I don't think so.
Sydney is probably the more "summer" of the two cities, but calling it chalk and cheese is a bit steep.
If anything though, you could argue that Melbourne people do more typical summer stuff during those warmer months because it's the only opportunity we get. We go to bars, restaurants and cafes all year round, but beach/water stuff is only really an option in the Summer.

You wouldn't have any of those events if you didn't have huge attendances and you wouldn't have the facilities if you didn't have the attendances.

Sydney and Melbourne are totally different in the way they operate.  Sydney operates as a series of interconnected nodes while Melbourne is much more a hub and spoke city.  Sydney is very tribal around those nodes and historically sporting clubs and associations operate in the nodes drawing fans and players from the area around the node.  Putting a club in a central location in Sydney and expecting the city to follow it goes against the way the place works and in looking at Sydney FC this means they never had a market of 5 million to draw from, rather at most they had the eastern, southern, inner west suburbs and the northern suburbs to draw from or less than 2 million plus they got a small minority of fans to travel from outside of their natural drawing area.  Football lost out big time by working against the city when the A-League was established with only one club in Sydney and it's interesting to observe that total attendance at football in Sydney was greater in the NSL era than in this period in the A-League.  It took the inclusion of Wanderers for the A-League to increase total attendances in Sydney above those of the NSL.

The problem of working professional sport in Sydney is that the LGA's can't afford to fund the modern stadiums that patrons prefer these days so you have an NRL club like Manly operating in a sub-standard stadium of 20k+ capacity with a bit over 4k seats.  Government has been slow in assisting the councils to develop the stadiums and has recently implemented a stadium policy that precludes funding for these stadiums instead funding only 3 major stadiums to serve everyone.  Time will tell whether this strategy will increase total attendance at the various codes in Sydney as the centralised stadium strategy that Victoria followed 30 years ago did but I doubt it.  I see long term the NSW government will be forking out additional funding for the upgrading or replacement of stadiums for Cronulla, Manly, Wests, Penrith and Macarthur and only then will attendances in Sydney reach optimum levels.

Thanks for the thorough Sydney insight Gyfox, makes more sense to me now. I reckon both Sydney and Melbourne would have hugely benefited by having two uniquely or geographically distinct clubs in HAL from day one. There were always going to be clubs added in both cities eventually anyway, better to do it from the get go. 

lol, forst time been called a troll after after 6.3k posts, badge of honour or you don't capish I suppose.

well explained as always Gyfox.
In my muddle I did have what you confirm my feelings Lowy allowing SFC be set up on the East side of the city, this costed Football big time not just starting up with 1 Club.
@ someguyfc, I know Melb pretty well, was born there for starters, have been travelling back and forth on business for a long time.
It is chalk and cheese.
Your city is driven and sufficated by afl, Sydney is not sufficated by any sport as much, sure nrl is big here but its not on everyones conversations as it is down there, your papers 10-15pages deep on it at a guess, nrl isn't.
Were a very mixed bag.
Melb far more cosmopolitan and as you said very bar/cafe/restaurant life style, we have it but again its not as cultured.
I'm not knocking the lifestyle believe me I love it (barring afl) but were still different.
Like Gyfox quotes, our local/State Govs are slow on the uptake for decades, whereas Melb is opposite.
Look at the diff, its huge once again.
Our public transport sucks, yours not and its helps many stadiums as mentioned are within short distances, ours are not.
In saying this, excl SFC getting back onto memberships, WSW started on full cylinders and great for the game, once again the hurdles that have occured since the heyday put them and our game backwards, hopefully now with the Stad we go ont he UP cycle and I hope the new club does gain traction soon enough once up and running.
I just want a WIN for our game overall just as many of us here.

MEMBERSHIP UPDATED 11/9

ADEL
3,962
MEMBERS

BRIS
7,047
MEMBERS

CCM
2,560
MEMBERS
MCITY
6,235
MEMBERS
MVICTORY
18,772
MEMBERS

NEWCASTLE
6,859
MEMBERS

PERTH
6,202
MEMBERS

SYDNEY
9,938
MEMBERS

WELLINGTON
2,624
MEMBERS

WSW
12,863
MEMBERS

WU
1,263
MEMBERS

Victory on 19,512 Jets over 7k 

Membership is up about 1,000 on last season at this time.

Is that just because of the 1000 WU memberships? 

No.

Adelaide is up 300,
Roar is up 800,
Mariners is down 350,
City is down 400,
Victory is down 800,
Jets is down 100,
Perth is up 900,
Sydney is up 1,300,
Phoenix is down 100,
Wanderers is down 1,900.

I'm surprised by the down 1.9k for WSW. Maybe people didn't like their new allocated seats (we got screwed quite a bit)...

overall is that good?

it seems nobody is down that much so people could still go to games without a membership 

You realise this adds up to -350, which when you add the 1300 for WU makes the +1,000 increase.

Obviously there is still a month before the season starts and also many people who buy memberships within the early rounds of the competition. Realistically though, memberships are about on par with recent previous years. Any differences aren't really that great and are negligible. Expansion doesn't necessarily increase overall total memberships, especially if a good number of WU members were previously MC or MV members. It's just moving numbers around. In order to improve membership numbers, major changes need to occur in the competition. Until then, numbers will likely hover around where they have been for the past few years.

Assuming the above numbers are accurate, its interesting that Victory and City are roughly down by the same amount as there are WU members. Bit too early to say if that’s a clear trend, but this is exactly what happened in Melbourne Heart's first year. 

Does anyone know if "Supporter" memberships (ie non game attending) are counted in the tally, I know a few people who have donwgraded their membership to this as they didnt go to many matches last year and this lets them keep status.

wonder how many are waiting for Macarthur FC memberships for next year.

I believe so, which is a little misleading but I can understand why clubs would want to have the highest number possible.
It would be interesting to see a more detailed tally for each club showing the breakdown of each membership tier.

I know of a few from Campbelltown who have dropped WSW membership.

It could be the case. I thought the FFA had a report where around 10-15% of WSW fans were in the Macarthur area and 5% of SFC.

I think thats more specious reasoning than anything else

A member is the most loyal type of fan. So what you are saying is the members of the club have decided to give up on their current club, and become a member of a new and unproven club

I can see casual fans jumping ship, but not members

WU have a low membership base because they arent a real region. Just a club with the most money at the time willing to build a smallish venue 3 years down the track. The drop in MV and MC memberships dont seem out of line with the other figures posted above. Last year was shit. This year the only change is the ownership structure

You're underestimating the level of disapproval and disconnection with the club among the members at MC. There are also the many regional MV members in the Geelong area that only go to a handful of games a year. I reckon with many of the 5-game and regional members it's possible that it's more about the discount than being a rusted on member.
Obviously I doubt any 10+ year members are going to switch clubs. However people that live out west (especially Tarneit and Geelong) and only have minor memberships, it's an easier decision to switch. It was the same story when WSW entered. Plenty of people from the western suburbs switched over to WSW. 

early on in their supporter facebook pages, there seemed to be a lot of disillusioned City fans talking about switching over. But I also know of some Victory fans who live in the west who flirted with switching over but decided to stay loyal. Of course, many could also be taking a wait and see approach, especially when the approach of WU since winning the licence has been pretty ordinary to say the least.

Probably to a lesser degree but I do know a couple of long time Adelaide United members who have switched to Western United.

In previous seasons the list only counted memberships with access to three or more matches.

That's incorrect. Non-ticketed members are always included in the count. 

But that implies if WU didnt join the league that MV and MC would have had the exact same numbers as last season

Its easy to add up the missing Melbourne numbers to get WU's memberships but it isnt as clear cut as that

Never said it was. Just saying that it's possible a chunk of their numbers are ex MC or MV members. 

Yes, but facts are HAL membership has been flatlining at best (more realistically shrinking) so it’s harder to imagine that a virtual club based in a cows paddock that they won’t play in for 3 years min would somehow generate a heap of new interest from outside the existing pool of members, rather than to believe their new members have been scavaged from the other 2 melb teams (especially since the numbers add up). 

1500 isnt a heap by membership standards

With a new club there would have been foundation members and community outreach to help get the bid over the line. Family members and relatives of those involved in the bid, and sponsors etc... Even the new active support

Attendances, particularly those of casual fans might go down a bit across the Melbourne clubs. I just think adding the missing Melbourne members together to get the WU members is simplistic mathematics. And if its the accepted hypothesis then neither of the existing clubs need to do anything to attract more support because they are the victims of an inevitability