Richmond faces $1m hole after 5400 members fall off from last year (H-Sun)

[Hellenic Tiger]

A good run to the semis or the final of the NAB cup will ensure a late surge of memberships being sold. We are in the middle of January for goodness sakes.

[the claw]

Just maybe the supporters are sick of the ""tanking ""and the pitifull efforts last year, and previous years
And maybe they can see through would be wannebe coaches ( Jade Rawlings) going on and on about loving this club and loving the player group, for the last 11 weeks last year. oh please.  He is now at his 4th club this year in 6 years.FACT !
The club is paying for the poor management, poor decisions on issues in 2009.

what tanking are the supporters peeed with? the rfc didnt have the brains to tank and boy how it has cost us.
this is how it should have gone or similar.
07 2 18 19  cotchin rance pears/ward.
08 1 3 17   watts, rich/hartlett, swift/
09 1 3 18   scully, martin, griffiths.

ah the cost of a few meaninless games and stroking supporters egos.

[WilliamPowell]

A good run to the semis or the final of the NAB cup will ensure a late surge of memberships being sold. We are in the middle of January for goodness sakes.

That's true Tucker but the drop in numbers has an impact now and that's in Cashflow. Lack of cash coming in means short term borrowings are required, which means paying more interest, which bites into the bottom line 

[yellowandback]

A good run to the semis or the final of the NAB cup will ensure a late surge of memberships being sold. We are in the middle of January for goodness sakes.

That's true Tucker but the drop in numbers has an impact now and that's in Cashflow. Lack of cash coming in means short term borrowings are required, which means paying more interest, which bites into the bottom line 

I really hope our club was realistic enough to:-
1. NOT budget the same membership funds to end Jan this year compared to last year. The cousins thing along with expectation of playing finals are material benefits we don't enjoy this year
2. Have even budgeted for more than 30-32k members in total for this year
The marketing and sponsorship depts need to step up and creatively look for opps to stretch the dollars from the corporates TY.
Willy P, if we had cash reserves instead of several millions of debt, an overdraft or short term borrowings would nit be necessary to budget through an expected poor year on field.

[yellowandback]

Tiger fans answer call and rush to den

RICHMOND supporters have answered their club's call to arms, signing on as members in a record surge.

The Herald Sun revealed on Thursday that the Tigers were 5400 members down on this time last year when the arrival of Ben Cousins sent hopes of a finals appearance soaring.

The membership drop equated to a loss of more than $1 million in revenue.

Richmond signed more than 500 new members on Thursday, when 50 would be expected under normal circumstances.

- Sam Edmund

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/brad-scotts-us-trek-to-find-the-key/story-e6frf9jf-1225820298217

FTR, we signed approx. 740 members last week and 800 the week prior.

The article mings a little......

[mightytiges]

I really hope our club was realistic enough to:-
1. NOT budget the same membership funds to end Jan this year compared to last year. The cousins thing along with expectation of playing finals are material benefits we don't enjoy this year
2. Have even budgeted for more than 30-32k members in total for this year
The marketing and sponsorship depts need to step up and creatively look for opps to stretch the dollars from the corporates TY.

Agree Y&B. You would hope the Club would be budgeting for less members and basically plan to just break even across all areas of the club after the disaster of last year. Last year's budget would've been outlined well before the Cousins saga started so the jump in membership should've been seen as a bonus and an anomaly. Taking into account the 2 week late starting date for membership renewals we are probably back to 2008 levels and following our membership growth trend since 2004 (ie. 1000 new members per year).

Hopefully what Gale alluded to at the AGM relates to your last point about being more creative to generate more revenue especially non-football revenue.

[one-eyed]

This Age article is from the Bulldogs' viewpoint but nevertheless it shows the importance of signing up as a member and the benefits to the club if you do so as early as possible....

Success at turnstiles fuels on-field bite
ANDREA PETRIE
January 24, 2010

For years, on-field success has practically guaranteed AFL clubs' off-field prosperity with premierships bringing with them lucrative sponsorship deals and attracting additional members, enabling clubs to build state-of-the-art training facilities to help teams continue to flourish.

While the first bounce of this year's home and away season is still 60 days away, chances are, if you're a lapsed member of any club, you have already been bombarded with letters and phone calls asking why you are yet to re-sign. So why is it so important for supporters to put their money where their mouths are?
....

Seward said the longer fans left it to re-sign, the more money clubs spent on trying to get them back, money that would have gone to the team.

Full article here:
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/success-at-turnstiles-fuels-onfield-bite-20100123-mrs0.html

[Smokey]

While the first bounce of this year's home and away season is still 60 days away, chances are, if you're a lapsed member of any club, you have already been bombarded with letters and phone calls asking why you are yet to re-sign. So why is it so important for supporters to put their money where their mouths are?

I had to let my membership lapse a couple of years back but never had contact from the club of any kind - phone, letter or email.  You would have thought that given I had been a member for the previous 7 years they might have at least tried.