21/01/2010
For years, on-field success has practically guaranteed AFL clubs' off-field prosperity with premierships bringing with them lucrative sponsorship deals and attracting additional members, enabling clubs to build state-of-the-art training facilities to help teams continue to flourish.
While the first bounce of this year's home and away season is still 60 days away, chances are, if you're a lapsed member of any club, you have already been bombarded with letters and phone calls asking why you are yet to re-sign. So why is it so important for supporters to put their money where their mouths are?
According to Scott Seward, consumer operations and development general manager at the Western Bulldogs, the earlier you sign up, the better it is for the football department and ultimately the team's on-field prospects. ''Once we've paid our overheads, any money that is earned by a football club goes into the team, so that basically means that for every member we sign up, which is $180 for a standard adult, $100 goes straight to the football department,'' Seward said. ''It means we can spend the full salary cap, get facilities like we've now got at the Whitten Oval that are second to none in the league, get good coaches, get the full rookie list and all those things that puts our football team on an even playing field with the other clubs they are competing with, which we haven't always had at the Bulldogs.''
The remaining money goes towards gate entry and member benefits such as a cap, stickers in their club colours and their quarterly magazine.
''Every 1000 members that we've got is literally $100,000 more that we can spend on the football department, which means if we have 1000 members less, we can't put a sandpit in at the ground to help develop the players' core strength, or get additional exercise bikes or more ice baths and other equipment that our fitness staff believe is potentially the one per cent difference between losing a prelim final by seven points and getting to a grand final,'' he said.
The Bulldogs have long struggled to attract members, in part because they have only one premiership cup from 1954 sitting forlorn in their trophy cabinet. But coming off back-to-back preliminary finals and having added power forward Barry Hall to their list, Sportsbet is currently offering $6.50 for the Dogs to be premiers in 2010 behind last year's winner Geelong and runner-up, St Kilda, which is paying $4.50.
The Dogs are entering the football year in better financial shape than ever, with 19,515 members already paid up compared to 15,742 this time last year and 15,449 the previous year. ''There are things that are going to happen in the next four to six weeks at this club that have never happened before, which means there's a sense of urgency around people signing up,'' Seward said.
''Supporters can't wait until May to see how we're going to buy a social club membership - a guaranteed grand final seat if the Dogs make it - because they'll be all gone. It's 1200 off capacity now. Our gold reserve seats have already sold out for the first time in the club's history, so the only thing people will be signing up for will be the waiting list if they wait too long.''
Seward said the longer fans left it to re-sign, the more money clubs spent on trying to get them back, money that would have gone to the team. In 2007, the Bulldogs had 29,786 members and finished 12th on the AFL ladder. The next year they signed up 30,756 members and finished third after moving into their new training facility as part of the $30 million Whitten Oval redevelopment. Last year, they had 31,652 members and were again third.
Seward said a little-known fact was that about 50 to 60 per cent of the people in attendance at AFL games were not members of either of the competing clubs, who were paying more to go to games at the box office than if they had bought memberships with their club. And while some people opted to become AFL members, which entitled them to a grand-final ticket, the clubs received significantly less than if the supporter had signed up directly.
And while it costs $180 for a standard adult membership, a seasons ticket for a family of four is $360, which gets you nine home games at Etihad games. ''Challenge anyone to have some entertainment nine weekends for a family of four that only costs $40 and you'd be surprised how hard it is,'' he said.
