2013 Membership - THE ROAR IS BACK

[yellowandback]

Club needs to find ways to increase revenues from membership by value adding. You cant exponentially just increase member numbers year after year. There comes a point where you reach the maximum and then you cant grow the membership numbers anymore - what happens then? Clubs done a good job but they need to do more on 1) maximising members 2) maximising membership revenue 3) creating outside sources of income.

This is a very good post and raises some very important points 

Thanks but I forgot to add  that

Point 3 is the most important point for me. RFC needs to start building income sources from outside the club that can be built on over time. I dont care what it is but the club should invest in a business and try and grow it over time. What they invest in is up to them of course. Plenty of opportunities all over the place and with the number of members and supporters over Australia Im sure we'd all do our bit to make it a success.

Perhaps your on line shop can be resurrected with Tiger merchandise ?
It is a good point and ultimately when you rely so heavily on one source of income for incremental revenue you end up squeezing that orange to the point where you end up with the pip.
I've always thought we could better utilise Punt Rd, particularly on big matches - Richmond and Non Richmond games.
Prime space, close to the G - pre and post game, great car park access, next to the trains.
Most importantly - it's unique, no other club can do it so it would be protected income.
Captive footy audience and it has the 3 most important rules for retail - location, location, location!

[Ruanaidh]

Tiger Trader and Tiger Recruitment......revenue guaranteed

[Smokey]

Club needs to find ways to increase revenues from membership by value adding. You cant exponentially just increase member numbers year after year. There comes a point where you reach the maximum and then you cant grow the membership numbers anymore - what happens then? Clubs done a good job but they need to do more on 1) maximising members 2) maximising membership revenue 3) creating outside sources of income.

This is a very good post and raises some very important points 

Thanks but I forgot to add  that

Point 3 is the most important point for me. RFC needs to start building income sources from outside the club that can be built on over time. I dont care what it is but the club should invest in a business and try and grow it over time. What they invest in is up to them of course. Plenty of opportunities all over the place and with the number of members and supporters over Australia Im sure we'd all do our bit to make it a success.

Perhaps your on line shop can be resurrected with Tiger merchandise ?
It is a good point and ultimately when you rely so heavily on one source of income for incremental revenue you end up squeezing that orange to the point where you end up with the pip.
I've always thought we could better utilise Punt Rd, particularly on big matches - Richmond and Non Richmond games.
Prime space, close to the G - pre and post game, great car park access, next to the trains.
Most importantly - it's unique, no other club can do it so it would be protected income.
Captive footy audience and it has the 3 most important rules for retail - location, location, location!

Ramps is correct in saying we need multiple external revenue sources, the same goes for any business, but the club's challenge is to identify the correct ones.  We already have the Wantirna Club and formerly the Royal Oak and have had mixed success with those.  Similarly, other clubs have had various business interests with varying degrees of success, or in Collingwood's case spectacular failure.  While we can't afford not to have these revenue sources, more importantly we can't afford to get them wrong.

Any potential business will need to have all relevant and necessary research done prior to purchase/setup and then be as self-supporting as possible, both in ongoing financial investment and staffing.  The work required to research and setup/purchase/structure a viable and robust business that will generate the type of income we need it to is no small task and the last thing the club can afford is to redirect the daily efforts of it's current personnel on those tasks.  We have a fair degree of financial stability off field now and are currently diverting a large percentage of our resources to improvements in our football department.  Once we have stabilised the on field situation and have a foundation for a sustained period of success in place then I think the next focus can be on extraneous business interests but not before.  Small, planned, methodical steps following the path of longer term pre-defined goals is how we have got back to where we are and how we should continue forward.  When we have the 'surplus' money to invest in the time, effort and extra personnel to do the research and get the setup and/or acquisition right then we should concentrate hard on that but we aren't quite there yet.  We could certainly do some preliminary work now to identify possible opportunities or structure some boundaries that the club is happy to operate and invest within but not to the detriment of our current efforts and position.

And I agree with Y&B that we have one of the best locations and well known pieces of real estate in inner Melbourne - we should develop and use that asset to it's full potential.

[dwaino]

It won't happen overnight, but it will happen.

[RedanTiger]

I've always thought we could better utilise Punt Rd, particularly on big matches - Richmond and Non Richmond games.
Prime space, close to the G - pre and post game, great car park access, next to the trains.
Most importantly - it's unique, no other club can do it so it would be protected income.
Captive footy audience and it has the 3 most important rules for retail - location, location, location!

I agree it's a unique asset and we need to be more creative about building a source of revenue from Punt Road.
There is unfortunately a problem with capitalising on Punt Road for games at the G - I believe that traders at the G have an exclusive right in their contracts with the MCG trust and the AFL.
We are not allowed to set up an operation that may take turnover away from the commercial interests (food vendors, merchandisers etc) that supply MCG/AFL crowds.
Of course we should be able to use our facilities with our own members but I think that's the limit.
IIRC this issue was raised a few years ago and the limits were pointed out to the club however it's probably worth having another shot.     

[yellowandback]

I've always thought we could better utilise Punt Rd, particularly on big matches - Richmond and Non Richmond games.
Prime space, close to the G - pre and post game, great car park access, next to the trains.
Most importantly - it's unique, no other club can do it so it would be protected income.
Captive footy audience and it has the 3 most important rules for retail - location, location, location!

I agree it's a unique asset and we need to be more creative about building a source of revenue from Punt Road.
There is unfortunately a problem with capitalising on Punt Road for games at the G - I believe that traders at the G have an exclusive right in their contracts with the MCG trust and the AFL.
We are not allowed to set up an operation that may take turnover away from the commercial interests (food vendors, merchandisers etc) that supply MCG/AFL crowds.
Of course we should be able to use our facilities with our own members but I think that's the limit.
IIRC this issue was raised a few years ago and the limits were pointed out to the club however it's probably worth having another shot.   

Agree. Seems like a flimsy arguement not to do something.

[Tigeritis™©®]

I think the tigers should put all their money into banks;

I heard from a guy that knows a guy that these are winners;

The state bank of Victoria, The state bank of south Australia
Tricontinental & Pyramid building society.

Or we could get Alan Bond back to the club in some advisory role.

[one-eyed]

As of 29/01/2013

35,110

[one-eyed]

Club membership tallies - 29/01/2013

Collingwood     55,000+
West Coast     46,608
Hawthorn        46,304
Essendon        39,505
Richmond        35,110     
Carlton            31,642
Adelaide          30,000+
Geelong           27,669   
St Kilda            23,638     
Melbourne       21,873   
Port Adelaide   21,348
North Melb.      21,291
Sydney            20,000+ 
W.Bulldogs      18,004     
Brisbane          13,519
GWS                  8,123   
Gold Coast         8,078   
Fremantle            N/A             

AFL members   44,943

[MADTIGER2010]

Club membership tallies - 29/01/2013

Collingwood     55,000+
West Coast     46,608
Hawthorn        46,304
Essendon        39,505
Richmond        35,110     
Carlton            31,642
Adelaide          30,000+
Geelong           27,669   
St Kilda            23,638     
Melbourne       21,873   
Port Adelaide   21,348
North Melb.      21,291
Sydney            20,000+ 
W.Bulldogs      18,004     
Brisbane          13,519
GWS                  8,123   
Gold Coast         8,078   
Fremantle            N/A             

AFL members   44,943

Feb and Mar is where we reel in the Bombers and catch the Hawks. If Hawks and us had the same form as last year we'll finish about 3,000 behind them. But a Round 1 win will make a big difference

[Gigantor]

Very surprised by the relatively low numbers for both Adelaide clubs.A city of over one million with just 2 football clubs,both clubs should be doing way better.

[Phil Mrakov]

Club membership tallies - 29/01/2013

Collingwood     55,000+
West Coast     46,608
Hawthorn        46,304
Essendon        39,505
Richmond        35,110     
Carlton            31,642
Adelaide          30,000+
Geelong           27,669   
St Kilda            23,638     
Melbourne       21,873   
Port Adelaide   21,348
North Melb.      21,291
Sydney            20,000+ 
W.Bulldogs      18,004     
Brisbane          13,519
GWS                  8,123   
Gold Coast         8,078   
Fremantle            N/A             

AFL members   44,943

Feb and Mar is where we reel in the Bombers and catch the Hawks. If Hawks and us had the same form as last year we'll finish about 3,000 behind them. But a Round 1 win will make a big difference

They've got no supporters we'll get more if we come 9th after being in the 8 all year and they win the flag

They've hit their ceiling in regards to membership. We're still at the bottom of ours. IMO we'll pass them in 2014 and never sell less memberships than them again.

[one-eyed]

As of 30/01/2013

35,872

[dwaino]

Mrakov, more crap calls than an Indian call centre.

[MintOnLamb]

Dwaino, I am sure you have class and integrity being a mighty Tigers supporter and I enjoy reading your posts, but could you please remove that snot gobbling picture, personally I find it offensive and annoying