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What needs to be done to grow the support and attendance


Dylan
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31 minutes ago, jeffplz said:

I'd agree. The entertainment ideas proposed are crap. Much more concerned that some poorly researched muppet is saying we only had 1800 at the match. 

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10 hours ago, jw1739 said:

 

2 hours ago, fensaddler said:

Not surprising that the heart of muppetry is the FFA. 

Unfortunately, it will probably enter the record books as 1,800 unless the club makes an effort to get it changed. It will then be trotted out every time a commentator wants to have a dig at Melbourne City.

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44 minutes ago, Tony999 said:

So what was the official attendance? 

@Tony999 Apparently the media were given a figure of 4,191 after the match.

I was there, and there were definitely plenty more than 1,800. I've used 4,191 in my records.

Whether we will ever know the truth goodness only knows. It's little things like this - a shithouse announcer, black plastic taped over advertising, ballboys who had no idea what to do, and no accurate official attendance figure, etc. etc. that make you realise just what a shithouse organisation FFA really is.

It's bloody hard to introduce new fans to the game when the national administrator can't put on a better performance than this.

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21 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

@Tony999 Apparently the media were given a figure of 4,191 after the match.

I was there, and there were definitely plenty more than 1,800. I've used 4,191 in my records.

Whether we will ever know the truth goodness only knows. It's little things like this - a shithouse announcer, black plastic taped over advertising, ballboys who had no idea what to do, and no accurate official attendance figure, etc. etc. that make you realise just what a shithouse organisation FFA really is.

It's bloody hard to introduce new fans to the game when the national administrator can't put on a better performance than this.

I was at the game too and there is no way in the world that could've been 1800. I hope the meeting with FFA in Oct will spell the end for them. 

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Went to the Bentleigh vs. Heidelberg match tonight. When the crowd figure was announced - a slightly disappointing 2,104 - the bloke behind me immediately said to his mates "Anyway, that's more than City got." 

Incidentally, good match. Bentleigh deserved to win. Adrian Zahra was playing for Heidelberg - didn't have a great impact.

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37 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Went to the Bentleigh vs. Heidelberg match tonight. When the crowd figure was announced - a slightly disappointing 2,104 - the bloke behind me immediately said to his mates "Anyway, that's more than City got." 

Incidentally, good match. Bentleigh deserved to win. Adrian Zahra was playing for Heidelberg - didn't have a great impact.

I heard that too! Was in the grandstand close to the halfway line.

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10 hours ago, Heart of oakleigh said:

I heard that too! Was in the grandstand close to the halfway line.

@Heart of oakleigh We were the threesome who had white chocolate Tim-Tams and coffee at half-time.

 

3 hours ago, citypool said:

Why is 2,000 disappointing for Bentleigh?

great for them having the semi final they really should advertise the game more in their area 

I think more expected because it was a "derby" between two sides with Greek heritage.

I always wonder why clubs - including City - don't advertise matches via the local "newspaper" The Leader.

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37 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

@Heart of oakleigh We were the threesome who had white chocolate Tim-Tams and coffee at half-time.

 

I think more expected because it was a "derby" between two sides with Greek heritage.

I always wonder why clubs - including City - don't advertise matches via the local "newspaper" The Leader.

As someone who was at both games, did you think there was more at the City game?

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3 hours ago, bt50 said:

As someone who was at both games, did you think there was more at the City game?

@bt50 That's very hard to say, what with the different ground set-ups and different perspectives from where I was seated on the two occasions.

I would have thought that any numbers from AAMI would be more accurate, as most if not all going into the ground have to pass a turnstile - not sure about corporates on that point - whereas at Bentleigh there is no turnstile and the number must be reached by counting the tickets on entry. At Bentleigh last night because I had already bought the three tickets from the club we bypassed the queue and just gave the tickets to the bloke on the main gate instead of entering via the normal pedestrian gate - AFAIK so did everyone else who had pre-bought their ticket. Whether every ticket was included in the count...?

Sorry - I realise I'm not being very specific, but thinking back to my English non-league days I think I'd have to say I reckon there were about 3,000 at both matches. I don't believe the figure of 1,800 at the City game, but I'm finding it equally hard to believe 4,191, and I'd say 2,104 last night was under the actual number.

Edit: I have a diagram of AAMI Park and the seating capacities of each section. Most at our match were seated in the Lower East Wing section, capacity 3,414, so I've guessed that was about 2/3 full, so say c. 2,000 there and c. 1,000 more adding up the rest.

Edited by jw1739
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38 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

@bt50 That's very hard to say, what with the different ground set-ups and different perspectives from where I was seated on the two occasions.

I would have thought that any numbers from AAMI would be more accurate, as most if not all going into the ground have to pass a turnstile - not sure about corporates on that point - whereas at Bentleigh there is no turnstile and the number must be reached by counting the tickets on entry. At Bentleigh last night because I had already bought the three tickets from the club we bypassed the queue and just gave the tickets to the bloke on the main gate instead of entering via the normal pedestrian gate - AFAIK so did everyone else who had pre-bought their ticket. Whether every ticket was included in the count...?

Sorry - I realise I'm not being very specific, but thinking back to my English non-league days I think I'd have to say I reckon there were about 3,000 at both matches. I don't believe the figure of 1,800 at the City game, but I'm finding it equally hard to believe 4,191, and I'd say 2,104 last night was under the actual number.

Edit: I have a diagram of AAMI Park and the seating capacities of each section. Most at our match were seated in the Lower East Wing section, capacity 3,414, so I've guessed that was about 2/3 full, so say c. 2,000 there and c. 1,000 more adding up the rest.

Pretty much my thoughts being there as well. Around 3k looked right to me.

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IMO one thing that the club needs to work on is keeping itself in the public eye during the off-season. Fortunately we had two home matches in the FFA Cup, even though the second was abysmal in more than one respect, but I think it's a mistake not to play a couple of public pre-season matches in Melbourne rather than be behind closed doors or in Shepparton.

I also don't understand why the League itself does not start next weekend. Sure, the following weekend is an international break, but so what? The EPL - as an example - has an international break very soon after it starts. IMO we're losing an opportunity to get going and to reduce some of the fixture congestion later in the season. It's not as if the clubs haven't had time to prepare.

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41 minutes ago, xXCiTyZeNXx said:

If we want to grow there is only one job.

WIN

That's how we grow. Come first and win the final

Winning is one part. In my opinion, it only attracts the "on-the-fence" supporters. See Sydney as an example. For us, I think that threshold is around 10k. After that, I can't see the numbers increasing greatly even if we win the treble three seasons in a row.

What does drive membership is availability. The last year I was in Melbourne, I didn't get a season membership. Why? Because there were always seats available at the game. If I wanted to rock up to a game after a big day at uni, then I would just walk over to AAMI after studying and buy a GA ticket at the gate. If it was going to be a decent game and I wanted to relax with good seats, I would buy CAT A or CAT B tickets. I only purchased the 3-game membership towards the end of the season when I knew I could get to all games and to also collect the pin.

What I'm getting at is that memberships are just a dick swinging contest, who cares about them. In terms of attendance, winning trophies will only get us so far (once again see Sydney). The only true way to increase our attendance is to cut prices, simple as that. I know I am not the one financing the club so I can't make that decision, but the goal of this strategy is to and lure families to commit themselves to the club. If the young kids love going to games, then the whole family will be locked in. If they stay commited to the club (another challange) then as the next generation comes along, attendance will increase exponentially. 

So during school holidays, Australian Open, F1 weekend etc. Offer free GA and 50% discount on  CAT A/B tickets.

City are on the right track with the community engagement and the pre-much stuff in Gosch's Paddock, but it's the ticket prices that are the killer. I guess some of this blame could be put on the FFA and stadium owners too.

If you compare the ticket prices to other sports/teams in Melbourne, you are paying a premium to watch (realistically) not the best skill level of football

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37 minutes ago, haz said:

Winning is one part. In my opinion, it only attracts the "on-the-fence" supporters. See Sydney as an example. For us, I think that threshold is around 10k. After that, I can't see the numbers increasing greatly even if we win the treble three seasons in a row.

What does drive membership is availability. The last year I was in Melbourne, I didn't get a season membership. Why? Because there were always seats available at the game. If I wanted to rock up to a game after a big day at uni, then I would just walk over to AAMI after studying and buy a GA ticket at the gate. If it was going to be a decent game and I wanted to relax with good seats, I would buy CAT A or CAT B tickets. I only purchased the 3-game membership towards the end of the season when I knew I could get to all games and to also collect the pin.

What I'm getting at is that memberships are just a dick swinging contest, who cares about them. In terms of attendance, winning trophies will only get us so far (once again see Sydney). The only true way to increase our attendance is to cut prices, simple as that. I know I am not the one financing the club so I can't make that decision, but the goal of this strategy is to and lure families to commit themselves to the club. If the young kids love going to games, then the whole family will be locked in. If they stay commited to the club (another challange) then as the next generation comes along, attendance will increase exponentially. 

So during school holidays, Australian Open, F1 weekend etc. Offer free GA and 50% discount on  CAT A/B tickets.

City are on the right track with the community engagement and the pre-much stuff in Gosch's Paddock, but it's the ticket prices that are the killer. I guess some of this blame could be put on the FFA and stadium owners too.

If you compare the ticket prices to other sports/teams in Melbourne, you are paying a premium to watch (realistically) not the best skill level of football

@haz IIRC we have had, over the seasons, quite a few matches where there have been attempts to boost the attendance by "children go free" and similar initiatives. I don't believe that there has been any statistically significant increases in attendance for those matches. Also, we had "members go free" for the two FFA Cup matches this year - neither had a good attendance and that for the second was abysmal - somewhere between 1,800 and 4,191.

I'm not a great believer in the "admission price" theory.

The only significant increases in attendances have been when David Villa and Alessandro del Peiro were playing. IMO this tends to support the view that the public is not convinced that they are going to witness anything special if they come along to watch a run-of-the-mill City match, which again tends to lead us back to the "win" theory. Under-performance is just not going to lead to improved attendances, whatever the cost of admission.

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6 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

@haz IIRC we have had, over the seasons, quite a few matches where there have been attempts to boost the attendance by "children go free" and similar initiatives. I don't believe that there has been any statistically significant increases in attendance for those matches. Also, we had "members go free" for the two FFA Cup matches this year - neither had a good attendance and that for the second was abysmal - somewhere between 1,800 and 4,191.

I'm not a great believer in the "admission price" theory.

The only significant increases in attendances have been when David Villa and Alessandro del Peiro were playing. IMO this tends to support the view that the public is not convinced that they are going to witness anything special if they come along to watch a run-of-the-mill City match, which again tends to lead us back to the "win" theory. Under-performance is just not going to lead to improved attendances, whatever the cost of admission.

Those matches were bad choices IMO. Kids go free doesn't work since it's the parents that need to be available and pay for their own tickets.

While the members go free FFA cup matches has low numbers simply cause its an FFA Cup game on a weeknight.

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3 hours ago, haz said:

Those matches were bad choices IMO. Kids go free doesn't work since it's the parents that need to be available and pay for their own tickets.

While the members go free FFA cup matches has low numbers simply cause its an FFA Cup game on a weeknight.

I’ve got no idea here but what do Melbourne Storm charge for a game? Must be a good reference point to know if our prices are justified as they have almost same overheads when playing at Aami.

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8 hours ago, Mr MO said:

I’ve got no idea here but what do Melbourne Storm charge for a game? Must be a good reference point to know if our prices are justified as they have almost same overheads when playing at Aami.

I get the feeling that both Storm and Victory would have pretty favorable deals given they are also tenants.  Although In saying that. We dont have to pay rent or anything at CFA. We (yes I know CFG) own it and I doubt Latrobe would ask for much so have more money to use for AAMI

Edited by Dylan
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10 hours ago, Mr MO said:

I’ve got no idea here but what do Melbourne Storm charge for a game? Must be a good reference point to know if our prices are justified as they have almost same overheads when playing at Aami.

@Mr MO You can see their 2019 membership packages here: http://membership.melbournestorm.com.au/2019-packages/ I think they have 11 home matches.

I can't readily find the cost of walk-up tickets - the 2018 season is over.

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15 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

@Mr MO You can see their 2019 membership packages here: http://membership.melbournestorm.com.au/2019-packages/ I think they have 11 home matches.

I can't readily find the cost of walk-up tickets - the 2018 season is over.

When I went second tier it was 50 bucks in what would be considered Category C tickets at the A League. Found it more expensive.

Having said that I got a mate who runs AAMI park security and in the matchday control room for the NRL. He mostly does this, not much A League. I was talking about ticket costs. He gave me the run down of the costings for the day. 

Security is the biggest additional cost. This is also why Derby tickets are more expensive at the A League. The cost for security including armed riot police is through the fucking roof and mandatory is the crowd is expected to exceed 15k. 

Pyrotechnics are cheap. About 200 a firework dispenser. 

Catering take care of the hospitality. 

All in all AAMI do not charge too much. They make most of their money on corporate and sponsorship. But the overheads are large. 

I agree that if there is not going to be massive crowds then let people sit in more preferable areas or black out areas - you see this in world football all the time. What we have is a segregated system with occasional fans more likely to fill GA than anything and keep the wings (better matchday viewing) free. IMO this should change, but it will not because they are working within the system imposed. If it were our stadium things might be different.

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8 hours ago, citypool said:

people that have taken mates to the games. Have they then go on to be city fans or they don’t care?

I’ve had 2 who signed up during the Novillo, Bruno and Mooy season - we played attractive football. 

The last 2 seasons I’ve taken friends to games and they have showed no interest becoming members mainly due to the dull football we play empty stadium, cost of memberships. 

I find that people seem to value attractive football more than our result grinding. Only the rusted fans put result over good football but this comes at a cost of winning new fans over.

Edited by Mr MO
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I think what everyone needs to keep in the back of their mind is that success wont necessarily mean growth of crowds, you just need to look at Sydney.

I have always felt that our club is a bit or a barometer of the interest in the league as a whole. The league interest is in the toilet, ergo, interest in us is in the toilet. 

Anyway what would I do? Since I assume you are all dying to know /Sarcasm. Slow burn approach. Well firstly, in fact I think they are doing the right things off the field but hosting different events and having the usual things at different locations. Like having the POY awards at the town hall I thought was a nice touch. The stomping ground events are also great idea and a bit different. As I feel that it seems like they have a more authentic feel rather than having everything at fucking Crown. 

If I were in charge, god help us all if that happens, I would be putting roots into the surrounding State League and NPL clubs. I was actually originally against having a geographical focus but I have come around if it is done in a particular way.

Anyway id be going out to state league clubs and providing money for equipment (not city branded equipment, just normal stuff) and  offer coaching classes at CFA which would be heavily discounted, if we were to charge anything. Id also develop the lower fields more so that they can host games, instead of people needing to go use a field at that place in Darebin. I would be also hosting finals and all that on the main pitch as well. 

Then I would get rid of anyone with a marketing degree or MBA at the club :up: 

 

 

 

Edited by Dylan
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