Greg Westway Nathan Burke and the board

[saintsRrising]

We have been members so long our membership numbers only have 3 digits. "build" the event, if the club had asked the AFL to get Ticketmaster to do it.

Off topic: How did you keep yours?

I used to have a 4 digit one (just over the 1000 but not by much) and had the same number every year.

But then one year they just wiped it...and have continued to be given different random numbers...

[St Fidelius]

Nothing has really changed IMO.

Foundation Members were guaranteed a ticket if the Saints made the GF.

They are still guaranteed a ticket but some on here seem to want more than just a ticket to the GF.

Can someone that is a Foundation Member kindly state just what is their main gripe???

IMO you were guaranteed a ticket and you still are guaranteed a ticket, albeit it maybe standing, but the Club had only ever guaranteed a ticket in the first place.

The Club has now recognised that some Social Club Members have taken the option of "Excluding Standing" and have sent a message to all those members and offered them a chance to change their option.

The Club has done well by contacting those members and I really can't see what else they could have done to be honest.

Our last GF was in 1997 and there were no Foundation Membership back then, so what in your opinion has changed for Foundation Members today??

I am still waiting to hear from a "Foundation Member" about their gripe!!!

Sorry, but I am getting a little bit tired of this "My c**k is bigger than yours" mentality….

And now we are starting this ego trip on 3 digit and 4 digit membership numbers FFS

Give me a solid reason for your gripe

Anyone care to comment ???

or have you all shut the F*** up???

[plugger66]

plugger66, where are you?

You said several weeks ago that most Saints members will be at the grand final. Obviously you can sort this out (oh, sorry, you've never heard of Social Club Foundation Members).

Im here. I havent seen anything written on here to suggest that a foundation member will miss out unless it is their choice. I still say up to 22000 members could get in. Again nothing on this thread to change my mind. And your point about foundation members is. i have been a social club member for about 10 years so i am probably one. My wife pays it and I dont ever see the ticket because I have never used it. I use my AFL or MCC membership depending on the game.

[Teflon]

Nothing has really changed IMO.

Foundation Members were guaranteed a ticket if the Saints made the GF.

They are still guaranteed a ticket but some on here seem to want more than just a ticket to the GF.

Can someone that is a Foundation Member kindly state just what is their main gripe???

IMO you were guaranteed a ticket and you still are guaranteed a ticket, albeit it maybe standing, but the Club had only ever guaranteed a ticket in the first place.

The Club has now recognised that some Social Club Members have taken the option of "Excluding Standing" and have sent a message to all those members and offered them a chance to change their option.

The Club has done well by contacting those members and I really can't see what else they could have done to be honest.

Our last GF was in 1997 and there were no Foundation Membership back then, so what in your opinion has changed for Foundation Members today??

I am still waiting to hear from a "Foundation Member" about their gripe!!!

Sorry, but I am getting a little bit tired of this "My c**k is bigger than yours" mentality….

And now we are starting this ego trip on 3 digit and 4 digit membership numbers FFS

Give me a solid reason for your gripe

Anyone care to comment ???

or have you all shut the F*** up???

Who died and made you f@rking king?

Why do I need to give you anything?

The only whinging, Bitching on this thread is you and your c#ck.


IF you cant follow what BFUSA posted then its pointless - I mean even the matter of principle is clearly lost on you so why bother?

Are you often sold items only to be told later that doesnt count anymore yet you walk off all happy bout that?........odd.

[GSG]

Posted: Thu 17 Sep 2009 5:05pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In fairness to the club, I don't think they are able to instruct ticketmaster to distinquish between social club and foundation social club.


Yes they can. My card clearly says Foundation Member. So my ticket registration number should match this card and therefore can be communicated to the ticket selling agent.
I was clearly told that Foundation Member would entitle me to a GF ticket. The way they got us all is the terminology - tickets and seats. Nobody ever told us there was a difference. Pretty sneaky, isn't it!!!

[cowboy18]

But when Foundation SC was promoted it was on the basis that you would get preference over SC Members who joined up in later years.

NO..as far as I recall it was not promoted as guaranteed seats...BUT as stated you were promised preference to SC who joined in later years.

This is the heart of the issue.

I can promise the club that if i dont get my 5 seats for my family, then that will be 5 foundation social club memberships that will never be renewed. My 73 year old father, my 71 year old mother and my 4 year old son are not disabled but standing room is NOT going to work for them.

I am one who relied on this promise under the Butterss administration.

We have been social club member continuously since the move to Waverley, but when Foundation Social Club membership was created I swore that we would never give it up. I was living overseas for 5 of these years AND I paid up every year based on the promise made in terms of Grand Final priority over future social club members. This promise has been broken. If I get standing room and some johnny come lately social club member who joined in May / June gets seats, I shall hit the roof.

I have been a standard paid up member for 38 years and my father has been a member for 53 years. We have been members so long our membership numbers only have 3 digits. We had reserved seats at Moorabbin, Waverley and have level 1 seats at the Dome since day 1.

We shall continue to be members and seat holders BUT social club membership is no longer a high priority for me unless our Foundation right is reinstated.

Unless they rectify this and reinstate in 2010 the Foundation Social Club membership right of priority over more recent Social Club members, then 5 social club memberships will be gone from the coffers every year from here on in. I just cant see any benefit anymore to paying it each year.

This will be ongoing lost revenue for the club.

And I am sure I am NOT the only Foundation Member that feels that way.

I would rather buy the $750 or $1000 tickets for the Grand Finals we play in rather than pay $600+ a year for the 5 social club memberships.

The club may have gained 3000 one year wonder social club memberships on this cash in, but i bet they lose them next year or the year after AND will have lost Foundation Social Club members like usforever.

And having had some experience with Ticketmaster working as a consultant they DEFINITELY could have had multi level random draws:

1) Foundation Social Club Members
2) Social Club Members
3) September Saints

This would have been easy for Ticketmaster to program when the "build" the event, if the club had asked the AFL to get Ticketmaster to do it.

This is an important post regardless of the outcome of tonights game.

The short term nature of the club's decision to generate new social club members can and will have dramatic ramifications for the way in which some of us engage with the club. To oversubscribe their seat allocation in favour of short term gain may only disenfranchise the unlucky few but it reflects a contempt for members that emerged with the level 2 seating debacle.

I love the engagement of being a long distance member with 1 SC and 3 junior members, we only get to two games a year. It's nice to have a scarf, a hat and a card. But to listen to family and friends outline their distrees over not knowing their potential fate over tickets they assumed they would have is galling. As BFUSA mentions, people will find other ways to engage with the club if the club chooses not to acknowledge their loyalty appropriately.

The fine print argument that membership entitles you to a ticket rather than a seat is spurious given the long term commitments of most of these members and their investments in the club through memberships, seats and everything else.

Whoever managed this screw up should look at this club's emblem and realise that it works both ways.

[Animal Enclosure]

The club didn't have control over the percentage of tickets that are standing room... that is the prerogative of the AFL.

I'm one of those 'on & off' social club members but my commitment has never waivered. I may not have been able to afford the social club premium whilst I was studying but I've been a member since my dad bought me a membership when I was 7 years old.

I'm sincere when I say people like Back From USA are the lifeblood of this club & it would be unfair if they missed out on a seat/ticket. I'll give you all the tip though... there are about 20,000 other St Kilda members, who are loyal to the club they love that definately won't get a GF ticket if we win tonight.

[joffaboy]

While I do feel for the "foundation SC members", the club is really in a bind.

Our little provincial game relies on the unadulterated passion of the supporter. Unless we have this undying passion the little game played in front of a population of 10 million would die.

Supporters like BackFromUSA are the heart and soul of the club and have waited and paid dilligently and uncomplainingly for decades, just waiting for the day when they can be at the MCG to see the club win that elusive flag.

If that is nipped in the bud after all the $$ and promises, and heartbreak of being a Saints supporter for years and years of misery, I can fully understand the angst, the dissapointment.

The AFL and its clubs however, need to raise revenue. We have ten clubs in one state and the competition is fierce for income streams.

We are not a rich club - we need to make as much as we can from the paltry ticket allocation given to us by the AFL (who have to satisfy many other stakeholders for GF tickets).

It is a poor situation, and there are ALWAYS these stories at Finals time.

[robbie muir]

i understand that the club has to raise as much revenue as it can. However what it should have done is organised a system that the last lot of social club member to join up get the standing room tickets.With technology today how hard would this be.

Otherwise what is the use of being a Foundation social club member and paying fees every year, when others can come in at the last minute(when they know the club will play finals and maybe a Grand final) and possibly get a seat while you have to stand.

My mates and i have religiously follwed the Saints since the early 70's and gone to Windy Hill, Victoria Park , Kardinia Park etc every year, been continuous members since then and have Foundation Social Club Memberships and are Reserve Seat Holders and are treated like this by the club we love.

Some posters may think we are whingers but what is wrong to expect to get what you are promised. And don't start about how lucky we are to get a ticket full stop when others get nothing. Foundation Social Club Memberships were advertised as coming with a guaranteed Grand Final Seat if and when the club made a Grand Final.

So by going for a quick money grab the club could potentially disenfranchise loyal followers which would have future repercussions.

[IluvHarvey]

We have been members so long our membership numbers only have 3 digits. "build" the event, if the club had asked the AFL to get Ticketmaster to do it.

Off topic: How did you keep yours?

I used to have a 4 digit one (just over the 1000 but not by much) and had the same number every year.

But then one year they just wiped it...and have continued to be given different random numbers...

To continue off topic i'm still #848

[oneteam]

[quote="robbie muir"]with a guaranteed Grand Final Seat if and when the club made a Grand Final.

quote]

I thought the promise was a gteed GF ticket, not seat.

[robbie muir]

i think we are playing with semantics. With a ground capacity of nearly 100,000 you would assume if you got a grand final ticket/seat whatever you call it, 99.99% of people would think they were sitting and not standing.

[IluvHarvey]

i think we are playing with semantics. With a ground capacity of nearly 100,000 you would assume if you got a grand final ticket/seat whatever you call it, 99.99% of people would think they were sitting and not standing.

Mate it's the AFL. Assume nothing!!

[ausfatcat]

Robbie mate see the previous posts nearly 1600 (or 15%) of the saints ticket will be standing only.

[saintsRrising]

Interesting (unfortunately) to note that the take up by SC Members has been 93%...whereas the club according to this thread earlier had planned on only 80%.

With so little success over the years why the club aimed so low is quite amazing...

Anyway their assumption was wrong..and from this no doubt stems their diregard for Foundation Members.

At 80 % everyone would have a seat.

At 93% not.

There what if analysis was poor.

The gaulling thing is that they could have made everyone happy and made just as much cash....if they had simply stuck with what was promised years back.

All the late-coming SC Members would still have been happy with a guaranteed ticket...

Instead a group of the most loyal Saints fans have been annoyed...and the Foundation Members (if we make the GF) that get assigned standing room will in the main be most disgruntled....all when at not cost to the club they should not have been.

[saintsRrising]

As I posted ina another thread..Foundation Club Status should be there to reward loyalty.

Look at the MCC..you have to wait to become a Full Member.

Their should be capped SC satus with guaranteed seat stauts...with a wait-list of SC Members who have guaranteed Ticket access who can get to upgrade to Foundation Status as people drop-off.

Then there is some encouragement for people to keep SC membership every year..

Those in the FCC wanting to keep their staus..
Those on the reamaining SC Membership happy to be next in the quue for unsold GF tickets...and next inline to become FSC when someone drops out.


This rewards loayalty..and MAXIMISEs cash to the club...not just this year..but in each and every year. This system wil make the club MORE money...

[ausfatcat]

saintsRising that all sounds good, but the Saints didn't know the percentage of tickets that woould be standing room only untill last week a coupe of months after capping the social club tickets.



And they never guareenteed a seat only a ticket.

but I do believe if it was possible the saints should've given the seats to the foundation members first. As well as not selling the ticket packages but selling them to members instead.

[Milton66]

so was it a guranteed ticket... or guaranteed seat for foundation members?

[Saints43]

so was it a guranteed ticket... or guaranteed seat for foundation members?

It's a guaranteed ticket, rather than seat, as has been acknowledged in this thread over and over and over. See BackfromUSA & Cowboy18 posts for why it's an issue.

If only you read this forum as much as you post on it...

[Mr Magic]

so was it a guranteed ticket... or guaranteed seat for foundation members?

I cannot find any of the printed information but I did find the 2008 'membership booklet' which states under the 'Finals' category that 'Foundation Social Club Members' will get priority over other members.

You can read that in any way you want to.

Personally It never entered my mind that the Club were talking about anything other than a seat.
And quite frankly I don't believe that in previous years they were. The combined Foundation Social Club and Social CLub members were well below the allocation of tickets they would have received from teh AFl had we been a participant.

[reincarnated]

so was it a guranteed ticket... or guaranteed seat for foundation members?

It's a guaranteed ticket, rather than seat, as has been acknowledged in this thread over and over and over. See BackfromUSA & Cowboy18 posts for why it's an issue.

If only you read this forum as much as you post on it...

Typical fools cannot read the fine print. It's how organisations and businesses suck these types into handing out mountains of cash without anything to really fall back on legally

Reincarnated should come out of retirement as it seems there are plenty of fools on here along that cannot read. Money to be made

[IluvHarvey]

so was it a guranteed ticket... or guaranteed seat for foundation members?

It's a guaranteed ticket, rather than seat, as has been acknowledged in this thread over and over and over. See BackfromUSA & Cowboy18 posts for why it's an issue.

If only you read this forum as much as you post on it...

Typical fools cannot read the fine print. It's how organisations and businesses suck these types into handing out mountains of cash without anything to really fall back on legally

Reincarnated should come out of retirement as it seems there are plenty of fools on here along that cannot read. Money to be made

I agree but there is no need to call people names.

[Milton66]

so was it a guranteed ticket... or guaranteed seat for foundation members?

It's a guaranteed ticket, rather than seat, as has been acknowledged in this thread over and over and over. See BackfromUSA & Cowboy18 posts for why it's an issue.

If only you read this forum as much as you post on it...

Kiss it Saints43!

Thx for a civilised answer Mr MAgic.

[reincarnated]

so was it a guranteed ticket... or guaranteed seat for foundation members?

It's a guaranteed ticket, rather than seat, as has been acknowledged in this thread over and over and over. See BackfromUSA & Cowboy18 posts for why it's an issue.

If only you read this forum as much as you post on it...

Typical fools cannot read the fine print. It's how organisations and businesses suck these types into handing out mountains of cash without anything to really fall back on legally

Reincarnated should come out of retirement as it seems there are plenty of fools on here along that cannot read. Money to be made

I agree but there is no need to call people names.

Reincarnated is constantly subject to penis and masterbation jokes by these fools that cannot enter into a debate without reverting back to said jokes. They are fools. Beyond the computer if two people were in a business meeting and one used a dick joke as a way of getting back at the other. Out the door for you neddy-no-brain

But then Reincarnated understands that almost all on here fo not have jobs that require any intelligence or attention from anyone

[Milton66]

so was it a guranteed ticket... or guaranteed seat for foundation members?

It's a guaranteed ticket, rather than seat, as has been acknowledged in this thread over and over and over. See BackfromUSA & Cowboy18 posts for why it's an issue.

If only you read this forum as much as you post on it...

Typical fools cannot read the fine print. It's how organisations and businesses suck these types into handing out mountains of cash without anything to really fall back on legally

Reincarnated should come out of retirement as it seems there are plenty of fools on here along that cannot read. Money to be made

I agree but there is no need to call people names.

Reincarnated is constantly subject to penis and masterbation jokes by these fools that cannot enter into a debate without reverting back to said jokes. They are fools. Beyond the computer if two people were in a business meeting and one used a dick joke as a way of getting back at the other. Out the door for you neddy-no-brain

But then Reincarnated understands that almost all on here fo not have jobs that require any intelligence or attention from anyone

Milton66 says "you catch more flies with honey, than you do with vinegar".

Be the better man and don't stoop to their level old chum.