Richmond is aiming to sign up 100,000 members, soaring toward record profitEDITOR ON DUTY: Jon Ralph
Herald-Sun
6 July 2018 7:00pmRICHMOND’s extraordinary membership growth and bumper crowd figures could fuel the biggest profit in the club’s history.
The Tigers are hunting an AFL record 100,000 members by the end of July, currently sitting at 97,517 paid-up fans.
Chief executive Brendon Gale told the Herald Sun that while a six figure tally would be a challenge, “we felt we had to have a swing at it”.
Richmond’s rapid membership growth - up from 75,777 last year - will reap significant profit through higher-yield memberships with reserved seat and finals guarantee categories.
The Tigers lead the league in home attendances - 54,889 per game - and have home games against Collingwood, Geelong, the Western Bulldogs and Essendon to come.
If Richmond can continue its strong form through the back end of the year, last year’s profit figure of 3.06 million could be eclipsed.
Gale said the Tigers were optimistic about their forecasts, but needed to continue driving strong profits given their ambitious agenda.
The Tigers will soon have four AFL teams - two mens and two women - and are planning for an expansion of their Punt Road facility.
Strong profits also give them options as they consider one day exiting their investment in po-ker machine venues.
Richmond will play a prime time Thursday or Friday night fixture on five of the final nine rounds, helping drive strong TV ratings and exposure for their brand.
“It’s going to be a strong year off the field but it needs to be. We are considering further expansion of Punt Road, we have three football teams and will soon have four,” Gale said.
“We have the AFLW team coming on and football programs are expensive. We need to keep growing and to make sure they get appropriate support.
“We have a lot of home games at the MCG left and clearly we have got the tailwind of last year and that will flow into this year.
“Our crowds should start to pick up even further with those games at the MCG. With those free-to-air and Friday night marquee sl-ots our ratings will pick up and our crowds as well.”
Clubs rarely sell thousands of memberships in the month before the official July 31 cut-off.
But the Tigers are selling five-game membership packages which give them a chance at obtaining 100,000 members.
“It’s going to be a challenge but we just felt that we had to have a swing at it,” Gale said.
“You could sit back on your heels but we felt given we were close so we had to try. Quite a few members haven’t renewed.
“It’s not just the quantum, it’s the composition. We are out of reserved seats memberships, scarcity drives demand so they are higher yield memberships.
“Reserved seats are gone, Grand Final ticket guarantee memberships are gone, it’s one of the advantages of (last year’s performance).”
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/more-news/afl-daily-all-the-footy-news-from-thursday-july-6-2018/news-story/6d2ac466482cf314ea8c49004b497f85
