STH: Forum - Early July

[Jodeci]

Yeah but winning a Premiership didn't hurt membership one little bit. It would be interesting to see if we keep them considering the Premiership defense from hell that is happening right now. Who knew Crafford was such a big part of the club :roll:




In what way my I ask? I am just trying to get my head around it. I am a season ticket Holder, and I turn up to every game I can to get the value from my Season Ticket. I think most other STH's are the same. So do you mean a partial season ticket for those that don't by a full STH, so it gives them say 6 games to attend each year?



Then all you need to do is for next year is have different colours of cards with the same design for different levels of membership, and then to make it part of the FC well that requires multiple votes at 2 Different AGMs, but once that is done then sure you are given an FC membership number as well.

Is the following possible: And its Just an idea,

I would be willing to pay a lump sum fee for A continous season ticket to all eels games at Parra. Similar to the deals that are offered at ANZ stadium, basically I own that seat.

Is this possible, Is the new board considering this?

Maybe at the next After match Function, if one of the board members are around, perhaps mention it

 

[MarkInTheStands]

Is the following possible: And its Just an idea,

I would be willing to pay a lump sum fee for A continous season ticket to all eels games at Parra. Similar to the deals that are offered at ANZ stadium, basically I own that seat.

Is this possible, Is the new board considering this?

Do you mean like an XSeat at ANZ?

With the XSeats you pay say $10,000 for a Seat till 2030 and then a yearly subscription fee to go to the events at the Stadium and sit in your seat.

I think that would be a question for the Stadium Trust.

 

[MarkInTheStands]

For all three memberships a Gold Card, for two Memberships a Blue Card and perhaps one type of Membership is White for arguements sake

The problem you run into there is the League club already has a Gold Card for perpetual membership and a Blue card for Standard Membership.

Just a point, the supporters club would only be about supporters organising events to away games and trying to recruit more members to travel to away games

Yes 100 % correct.

 

[johnkolc]

Yeah but winning a Premiership didn't hurt membership one little bit. It would be interesting to see if we keep them considering the Premiership defense from hell that is happening right now. Who knew Crafford was such a big part of the club :roll:

:lol: That's what I'm talkin about! Yeah pushing it uphill at the moment the Hawkers.

Yeah absolutely winning a premiership helped the numbers. I don't know that there is a real apples and apples comparison with any AFL club in terms of levels of support, geographically the Dogs maybe? But yeah I have always thought headhunting the membership manager from any of the big AFL clubs would be a logical step to grow the membership base.

In what way my I ask? I am just trying to get my head around it. I am a season ticket Holder, and I turn up to every game I can to get the value from my Season Ticket. I think most other STH's are the same. So do you mean a partial season ticket for those that don't by a full STH, so it gives them say 6 games to attend each year?

Yeah I'd go with that, as many combinations of numbers of games and packages as are likely to appeal to the fans. Realistically, the Club is probably half way there with the ANZ packages and the RegionEels one. But we must:

* make Season Tickets part of a much, much broader suite of membership packages

* make a variety of packages at pricing levels affordable for everyone, and especially for families. For example a 12 game Family ST at Parramatta is $455, an 11 game Family ST for Collingwood (my team, save the insults please) is $350. A 12 game Adult ST at Parra is $295/$280, an 11 game Adult ST for Collingwood is $170. Obviously there are reasons for certain pricing strategies and it's not as straightforward as a simple comparison, but geez I wonder if we have the demand for season tickets that can justify us charging so much for them

* get the Legends involved with advertising/promotion memberships, maybe even run some competitions with meet and greet prizes for signing up by a certain date

* get the players involved with membership drives and have the playing and coaching staff mention it in the media occasionally, certainly over pre-season

* call the bloody things 'Memberships' to align with the rest of the league world and ensure fans know they are getting what other club supporters get, including a vote on FC matters. This naming convention issue is my pet peeve probably with the entire club really. The link from the NRL website on memberships for our club should link to a 'Memberships' page which offers you all the information in the STH brochure plus information on the other options such as B&GA and (dare I say it) Football Club and Leagues Club membership as well.

Then all you need to do is for next year is have different colours of cards with the same design for different levels of membership, and then to make it part of the FC well that requires multiple votes at 2 Different AGMs, but once that is done then sure you are given an FC membership number as well.

Yeah I think the single membership number/different membership card design thing could be resolved reasonably easily.

 

[Jake the snake]

Do you mean like an XSeat at ANZ?

With the XSeats you pay say $10,000 for a Seat till 2030 and then a yearly subscription fee to go to the events at the Stadium and sit in your seat.

I think that would be a question for the Stadium Trust.

Yeah, thats what I mean.

If the club wanted some quick cash, I think at the right price they would have some takers.

 

[MarkInTheStands]

Yeah, thats what I mean.

If the club wanted some quick cash, I think at the right price they would have some takers.

Again I think that would be more Stadium trust than anything.

 

[MarkInTheStands]

:lol: That's what I'm talkin about! Yeah pushing it uphill at the moment the Hawkers.

You don't need to remind me, 2 Sundays ago we scored 4 points in a quarter and a half of Football.

Yeah I'd go with that, as many combinations of numbers of games and packages as are likely to appeal to the fans. Realistically, the Club is probably half way there with the ANZ packages and the RegionEels one. But we must:

* make Season Tickets part of a much, much broader suite of membership packages

Agreed and something we have already raised.

* make a variety of packages at pricing levels affordable for everyone, and especially for families. For example a 12 game Family ST at Parramatta is $455, an 11 game Family ST for Collingwood (my team, save the insults please) is $350. A 12 game Adult ST at Parra is $295/$280, an 11 game Adult ST for Collingwood is $170. Obviously there are reasons for certain pricing strategies and it's not as straightforward as a simple comparison, but geez I wonder if we have the demand for season tickets that can justify us charging so much for them

Remember when you talk about Parramatta tickets you also talk about 2 extra away games. But I believe the review of the night has suggested prices may indeed be coming down.

* get the Legends involved with advertising/promotion memberships, maybe even run some competitions with meet and greet prizes for signing up by a certain date

* get the players involved with membership drives and have the playing and coaching staff mention it in the media occasionally, certainly over pre-season

Yep one thing I would like to see is something like the membership ad the Panthers ran last year, With different Panthers talking about sitting in different area's.

But instead maybe make it Hindy or Caylo taking either a recently retired player (who is after a new ticketed membership) or a new Marquee Player to the club around the various stands meeting either the People they are named after or some other past players who are "endorsing" areas like Grothe Snr and Jnr in one of the concourses. Sprucing why people should sit there. Put the thing on DVD and send it to all STH's and indeed if we have the database STH's from the past who have not renewed. Then Slice it up and put the different sections as linked videos on the Renewal Page.

* call the bloody things 'Memberships' to align with the rest of the league world and ensure fans know they are getting what other club supporters get, including a vote on FC matters. This naming convention issue is my pet peeve probably with the entire club really. The link from the NRL website on memberships for our club should link to a 'Memberships' page which offers you all the information in the STH brochure plus information on the other options such as B&GA and (dare I say it) Football Club and Leagues Club membership as well.

I think you will find the name will change next year, and the B&GA will be pretty much non ticketed membership with STH ticketed membership. We have discussed LC and FC membership today at length again, end game would be to include FC membership if the current members vote to get the NRL license back.

 

[johnkolc]

I think you will find the name will change next year, and the B&GA will be pretty much non ticketed membership with STH ticketed membership. We have discussed LC and FC membership today at length again, end game would be to include FC membership if the current members vote to get the NRL license back.

Yeah agreed on the end game. This is something you lot have been working on for years which I appreciate, but hopefully we can really get some traction on it this coming year.

And agree with you on the promotion and advertising, it should be very in your face and with several mailouts through various media to members who haven't signed back up again.

Oh and I haven't said it yet but thanks Jodeci for the details earlier in the thread detailing what was discussed last night.

 

[Hellsy]

I don't know, ask the Rabbitohs they seem to intimate that in their membership ads I have seen at ANZ Stadium.

Personally my Football club membership is much higher than most of those on this forum with I think the exception of Hellsy, yet when Hellsy posted the message about joining the footy club, I know I was signing forms along with others here. I have co-signed forms for people who end up with membership numbers half of mine. I don't really care.

One thing I highlighted to Denis and Ovo at a Melbourne Away game in 2006 I think, was a photo I had taken of Hawthorn supporters at the MCG on the same day. They had membership scarves like us that year. But each of them had a different badge which said, Member (X) years where the duration was the major part of the Badge.

I like to tell people that they are replacements of the departed

 

[MarkInTheStands]

I like to tell people that they are replacements of the departed

Dead member Numbers. . . .

 

[Captain BF]

Well Smilee (old Forum) and myself tried to set one up in 2000 or so, we modeled it on the Glasgow Rangers Club here in oz (which Smillee was also part of).

To be taken seriously you need to get to a point where you have a Business name, an elected President, Treasurer and Secretary, and about 50 people joined up. To he honest you need to people first to then organize the electing of people then going through the Business name.



I don't think it is all their fault. From 1985 when it was first created till 1999 it was the peak body for supporters to be a part of. Around about then though, the club started offering other "clubs" like the Eelite young supporters club, and Sparkies Junior Eels, which were more closely aligned with the club and generated an income for it. During that time most of the advertisements of the Supporters club events and the busses dropped off.

The SC also point to a period of time where any information they gave to the clubs Media manager for upload on the website would never get actioned. Ross Smart has been a bit more proactive in promoting the bus trips as news articles.

This has lead to what I believe is a bit of an elitist view of the SC by some SC members, indeed I have experienced this a couple of times when I have attend SC meetings and raised these sorts of issues. This can come off as arrogance and In my opinion if you are not determined to join then you wont.

But the great thing about the SC is that they already have the business stuff, the bank accounts and to a point the members. They have a constitution and are funded by the LC. So I agree we need to have one, but again I would think it would be much easier to get 50 people to turn up and vote at the SC agm to get some younger people involved than to get 50 people to turn up to a pub and agree on an entire constitution.

This was posted in the "Joining the Parramatta Eels Supporters Club" facebook page:

So Mr 'MITS' you are holding a Parramatta Eels Supporters Club Meeting in July are you??? I wasn't even aware that you are a member of that particular club!! I don't think you should be inviting people to a meeting that seems to me (and many others) that you are chairing!! You are most welcome to come along to any meeting of the OFFICIAL Supporters Club and join but like the Football and Leagues Club you have NO voting rights until you have been a financial member for 3 years.The people who are members of the OFFICIAl Parramatta Eels Supporters Club have been so for many many years and have just as much right as you to enjoy their club.They are TRUE Eels supporters and have probably been that way a lot longer than you ever will be. They are not trouble makers or stirrers, just loyal supporters who go to every game and cheers their club on. Go away you damn pest!!

When I read this response to your email to all members of this page about getting along to the supporters club meeting i couldn't help but remember this post. I f this person is the type of person that fills this club, i won't be sending my hard earned their way anytime soon...

 

[Hellsy]

Thats exactly right Capt BF, this kind of sh*t is why we do not have a sucessful supporter club

 

[bartman]

It is successful, just in its own particular way... and there is a big gap for a broader supporters club (not just a B&G Merchandising Army) at Parramatta.

Unfortunately my life is too short to get involved in changing that, but if the FC votes to take back the NRL license to the FC again, then it should be an easy job to set up that broad supporters/members club that many people want under the banner of the FC along with the memberships/ticketing changes mentioned above.

And imo we can just then leave the LC one operating as it does, means waiting until the FC vote and transfer of the license before moving forward, so that would be mid 2010 in preparation for having the broader (and official) FC Supporters Club in place for the 2011 season?

 

[Hellsy]

Sorry Bart, but I don't agree. It is not sucessful, and never will be in its current form.
We talk about how exclusive it was to get into the Parra Footy club, the supporters club is exactly the same. You have to be bought in, pay your dues each year and no voting for 3 years.
Its a f**king supporters club for Christ sakes, its not like they make decisions that will change the position of the club in the NRL ffs. THey book buses to games and sh*t like that, hardly rocket science.
They really need to remove the pole and welcome everyone on equal footing with everyone else and get together to talk about the wonderful club we all support and hey perhaps even make new friends to get the old Blue and Gold Army going.

 

[strider]

Sorry Bart, but I don't agree. It is not sucessful, and never will be in its current form.
We talk about how exclusive it was to get into the Parra Footy club, the supporters club is exactly the same. You have to be bought in, pay your dues each year and no voting for 3 years.
Its a f**king supporters club for Christ sakes, its not like they make decisions that will change the position of the club in the NRL ffs. THey book buses to games and sh*t like that, hardly rocket science.
They really need to remove the pole and welcome everyone on equal footing with everyone else and get together to talk about the wonderful club we all support and hey perhaps even make new friends to get the old Blue and Gold Army going.

:lol: :lol: ... which pole is that? :-k :lol:

 

[Kornstar]

So Mr 'MITS' you are holding a Parramatta Eels Supporters Club Meeting in July are you??? I wasn't even aware that you are a member of that particular club!! I don't think you should be inviting people to a meeting that seems to me (and many others) that you are chairing!! You are most welcome to come along to any meeting of the OFFICIAL Supporters Club and join but like the Football and Leagues Club you have NO voting rights until you have been a financial member for 3 years.The people who are members of the OFFICIAl Parramatta Eels Supporters Club have been so for many many years and have just as much right as you to enjoy their club.They are TRUE Eels supporters and have probably been that way a lot longer than you ever will be. They are not trouble makers or stirrers, just loyal supporters who go to every game and cheers their club on. Go away you damn pest!!

Seriously? Whoever posted this is a complete and utter moron!!! (So there is no misunderstanding, i realise that this is not your post Captain BF )

I know who these people are, i have had the displeasure of sitting near them at every Penrith game at CUA and other games aswell. They are old cranky people who do not make anyone feel welcome.

They are embarassments to themselves! They are very old and have still not grown up......i would never want to be part of their group!!

I would seriously be part of a supporters club but not while these people are anywhere near it!

 

[bartman]

Sorry Bart, but I don't agree. It is not sucessful, and never will be in its current form.

All I'm saying is that it is successful to the people in it, for whom it does everything they need as supporters. I'm not saying it's the successful broad supporters club that Parra needs...

They do have a point in the facebook post above - it's not up to non-members to tell them what they need to do. They are doing what their current members want them to do. As you know if people want to change that, they need to go to Supporters Club meetings, become paid members, wait 3 years (apparently) and then vote for a change in how it is run.

But we can get that borader more open Supporters Club that Parra needs more easily through the FC setting up an official Supporters Club up as soon as the NRL licence is voted back there. Then everyone's happy.

 

[Hellsy]

Mark never told anyone what they need to do, in fact he was trying to drum up support for their group. I got th event request on facebook and it was nothing more than just alerting people to the fact a meeting was upcoming

 

[Hellsy]

and here is one reply from a fellow group member to that post in blue above:

*I've withheld name for privacy protection*, how very rude and arrogant of you to assume that just members of the "Official Supporters Club" are the only "TRUE" supporters of the club, Leagues Club or Football club.

Here's a question for you... I am not a member of the "Official Supporters Club" yet have been a Season Ticket Holder for many years and have only missed 3 home games at Parra Stadium since 1986, when the ground opened. Does that then make you a better supporter of the club then me? Or Mark for that matter?

I have 12 Parra Jerseys and 3 training jerseys in my cupboard, is that more or less than you? How many do you have? Does this count as being a "True" supporter? I bought my daughter her first Parra jersey when she was less than 24 hours old.

Do you also support our second grade team? The Wenty Magpies are effectively what would have been Reserve Grade in previous years... Do you get out and support them?

I don't think that i am more or less of a supporter of OUR great club than you.

 

[bartman]

Mark never told anyone what they need to do, in fact he was trying to drum up support for their group. I got th event request on facebook and it was nothing more than just alerting people to the fact a meeting was upcoming

I wasn't saying Mark told anyone what to do, and have read the facebook posts as well... was just making a general point, in response to your post (about what they need to do). That post you have quoted shows what a bitch-fight achieving change through the existing LC Club will be.

I agree with you we need a broader more open/welcoming Supporters Club (and have suggested my take on how that can/will occur).

From my observation in attending a meeting the LC Supporters Club seems successful to those who choose to be members of it, and naturally they'd get a little restless at the idea that people who aren't active members thinking it needs to change. Some of the Supporters Club read these threads too...