Number of the fleeced
THE AFL club membership ladder released yesterday makes for interesting reading, with powerhouse Richmond not surprisingly sitting in first place and Gold Coast also not surprisingly sitting last.
Here’s a quick analytical view of what the figures really mean for four clubs in particular and an explanation as to why the Suns figure of 12,000+ may not actually be fake news after all.
CARLTON, having won more games interstate than Richmond this year, are chuffed with their 11 per cent membership increase and upbeat about still being a mathematical chance to win the 2019 premiership. To celebrate, the club emailed supporters and said its first priority after the win over Gold Coast would be to have a percentage you could find at the lower end of an FM radio dial by Round 13 next year. Woo-hoo.
COLLINGWOOD’S membership tally fell by 0.5 per cent from 75,879 to 75,507, with the club revealing that 372 supporters failed to renew after suffering ACL, PCL and or hamstring injuries on the way to the post office, ruling them all out for the 2018 season. Makes sense.
WESTERN BULLDOGS joined Collingwood as one of only two clubs to record a fall in their 2018 numbers, which the club put down to the “realisation from many supporters that fairytales in football such as 2016 are rarer than rocking horse s--t so many will simply start a savings plan now so they can jump on board for the next flag in 60 years or thereabouts’’. Fair enough.
GOLD COAST now has 12,108 members, up from 11,665 last year, apparently. Why is this relevant? Well, I’m glad you asked.
You see, if Gold Coast made the Grand Final this year (stay with me), we might suddenly think they have a purpose. This year, the GF ticket allocation for competing clubs stands at 17,000, up from 15,000 in 2017. That being the case, there would be SPARE tickets available for the other, (more interesting-heavily supported-less franchiseyinvented in a Petri-dish) club, almost 5000 of them which could be used by real fans unless the AFL decided to claw them back and onsell them to corporates at five grand a pop.
Therefore, it would be much cheaper for a smart Victorian fan to buy a Gold Coast membership with the guaranteed Grand Final ticket option and hide it in a drawer in the hope that their own team meets the Suns on the last Saturday in September and be able to go along instead of paying a scalper thousands. It probably explains why they actually have 12,000 members in the first place who are probably all from a postcode starting with the number three. Let’s face it, if you live on the Gold Coast, why would you go and watch that rubbish when there are so many other fun things to do.