Quote Originally Posted by bulldogtragic View Post
that's it. As i said earlier, my metaphor is enjoying this ride without buying a ticket. If there's not enough people buying tickets then services get cut, personnel get cut etc.

It's not like the old says where the base was an 11 game membership, take it or leave it, there's so many ways to buy into the club. Maybe that's my second metaphor, i like bunnings so i'm a supporter of wesfarmers. But without buying into them, i'm not a shareholder that rides ups and downs with them, i just get to say i like bunnings. Mind you, if i had kids they might ask for a sausage and then it's too expensive again.

I like straight talking. If someone can't afford it, they don't need to say 'i'm poor' or feel bad, that's just where things are for them today. But what really annoys me, and i've family members guilty of this... Is using whatever bullshit excuse they can find to justify not joining. My favourite hits; 'oh, it's not called footscray anymore, they've lost me and everyone i know', 'until they change the name back i'm not joining, footscray forever', 'i don't like etihad and we shouldn't have left wo', 'this club won't change', 'they don't do enough for your membership fee' and bullshit on. Just say, i don't want to be a member and stop the bullshit. And while we are on cutting bullshit, don't cry to members or people connected to members about not having access to grand final tickets because you couldn't even get into the ballot, of which most dogs members actually got tickets last year. But at least we all had a shot. The afel isn't going to open up 20,000 tickets to non-members because 20,000 non-members of all clubs want the full benefits of membership without paying a membership to a club...

All that said, congratulations to over 8,000 new members currently joining the journey and buying into the journey. We love of afl, vfl, new women's team, new talent academy, ballarat expansion and our various community programs and they will be as successful as possible because 8,000 new members so far have been a shining light to those who use thin excuses. If anyone of you new members is reading this thread, good on you for showing others an example to follow and surging us towards 50,000 members.
amen!