Western Bulldogs want to challenge AFL power clubs on and off the field

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EVERYWHERE Western Bulldogs’ president Peter Gordon looks, indicators show the club is experiencing massive growth.

The Bulldogs have had to find extra staff to handle membership queries.

And you can’t buy a membership to the social club for next year. They sold out two days after the club’s Grand Final win on October 1, the Bulldogs’ first flag since 1954.

Gordon says the Bulldogs aspire to become “one of the middle or even larger clubs”.

Part of that strategy is making a submission to play on Good Friday next year, as well as slashing the club’s debt of over $9 million.

“The impetus given to the business by what the team was able to do was probably the most significant economic benefit to the club for the long term, ever,” Gordon told the Sunday Herald Sun.

“We had our best-and-fairest on the Wednesday following the Grand Final and I think there were just on 1600 people there, which was far and away the biggest we’ve ever had.

“We saw the chart of the ratings this week for television audiences per club, which we’ve moved I think from 14th to No.1 in 12 months.

Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon says things are booming out west.
“We have never, maybe this year for the first time, sold out our social club membership.

“We rule the line at 10,000 and we had sold out of social club memberships by the Monday after the Grand Final, for 2017.

“We’ve had to employ extra people in our membership team to cope with the demand.

“We’ve got very strong corporate interest for next year. From a business point of view, there’s almost no indicator that isn’t trending in the right direction for us, either very, very dramatically or significantly.”

Gordon says the increase in demand for all of the club’s products and services has been a welcome challenge for chief executive Gary Kent and his management team.

“We’re anticipating the healthiest (profit) result we’ve had in many years,” Gordon said.

“We believe we can make a significant inroad into our debt, which started the year at about $9.5 million.”

Gordon said it would be easy to focus on paying off the debt.

“But in another sense … one could say the most enduring legacy that we as a board could leave for the next generation of leadership would be a dramatically increased fan base, membership base, and to have moved the club from the rankings of the smaller clubs of the AFL into a different category, into one of the middle or even larger clubs,” Gordon said.

The AFL has recorded the Bulldogs’ membership tally at just under 40,000 in 2016.

“I don’t have any doubt that we will have a record membership in 2017,” Gordon said.