Membership

[Scraggers]

"THE stunning on-field revival of the Western Bulldogs is failing to translate off the field.

With a week to go until the club membership deadline, the most exciting team in town finds itself at the bottom of the pile.

The second-placed Bulldogs have remarkably been passed by wooden-spoon favourite Melbourne on the membership table.

A lot of that is down to the surge by Demons fans following the appointment of favourite son Jim Stynes as club president.

The Bulldogs have 27,602 match-day members, which is down from 28,725 last year.

Melbourne set a club record on Friday with 28,302 signed up, 1000 of those coming after Stynes' appointment.

Bulldogs chief executive Campbell Rose yesterday called on supporters to rally before next Monday's membership cut-off.

"It's disappointing," Rose said.

"As a club that is performing on-field, I am left embarrassed.

"I would appeal to anybody who claims any interest in the red, white and blue that they should take action and join up.

"Get with the momentum that the club has got at the moment. From our point of view, there is no reason why we shouldn't be well past our members of last year."

Rose said maybe some supporters had waited to see if the Bulldogs were the real deal.

"While we've still got a long way to go and are by no means there, we've given it a pretty good shake-up," he said."


:mad::mad::mad::mad:

[DOG GOD]

This is an absolute farce. I dont care what anyone's reason is for not supporting this team through a membership, especially with the start we have had this year. We should be close to 32,000 not sitting at the bottom of the table.

This is quite embarrassing really. :mad:

The club has done everything it can re: monthly payments to help out us supporters, and it is very disappopinting to hear that supporters are not SUPPORTING this great club.

Rose would have to be deeply embarrassed by all this, and i for feel sorry for him.

I understand that the economy has made problems for certain families and supporters, but there is ALWAYS something that u can cut back on.

I for one dont pay parking when i go to work...i park my car 10 minutes from my work and walk. This saves me $20 each week, and therefore helps me pay for my membership each year.

The club and its players are doing everything it can to be sucessful. Are we?

[westdog54]

I'll go one step further than farce. I'll say disgrace.

Times may be tough but supporters of every other club, Essendon, Richmond, Melbourne included, have managed to put there money where our mouth is. What's our excuse?

"Oh, but the western suburbs isn't a wealthy area, and that's where most of the Dogs' supporters are...". Give me a break, what a cop out.

Every time a player is on TV or radio, they give the club a plug. The phone number couldn't be easier to remember. The website even more so.

No excuses.

[The Pie Man]

Agreed guys, it's really poor. Is it something that doesn't necessarily hurt the long term survival of the club financially though? If we could make the $5 mil annualy more out of our stadium deal (like Brisbane does even though they average fewer bums on seats than us) compared with the revenue clubs receive from membership, we'd be plenty better off.

If we dipped to low 20,000's or below in the next 5-10 years, regardless of the stadium and other financial deals/arrangements we have for revenue streams into the club, I imagine the AFL would be loathe to support such a low supported team. Is the membership issue more about the perception as opposed to the $?

But again, the real issue is ....and forgive me for the Lara Bingle quote, 'where the bloody hell are you?' (hey, that should give the club an idea, next ad campaign with her in a ....)

[aker39]

I think the lower membership number may be partially offset by the amount of people who have upgraded their membership in the last couple of weeks.

[G-Mo77]

I just bought a Pet Membership. I know it's not another membership number to the club but I hope it helps.

[Scraggers]

I know we are preaching to the choir here ... but we need to get our message out there to the non-converted!!

We have the most exciting brand of footy in the AFL now its time for us to excel off the field as well ...

I am sure we all know supporters who are not yet members, or have not re-newed their membership ... It's time to put the hard word on them; it is our responsibility as avid fans to help the club in its membership drive !!

If every member here got ONE non-member to sign up before next Monday it would be a great way to say 'We are behind you boys'

[Mantis]

I think the lower membership number may be partially offset by the amount of people who have upgraded their membership in the last couple of weeks.

I wouldn't be interested to see if this drop in membership (approx 1000) also equates to a drop in membership revenue.

As you have pointed out I would have thought that many Dogs member's would have upgraded there memberships to hopefully guarantee them a GF ticket if/ when we make it.

[bornadog]

there is an arguement to say that people of the West have suffered the most this year with interest rates, petrol prices and so on, but that should also translate to lower attendance figures. We have been averaging 35000 per game, however, if you look at the West Coast game (29,27, with very few West Coast supporters) and the Brisbane game (39,320) there are supporters attending that are paying general admittance prices.

I just don't get our supporters? I wonder if we had a lot of sympthy supporters and they have switched to North?

[Sockeye Salmon]

Perhap we simply don't have that many people who care?

[DOG GOD]

maybe the club needs to set up volunteers to stop every dog supporter coming thru the gates at our next melb game and ask to see their membership card. If they dont have one then get Rick Kennedy to go and give them a visit. :)

[craigsahibee]

While the drop in numbers is disappointing, it's the revenue that's important. If the upgrades are becoming popular it may help to offset the drop in numbers.

I wonder how much money the club would save each year if the hats and scarves and everything else included in the membership pack was optional. Does the lure of a free scarf actually make up your mind to buy a membership?

As for us having a lower membership than Melbourne. I wouldn't look to much into that. There is a bit of sympathy out there from supporters of other clubs for Melbourne and the MCC members only have to hand over another $40 to become a paid up member at the MFC.

[LostDoggy]

A couple of things I would like to throw into the mix. Firstly we upgraded to a premiership silver and the membership department struggled to find four seats together. Secondly I know Geelong had a slump in members last year despite going on to win the flag. Thirdly, success - the latest research from the AFL shows that new supporters gravitate to a successful team, if they enjoy the team enough they will stick it out through the tough times.

One thing that did worry me today, after listening to James Fantasia talking on SEN - was KB suggesting that we had saturated our market and there was no further growth.

[LostDoggy]

People don't think that much, or listen that much once their mind is made up -- we stunk up the end of last year, so people didn't sign up. If we win the premiership we'll go up to 35,000 next year.

The market KB is talking about is a growing one -- will take three to five years for the trickle to begin and up to ten years to truly see the full results coming in. Success on-field over a sustained period will cement that.

And yes, we have fickle supporters. But that's only because most of our supporters are busy with many other things in life. It's not a bad thing per se.

[DOG GOD]

And yes, we have fickle supporters. But that's only because most of our supporters are busy with many other things in life. It's not a bad thing per se.

But Lantern will these be the same people that would moan and groan IF the club folded due to poor membership, coz they would have NO RIGHT!!!

EVERYONE can cut back on something (and i'm not stereo typing anyone here or anywhere), but all it would take is maybe not go to the pub for a month and u'd have ur yearly membership.

[LostDoggy]

I can understand that it is becoming hard for some of our supporters to pay for their memberships. I have a general admission season ticket membership because that is all that I can currently afford. Even if my financial situatuation became worse than it alredy is, I would still find a way to buy a membeship no matter what.

That is why I can not understand why there are these total idiots going around claiming to support our club, that are not in any financial troubles and even turn up to games and buy a ticket, but refuse to buy a membership for some stupid reason. If these people would just use their brain they would realise that buying a membership actually works out cheaper than buying tickets to every game. If it is because these people thought that we were going to go bad at the start of the year, then they need a slap across the face for being stupid. If they really loved this club then they would realise that not buying a membership does not help te club in any way.

[Topdog]

It does amaze me to see Bulldogs supporters lining up for tickets at our home games. Just plain stupid.

[LostDoggy]

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between match day members & non match day members?

On the monthly pay deal, I enquired about this, but you can only use a credit card.
I dont have a credit card, and other organisations can do direct debit from bank accounts, I told them this & hopefully a few others have also so the club will look at altering the pay by the month set up.

[LostDoggy]

Non-matchday members are those who sign up to things like the long-distance membership, armchair membership, pet membership etc, ie. those who still contribute financially to the club in some way and show their support through a 'membership' that does not include admission to actual matches (thus, 'non matchday').

[LostDoggy]

Non-matchday members are those who sign up to things like the long-distance membership, armchair membership, pet membership etc, ie. those who still contribute financially to the club in some way and show their support through a 'membership' that does not include admission to actual matches (thus, 'non matchday').

so in effect it means that non matchday members dont count to the total that are put out being 27,500
i wonder how many people have downgraded their membership due to financial issues, and then not counted in that 27,500? if the total of ALL members is more than 30,000 and they are financially contirbuting to the club shouldnt they still be counted as members in the total scheme of things (pet memberships aside) i dont see why the AFL & clubs are only worried about match day figures?

[The Coon Dog]

As far as I'm concerned, the actual number/s is meaningless.

We could break all sorts of records & have 40,000, but if half are children, then it doesn't stack up too well dollar wise.

I really think the determining figure should be 'net yeild', which would take into account the TOTAL DOLLARS derived through membership sales.

[Topdog]

Good point. Though taking a long term view I'd love it if half of them were children.

[1eyedog]

People don't think that much, or listen that much once their mind is made up -- we stunk up the end of last year, so people didn't sign up. If we win the premiership we'll go up to 35,000 next year.

The market KB is talking about is a growing one -- will take three to five years for the trickle to begin and up to ten years to truly see the full results coming in. Success on-field over a sustained period will cement that.

And yes, we have fickle supporters. But that's only because most of our supporters are busy with many other things in life. It's not a bad thing per se.

As all supporters are

[LostDoggy]

As all supporters are

Hmm.. I'm speaking in relative terms.

I have a feeling that your Collingwoods, Carltons and Richmonds have more one-eyed live, sleep, drink footy types than do the Dogs, who, of course have our share of fanatics, but a large proportion of our followers/supporters (call them what you will) tend to be multi-faceted -- in another post I shamefully generalised an entire segment of our followers as left-leaning, intellectual types, and most of those I know are followers of multiple sports, not just AFL. Before I get shouted down may I just say that every single one of those I know are dyed-in-the-wool long-term members so it's not them whose fault it is our numbers are low.

Also, in a growing market, we have to accept that the level of engagement is also a growing one -- from I don't really have a team, to I sort of like the Dogs because I live in the area and they come to my/my kids' school/kinder/auskick, to the Dogs are my team when anyone asks me, to I watch the Dogs whenever they're on TV, to I try to go to one or two Dogs games a year, to I have a Dogs scarf and jumper, to I'm thinking about a general membership, to I have a general membership, to I have a reserved seat membership and I boo loudly at Richmond, to I have an upgraded full membership and I boo loudly at Richmond and know all the Brownlow winners from Footscray, to I have a lifetime membership on auto-renew and bought memberships for my wife and kids even though she's from Perth and nominally an Eagles fan and doesn't agree with my assertion that red, white and blue is a perfectly acceptable colour scheme for my wardrobe, car and house, and bought pet memberships for my three bulldogs named Chris, EJ and Libba and drive a Leaseplan car and write on WOOF everyday and I have every version of the Dogs jumper ever produced and I pick fights with anyone with a Richmond or Adelaide sticker on their car and I cry everytime someone uses 'Darren', 'Jarman', or 'should've' in a sentence.

Some people may simpy not be as fanatical as some of us.. YET.

[G-Mo77]

Well after some discusions on the home front I upgraded both my wifes and my membership today throw that in with my Pet Membership and I have spent a lot of money over the last few days. All for a good cause though :)

[bornadog]

From Bulldogs Website:

"Today is the final day to ensure your membership will count in the Club’s Official Match Day Members total. As at close of business on Friday, the Club’s 2008 total stood at 28,004 – 721 short of last year’s record membership total of 28,725. The Club still has over 4,000 unrenewed members from 2007."

Pretty close to last year now, alot closer than I thought it would be. However, I bet GF allocation is up, which means membership revenue will be way up from last year

[The Coon Dog]

From Bulldogs Website:

"Today is the final day to ensure your membership will count in the Club’s Official Match Day Members total. As at close of business on Friday, the Club’s 2008 total stood at 28,004 – 721 short of last year’s record membership total of 28,725. The Club still has over 4,000 unrenewed members from 2007."

Pretty close to last year now, alot closer than I thought it would be. However, I bet GF allocation is up, which means membership revenue will be way up from last year

So in effect 14% of our members from last year haven't renewed. Staggering figure if you ask me. Last season Campbell Rose was on radio stating our 'churn rate' was amongst the lowest in the league at around 7%.

It would be interesting to see how the churn rate fares at other clubs this season.

[The Pie Man]

As far as I'm concerned, the actual number/s is meaningless.

We could break all sorts of records & have 40,000, but if half are children, then it doesn't stack up too well dollar wise.

I really think the determining figure should be 'net yeild', which would take into account the TOTAL DOLLARS derived through membership sales.

Not that we don't make money from memberships, we clearly do, though is it really that big of an issue compared with the stadium deal?

It's an issue, not getting away from that, but if we had 20,000 members, and all of them were reserved seat holders (so likely totalling more than 30,000 season ticket holders - I don't know that for sure just guessing) I suggest the AFL wouldn't support us financially any more as the number is too low.

It's not all about perception (as we clearly make some money out of memberships) but I think a fair chunk of it is. We need to keep the numbers up to continually justify the league's support - real money to sustain us will occur when Ian Collins is replaced as manager of the Dome (I ... is hate a too strong a word? I really don't like the guy, and I'm sure most Dogs fans will be with me on that) and they re-negotiate the deal.

I upgraded mine and my brother's membership last Friday.

[bornadog]

So in effect 14% of our members from last year haven't renewed. Staggering figure if you ask me. Last season Campbell Rose was on radio stating our 'churn rate' was amongst the lowest in the league at around 7%.

It would be interesting to see how the churn rate fares at other clubs this season.

Could the 4000 be the sympathy buyers who are now buying North Memberships?

[The Coon Dog]

Could the 4000 be the sympathy buyers who are now buying North Memberships?

Nah, 500 max I reckon.

[ledge]

Club has posted 28450 matchday members and total members 34600 on official website, only 275 short of last year, and is it true the AFL has extended time for us to get more signed up? or is it just to upsize our current members for GF tickets?

[hujsh]

According to how some clubs report memberships we just broke our record. Congrats

[ledge]

Just looking at our membership as posted on the official Bulldog website and although our membership is about 200 down on last year, I think we have raised more money in the coffers because people have upgraded for finals tickets, next year we will smash everything as far as records are concerned.

[Dad1]

i am unable to go to games as i live in the country. i never realised long distant membership wasnt really counted. have been longtime long distant member.no more, i will pay for full membership next year. i still wont go to the games,but i am a supporter and will do my bit.

[strebla]

i am unable to go to games as i live in the country. i never realised long distant membership wasnt really counted. have been longtime long distant member.no more, i will pay for full membership next year. i still wont go to the games,but i am a supporter and will do my bit.

All members count DAd1 my brother gets a membership each year but never attends this year i celebrate 25 years but will never catch the coon dog

[FrediKanoute]

there is an arguement to say that people of the West have suffered the most this year with interest rates, petrol prices and so on, but that should also translate to lower attendance figures. We have been averaging 35000 per game, however, if you look at the West Coast game (29,27, with very few West Coast supporters) and the Brisbane game (39,320) there are supporters attending that are paying general admittance prices.

I just don't get our supporters? I wonder if we had a lot of sympthy supporters and they have switched to North?

I have a mate who is a Nth supporter and he has stopped buying his annual mambership and I can understand why. He has two young kids which he supports as his wife doesn't work. A membership sets him back $200 per year. He reckons he is better off pciking and choosing the games he goes to each year, since he doesn't have the time to go to all of them, and spending the cash on a Foxtel subscription which lets him watch/record the game. None of this helps Nth, but in the end you have to make ends meet.

What I'm saying is that some people just can't afford it.

[ledge]

The reason we got 39000 at lions game was due to the primary schools being invited along.
One of those kids days.
I think we have inherited 90% of the Sudanese community after that day, i made sure i said hi to them and said go doggies, great thing was they all had something red, white and blue what i saw.
Get them young i say, and we won, so its all positive!

[Dad1]

here here to all

[strebla]

The reason we got 39000 at lions game was due to the primary schools being invited along.
One of those kids days.
I think we have inherited 90% of the Sudanese community after that day, i made sure i said hi to them and said go doggies, great thing was they all had something red, white and blue what i saw.
Get them young i say, and we won, so its all positive!

the reason they all had bulldog colours ledge is that the club give them supporter packs but i noticed yesterday a lot more african people than usual wearing the red white and blue so a good effort to get a larger supporter base.
Well done doggies

[bornadog]

As far as I'm concerned, the actual number/s is meaningless. .



CLUB ADULT CON JUN TOTAL
Adelaide 37,747 4,977 5,996 48,720
West Coast 33,565 6,124 5,174 44,863
Fremantle 31,285 4,131 7,494 43,366
Collingwood 29,985 4,122 8,391 42,498
Essendon 26,517 4,077 11,355 41,947
Hawthorn 27,546 3,150 10,740 41,436
Carlton 25,476 3,717 10,167 39,360
Geelong 24,139 5,335 7,376 36,850
Port Adelaide 26,125 2,010 6,050 34,185
North Melb 20,379 3,464 8,757 32,600
Richmond 18,585 3,485 8,750 30,820
Melbourne 21,925 2,153 5,541 29,619
W Bulldogs 18,520 3,751 6,035 28,306
Sydney 18,842 3,595 4,282 26,721
Brisbane 17,325 2,354 3,148 22,737

The one thing which isnot meaningless is the number of adult members as this is the figure used to work out grand final allocations.

[Scraggers]

CLUB ADULT CON JUN TOTAL
Adelaide 37,747 4,977 5,996 48,720
West Coast 33,565 6,124 5,174 44,863
Fremantle 31,285 4,131 7,494 43,366
Collingwood 29,985 4,122 8,391 42,498
Essendon 26,517 4,077 11,355 41,947
Hawthorn 27,546 3,150 10,740 41,436
Carlton 25,476 3,717 10,167 39,360
Geelong 24,139 5,335 7,376 36,850
Port Adelaide 26,125 2,010 6,050 34,185
North Melb 20,379 3,464 8,757 32,600
Richmond 18,585 3,485 8,750 30,820
Melbourne 21,925 2,153 5,541 29,619
W Bulldogs 18,520 3,751 6,035 28,306
Sydney 18,842 3,595 4,282 26,721
Brisbane 17,325 2,354 3,148 22,737

The one thing which isnot meaningless is the number of adult members as this is the figure used to work out grand final allocations.

It amazes me that both Sydney and Brisbane have the lowest memberships of any clubs, yet the AFL in its infinite wisdom want to put another team in their Rugby dominated state ... when will they realize that this is a bad idea ... I'm all for a Tassie team

[bornadog]

It amazes me that both Sydney and Brisbane have the lowest memberships of any clubs, yet the AFL in its infinite wisdom want to put another team in their Rugby dominated state ... when will they realize that this is a bad idea ... I'm all for a Tassie team

Yes Sydney is the interesting one. How long have they been in Sydney, they won a premiership, AFL pumped millions of dollars into them, yet they can only muster 26000 members. Of those I wonder how many in Melbourne?