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What needs to be done to grow the support and attendance


Dylan
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2 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?

Ive had 2 jump on board during the Terra/Fred glory days. The wife's dad signed up for a few seasons because he didnt feel safe going to the footy (AFL) alone. Others I have taken to games have been AFL people and enjoyed most games, especially the derby but haven't come back.

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1 hour ago, Dylan said:

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: 

Doesn't Sydney have an issue with the stadium in that it's not convenient to get to?

I agree that prima facie it looks as though we could do more with existing local clubs. In the JvS days we used to run those "Coach the Coach" sessions for local coaches, and I suspect that those sessions have died? It must have helped local clubs a bit when we played pre-season matches at Oakleigh, Langwarrin, etc., but we don't do that any more it seems.

I've had no success in growing support for the club. I've taken a couple of people to matches - they're happy to use my wife's membership but wouldn't dream of joining up or even going off their own bat. I got a group together for the FFA Cup Final, but no-one carried on with it. TBH, like it or not, that's where the "big name" comes into play - that's the sort of incentive that will keep these fringe people interested enough to come.

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I look at the support in Europe and UK. Then I look here. So much potential :(

Would love to be part of it. Thinking back to games such as Christmas Derby Sorenson masterclass (Our Active end) was packed and organised with white and red cross. It was a beautiful site. The FFA Cup final seemed to bring out all the city fans - how many were there? The place was electric. It is obvious City supporters are out there, most choose not to come on a regular basis. And that is what is most sad for me. I dont sit in active, but I would love to be singing from the wings and with others in my area. Instead we have to sit down ;)

Consistent fans are most important. 

Maybe instead of the club we should be asking - what can we the supporters do to grow interest and numbers in the club? Simply bringing people will not do much. We need to up the ante. Maybe look at what other clubs do? 

Supporters social events? Newsletters? The podcast is great! FB groups have their place. IHMC was doing great stuff. There needs to be more leadership off field and away from the club - the club needs to see the interest too. Perhaps we could organise things a little better to grow the unity and in numbers. That electric feeling, so obviously lacking, is what keeps people coming back. When Mooy, Novillo and Forna were playing week in week out you knew you were going to be entertained. People came in numbers. Would love to see us get back there and build beyond!

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23 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Doesn't Sydney have an issue with the stadium in that it's not convenient to get to?

I agree that prima facie it looks as though we could do more with existing local clubs. In the JvS days we used to run those "Coach the Coach" sessions for local coaches, and I suspect that those sessions have died? It must have helped local clubs a bit when we played pre-season matches at Oakleigh, Langwarrin, etc., but we don't do that any more it seems.

I've had no success in growing support for the club. I've taken a couple of people to matches - they're happy to use my wife's membership but wouldn't dream of joining up or even going off their own bat. I got a group together for the FFA Cup Final, but no-one carried on with it. TBH, like it or not, that's where the "big name" comes into play - that's the sort of incentive that will keep these fringe people interested enough to come.

Sydney also wont be playing out of the Allianz during the upgrade this coming season either. They will have 3 different home ground locations ( SFC, Leichhardt & Jubilee). Theyre already known to not have huge membership numbers but this will probably affect them further.  

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2 hours ago, JMSTEP123 said:

I look at the support in Europe and UK. Then I look here. So much potential :(

Would love to be part of it. Thinking back to games such as Christmas Derby Sorenson masterclass (Our Active end) was packed and organised with white and red cross. It was a beautiful site. The FFA Cup final seemed to bring out all the city fans - how many were there? The place was electric. It is obvious City supporters are out there, most choose not to come on a regular basis. And that is what is most sad for me. I dont sit in active, but I would love to be singing from the wings and with others in my area. Instead we have to sit down ;)

Consistent fans are most important. 

Maybe instead of the club we should be asking - what can we the supporters do to grow interest and numbers in the club? Simply bringing people will not do much. We need to up the ante. Maybe look at what other clubs do? 

Supporters social events? Newsletters? The podcast is great! FB groups have their place. IHMC was doing great stuff. There needs to be more leadership off field and away from the club - the club needs to see the interest too. Perhaps we could organise things a little better to grow the unity and in numbers. That electric feeling, so obviously lacking, is what keeps people coming back. When Mooy, Novillo and Forna were playing week in week out you knew you were going to be entertained. People came in numbers. Would love to see us get back there and build beyond!

@jmstep Your points are, IMO, very valid. We used to have a fanzine in the Heart days, distributed on matchdays - not all, but some. It was called "The Pulse" and it morphed into "Schip Happens" later on. I was one of a number of contributors. More recently we have had "The Chameleon" but it's very hard to keep this sort of effort going with only a handful of interested people. Basically the takeover changed everything. The original active group, known as Yarraside, stood down, and Melburnians took over. For a while this was OK but it seems to be struggling in recent times. For a season or two there was a post-match gathering at AAMI after every match when players, club staff and fans could meet and greet. Lots of things have changed since then.

IMO the key change made by CFG that results in the current situation was the adoption of sky blue home colours.

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5 hours ago, jw1739 said:

@jmstep Your points are, IMO, very valid. We used to have a fanzine in the Heart days, distributed on matchdays - not all, but some. It was called "The Pulse" and it morphed into "Schip Happens" later on. I was one of a number of contributors. More recently we have had "The Chameleon" but it's very hard to keep this sort of effort going with only a handful of interested people. Basically the takeover changed everything. The original active group, known as Yarraside, stood down, and Melburnians took over. For a while this was OK but it seems to be struggling in recent times. For a season or two there was a post-match gathering at AAMI after every match when players, club staff and fans could meet and greet. Lots of things have changed since then.

IMO the key change made by CFG that results in the current situation was the adoption of sky blue home colours.

Agreed. The takeover, though essential financially, was clumsily handled by people who clearly thought there was no club culture to preserve. Changing the colours was a masterclass in putting your hardcore support offside. Probably difficult to undo as so much that was there then has now gone. 

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Yes I agree. Having said that, there have been periods of high support since that take over. There seems to be support out there, just not at the games. 

The boys play on the park, and they will attract a certain amount of people. But our role in the stands is just as important. What can we do to attract, retain and build the supporters base? And how can we go about making the change. We can talk on this forum - but we are few. How can we get the message out to the public to the majority of support?

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  • 2 weeks later...
28 minutes ago, Forever City said:

A mate of mine recently moved to Australia and I'm trying to convince him to become a city fan, while my other mates are trying to get to support victory.

Any suggestions on how to convince him?

Thanks.

Take him to a game and hope we aren’t boring. Worked for me. 

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1 hour ago, Forever City said:

A mate of mine recently moved to Australia and I'm trying to convince him to become a city fan, while my other mates are trying to get to support victory.

Any suggestions on how to convince him?

Thanks.

Does your mate have a job?

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For me we need to think grass roots. We have over 600,000 kids playing this great game of ours. Kids cant drive hence have to be taken by there parents. I for one know that it was my 2 boys that broke my chops to take then to their first game a few years ago. Question is how do we get the kids excited? During the pre season every club should send 2 players every week to clubs around there states and get these players to take a session. Have a night that the club invites all the young players to meet the players. Hand out some hats tops balls etc and maybe the odd free family membership. Invite some of these clubs/teams to training HAL sessions, seniors and youth sessions. Once the season starts give each club that you attended 20 free tickets to different home games. Get the kids involved. 

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11 minutes ago, AXIOM said:

For me we need to think grass roots. We have over 600,000 kids playing this great game of ours. Kids cant drive hence have to be taken by there parents. I for one know that it was my 2 boys that broke my chops to take then to their first game a few years ago. Question is how do we get the kids excited? During the pre season every club should send 2 players every week to clubs around there states and get these players to take a session. Have a night that the club invites all the young players to meet the players. Hand out some hats tops balls etc and maybe the odd free family membership. Invite some of these clubs/teams to training HAL sessions, seniors and youth sessions. Once the season starts give each club that you attended 20 free tickets to different home games. Get the kids involved. 

Grass roots participation does not and sadly will not translate to elite level connection. 

For years I've heard this myth that all the game needs is to be able to get X% amount of the junior registered players  to follow the league and the game will be transformed. What gets lost is that these registered kids that play each week don't come from soccer families. They predominantly don't love the game but play it because it's a good sport for little "Johnny" and latterly "Jane" to play.

A massive percentage of juniors that play at junior levels have zero interest in the game other than their own training/games.

Having been involved for many years, it does my head in the amount of non soccer people that put their kids in programs but then pooh pooh the game.

I'm of the view now that growth of the game will be very very slow and be a generational thing and hopefully the clubs and the administrator's hold onto what they have and don't turn off existing followers in search of these mythical masses. The clubs and FFA must stop making mistakes and create reasons to follow rather than the opposite. 

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It's oddly apparent to me that we have become the ''1990s Manchester City'' of Melbourne, languishing in the shadow of a far more successful and far more widely supported crosstown rival

In the case of Maine Rd (as was), mega-investment via a takeover purchased success (in very general terms).

Doesn't/can't apply here.  And I am thankful for the salary caps etc, it makes the A-League an even playing field compared to the EPL.

Only success will see us really prosper.  We have to get it right on the field.  Nothing else will build it in order that They Will Come.

Look at Melbourne Storm, battling to give oxygen to a code that is foreign to this city.  Look how well they have gone.

On the flip side, look at Melbourne Rebels. At present we are closer to them. STILL.. in terms of impact.

We won;t get more than 10,000 regularly at home games until we are stuffing Victory regularly and everyone else. 

THE TITLE will do it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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18 hours ago, AXIOM said:

For me we need to think grass roots. We have over 600,000 kids playing this great game of ours. Kids cant drive hence have to be taken by there parents. I for one know that it was my 2 boys that broke my chops to take then to their first game a few years ago. Question is how do we get the kids excited? During the pre season every club should send 2 players every week to clubs around there states and get these players to take a session. Have a night that the club invites all the young players to meet the players. Hand out some hats tops balls etc and maybe the odd free family membership. Invite some of these clubs/teams to training HAL sessions, seniors and youth sessions. Once the season starts give each club that you attended 20 free tickets to different home games. Get the kids involved. 

Agree wholeheartedly with this as one aspect. The thing is to make the whole atmosphere around the club exciting. Winning is obviously number one, but the match day experience and buzz during the week is needed. At the moment we feel very flat.

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18 hours ago, CityWildcat said:

It's oddly apparent to me that we have become the ''1990s Manchester City'' of Melbourne, languishing in the shadow of a far more successful and far more widely supported crosstown rival

In the case of Maine Rd (as was), mega-investment via a takeover purchased success (in very general terms).

Doesn't/can't apply here.  And I am thankful for the salary caps etc, it makes the A-League an even playing field compared to the EPL.

Only success will see us really prosper.  We have to get it right on the field.  Nothing else will build it in order that They Will Come.

Look at Melbourne Storm, battling to give oxygen to a code that is foreign to this city.  Look how well they have gone.

On the flip side, look at Melbourne Rebels. At present we are closer to them. STILL.. in terms of impact.

We won;t get more than 10,000 regularly at home games until we are stuffing Victory regularly and everyone else. 

THE TITLE will do it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I never hear anything about the Rebels yet I just saw their average for 2018 was 10k. Their performance isn't any better than ours yet how do they get 10k?

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1 hour ago, mjake1234 said:

Agree wholeheartedly with this as one aspect. The thing is to make the whole atmosphere around the club exciting. Winning is obviously number one, but the match day experience and buzz during the week is needed. At the moment we feel very flat.

It is just only one aspect but imo a very important one. We once had Archie Thomson and Danny Allsopp come to our local club and we got 200 kids and parents come to meet them. You should have seen the kids faces. I also know that more then a few family's became members soon after. In order to engage the public on the pitch you first need to engage them off the pitch. 

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16 minutes ago, Tony999 said:

Yes, but how many kids & adults play union in Victoria? FA really compared to the kids & adults that play football yet we can't crack 10k average.

No kids or adults play Union in Australia - but conflating what is arguably the Top Tier League of Rugby Union in the world with the A-League, which is not the best Football competition,  is a fairly loose argument. 

There's a reason you see so many South Africans, English, Kiwis and Islanders at Rebels games, because you can see the worlds best in your backyard.

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2 hours ago, mjake1234 said:

Agree wholeheartedly with this as one aspect. The thing is to make the whole atmosphere around the club exciting. Winning is obviously number one, but the match day experience and buzz during the week is needed. At the moment we feel very flat.

Absolutely right. What can anyone point to that the club has done in this off-season and pre-season that excites the fans to the point that they will sign up as members? We seem to have done our best to keep the club distant from its core fan area - Melbourne.

On the matter of the metrics, it is IMO very difficult to compare season on season. No two seasons are the same. It is IMO the number of full-season season-ticket holders on the day of the first home match that is the definitive measure of interest in the club. This season the club released a limited season-ticket ("3 out of 4" - the "Kick-Off Membership) on 9th October - way before our first home match of the season. I don't think we've done that before. It's therefore not really meaningful to compare this season with previous seasons. However, the bald figure of 8,229, compared with 9,838 last season and 10,769 in season 2016/17 is a crude measure of a serious decline in interest in the club.

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51 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Absolutely right. What can anyone point to that the club has done in this off-season and pre-season that excites the fans to the point that they will sign up as members? We seem to have done our best to keep the club distant from its core fan area - Melbourne.

On the matter of the metrics, it is IMO very difficult to compare season on season. No two seasons are the same. It is IMO the number of full-season season-ticket holders on the day of the first home match that is the definitive measure of interest in the club. This season the club released a limited season-ticket ("3 out of 4" - the "Kick-Off Membership) on 9th October - way before our first home match of the season. I don't think we've done that before. It's therefore not really meaningful to compare this season with previous seasons. However, the bald figure of 8,229, compared with 9,838 last season and 10,769 in season 2016/17 is a crude measure of a serious decline in interest in the club.

Not just our club but the A-league as a whole. Don't think it's really related to individual clubs. The FFA is doing a great job running the code into the ground.

And not sure why the club would release that mini membership before the season starts! I thought they started off with 8-membership pack, then 6, 5, 4.......To me a true membership is one that you have purchased for all home games.

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4 hours ago, Tony999 said:

Not just our club but the A-league as a whole. Don't think it's really related to individual clubs. The FFA is doing a great job running the code into the ground.

And not sure why the club would release that mini membership before the season starts! I thought they started off with 8-membership pack, then 6, 5, 4.......To me a true membership is one that you have purchased for all home games.

IMO it's a lazy excuse to "blame" the League/FFA as a whole. I agree that that's a factor, but it's also a golden opportunity for the individual clubs to go out and show that they can be a lot better than just "another run-of-the-mill A-League club." In every respect.

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  • 2 weeks later...
27 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Identifies (some of) the issues but doesn't offer any solutions.

I think one thing these commentators and fans who comment on these articles forget is that City did try to 'bring the stars' to Melbourne, but the FFA continually threw up roadblocks. 

I think once the league is made independent of FFA (as CFG have been agitating quite heavily towards for some time) we will see a bigger commitment towards bigger (name) and better players.

I believe the club's modus operandi will be to have a core of players in their prime (or just past it) supplemented by the best up and coming Australian youth. I do not see this as being detrimental to the club winning titles and being competitive in Asia.

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52 minutes ago, malloy said:

I think one thing these commentators and fans who comment on these articles forget is that City did try to 'bring the stars' to Melbourne, but the FFA continually threw up roadblocks. 

I think once the league is made independent of FFA (as CFG have been agitating quite heavily towards for some time) we will see a bigger commitment towards bigger (name) and better players.

I believe the club's modus operandi will be to have a core of players in their prime (or just past it) supplemented by the best up and coming Australian youth. I do not see this as being detrimental to the club winning titles and being competitive in Asia.

...especially if the salary cap gets raised or removed

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55 minutes ago, malloy said:

I think one thing these commentators and fans who comment on these articles forget is that City did try to 'bring the stars' to Melbourne, but the FFA continually threw up roadblocks. 

I think once the league is made independent of FFA (as CFG have been agitating quite heavily towards for some time) we will see a bigger commitment towards bigger (name) and better players.

I believe the club's modus operandi will be to have a core of players in their prime (or just past it) supplemented by the best up and coming Australian youth. I do not see this as being detrimental to the club winning titles and being competitive in Asia.

I agree that FFA have thrown up roadblocks by tightening up the loan player rules. But there have been no additional roadblocks to City bringing in a big-name marquee - in fact the full-season guest marquee opportunity is an additional way we could have had a really big-name player. CFG have just not done it, except right at the start with David Villa. Regrettably that ended all to soon. 

As I understand Marwood's comments, we won't see another big-name for at least two further seasons, as CFG focuses on its "return on investment" in Melbourne City.

I agree that an independent league may induce CFG to change its mind again. How far away independence is is a matter for conjecture.

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