The Club should make some gesture of a meaningful monetary kind (rather than one involving a single digit).
The Grand Final Upgrade system is now, you'll recall, subject to a quota - if you're "in", and you keep paying, then you have your guaranteed ticket (if Freo make it to a GF). If you opt out, and the club gets other faithful ones who pay up, they're "in" and you're back in a queue to get a GFU.
This is a cash cow for the Club — there is no service returned for the money. If I pay for a seat at Subi through a season membership, I get a return for the money - the seat is there for me, whether I use it or not.
As pointed out by others, this scheme started out at a very low entry level, but is now a rip off at $55.00. And if I recall correctly, following the 2013 GF they put a quota of 10 000 pax on the scheme (since the participating Clubs were entitled to 14K seats?). That would provide half a mill into the coffers for no work at all. Even if the team gets through to the GF the club doesn't apply that money towards any service to the client. Money for jam.
As a sign of good faith, the Club could exercise one or both of these options:
i. Give a reduced GFU fee in 2017 to those who subscribed in 2016;
ii. Transfer the 2016 GFU fees to the Foundation and give each contributor a receipt for a tax deductible donation.
I for one think its worth making a noise about, having paid over the readies since the scheme started.
