Dear Member,
As we head towards our final home game, I wanted to offer a big thank you for your unwavering and passionate support. It has not only been inspirational but in the toughest of times, this year, it has been relied upon.
Some people have been making a lot of noise about membership tallies in the last day or so and the different numbers being thrown around can seem confusing. The AFL quite rightly tries to run a rule over each of the 18 clubs but in reality the one cap fits all approach that comes with the audited membership figures doesn’t tell the full story.
As such, I thought it best to put some context to our membership model:
- We have close to 65,000 Members, a record for our Club
The AFL doesn’t count all of these Members in their number as some don’t buy a $50 Membership which includes access to one game. The fact is that many do far more than this! They attend several games as a casual ticket buyer, they purchase a jumper or other merchandise and they attend our events. We have their name and contact details and we engage with them regularly through our digital platforms. They carry a Membership card and they receive this note from me as a Member of our Club. I expect our Membership to grow to 70,000 by the end of the year and continue to grow through 2016 as we deepen and broader our engagement with our 600,000 supporters.
- We have the most 11-game Members in the AFL
These Members are the lifeblood of any football club and others across the league would love to be in our fortunate position. Thank you for your ongoing and committed support.
- Our Club sells in excess of 52,000 seats for each and every home game
This is underpinned by the huge number of 11-game Members who just like this week, have helped us put up the ‘sold out’ sign at Adelaide Oval. This means all home games are either sold out or only a handful of tickets remain. This is an enviable position and one that is not lost on us at any stage.
It is worth noting, that we took the decision to alter our membership structure in 2015. This meant we actually reduced the number of available 11-game Memberships so that we could increase the number of tickets available to the casual supporter, meaning more South Australians get to experience Adelaide Oval and the colour and excitement of a Crows game day. This in the long-term will help us grow our overall supporter base.
As I said in the media yesterday, if we wanted to win the AFL’s Membership tally race I would turn 10,000 of our 11-game Members into 30,000 3-game Members and top the poll. I think you would agree that is not in the best interests of our footy Club!
On a more colourful note, thanks to everyone who participated in changing the design of our clash jumper. In 2016, we will wear two different strips - one predominantly white and another yellow version, both of which emphasise our traditional hoops. We settled on these designs after taking on board your feedback and votes in our online poll and the response since has been overwhelmingly positive, with the playing group also giving them the big thumbs up.
And before I go, a quick update on the Senior Coach search which is well underway. The selection panel, comprising Mark Ricciuto, David Noble, Alan Stewart and myself, is actively in the market and working through our list of potential candidates to lead what is already a vibrant and healthy football program. We will make an announcement as soon as there is something to say, although I don’t anticipate it stretching past the first week of October.
In the meantime, let’s turn out in force come Sunday to hopefully see our boys knock off West Coast and if you can’t make it to the ground then please pass your ticket onto someone else who can.
As always, We Fly As One!
Regards,
Andrew
