Wednesday 13th February 2008
Location
The Boardroom, Allan Scott Headquarters
Attendees
Craig Freer of Allenby Gardens
Marie Ricci of Wynn Vale
James Manning of Highbury
Rosalie Jack of Willaston
Tony Zelipsi of Hillbank
Ken Duthie of Burnside
Tony Saulters – Power Customer Relations Manager
John James – Power Chief Executive
Club question
Clearly a lot of our members have come from a Magpies background. Do we do enough to attract non Magpies fans?
Platinum Member discussion
- I think there is still a ‘love us or hate us’ mentality among the SA public
- More families are now 50/50 between us and the Crows. This is very noticeable at Showdowns
- Kids are certainly coming through
- One of the teachers at Burnside Primary has ‘won over’ a lot of kids by talking about the Power, and using the Power in class
Club response
We love to hear about those sorts of advocates. We would love to recognize her, and people like her.
Club question
We are trying to use ‘Power’ more than ‘Port Adelaide’ to appeal to a wider audience, and use the teal colour. Has this been noticeable? Are we losing touch with our roots?
Platinum Member discussion
- I think you have to broaden appeal in this day and age to keep up. This is a better path than ‘them’ and ‘us’
- You’ve already got us; if you can get kids, and positioning as a family friendly club, you are going in the right direction
- If adults are fans, and friends at school, the kids will follow
- The players also help as well
Club response
We are trying to make our brand ‘cool’ rather than harping on old rivalries. If we can use kids to diffuse the supporters of Norwood, Sturt etc, maybe the parents will see that we are different, and we are not all bad and they will give us a chance.
Platinum Member comment
It’s difficult when your main rival is branded ‘the team for all South Australians….’
Club response
We have come in to the competition with a solid member base, but they have a head start on us in terms of membership and market share. We need to constantly ‘challenge’, and be innovative, but there are resource issues. We are smaller in terms of supporters (330,000) when compared with our nearest rival, but our conversion rate is much better than the industry average (1 in 12 compared to our 1 in 10). Our challenge is growing our supporter base, particularly in the emerging areas in the north and south of Adelaide. We need to connect with migrants to SA from interstate and overseas….get them to a game, and become the club of choice.
Club question
What do you think of the Platinum offer?
Platinum Member discussion
- I am a Platinum member, but my friends have said it would be so much easier if there was just one membership, rather than separate Game-Day and Club offers. Is this possible?
Club response
We are doing a lot of work around this for next year. We do have some history in terms of existing offers, and we need to be careful of the revenue that additional products bring, but we will probably head in that direction in future. At this stage, we are recognizing Platinum members above all others and we will continue to do that. It’s is also worth noting that other clubs in Melbourne look at our model (separate club membership) and think it is the better way.
Platinum Member question
Why did we get such poor Grand Final tickets?
Club response
Grand Final tickets are difficult to come by, as you know. A number of seats (up to 50%) are taken up straight away by AFL and MCG members. Each of the 16 clubs is given tickets, so the competing clubs share somewhere between 16-25,000 tickets. Port Adelaide will usually get more tickets than their rivals (with the exception of Adelaide and West Coast) due to the number of adult members that we have. We received around 3,000 more than Geelong in 2007.
The AFL and MCG members tend to get the prime spots (ie the wings) which means that the competing clubs end up with tickets at ground level, up on the 3rd tier or within the 50 metre arc (our staff and player family allocated tickets were behind the point post in 2007). Our allocation is sold from ‘best available’ downwards, but everyone’s idea of best available is different. As with all Grand Final issues this is out of our control, but we will continue to work with the ticket agency for the best available options.
If you have any questions regarding any of the above, please call the Customer Relations team on 1300 467 693.
