That table just shows how important early season results can effect membership sales with clubs like PG and SFC gaining 3,000+ to their numbers post start of season. 

WU at 1k shows that they’re already playing catch up to engage a non-existent base of fans. call it population density, more friendlies, early season form or whatever you like but the reality is that WU was not a grassroots bid, a club was not being cried out for by a significant base of people and the screw around with playing Geelong is only compounding these realities.

I want every club in the HAL to be successful, but if WU flops like I predict it will, there will be nothing else to blame but a poor choice in expansion, based on a flimsy selection criteria, over viable bids in other football communities

It's only early days but for now i must agree with this. I think Canberra would have been a good choice, they've already got a club developed there with their women's team. We shall see how things go. 

your post has merit but may I say.
Putting aside the FFA internal politics I think getting a third Sydney team was/is very important sooner rather than later.
AFL is spending a motza trying to gain traction in Sydney's west and bit by bit they are working on schools/local grounds.
Trouble is they have the money and a supporting hierarchy hell bent on getting a footprint in Sydney.
As most know where WU is a massive grass roots football region to capitilise on - yes I agree they need to work it and work it very hard to expose itself and be in the face of locals at the grounds and your right they should start having "friendly" games against the local Div1 clubs for eg to start creating interest in the hope of gaining support.........
Have players be around Westfields promoting the club etcetc.....
It has to work and I hope the owners and the FFA do all they can in doing so for it will be ground hog towards football if not.

they updated the membership on the website 
adel 3,298
MEMBERS

 bris 6,935
MEMBERS

 ccm 2,316
MEMBERS

 mcity 6,157
MEMBERS

victory18,270
MEMBERS

newcastle6,859
MEMBERS

perth6,008
MEMBERS

sydney 7,939
MEMBERS

wellington2,305
MEMBERS

wsw 12,727
MEMBERS

WU 1,210
MEMBERS

The WU Surge begins 😬

But can they catch the Nix and CCM? Who will start the season with the least members?
WU have the cheapest memberships.
CCM have some good FFA cup momentum going on.
Nix have some sense of relief that they will remain in the HAL for the foreseeable future.

Jeeez not a good start for WU. South east Melbourne team would have already had 5k members by now 

Yeah but nah ....

20% increase!

WU would likely have fairly conservative targets for this year as it has a lot of work to do to embed themselves, especially in its nomadic first couple of years.

It will be hard for fans to commit to a season membership when they have games in Geelong and Ballarat. Given they are based at Caroline Springs (training complex), I do think they have gone about things a bit strangely though given that the locals in that area may attend the friendlies, but it’s a harder sell to get them to the 2 stadiums they will be playing at during the season.

I see they are playing North Geelong tomorrow night but where is it at? Caroline Springs. Makes more sense that it be played at Geelong to try and gain further traction in their core market for the first couple of years.

They have announced 2 friendlies against HAL clubs in Ballarat later this month, but nothing for Geelong yet.

They have no nickname so I wonder if the Nomads will stick :)

Six weeks to kick off

	2019 / 20 Memberships			Memberships
Club	Current	Sea Start 18/19		18/19	17/18	16/17	15/16	14/15
AU	3,298	7,538		8,082	6,677	10,099	8,720	9,505
Roar	6,935	11,134		11,524	8,664	7,050	5,347	12,113
CCM	2,316	6,843		6,843	6,939	6,265	6,048	6,242
MLC	6,167	9,700		10,302	10,702	13,078	9,278	11,759
MLV	18,270	25,599		26,478	25,674	26,251	27,054	24,200
Jets	6,859	11,224		11,606	8,578	8,703	9,284	10,003
PG	6,008	7,408		10,460	8,540	8,644	7,109	6,298
STF	7,939	12,750		15,848	13,779	12,512	13,153	11,510
Nix	2,305	5,201		5,671	5,230	4,791	5,035	4,185
WSW	12,727	15,900		16,444	17,131	20,022	18,349	18,706
WU	1,210
	74,034	113,297		123,258	111,914	117,415	109,377	114,521
Start of season Membership				113,297	97,032	96,877	89,437	97,252

Not really. They are offering both Geelong Games Only and Ballarat Games Only memberships at $135 / $60 respectively. That's $15 per game. 

Sydney have just passed 10000 memberships according to their website. Makes you wonder if the table above is correct...

Above figures are from the HAL site which seems to be about a week or two behind. 
Good stuff from SFC. They might actually break their record.

Good news with Sydney we need them to be a powerhouse off the pitch 

Victory posted 18772 on Twitter on Monday. 

See that's the thing, Sydney FC "break" records every year it seems but it is NEVER reflected in average attendances. 

In fairness, they have a temporary home at the moment.

SFC always have higher average attendances than their membership number. This is likely due to the derbies pushing the averages up. I kinda get what you are saying though. They should be getting 20k+ on both metrics. I reckon if clubs like the NJ, AU, PG, BR and MC were delivering the types of performances and results that SFC have been over the last few seasons, there would be noticeable strong spikes in their metrics.

but where is their stadium funding? people have short memories sometimes.  

You could say this with probably half the clubs in the league in the last few seasons.  

Re.  Sydney should be averaging 20k argument - yes BUT, and the BUT is that from my own POV as a rusted on A League fan since game 1 all those years ago, is that A League attendances pretty much reflect the standard of the football on offer, which is somewhere around English third tier.  

People talk about growing atttendances but until the clubs deliver better footballers and football, I can't see much movement happening. 

It's like any product - what drives demand? What makes something a must have item?  Value/quality and scarcity.  Look at the effect scarcity had on Victory's attendances in the years at Olympic Park and then, to a degree, WSW at Pirtek.  Now of course every club plays in stadiums that they rarely, if ever, fill - or half fill for PG, MC, WU, SFC, Jets, CCM and BR. 

Which leaves the value/quality nexus.  The "why should I buy" question.  Simply the football quality isn't there for more demand at the moment.  Hopefully that will change this season, but I thought the last couple of seasons were, with rare exceptions, awful in terms of football.

Get rid of the cap/  Let the teams that can spend, spend.  Give us football that isn't lidded by capped mediocrity.

thats just a cop out. Sydney sports fans are notoriously fickle and fair weathered. There is no culture of attending sports events. Just look at the NRL if you want evidence. it has nothing to do with the quality of football. there are eurosnobs in every state.

@CS, some really good points and agree with majority. Only thing I dont gree with is the idea that the cap is holding back the quality of the league. It is one of several things which could be improved (like transfer fees) but when you have more chance of making the finals than missing them and there are no consequences for finishing last, what is te incentive to improve?

I'm happy to accept that Sydney should be getting 20k average if people also say the same for Brisbane, Melbourne City and the Wanderers. 

If BR, MC and WSW were delivering consistent results like SFC has been over the last few years then of course they should be. One reason people single out SFC for low metrics is because on the pitch they have been crushing it. 20k is not much in a population of 5M. If WSW had been playing like SFC has been I have no doubts they would have 20k+ members. 

This is a good point, but only regarding SFC.  My argument was broader than one club.

Must of missed those 20k average crowds Wanderers and Brisbane were getting when they were delivering consistent results

And that was back when crowds were better across the board. 

Some good posts overall but may I say as a football follower full stop I agree about our level of quality has its ups and downs and SFC MV have been the more consistent performers with PG finally making it last season.
The rest have had many ups downs and the ups are good when your a week to week follower BUT for the casual we lack X factor and character players like many in their respective top leagues.
Berisha was one for eg I'm talking about.
One who could deliver and talk the talk and at times be the mug rogue people either love or hate but you couldn't deny his spirit to prove the crowd haters wrong with results.
People today expect and want to watch the good and the bad but skill.
Like a Ibra/Rooney/Salah/Mane types.
Some HAL games would be so boring to the casual - a lottery to watch a good game.
Thats one of our major problems regards entertainment each weekend.
Then memberships would grow.
One piece of the puzzle to grow.