It is some time now that I have given you any details regards the clubs off field activities. My apologies for this but 5 home games all on a Friday Night up to this weeks round 9 clash has been a reasonable body of work. When combined with membership, sponsorship, gaming and the recent auction your club has been working hard.
Firstly it was relieving to see the membership number creep past last years figure. A small improve is still an improvement but it unfortuantely appears that a 2000-2500 membership number is not achievable in 2008. Amazingly we will start planning for the 2009 membership in a few weeks.
Sponsorship and gaming have remained healthy for the club and we appreciate the support that these two revenue streams provide us. It has allowed the club to grow and improve in many departments.
Our match day numbers really do show a huge improvement in what we have previously done. Although the crowd numbers will alter with the club now reverting to Saturday games we are currently the most watched club in the SANFL averaging 4600 people to our games and 5175 to our home games at Coopers Stadium.
With the club now in fourth position and the opportunity to create some on field momentum I am sure that our numbers will significantly improve on 2007. Our catering has also been a huge success in 2008. The move to the Encore Group has seen our operations imporve through revenue, service and professionalism. The upgrading of the facilities, the improved range of products and our management on match day has been a massive benefit to the club.
This is extended to our pre match function that is averagling over 110 people to each week. At the last game last year we only had 24 people attend and our last game against Port saw 162 book in! My thanks to everyone who has supported this and I encourage anyone else to try our dinner which is vastly improved and open to everyone to attend.
Our Gala Auction has been run for another year and was again a success. This function takes a huge effort and we place extra pressure on ourselves by having it early so that it doesnt dominate the whole year. One other club even called in to see how we did it as they had heard that ours was the best in the league!!
On top of this I believe the club presented itself in impeccable fashion for the funeral service of Lee Blake. Barry and Gavin had the oval looking at its absolute best and arranged perfect weather (as they do), the girls from the office ensured that everyone was accomodated during the service and fed and watered after. On days like Lee's funeral, it is sad to acknowledge someones passing. But it made me proud to be a part of the club with what took place that morning.
Our playing season is right in front of us this week as we take on the Bays. Lets all get to the ground and make sure we go forward as a club in every department.
Dominic Shepley - Commercial Operations Manager
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