enarelle wrote:AFL myth number 57. So it turns out that of the 12k in foundation members for GWS only 25% are actually from GWS ie that area of 2m people. So 3,000 people paid their $50 for a cap in GWS. 40% of the GWS "membership" are from Canberra. Why would that be the case one has to wonder. Well Canberra is a city of ex pats and quite a few are from the AFL states and GWS is the closest thing they are going to get to their own AFL team. just like the Swans who have over 60% of their membership/attendances are made up of expats from the AFL states. Of course there are only so many ex pats to go around and it shows in the TV ratings for the Swans and AFL in the Sydney market ie the locals dont watch in any great numbers.
Indeed one must say that the AFL have spent a veritable fortune on bringing AFL to people who had already bought the concept. Basically the AFL peaked north of the Murray 5 years ago and is now madly trying to get back that "peak" by creating more teams and spending a lot more money. Problem is that the people north of their Murray made their choice over 100 years ago.
its extraordinary isn't it
they are have been w@nking on now for the last couple of weeks that they have over 12,000 members
all they've got are 12K " foundation " ... half committeed ... maybe not committed at all

... people who've forked out very little at this stage & may fork out very little in the future.
& of these .... only 3000 from the greater West
St Mary's RL club would get more to a BBQ on Junior players sign up day
the 5K Canberrans .... nearly half of all their membership
most of these won't be asked to pay anything more to attend the 3 games being played down here ... not many of these will committ to full memberships & make the 6 hour round trip to games in Sydney
nearly 1000 come from out of NSW/ACT
they've put in all they're going to
nah .... its all a load of svengali trickery
the number of 12K looks impressive
but on closer inspection ... its anything but
