On the back of its significant joint major partnership with Renault Australia, Port Adelaide chairman David Koch committed to an unprecedented membership drive to break through the 40,000-member barrier which, until today, had remained elusive through the club’s 143-year history.
And there is plenty of time for that number to increase, with the club following the lead of senior coach Ken Hinkley and his team by placing ‘no limits’ on the number of members it can sign up before the AFL’s membership reporting deadline on June 29.
It is likely the club will significantly exceed its previous record of 38,305 members set back in 1998 by that deadline.
There are no limits! Join the Drive to 40,000+ and become a member of the Port Adelaide Football Club today. Click here to visit weareportadelaide.com.au and join today!
Port Adelaide chief executive officer Keith Thomas told portadelaidefc.com.au the record is the result of a commitment to success undertaken by the club’s playing group, coaching panel and staff ahead of the 2013 season.
He says the feedback he has received from club members has been overwhelmingly positive.
“There were times last year, and certainly the year before where the broader media and football world were saying we were virtually irrelevant in the competition,” said Mr Thomas.
“The lack of crowds and the lack of members was reinforcing that view.
“This new membership number, which is still increasing every day, is a statement to the wider community that our members are liking what they’re seeing on and off the field.
“We know this because we hear it in the conversations they have with us.
“Our members are saying things like ‘this is starting to feel like Port Adelaide, what it used to sound like and what it used to play like.’”
Port Adelaide has won its first five games of season 2013 and currently has a 5-1 record.
It is the club’s best-ever start to a season in the national competition.
Since David Koch was appointed as the club’s chairman in October last year, followed by consecutive appointments of Ken Hinkley to the senior coaching role, Alan Richardson as director of coaching and strategy and Darren Burgess as high performance manager, Port’s decision makers have worked tirelessly to rejuvenate every aspect of the club’s operations.
Not only will it set a new member record this year, but other measurable areas are also achieving great results.
Merchandise sales at the Power Megastore are reaching levels akin to those experienced at the time of the club’s AFL Grand Final appearances in 2004 and 2007.
The Port Club is steadily becoming the hive of activity it was during the club’s heyday - with band nights, footy discussion shows and major business and supporter events the norm.
The club’s official website is experiencing record readership levels.
In the corporate space, it has doubled the number of player sponsors on 2012 levels, it has an internationally renowned major partner in Renault and a proud South Australian sponsor expanding nationally in V.I.P. Home Services.
Mr Thomas says the club’s current successes are the result of ambitious decision-making during the off-season period.
“This has all come through us making some ambitious, some might say ‘risky’ decisions to make Port Adelaide more accessible,” he said.
“Things like increasing the availability of our football personnel to the media, talking openly about the brand of football we’re going to play - our senior coach said we’d never give up before the season started and we put Foxtel cameras on our coaches during our first game for the year.
“All these things have been done to make us as engaging and dynamic to our members and the wider football public.
“We’re more vibrant, younger and we’re having a go as a club on and off the field.”
Port Adelaide’s current membership figure is encouraging, but more so are the smaller ‘wins’ the club’s member services department has been experiencing.
There has been an almost 30 per cent upsurge in upgrades to 11-game season tickets and three-game memberships.
For Keith Thomas, it is these results that demonstrate the positive change around Port Adelaide.
Irrespective of the gains made in other areas of the club, its membership simply wants to see Port Adelaide winning football games and creating a healthy and competitive team is the number one priority for the Port Adelaide hierarchy.
The old Port mantra “We Exist To Win Premierships” doesn’t adorn the wall of its boardroom for nothing.
The club will continue to push its supporter base to become a member base this year.
It wants to set a benchmark for 2014 when it returns to a state-of-the-art Adelaide Oval.
But setting ambitious targets and driving the club to be better isn’t a one-off for the club, according to Thomas.
Rather, it’s the norm, and it always should be.
“We’d done a lot of work before the start of the season, to build the foundation to crack 40,000,” Mr Thomas explains.
“But the great footy we’ve be playing has definitely accelerated it – it’s ignited the members!
“Our short-term goal was to move to Adelaide Oval with positive momentum and I think we’ll be able to achieve that.
“But I don’t look at it as though we’ve reset the bar of expectation to a higher level, because that’s where the bar should always be.
“We want to be a club that wins, that’s always competitive, that wins premierships.
“We feel like we’re back on that path and yes, we expect that of ourselves.”
Thanks to Renault Australia, one lucky member in attendance at the club’s Round 14 match against Collingwood at AAMI Stadium on Saturday June 29 will be given the keys to a brand new Renault Megane.
