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As published in the 17 July 2014 edition of the Star Weekly, below is an installment of Peter Gordon's weekly column in the publication.
It’s always hard to know what to do with the Gordon Legal sponsorship of the club. I’m not really looking for new work and I get to go to the president’s lunch most weeks anyway, sponsorship or not … except for weeks where we start favourite. Vice-president Sue Alberti likes to host those and has an unbeaten record so far. If we happen to make the finals this year and get to the GF, she’ll be president that day!
Such thoughts weren’t on my mind when I set out for Simon Garlick’s office during the week and saw a couple of hundred young kids in Bulldog jumpers having an Auskick clinic with some of our players. The kids were really cute and I loved the way our players paid them time and attention and complimented what were, frankly, some pretty indifferent foot skills. These kids are our future members and fan base.
That’s when it struck me, I could do a lot worse than use the sponsorship to introduce a few kids to what I hope will become life-long membership of our club.
So with membership manager Tom Lister, we cooked up the idea of using the Gordon Legal sponsorship to underwrite membership for all the Auskick kids in the west who nominate the Bulldogs as “their team”.
We’re going to give them the gift of membership, invite them to a night to meet our young players and explain to them that the club belongs to the west, just as they do.
That sense of belonging to a community, pride in your community’s team, is a gift. Just ask the people of Liverpool. And maybe that’s just the sort of initiative that will make them want to come back year after year. If it works, we’ll get another 1200 members this year and create a whole new base for the future.
If you live in the west and barrack for another team, it’s time to ask yourself: “Which community do I really belong to … the one where I live, or somewhere over the other side of town?” And if you’re already a Doggies fan, have a think about who you can conscript. As the great philosopher Doug Hawkins once said: “Better to sign up a single new member than to curse the comparative AFL membership table.”
Great idea Peter. A terrific Bulldog man.
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