TOPIC:

Serious question here. Was it the alignment that turned you off the WAFL or were you loosing interest prior to this. If so why and how would you change the competition to make it more appealing to the younger generation. And don't say get rid of the alignment I think that has been done to death.

I still consider myself reasonably young haha and love going to the WAFL to watch my Demons play. I know we haven't had much success over the last 36 years but still get a buzz when the Dee's are up and about.

Going to any WAFL game is still a good day out with mates in my opinion and the beers and banter make it even better.

I think inevitability mergers will have to happen within WAFL ranks. I'm not sure how easy it will be to market a merger to the ever declining membership / interest base though.

I think it will be the Swan Valley Demons we see first I hate to say... Possibly okay if the jumper isn't a copy of the St. Kilda strip.

Do I drop back a few family generations - prior to 1934 and go for Subi?

I sense some are thinking If the AFL did take over the WAFC, the league could be possibly better for it?

If I were a Swans fan I would be worried.
Sorry Mike a merger with Perth is out of the question.
PFC has just or is about to sign a new 20 year lease at Lathlain.
VP Council and WCE worked hard to ensure our tenure.
After 15 years of hard work to bring us back from $400k debt to where we are today.
That is 3rd most financial club, no we don't need your problems.
Good luck $1.8m will be hard to find let alone set yourself up.
No disrespect, just stating how hard it is.

MikeXU1 wrote: I think inevitability mergers will have to happen within WAFL ranks. I'm not sure how easy it will be to market a merger to the ever declining membership / interest base though.

I think it will be the Swan Valley Demons we see first I hate to say... Possibly okay if the jumper isn't a copy of the St. Kilda strip.

Do I drop back a few family generations - prior to 1934 and go for Subi?

I sense some are thinking If the AFL did take over the WAFC, the league could be possibly better for it?

Swans and Perth and South and East - maybe even Subi and Clare, they would be easy as they have a small support base and would really no impact on attendances very much, the last thing on the mind of viability planners will be attendances in any case, they will look first and foremost at long term financial viability, costs incomes etc, and then player stocks and competativeness of the comp.

Demons Forever wrote: If I were a Swans fan I would be worried.
Sorry Mike a merger with Perth is out of the question.
PFC has just or is about to sign a new 20 year lease at Lathlain.
VP Council and WCE worked hard to ensure our tenure.
After 15 years of hard work to bring us back from $400k debt to where we are today.
That is 3rd most financial club, no we don't need your problems.
Good luck $1.8m will be hard to find let alone set yourself up.
No disrespect, just stating how hard it is.

nearly 2 million will be almost impossible to find at a WAFL level now, what I want to know is how the hell did it happen?

I still think the treading water or mere survival approach will do not anything. As it is proving right before our eyes. Things are closing up as we speak being realistic. Clubs need to work together aggressively for a semi national 2nd tier format. We have countless business head running clubs, probably more contacts than we really know in a commercial & network sense. You might say why is this not help the competition now ?? Easy answer, We don't have enough to offer them.

Give the corporates an incentive to be active.

Be aggressive with a new format.

Connect with outer leagues.

Make some moves to establish a "pilot" proposal (fully costed first)

I will say it again, do we have anything to lose ??

May as well go down swinging & see what happens. We are all going around in circles here.

If it actually comes off, it would be amazing for every club.
If it doesn't work, we are still where we are anyway.

Being a WP supporter, I have to say that we get good value for money and have done since I joined in 93. I have been going to watch WP since dad took me as a young bloke from 81 onwards, we have only bottomed out on a couple of occasions since 93. I still love going, alignment or not, its the best non robotic footy going around !

Leedy wrote: Being a WP supporter, I have to say that we get good value for money and have done since I joined in 93. I have been going to watch WP since dad took me as a young bloke from 81 onwards, we have only bottomed out on a couple of occasions since 93. I still love going, alignment or not, its the best non robotic footy going around !

winning a flag last year would help leedy
And yes it is still a great way to fill in a Saturday afternoon. I agree.
despite all the gloom around. still looking forward to a new season.
will be interesting if nothing else

Once you start losing your supporters you wont pick them back up and the percentage of new supporters jumping on board would be close to nil.

In the case of Perth we may be financially ok but if we dont start playing finals (like in 2014) the support will continue to drop off in big numbers,we may have money in the bank and a new you beaut facility in a couple of years but what good is all that if you dont have the paying membership and bums on seats each week?
Can a club survive with just a couple of hundred die hards?

30plusyeardrought wrote: Once you start losing your supporters you wont pick them back up and the percentage of new supporters jumping on board would be close to nil.

In the case of Perth we may be financially ok but if we dont start playing finals (like in 2014) the support will continue to drop off in big numbers,we may have money in the bank and a new you beaut facility in a couple of years but what good is all that if you dont have the paying membership and bums on seats each week?
Can a club survive with just a couple of hundred die hards?

mate you have been saying the - "if we dont start playing finals soon" line for as long as I can remember.

and the answer is No - a club cant survive with 200 fiehard, they are dieing now with 1500 or so members ( mainly 50 yr old plus ).

you seem to be banking a lot on this lathlain redevelopment, sharing with an AFL club is not what it is cracked up to be - I can tell you that, people wont be at lathlain to see perth mate they will be there for the eagles, your club like south at freo will just be a sideshow.