Yes, it is misleading. Because if the memberships have different values to the clubs and one club's bulk membership is pet memberships and interstate memberships then they're going to be in a far worse financial situation than a club with 15,000 full memberships. The number is COMPLETELY meaningless.

But in the case of GWS, are they being sold for a profit?

Except what they release is nothing more than a number that states how many TOTAL memberships have been bought. From all of their available membership packages. It's nothing more than that. Attaching any more importance to it than that, is your problem, not the clubs.

The problem is people do attach importance to it. The media print articles that compare memberships between clubs and competitions and they are used as promotional tool, hence why clubs have membership tallies on their websites.

But when you compare A-league and NRL clubs who's memberships are largely season ticket holders and AFL clubs which can be anything up to free memberships with a petrol purchase then any comparisons are meaningless.

With the amount of annual revenue the AFL clubs earn, far, far more than other sporting clubs - how can you possibly believe in this myth about free memberships?

He is talking about GWS, which does not have annual revenue far greater than other sporting clubs.
Hence why you numbers are BS, or at least the reason why you quoting them are utter BS.
The comparison between GWS & WSW could not be more different. GWS has huge media backing & unlimited funds for marketing, the AFL has targeted this area, they have the best AFL players in the world playing there every other week. While WSW with next to noting to spend on marketing, a little media & outside a couple of players nearing their retirement ages, the players on show are 3rd or 4th tier type players. Yet you can feel the buzz coming out of Sydney with WSW but with GWS, it's tiny, I suppose animals (memberships) can't talk.

Except that the clubs use it as a yardstick to compare each other. It's their annual dick measuring contest, except that one club is talking in inches and the other in centimetres.

Which is why Mister Football insists on posting here every time a number dog membership is signed up by GWS.
This membership crap it the only measure that they have over the Wanderers.

I have said many times that the consensus on this thread is that WSW has done very well in its first season, easily better than what GWS managed in its first season (and they had a longer lead in period to boot).

The likelihood is that GWS will fail to reach WSW attendances in its second season, and maybe for many seasons.

So updates of where GWS' 2013 memberships are should not be causing anyone any consternation, they are just there for interest. I've already said one third of them are Canberra 3 game memberships (worth only $90 or so). If you subtract them, GWS probably drops below WSW memberships. People need to settle down - no one is threatening your manhood.

My issue isn't with the dick-measuring contest, it's that it's an intangible measure.

$25 for a one game membership and you are counted as a North Melbourne member, that is about as free as it gets, as I assume it would cost $25 to go to a AFL game.

It's a number reported on their website. You have concerns that it's intangible, but to be honest, no one knows whether that is true or not.

I have previously shown links to the AFL annual report that clearly shows only game access memberships are counted in their official figure.

I have heard people talk about one game memberships, but I have never seen any evidence of that, certainly not from the club which I support.

Do you have a link to such a thing?

Even if they only count game access memberships, there is still no differentiation between a 3-game membership and a 23 game membership. This is my problem.

=d>

Link: http://membership.kangaroos.com.au/packages/1-and-3-game-memberships/19

Not a joke, no wonder most clubs do not post membership income separately in their accounts.

What the fuck is the point of a one-game membership?

You cannot be seen as a AFL club in Melbourne with less than 30k members, not matter how you get them.

Do North Melbourne report their membership income? doubt it, do not even know if a annual report was released for 2012 although they did make a headline profit of over $1m+. Would be interesting to see what makes up this profit? Why would you not release your figures if you were so proud of you profit?

Why does the AFL not just release a standard report format for clubs. Well the answer is pretty simple to work out.

Media bandwidth.

Why isn't this thread merged into the AFL one again? Or renamed into something more appropriate like "Random AFL musings (but not the AFL thread)"

GWS memberships now at 9,363

http://membership.gwsgiants.com.au/2013-packages

Real Madrid v Man United tomorrow, the 2 biggest footballing teams in the world. Ronaldo v Rooney

Man U playing in Western Sydney, sold out in 3 mins.

Edited by robbos: 13/2/2013 09:52:46 PM

Man Utd is definitely the most valuable football franchise in the world at $2.2 billion, but the next most valuable is the Dallas Cowboys at $2.1 billion (Real is valued at $1.9 billion).

Collingwood was valued a lowly $344 million in September 2011, but that was the largest Australian football club by a big margin, and in fact it was larger than Hamburg, which was rated 14th amongst the world's soccer clubs in the same year.

And what does any of that have to do with Sydney's west?

I was merely confirming part of the previous poster's comment, and correcting another part, all in the name of conducting an interesting and stimulating conversation.

The majority of the world label the Dallas Cowboys a gridiron team. The majority of the world label ManU & Real Madrid football teams and hence are the two biggest.
So therefore, your correction is actually a fuck up.

Edited by ozboy: 14/2/2013 11:27:14 AM

By biggest I did not mean most valuable, I meant biggest, most well known. Hence again I was right.

GWS memberships now up to 9,477

http://membership.gwsgiants.com.au/

Wow...in the last two days their membership has gone up and not down. Who'd have thunk it?

As the replies and views on this thread show, there is genuine interest in keeping tabs.

It doesn't occur to you that people only come here to mock you and your obsession with discussing AFL on a football forum?