Fight to retain the Fitzroy Lion is worth it

I'm a Brisbane Lions fan and from Brisbane but I thought we should've retained the old Lion. Bowers is a goose!

http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2010/03/07/132041_sport-news.html They are gone - The Competition will be 11 Clubs firsts and reserves. Somethng needed to happen a lot earlier.

I guess if the price of apples goes up , they can attract new farmers, families to the area, the guy on the radio was saying the area has fallen from being a popular tourist spot from 3rd to 13th in the state. ( however they judge that) At ant rate i have never been there or heard of it, and it was amazing that it came up on a sunday morning sports show in Perth. Warwick has already spread publicity around Australia.

Well that is better news. The Club has money. Its Cricket side folded as well I think. Its players they need.Everything else in place.

Good mates with the coach, heard an intereview with him today on Perth radio believe it or not, Cappers presence does not hurt, thats for sure.

Funny how they will still reap the benefits of Fitzroy's "heritage", ie: potential father-son picks as they have done so in the past with Johnathon Brown for example.

Spoke to a mate of mine from that way last week. Kermandie is gone. No hope there. Warwick Capper could not make any difference. I think Capper is only interested in the publicity and that is not fair on the folk who sincerely want to revive it.

Talking of clubs folding, there was another thread in which the Kermandie football Club ( in Tassie)was folding, as was told by Elbusto, nice of him to find out about that, anyways it seems the great one himself Wazza Capper is trying to pull the club from the brink of extinction. Good luck Warwick, and to the ladies auxillary at Kermandie football club. I cant remember which thread this was all posted on. http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/capper-offers-to-save-123-year-old-footy-club-20100307-pq2g.html

I am not say that Fitzroy football club was formerly called Collingwood, what i am saying is that Collingwood and Fitzroy (the suburbs)had a big brother little brother relationship, the fact that Fitzroy was formerly called upper/west Collingwood left IMO Collingwood with a dominating position. Interestingly the population of the city of Fitzroy in 1921 was 34,938, yet in that same year the city of Collingwood had 34,239, and their populations have pretty well mirrored each other since. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Collingwood http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Fitzroy#Population We know plenty of Collingwood people moved to the suburbs (had families etc) along the Epping line, but where did all the Fitzroy people go ?. Those stats actually suprised me because i had always thought that Fitzroy had a very small population, which in turn would lead to a small supporter base in future generations, as people moved out of the city to the suburbs but took their club allegiances with them and passed them on to younger family members etc.

Fitzroy Football Club came into existence in 1883 from memory. Geographically Fitzroy was smaller. The football club itself was never known to be anything but Fitzroy.... the other side of Smith St was always viewed as the scum side, but I'd suggest that both sides of Smith St actually felt that way about the other. But certainly the Fitzroy Football Club were not known as anything but Fitzroy in terms of suburb name.

Along with Fitzroy, Collingwood was subdivided in 1838 into allotments each of about 12 ha. At that time both districts were generally known as Collingwood, although the Fitzroy part was differentiated by being known as upper Collingwood or Collingwood west. http://localhero.biz/article/permatitle/history_of_collingwood,_victoria/ I did get it a bit wrong, my mistake, and although it was a long time ago, these things tend to get handed down through generations , especially if families live in the same general area, so i would imagine that the premier/bigger club in that area would take the lions share (so to speak) of the support base. Many families in upper or west Collingwood would have probably identified more with Collingwood than Fitzroy.

Off topic but didn't the Hawks have memberships for pets and babies back in the 90's?

The Hawthorn one game membership is a bit of a joke.

When were they ever known as North Collingwood?

No argument with any of that.

The 3 game memberships (a concept started by Collingwood), have inflated a number of teams' membership figures this year.

I agree. But the BL methodology of doing that has failed. Part of maximising membership is not about piercing off existing ones. And a new jumper doesn't bring in one extra member. Part of maximising merch sales is not about producing something that pierces all over tradition and is a design that is universally canned. Part of that strategy change on branding should involve some checking as to if you have any existing agreements that may prevent you from making such changes! Make hay while the sun shines indeed. But manage the process so it works to the best of your organisation's abilities. And if your organisation can't do that because of management issues, then you have to do some analysis of your setup.

No doubt of the bandwagon and perhaps whilst albeit in a ill conveived way the BL management decided to go for a new look and ride the usual upswing in merch sales. Western Bulldogs membership also going through the grandstand roof, gold memberships with access to Grand Final tickets are sold out for the first time ever in the clubs history. Clubs have to make hay whilst the sun shines.

See my comments above with regards to the cost of Melbourne based memberships. Throw in the logo and jumper change, and you've got a low percentage of the total membership. I firmly believe there are another 5,000 Melb based Lions who regularly attend games, stretching to 10k when we are flying. Every club has fickle supporters who only turn up when you're winning. Those extra people might buy memberships if they see the club as a continuation of Fitzroy - if they see it as 'their club'. They may also buy merch - but not the current crop of merch and especially not the new jumper. Fair to say that Lions memberships were likely to increase this year regardless of the logo. Finallists last year for the first time in a while, aggressive recruiting from Voss and his team - fair to say that the Lions should push for top 4 this year. That is always going to bring in more memberships. Look at the Saints - 32k members as of this morning, and 11k up on the same time last year. Why - they are flying and have a shot at the flag. And when supporters think they are a shot, membership sales increase. And the Lions are getting a similar increase. BUT would that increase have been greater if they hadn't pierced of existing members and upset many old Roys? Personally I think the increases would be greater without the kerfuffle - but all in all, it was the BL who generated the problem, even though they are presenting themselves as the victim.

I don't have an insiders knowledge.... Just corresponded with other Lions fans in Melb, and with the Club directly. It is a passionate topic. I was a Royboy through and through. AFL is the greatest sport in the world. I couldn't barrack for another team so I had to go with the team with the most connection, and that is the Lions. so my knowledge is based on having a passion for the topic. But this year I won't be a Member. I am not going to financially support the Board and Admin of the BL. I agree with the $$$$ factor. I can understand why the BL wants the $$$$, and they seems to be viewing merch sales as the answer. But their methodology of going about getting extra cash in my viewpoint has been commercially bizarre.