Melbourne Football Club
:hmm: :hmm: :hmm: :hmm: The current crisis with Melbourne has got me extremely worried, for quite a few reasons. We ourselves are not out of the firing line, not quite. We're flying high at the moment, but a few bad seasons and we will find ourselves back in Melbourne's shoes. While it can be a relief to see the AFL focus it's "Let's Merge 'Em!" mentality on another club, the fact that club is Melbourne is quite scary. I think the biggest thing here is tradition. Melbourne Football Club is the oldest football club in the world. And one of the oldest sporting clubs. It's very name is Melbourne. It has a long and proud history, and the year it's facing perhaps it's biggest ever crisis is the 150th anniversary year. This signals to me that in today's AFL, and given the market in football at the moment, tradition counts for exactly zero. With ten teams here, it has come down to win, or fold. Melbourne teams do not really have the luxury of spending a few seasons at the bottom of the ladder to rebuild for another premiership shot. Not without a substantial member base (and a loyal one at that) to stick it out with. So basically, ten years of bottom-eight results can spell almost certain doom. I think financially, there is a lot Melbourne clubs can do to stay alive, and I'm glad to see Melbourne is finally starting to wake up to it's debt and be proactive on it. No matter whether we love or loathe the Demons, we can't let a team that should be heritage-listed fold, or move out of Melbourne. A lot of supporters from other teams helped us out in 1989. I think it's time we helped out too. So, I'm doing the unthinkable and becoming a Melbourne FC member. I will still give 'em hell when we play them, but when we're not, I want to help keep this part of our history as Melburnians intact. I encourage everyone on this forum who gives a sh!t about Victorian football, Victorian tradition, to follow suit and buy one with me. Or, at the very least, start hacking on the Dees supporters you know who might love Melbourne, but have lost a bit of faith and aren't signed up.

Whilst I can understand your very honourable sentiments, personally I would prefer to invest that money into the Bulldog's by upgrading my membership. Look out for number one so they say.

I see your points, but I have 6 memberships with the Dogs already. I'm not advocating getting a Melbourne membership instead of a Bulldogs one, but membership seems the best way to help Melbourne out, not only with finances, but also with the membership count, which in turn attracts better sponsorship, stadium deals, etc. My plan is just to get a small membership, maybe just an 11 gamer minimum thing, about $100, and pass the merchandise off to my bro-in-law or nephew. If just 1,000 people out of the 4 million Melbournians did the same thing, it would mean a great boost for the Dees: $100,000 in revenue, numbers to help boost brand appeal to sponsors, etc.

Not a chance of me becoming a member of another afl club EVER, i have better things to spend my money on. Will no doubt put a few $$$ if the tins come out, but no way would i ever buy a membership.

I think it was a noble gesture, DoggyOutWest, it's the old "united we stand, divided we fall" thing.

The first priority, obviously, is to help the Dogs. Melbourne (1 victory, 12 losses) having more members is indeed a mystery. But the way I see it, the same clubs will always be targeted for mergers, relocations, etc., (Melbourne, North Melbourne and even the Scray, for instance). If these clubs and their supporters help each other and stick together, their chances of resisting the league's pressure will surely be greater.