The incentives AFL clubs are using to pump up member numbers

From savings on cars to giving away memberships for free, these are the tricks AFL clubs use to pump up their numbers and how you can save big when you sign up.

The time-honoured membership numbers rally is well and truly on as AFL clubs scramble towards the August 31 cut-off to post their final membership figures.

And clubs are pulling out all stops – even a few “cheeky ones” – in a bid to secure more members than ever on the road to season’s end.

St Kilda has gifted memberships for the remainder of the season – with a free ticket for a friend as well, no less – to some former members that had not yet signed on for this year, while Geelong’s partnership with Ford is convincing supporters of other clubs to sign on at the Cats in exchange for a hefty discount on a new vehicle purchase.

Such is the value of a membership, which to clubs can far exceed the actual cash that changes hands.

Geelong offered a deal where new members received $2000 off a car at sponsor Ford.,=

In an email to a select group on the Saints’ mailing list on June 25, St Kilda offered a “free membership on us”.

“We’ve missed you,” the email read.

“You were a Saints member … we know life gets busy and sometimes Saints Footy has to take a back seat, but you’ll always be part of the Saints family.

“To welcome you back, we’ve sorted a complimentary 2025 general admission membership – no strings attached! We’ll even throw in a free ticket so you can bring a mate.

“Just our way of saying – we’ve missed you. See you back at Marvel Stadium soon.”

The premise of such a “win-back” program is generally extended to a few hundred supporters at some clubs at this time of year, with the league estimating it accounted for no more than 400-500 members per club.

Past St Kilda fans who didn’t renew were offered a free membership.

“Particularly in the last five or six years, there’s been some really innovative people come into club land who work in the membership space,” RMIT Dean of Economics, Finance and Marketing and AFL membership expert Professor Heath McDonald said.

“It kind of really took off at Richmond, about 10 years ago.

“A lot of people buy a membership with great intention of going to lots of games but it just doesn’t play out. The average 11-game member probably goes to about four games on average.

“What the clubs have done over the years is move it away from being a financial decision to being a product that gives you a close experience with the club. If you want to be part of the club, you’ve got to be a member – that’s the way it’s pitched.”

One Western Bulldogs fan contacted by this masthead revealed they had signed up as a three-game Geelong member earlier this year when in the market for a new Ford Everest.

“In the initial meeting, it was mentioned that Geelong had a deal with Ford, where they offer $2000 off the purchase price when you sign up as a member,” they said.

Western Bulldogs’ $20 membership deal.

“The cheapest membership at the time was $110 for three games, so it was hard to say no to $1890 off the price.

“I’m a lifelong Bulldogs supporter, and it seemed a bit cheeky, but it was hard to say no to that saving.”

The Western Bulldogs delivered one of the best-value deals earlier this year when Ed Richards signed his five-year deal, dubbed a “rEd hot offer” for those on its mailing list.

Selected memberships – including one that allowed entry to six home games – were priced at $20 for 20 hours.

That’s $3.50 a pop if you attend all six, which the Bulldogs said this week counted towards its membership tally.

Port Adelaide used Wednesday’s news the club had re-signed defender Miles Bergman for another two years to tie in a “Join Miles” three game for $11 deal.

Rollover membership plans boost the coffers at a vital time of year, usually before Christmas and pre-season, but it’s about more than just what one member pays for the membership, Professor McDonald says.

“The setting of targets and the membership arms race plays a role externally in signalling that clubs are big and they have lots of loyal supporters and that they are financially viable, but internally, it’s really motivating for staff and others to chase targets and get extra fans across the line each year,” he said.

Richmond offered $30 memberships as part a ‘Tom Brown Mo Down’ sale.

“Yes, it brings in a lot of recurrent money … but your membership base can be used as a communications and sales channel (for sponsors).

“Content is super-easy to produce these days, but having an engaged audience is harder to find these days. If a club can go out and say ‘hey, I’ve got 100,000 people on this database, they love my organisation and our brand, they open our emails … and they respond’.

“We’ve seen in our research that people are far more likely to consider a sponsors product of a club that they barrack for than other brands.”

Professor McDonald also said the competitive element among clubs when it came to the annual membership ladder was also a huge driver, with the “on-field competitiveness naturally translating off the field”.

Richmond’s “Tom Brown Mo Down” membership that followed the young gun’s game-saving tackle against West Coast in Round 9, when the Tigers won by two points, saw Richmond offer a three-game deal for just $30 – Brown’s jumper number.

Those who took up that offer are unlikely to count towards the Tigers’ official membership figure, with the club’s membership boss telling this masthead last year that a $50 spend threshold had to be hit in order to register as a number.

Collingwood topped the membership tally last year with more than 110,000 supporters signed on.

The league attempted a standardised approach in recent years, including a certain number of games to count, or spend.

But each club determines its own threshold and then reports that number to the league as its membership tally, which then collates the total which has broken records in recent years.

Carlton revealed a fortnight ago that it had surpassed 100,000 members for a second consecutive year, with the Blues being one of four teams to notch the milestone last season.

Collingwood topped last year’s membership ladder with 110,628, with the Magpies’ best deal currently sitting at $93 for a “flexi” four-game membership that allows four general admission tickets to use across any home games (only including Anzac Day if it is a home game) and a membership pack.

Gold Coast offered $18 memberships to celebrate Matt Rowell re-signing.

Sydney’s best deal so far this season was a two for the price of one deal on three-game memberships earlier this season, while Hawthorn’s family day came with free upgrades from three-game memberships to a general admission home membership, allowing access to 11 home games.

Gold Coast sat 18th on the membership tally ladder with 26,157 last year, with the Suns’ greatest membership deal of this season coming just last week when star midfielder Matt Rowell re-signed with the club.

For the 18 hours that followed his signature being secured, the Suns offered three-game memberships for just $18.

“It’s phenomenal on a global scale, the uptake and buy-in on AFL membership – something like one in 26 or 27 Australians holds a membership to a club,” Professor McDonald said.

“It’s a huge success story for this code in this country … (everything clubs do to grow this) is all done from the right perspective which is strengthening the clubs and keeping the product strong.”

Originally published as The incentives AFL clubs are using to pump up member numbers