Speaking on an “amazing day for the North Melbourne Football Club”, in which the Roos officially opened their new Arden Street facility, Brayshaw appealed to North fans to get aboard what he says will be an exciting ride in coming seasons.
He pointed to the club’s new $15 million state-of-the-art training centre, along with new coach Brad Scott and a young playing list, as reasons fans should join.
With membership hovering around the 20,000 mark - well short of the 28,340 the club recorded last year - North needs numbers to rise before the home-and-away season.
“It’s about the same place as it was last year but we need it to get better,” Brayshaw said from the new facility on Wednesday.
“We need all North Melbourne people to be members, it’s that simple.
“All I would say to our people is ‘if you’re not, why not?’ … the message that all footy fans, let alone ours, need to understand is that membership is the cleanest dollar a footy club ever gets.
“It just goes straight onto your bottom line, so the biggest commitment and assistance that you can give your footy club is a) to join up as a member and b) to turn up when you play.”
Brayshaw described Scott as amazing and said the club could not have found a better person to lead its young list.
“If you’re a North Melbourne supporter and you see what he’s doing … surely you’re ringing up the membership line and going ‘I want to be a part of this’,” he said.
“We’ve got to get to 35,000 members; then we’ve got to get to 40,000 members. Growth in the business is what’s going to keep us, not only aligned with the Collingwoods and Essendons, but in front of them.”
The North chairman was in Vancouver covering the Winter Olympics during part of the Roos’ pre-season campaign but had his club’s NAB Cup matches “patched-in” specially to keep up to date with the Roos’ progress.
He says he has liked what he has seen so far under Scott although he is loathe to make any predictions.
“The expectation for me is we just continue to take steps forward,” he said.
“We’ve got a very young group … we expect everyone who plays for us to be ferocious in their attack on the footy, for their intensity to be worthy of a North Melbourne jumper. When it is we’re proud of them regardless of the result and when it’s not we’re disappointed.
“I don’t think at our stage you can be too result-focused, I honestly don’t.”
Brayshaw said the Kangaroos’ new facility would help Scott and his list in their quest to match it with the competition’s best.
“People like Denis Pagan, who was here today and ‘Kanga’ Kennnedy before that and Ron Barassi before that - I mean they did an unbelievable job preparing fantastic footy teams out of a facility that wasn’t a lot better than what a lot of amateurs enjoy.
“So now, we’ve got a world-class facility; there’s none of those excuses any more … they’ve now got the best of everything and it’s time for us to keep taking giant steps forward on-field.”
North Melbourne fans with membership enquiries can sign up at kangaroos.com.au or call 1300 KANGAS.
