I would expect the WSW to be making decent money so far from home matches, given 3 crowds over 10K (19K, 16K, 13K) and most other crowds in the 8-10K range.

There were reports a while back that suggested the club negotiated a very good deal on stadium costs.

You actually believe that??

Of course he does. Its another part of AFL spin :lol:

A more realistic picture is season ticket memberships.

In strict accounting terms, it remains a profit of $0.2m because the Swans are quite entitled to categorise the additional dividend from the AFL as revenue.

I agree it's an extremely low number, but yes, I believe it. They have to start somewhere.

I think what all the figures show is that no one can rest on their laurels or distribute largess and the business side of whatever football team in whatever code needs to be run carefully and well.

GWS count people who get free tickets as 'members' if they get an email and name. Had a friend at uni who got signed up to a 'membership' after getting some free tickets (thousands being given out) at Uni. Didn't go to the game, but kept getting membership emails.

That sounds like a really believable story.

:roll:

I thought you were leaving and never coming back? ;)

You play tattslotto don't you, because you're told you got to be in it to win it, right?

Perhaps this can be some light reading for you.

Using registrations in Auskick to bolster playing numbers?

Shocking!!

How can they live with themselves?!

Mack - the honest truth is, I would miss you too much.

I'm sure he couldn't leave as all the AFL spin he believes must be used in any thread where there's a comparison between codes in this country.

Presumably it was a soccer fan who started the thread, and anyway, the discussion so far has been quite civil - what's your problem?

Read back over your post, you said membership buddy.

Anyway go back to your world of the most manipulated and contrived game in existence, and a governing body seen as the emperors of spin. A truly great spectacle of big burly men who play for five minutes and are taken off to have a rest. A game that equates fairness by tanking games to lose.

No wonder you see nothing wrong with it. You and AFL belong together.

That's quite a litany of injustices.

True GWS membership is almost impossible to know. As is regularly stated in AFL membership dick measuring contests, the only way you can really clarify it is through looking at the actual revenue derived from membership, which provides a somewhat reliable sense check as to how “genuine” a quoted membership figure is. AFL clubs publish this info but I’ve never seen it for GWS, I don’t even know if they produced an annual report for 2012.

Crowds aren’t a bad measure as at least they can’t be overstated too wildly, they’re in full view after all. Whether the tickets are free or not, probably not really relevant for either club at this stage, they’re both first year start-ups so regardless of ticket revenue the aim would be to get as many people to a game as possible to show them the product. It’s a long term game.

Great comeback.

I still think that GWS are pushing shit uphill in western Sydney, no matter what the AFL's bank balance is.
However, I really don't think that affects WSW either way. The A-league is in summer, in an area that loves their football.
It's quite remarkable how WSW was setup in 4 months, and how their going now. All the right people were appointed to the right positions, and they are flying. The FFA must be wrapped. People can compare average attendances between the 2 clubs, but I don't think you can. When you consider the AFL's national yearly marketing budget compared to the A-league, plus how much cash they're dumping into GWS, there is no comparison.
The atmosphere at WSW games are as good as MV home games if not better already. That is what brings people to the games. There isnt anything else like it around in any sport, not even most other clubs in the A-league. Regardless of where they finish up this season, I think we're seeing the start of a supersclub, another MV. It's actually a pity that Parramatta Stadium only has a capacity of 20k. I can see this club selling out plenty of games next season. Good luck to them, they've made all the right decisions and setup the club the right way. The league needs another big club, not another struggler like GC and NQF.

One point overlooked is it costs less to run a A-League club (sub $10m) than a AFL club (at least $30m). Though the AFL can continue to fund the club for a while yet with the TV rights and has a strategy to do this, but they did not make a loss for the first time in a while a year ago for nothing, GCS and GWS would have been the biggest contribution to this.

Interesting to read in sponsorship that Skoda (one of GWS major sponsors) were one of the worst performing car manufacturers in Australia in 2012, increasing sales by 1 car despite the new car market increasing 10% overall (as per SMH). I assume GWS sponsorship was a key plank in increasing their market share. Will be interesting to see if they can maintain the sponsorship level (think it is 3 year deal) if results do not improve.

I have also wondered the same thing about Westpac sponsorship of Heart once the 3 year deal is up this year, now the new kid on the block is no longer so new. Depends what the expectations were at the beginning of the sponsorship, I guess.

To attempt to get this back to a nice and interesting conversation.

Gyfox (or anyone else) do the Swans get a an extra $0.8M from the AFL to cover the cost of living allowance on the salary cap? I think its much the same.

I agree that take out the freebies and subsidies and GWS would only get around 3K average crowds.
There is no way AFL will pull the pin though. It is a 20 year plan. From the perspective of other codes, they would be very happy. That is hundreds of millions of dollars that AFL will pour into the money pit that can't be invested elsewhere to combat the foody competitors.

As mentioned before, WSW is a mile more profitable sporting organisation, in net terms.

Frankly, I don't believe GWS's crowd figures. Anyone who's been to the showground (SKODA) and see's the crowd on TV which looks around 6500 then the crowd is announced as 9375 or something.

Also, didn't they get caught fluffing their membership figures with Auskick packages?

I don't care really though. I support the Wanderers, Parra Eels and GWS. They are in different seasons and the only teams competing for my attention is the Eels and GWS. An interesting point. I've never bought a membership to any sporting club. Until the Wanderers arrived.

Using Auskick registrations to push up more government funding. AFL getting government funding in NSW & Queensland doesn't make sense, it means very little to people in those states. I would rather that money going to Schools & hospitals, if governments want to fund sports, at least sports that have Australian representation like Athletics & other Olympics sports.

GWS have over 5k members for their Canberra package, the rest WS so about 1900, most AFL fans know this is the AFL'S Vietnam, they are never going to win and it is purely for TV money that they are in WS.

The AFL will spend millons on propping this club up for the next 20 years, but now they are working with a popualtion openly hostile to the game. Gold Coast is another disaster waiting to happen, no code will ever flourish up their, it is littered with failed clubs and already it is starting to go south, give it 5 years and Gold Coast Suns will be in trouble.

More believable than the VFL having 1644 players in Balmain alone, and you swallowed that one whole.

Mate, I live in Balmain. I can almost guarentee you, you'd struggle to find a handful of people who give a fuck about VFL. You get the odd Swans supporter, but they mostly only care where they're doing well.

It's a Rugby League (entrenched) and football town.

this thread is doing its best to make people pick sides of the 3 codes that are prominent in western sydney. I want to happily support the wanderers and gws during their respective seasons (without a gws membership of course), but this thread is doing its best to try make the afl sound like an almighty sport who is trying to bury the a-league.

The way a crowd looks on TV can be deceiving. I went to an early game at SKODA due to free tickets from my mates' GF and the crowd figure was presented as 11k. There were definitely 11k there...

I did wonder what percentage of those 11k were there with free tickets like me though..

Edited by sydneyfc1987: 9/1/2013 07:39:20 PM

I'm sure many people said the same thing when Swans relocated to Sydney in the 80's. They too had shockingly bad attendance until the mid 90's when they made it to the grand final. Since then they have averaged around 25-30k a game.

Just saying it'd be folly to write them off so soon..