Membership Numbers

[Suitman]

Article in todays Terrorgraph regarding membership numbers of the NRL.
Just goes to show how much we dropped the ball over the past few years.

Membership not just a number

By Nick Walshaw | June 11, 2009 12:00am
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Membership numbers ... Souths 15,000; Broncos 11,500; Dragons 10,400; Knights 10,200; Storm 8500; Cowboys 7700; Titans 7000; Warriors 7000; Roosters 6,600; Bulldogs 6500, Raiders 4761; Tigers 4500; Sharks 4400; Sea Eagles 4400; Eels 4000; Panthers 3500. / The Sunday Telegraph


SHANE Richardson now carries membership forms in his suit pocket. Keeps a stack in his car. Some by the phone too. "Because the game of rugby league, we've been a bit slow on this concept,'' the Rabbitohs chief executive explains. "In fact, it's incredible really ... we haven't even scraped the surface yet.''
The Rabbitohs have officially become the first NRL club to crack the 15,000 membership mark after Coogee locals Liberty and Atticus Corbett signed on at Redfern HQ yesterday.
And while the AFL still boasts a whopping six times the 100,000 league memberships, Richardson insists the boom has begun.
"Certainly I think we're starting to understand what the AFL have known all along - that membership is your badge of honour,'' he says. "That this is about belonging to the club you feel so strongly about.
"Like I had a bloke on the phone the other day telling me how he's been a Souths fan for 25 years. So I asked, `Oh, what number are you?'. Because a couple of years ago I was one of those saying maybe Sydney isn't a membership town. Maybe it's not part of the league mentality. But now all that is changing.''
Comparing memberships has always been something of a sore point among league officialdom. Brisbane, for example, count only season ticket holders among their 11,500.
Souths now have 8625 ticket members - the highest of all Sydney clubs - but say it's the addition of extra packages that now sees their membership bringing in $2 million annually.
Importantly, about 70 per cent of that cash comes in during the traditionally quiet Christmas period when no games are being played.
The Rabbitohs offer a variety of special extras for members including exclusive website access, private fan days and their Return to Redfern trials. Those little white Bunnies you see on the back of every fourth car in Sydney are also part of the goodies bag.
"Because this isn't about just getting out there and telling people to become a member of Souths,'' coach Jason Taylor says. "It's about giving them extra value for their membership dollar. It's about belonging to the family.''

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/sport/nrl/story/0,26799,25617882-5006066,00.html

Suity

 

[The Colonel]

But we don't sell memberships, only season tickets. ;-)

 

[Suitman]

But we don't sell memberships, only season tickets. ;-)

Mmmmmmmmm.

Suity

 

[junior009]

It really has been a mess hasn't it?

ps. anyone want to bet how long it will take for someone to turn this into a pro/anti 3P debate? I'll set the line at post 10 on the over/under

 

[strider]

can we ask the all important "what did they judge to be a parramatta membership?" question

 

[Gronk]

So Souths have 15,000 members ? Impressive. How come they don't go to games ?

 

[Stagger eel]

don't get me started...just don't get me started...:crazy:

 

[Stagger eel]

So Souths have 15,000 members ? Impressive. How come they don't go to games ?

because plenty of those may well be regional, interstate even international members...do you think these blokes just target potential members within a 5k radius of Redfern oval?

 

[Parra Steve]

Parra really need to get on the front foot as far as memberships go, whether that be Season ticket holders or blue and gold army members. One thing i was impresses with was that souths had a tent set up for new memberships earlier this year at anz stadium the night of the parra game. Surely something like that can't be too hard to run for every home game.

 

[TheRam]

Can we sign Shane Richardson as the Football Club CEO please. I have said all along and finally someone in club administration gets it. Club membership is the number one priority for a club. If you can get your membership up to 30000+ then everything else will come. It is a no brainer. The knock on affect would be awesome. Shane Richardson take a bow.

Now whoever we recruit as our Football Club CEO, and just quietly I'm hoping that it is a genius woman, if his/her focus is not on memberships, just like Souths/Shane Richardson's, then no matter how well they ran the club or even managed to help win a premiership, I would still consider them to have failed at least partially in their duties. I mean what good is it to win GF's but not have fans be part of it.

Membership, membership, membership, that should be our clubs mantra. The success will follow.

 

[oldmancraigy]

because plenty of those may well be regional, interstate even international members...do you think these blokes just target potential members within a 5k radius of Redfern oval?

Exactly.

And not every season ticket holder turns up to a game.

More to the point, their membership brings in $2million annually. Imagine if they increase it to 20,000 members, they'd be bringing in close to $3million.

Add that to their cut from the TV rights and suddenly they're looking at being in a strong financial position without even getting a league's club grant yet.

 

[junior009]

So Souths have 15,000 members ? Impressive. How come they don't go to games ?

Probably the same reason we are getting sh*t crowds atm...their football team sux.

 

[COACH STERLING]

Can we sign Shane Richardson as the Football Club CEO please. I have said all along and finally someone in club administration gets it. Club membership is the number one priority for a club. If you can get your membership up to 30000+ then everything else will come. It is a no brainer. The knock on affect would be awesome. Shane Richardson take a bow.

Now whoever we recruit as our Football Club CEO, and just quietly I'm hoping that it is a genius woman, if his/her focus is not on memberships, just like Souths/Shane Richardson's, then no matter how well they ran the club or even managed to help win a premiership, I would still consider them to have failed at least partially in their duties. I mean what good is it to win GF's but not have fans be part of it.

Membership, membership, membership, that should be our clubs mantra. The success will follow.

I agree 100%.
A poultry 4000 members albeit season ticket holders is not good enough. Without singling out admin staff at the parramatta football club, we definitely lack initiative and drive from a marketing perspective. The cost cutting thing must have a lot to do with it, but we definitely need to get on the front foot. Waiting for people to knock on the door and sign up is where we're at ATM. Not good enough! I've got confidence the newly elected board have put plans in place to gain more members and bring back the social culture at the club. I would just like to see them announce their plans.

 

[Rogue.9]

What is classed as a member, a Season Ticket Holder, member of the Football Club or both.

 

[MarkInTheStands]

Firstly to answer Strider's question, how would our numbers have been qualified. I would have to say when I spoke with the Club last year, our figure was based on Season Ticket Holders and Blue and Gold army members. If you took the recent NRL club survey you will note that one of the questions states that "Some clubs call membership season tickets".

Also from my discussions last year we had close to 4500 STH and about 1500 blue and gold army members, if the numbers in the article are correct, last years losing season cost us anywhere between 500 to 2000 "Members".

But I have also heard the word "Membership" will be heard a great deal more around the club, even if it doesn't come with anything more than a vote in the Fans player awards.

Also of note is that with the 15,000 members, I seem to recall on their website that they had about 8,600 "Ticketed" memberships, so that is people who turn up either every week or have something else that grants them access to a game somewhere. The rest are just members of something like the blue and gold army. However the Souths version costs about 2 and a half times as much as ours does.

 

[Suitman]

However the Souths version costs about 2 and a half times as much as ours does.

Whichever way you look at it, they have almost 4 times as many as us, and are generating $2 million from it.
It's certainly an area where we have failed badly in recent years, and I'm sincerely hoping that we are about to turn the corner regarding this issue.

Suity

 

[MarkInTheStands]

Whichever way you look at it, they have almost 4 times as many as us, and are generating $2 million from it.
It's certainly an area where we have failed badly in recent years, and I'm sincerely hoping that we are about to turn the corner regarding this issue.

Suity

Indeed, it is a hope shared by many. I still have concerns though. There has been talk in the recent past that it should not matter if you are a member or not. If Parramatta is in your heart then that is good enough and the club will listen and take care of you. I truly hope that we as a group get a swag of new members, and then those members feel part of the club because of their membership, and I hope it is something those that are not members view with envious eyes and also want to be apart of.

 

[Gronk]

I think that the Souths numbers are high because of their membership drive during the time when they failed to meet the criteria and were booted out.

That aside, it is clear that we need to rationalize Parra's membership structure so that membership can be easily achieved by the average Joe, make it good value and give them a reason to renew. There is money to be made and plenty of punters who are willing to part with it. It wouldn't be hard to adopt the Broncos, Hawthorn or Western Force etc models who seem to have the right formula.

 

[MarkInTheStands]

BTW I am not talking about football club membership here and I don't think the article is either, when it comes to Parramatta, it is talking about the Season Ticket Holders and Blue and Gold army. If it wanted to talk about Football club membership that would be even worse for the club. Around 900. Now I know everyone wants the NRL side to be run by the football club, but there are many steps on that road and I think it is one that can be worked on at the same time but should not limit a push for more "Members"

 

[MarkInTheStands]

Sorry Gronk, those membership numbers have peaked recently thanks to heavy advertising of their memberships and the focus internally on getting members.