy the growth out here especially around Werribee.

Left field suggestion, we enter a team in the BBL.

Capture the huge sub continental community out here and maybe translate some of that into AFL members.

Crazy right, but it may just be crazy enough to work.

My point is we haven't captured the emerging market here at all.

[Flamethrower]

I still live in the west, it's crazy the growth out here especially around Werribee.

Left field suggestion, we enter a team in the BBL.

Capture the huge sub continental community out here and maybe translate some of that into AFL members.

Crazy right, but it may just be crazy enough to work.

My point is we haven't captured the emerging market here at all.

That is not a bad idea - it is crazy the number of new cricket teams that have formed in the West in the last decade or so, and almost all of them are named after cities or regions in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh etc.

There is a huge influx of immigrants from the sub-continent and cricket is like a religion to them. We have a couple of other Drs at work start since the pandemic and when it's quiet we just talk cricket all day - it can be a little uncomfortable as they even want to know all about my modest career once they hear I played for about 30 years.

[Prince Imperial]

Geez to think a club like NM is right on our heels, and Saints have 10k more.

The Saints have a bigger supporter base than us so it's not surprising.

It's important to remember that the AFL has counted "no minimum spend" memberships in their official totals for a while now. Clubs do have to provide a membership pack so there is a cost involved in just giving complimentary ones out but all clubs do it to varying degrees. Propaganda is a big motivation.

Some of the 2021 annual reports of clubs do provide revenue figures for memberships:

St Kilda - $8.13m
WB - $7.65m
NM - $5.48m
GWS - $2.15m (but this includes merchandise; separately they have $320k of merchandise expenses)

North are obviously handing out many more free memberships than us and the Giants are doing it to a massive degree.

The latter have free junior memberships readily available online (https://giantsrecruits.com.au/about/) and I bet AFL development officers in NSW hand them out like confetti.

[Axe Man]

Understandably the social club Christmas party disappeared for a couple of years due to Covid, but where is it now? There are no more government restrictions preventing it, is it just a cost saving measure from the club? Just hoping nobody notices? Very disappointing as I enjoyed attending most years with my old man.

Already the value of the social club has been greatly diminished over the past 3 seasons with either no social club or this years version that had no speakers in attendance on game days. Not to mention a guaranteed grand final ticket to a grand final we weren't allowed to attend. Feels like a bit of a slap in the face for loyal social club members that the club can't even throw us a little function with a mission wrap and an ice cream.

[Grantysghost]

Understandably the social club Christmas party disappeared for a couple of years due to Covid, but where is it now? There are no more government restrictions preventing it, is it just a cost saving measure from the club? Just hoping nobody notices? Very disappointing as I enjoyed attending most years with my old man.

Already the value of the social club has been greatly diminished over the past 3 seasons with either no social club or this years version that had no speakers in attendance on game days. Not to mention a guaranteed grand final ticket to a grand final we weren't allowed to attend. Feels like a bit of a slap in the face for loyal social club members that the club can't even throw us a little function with a mission wrap and an ice cream.

I've got another question to ask someone important now.

[bornadog]

Understandably the social club Christmas party disappeared for a couple of years due to Covid, but where is it now? There are no more government restrictions preventing it, is it just a cost saving measure from the club? Just hoping nobody notices? Very disappointing as I enjoyed attending most years with my old man.

Already the value of the social club has been greatly diminished over the past 3 seasons with either no social club or this years version that had no speakers in attendance on game days. Not to mention a guaranteed grand final ticket to a grand final we weren't allowed to attend. Feels like a bit of a slap in the face for loyal social club members that the club can't even throw us a little function with a mission wrap and an ice cream.

AFLW similar. I joined as a founding member and pre covid had various small functions with the players etc, but nothing this year

[hujsh]

Anyone get their packs yet? I got mine yesterday which hopefully means those of your that didn't get any last year or got them very late don't go through that again.

Opening it up and remembering that it was going to be a scarf with no other options gave me a second dose of disappointment.

[bornadog]

Anyone get their packs yet? I got mine yesterday which hopefully means those of your that didn't get any last year or got them very late don't go through that again.

Opening it up and remembering that it was going to be a scarf with no other options gave me a second dose of disappointment.

There is a 2023 membership thread here (https://www.woof.net.au/forum/showthread.php?22122-2023-membership/page2&highlight=membership)