Are our membership numbers inflated?

[Bulluss]

I wanted to start this as an individual thread because i think its an interesting topic for discussion.

Now we all know the club has been very keen for us to finally get to that 30,000 member mark.

Surprisingly enough we are fairly close and are less than 1,000 away, which is a big surpise considering our start to the season.

Now the reason for me having the thought about some thought of inflation is due to 2 items of mail we recieved today.

As some of you may know, i have 2 young children. They are 3 & 4 years of age and have been members since they were born.

They are currently joined up as part of the Cubs Club which gets them a package of goodies and a card etc but as they are still under the age that you are required to pay their membership doesnt entitle them entry to the ground because they are free to get in.

Now in the mail today both of my kids recieved a letter from Tiger Stripes Dyer giving them a "free" upgrade to become Sqaudron 11 members which entitles you to free entry to all home games.

So cutting a long story short, if the club gave away free memberships to all of its baby, tiger cubs etc then these squadron memberships would count towards our total tally of members as they entitle the bearer to free entry to the game, hence they contribute to the gate takings.

If this is true, i think its a pathetic attempt to achieve 30,000 members.

[tigersalive]

Wait and see would be the best bet.

If it jumps a couple of grand next week then yes.

If its jumps 400 then probably not.

If you cant wait for that call punt road.

[WilliamPowell]

Interesting topic Bull.

It's not the first time clubs have had these special "offers" to get the numbers up but they usually do it because that particular category is down. Remember a few years ago they offered something like "half priced reserved seats" because those numbers were poor. Who knows but would like to know

What I've always wondered is do they hold back on the actually numbers ???

What I mean do they only announce that they have say 29200 members at the moment when in actually fact the numbers are 30500 and they hold off announcing that so they can have a steady increase despite the crap start to the season and then have the big announcement of we've reached 30k for the first time.

Struth I am getting more cynical by the minute

I better contact my Cubs and see if they've recevied the same offer as your little ones Bull

[Fishfinger]

Maybe they're cottoning on to how other clubs get their figures up.  Good on 'em.
I remember a couple of years ago being outraged that my MCC Tigers membership (about $130) was not counted yet a Saints toddlers membership (about $25) was counted. Kids that age get in for free anyway.

Our membership figures are deflated due to the ridiculous non-ticketed rubbish. We had 35,000 members last year and have 35,000 this year.

[Bulluss]

Agree FF about other clubs also have inflated figures.

In saying that i think we have been fairly honest with ours and i would hope that we continue that way so we get a true indication of how much we have actually increased or decreased.

[mightytiges]

Maybe they are trying to get you into this "upgraded" category so when the kids reach the age that you have to start paying for them to get into games you're already in the habit of buying this membership. The club trying to avoid a drop off in young members. IIRC the RFC had the largest junior membership last year.

I guess the main thing is the amount of $$$ membership is generating for the Club. If we were seriously fudging the figures then you'd presume it would be shown up in the membership financial figures at the end of the year compared to previous years.

To answer WP's question - yes we and most clubs hold back on their membership figures. I heard we were very near to 30k (if not there already as I heard this rumour last week) even though the official tally is 29,191. Now the discrepancy may be just be a simple case of processing the memberships before they become added to the official tally.   

[Ramps]

Maybe they are trying to get you into this "upgraded" category so when the kids reach the age that you have to start paying for them to get into games you're already in the habit of buying this membership. The club trying to avoid a drop off in young members. IIRC the RFC had the largest junior membership last year.

I guess the main thing is the amount of $$$ membership is generating for the Club. If we were seriously fudging the figures then you'd presume it would be shown up in the membership financial figures at the end of the year compared to previous years.

To answer WP's question - yes we and most clubs hold back on their membership figures. I heard we were very near to 30k (if not there already as I heard this rumour last week) even though the official tally is 29,191. Now the discrepancy may be just be a simple case of processing the memberships before they become added to the official tally.   

I get the feeling that any discrepancy occurs because of the delay/s of processing memberships before adding to the official tally.