Words from the CEO.
Fremantle Dockers focused on having passionate members instead of just increasing their AFL tally
Fremantle have promised to remain a gimmick-free football club that focuses on maximising their connection with fans, refusing to introduce bizarre membership options in a bid to achieve their goal of having 80,000 members by the end of next season.
The Dockers were ranked 14th when the AFL released every club’s membership tallies this week with 62,237 people signing up to be part of the purple army. That is well below their ambitious target of having 80,000 members by 2025.
Fremantle dropped two rungs on the AFL’s membership ladder during 2024 despite having the fourth-highest average home attendance.
But while some teams released dramatically reduced prices late in the season and allowed pets to be members, Fremantle CEO Simon Garlick said the Dockers were focused on guaranteeing every member was genuinely connected to the club.
“We believe we set a high mark for categorisation of members. We don’t run campaigns to purely increase the club membership total that in effect devalues the members who genuinely invest and engage with the club,” Garlick told The West Australian.
Over the course of the past two years, we’ve strategically invested in fan experience and growth in order to prioritise engagement and connection with our members and fans, rather than pure growth of the membership number. While we are a way off our stated 80,000 member target, we strongly believe that if we can maintain the integrity of our membership products and demonstrate the value, then the member number growth will come.”
Garlick pointed to the huge percentage of Fremantle members who attend games as evidence that their strategy was successful.
Fremantle’s average home crowd of 46,580 people is 75 per cent of their membership tally - easily the highest figure in the league. Essendon ranks second in that department and the Bombers are at only 60 per cent. Garlick said Fremantle’s crowds prove their members are genuinely passionate.
“Those numbers say a lot about how engaged and connected our members and fans are. They show up, they are loyal, and we don’t for one minute take that for granted.,” Garlick said.
“Essentially, we have members who have not only chosen to spend their hard-earned money with the club, but they have also shown up to games and supported their club.
“Fans turned up in such force in 2024 that we were only behind Collingwood, Carlton and Essendon. These clubs, along with Richmond and Melbourne, have total memberships of circa 100,000 and play in a stadium that has a 100,000 capacity.
“They get regular blockbuster matches built-in to their fixture every year and most importantly, get to play each other in their hometown. So when Carlton host Essendon, they have around 30,000 Bomber fans turn up boosting their home game attendance significantly. When we host Essendon at Optus Stadium we have around 3,000 Bombers fans attend.
“So while Membership totals are an important metric, we won’t lose sight of the critical indicator that is average home crowd attendance when assessing the performance of our member and fan base.”
AFL AVERAGE HOME CROWD TO 2024 MEMBERS RATIO
1. Fremantle 75%
2. Essendon 60%
AFL AVERAGE HOME CROWD TO 2024 MEMBERS RATIO
1. Fremantle 75%
2. Essendon 60%
3. Collingwood 59%
4. Gold Coast 58%
5. Port Adelaide 57%
= 6. Adelaide 55%
= 6. Carlton 55%
8. Melbourne 53%
9. Sydney 52%
= 10. St Kilda 48%
= 10. Western Bulldogs 48%
12. Brisbane 46%
13. Richmond 45%
= 14. North Melbourne 43%
= 14. Hawthorn 43%
= 14. Geelong 43%
17. West Coast 42%
18. Greater Western Sydney 34%
