Where at Hindmarsh did you actually go as this is what I'd prefer to do as well...?

the club shop.

cool.
Drove there the other day to celebrate picking up my new car just to buy a key ring....they didn't have any ahahaa

Ok I have just gotten back from an hour and half informal chat with an Adelaide United official and this is what I got out of the chat about what they want Adelaide United to be.

Please note I won't mention this person name but I ask this person before I left would it be ok to mention this on this forum and the person was fine with this.

In fact one of their goals is to be more proactive with speaking about the club particularly through social media sites etc so I will just stick to the two most important issues we discussed. I will be keeping in touch with this person regularly so if you have any issues and concerns feel free to inbox me as he wants as much feedback as possible, this is what he has told me.

Memberships/Season tickets

This was the primary focus of our discussions. This may come as a shock to reds supporters because it did to me but we only had around 5,000 season ticket holders last year. Speaking with the official off the record they would love Adelaide United to get to 10,000 members/season ticket holders. Due to Hindmarsh stadiums capacity it could be considered that if they were to cap season tickets they would cap it at 10,000 so we are about on average at half that capcities, I say season tickets because members can be unlimited.

A larger paid up membership and season ticket supporters base will mean better things not only for Adelaide united but for the broader football community in South Australia and the general community. I will get to this later. If the club can get financially stable and viable it can then build and invest this club for footballs future in this state.

The main negative that I have heard from supporters is whether to buy a season ticket. I know a majority of people who are not renewing season tickets this year is due to having games on Friday night which for whatever reason are unable to attend. Why pay for a season ticket if cannot make it to 8 games a year due to being on a Friday night.

I mentioned to the official about having season tickets for games on specific days like a Friday night games season ticket or Saturday night games season ticket that gets you access to games on certain days would this help and he told me this is something that could be in the works in future seasons. This could actually mean more members to the club as then some people only have to have a season ticket for a few games rather than the whole season if they so desire. we both agreed that it would be good whether someone can make only one game a year or for the whole season that each person is a part of the club no matter what.

To get to this membership goal might be difficult but, this person is meeting with different fans and supporters because the ultimate goal of the club is to bring the club closer to its fans and supporters. Im keenly interested in seeing how we can double our membership base so if your on this forum and love Adelaide united please buy a membership buy a season ticket.

Hindmarsh Stadium

I asked him about expansion of Hindmarsh stadiums capacity (e.g. fill in the corners increase to 20-25,000k) and he said that since Hindmarsh is owned by the Goverment of South Australia and not Adelaide united they don't have a say on this. The fact Adelaide United does not sell out Hindmarsh regularly as it is, would mean that if Adelaide United were to put a case to the state government about increasing Hindmarsh stadium's capacity they would likely not approve it.

Please note too even if we get to 10,000 members/season ticket holders or we regularly sell out Hindmarsh stadium, its not a definate that hindmarsh stadiums capacity will be increased but if Adelaide United decides to go down that path it makes a stronger case to the South Australian government for the club to expand the stadiums capacity or perhaps in the future be in the position to buy Hindmarsh stadium off the goverment.

Adelaide united has to prove that it warrents hindmarsh stadium to be expanded so if we don't start selling out hindmarsh and making hindmarsh stadium every home game at full capacity just forget it. The Clubs primary goal off the park is how can we attract more members/supporters to the club and be paid up members. More memberships brings in more dollars which means more investing into football departments, attracting higher quality players, better sponsorships and corporate support etc. The club is only as good as its support it gets.

We also need everyone (e.g. the owners, board, fans, supporters) to promote and advertise Hindmarsh stadium as the venue to be at for A-League games. Hindmarsh is not that far out from the CBD so lets promote, promote, promote. It will be our venue for quite a while yet.

To conclude, I urge all reds supporters and fans to come along for the ride, the club will have ups, the club will have downs, we just need to be patience as the club gets its house in order and consolidate and build the Adelaide United brand to be a force in the A-League, talk about it to anybody, promote it, advertise it, this is our club reds fans regardless of who the board, owners or administrators are, you have much a part to play in making our club a success just as much as the owners do. Jump on forums like your doing daily, ring radio stations, tv stations etc, lets make a presence. Lets promote our club as we all have a part to play. Its our club.

Sign up, become a member, Adelaide United is heading places. I apoligise if I didn't mention anything else you might have had concerning the club but I tried to stick to two specific issues.

Pretty sensible reasoning behind the expansion.

Good to hear it went relatively well, Timmo.

Interesting. Kinda guessed our season ticket base was about 5000 from average attendances.

everyone already new this though right ??
government wont expand it they already said about 2 years ago if we get over 12,000 to each game each week they would upgrade it has happened and nothing

That would be sick if they arranged something like this! I'm a Timbers fan by default because one of my best friends is a yank and he supports them. He'd be pumped to hear if AUFC were hosting PTFC!



Exciting isn't it!?!? Benfica are sending a squad there too. Great work by the Reds to arrange this! Will be an unparalleled experience for most of our youngsters, no doubt!

In regards to the season tickets figure, when considering our average attendances we'd see sellouts every week if we had 10,000 season ticket holders. I think season tickets should be capped at 12k and not 10k, though I don't think it'll happen for a while anyway. Did the official mention anything about official targets, short term and long term? I think the club needs to aim for over 7,500 for next season (which is was most AUFC fans thought the figure was at anyway). 10k is possible but I don't think we can get that many for next season - maybe the season afterwards.

Sorry the Weifang Cup is held end of July, early August. Squad announced today.

Edited by parle_ku: 18/7/2011 08:21:39 AM

I hope the Martin Crook scholarship boy gets his passport etc organised in time to join the tour - would be a massive boost for the lad :)

Cheers for the feedback Timmo, any form of contact between club and support base is good - I too am shocked to hear we only had about 5k seasonticket holders/members last season - just an improvement to 7,500 would see us reach a crowd average of 13k! If we could get 10,000 members we would be selling out the 'marsh on a regular basis :D

And this is exactly what Adelaide United wants off the record. They would love to get to 10,000 members/season ticket holders. They would love to have Hindmarsh packed every home game. Not just for the big matches against Melbourne Victory or a team playing good quality football (e.g. when Brisbane Roar came to town).

Hindmarsh seating capacity, repeat seating capacity is only 15,500 so with 10,000 members/season ticket holders we should be pushing attendances at the very least over 13,000 each game. yes its probably very ambitious and high but they really have the intention of Adelaide United being a big club not just in the A-league but asia as well.

The official has only been in the job a short while but one of the short term goals of the club is to better connect with the fans and bring fans and supporters closer to the club. They are big on following the AFL in regards to how they go about selling their memberships to supporters. I said I would do my part by spruiking on this forum, through social network and may go on FiveAA and promote as much as I can.

Exactly what this official told me he would love to see, more members means more ways to better the club and with the club finacially stable and viable means more money and resources to invest into the football departments etc.

On the football side of things, seems Djite is back today. Will be training with the boys for the first time since re-signing with us.

Was that the indigenous kid? Indigenous athlete's are unbelievably creative. Just look at the indigenous players in the AFL. I definitely believe they'd offer similar attributes playing the world game.

Put them in a professional environment, and they will excel. Untapped natural talent that needs to be refined.

Did you know Goodes was a quality football player when he was young? Imagine if he had chosen football as his career path instead of ARF? What a midfielder he would have made =p~

Adelaide United vs Benfica :D Will be interesting to see how the young lads do.

Bugger, I double posted it. You got that in mighty quickly!

I wrote on the other thread:

Yup, we'll be playing Benfica, Indian National Team and Shandong Luneng U18 squads. Will be a good chance for the boys to show what they can offer to the United Youth setup.

Oh and guess who's back? :p

I still can't get over how awesome that picture is! I've now worked out who you are (though I did have an idea) :p

:cool:

Also, I just assumed those training kits were black.

Please excuse my ignorance but what does AIUFC stand for?

So nice seeing Djite in an AUFC kit :D

:lol: @ Tom - don't be surprised if you can't see anything on my FB page - other than commenting on the AUFC page about the only other thing I use FB for is to play Mafia Wars ;)

Here's an updated list of the U18 squad:

Good to see a couple of young Pirates in there ARRRRGH!
BORROLOOLA - who are they?? ( almost sounds like a WA mob )



Edited by redcup: 18/7/2011 05:06:50 PM

FNQ you will find from memory, he is the Martin Crook scholarship lad.