THE Port Adelaide Football Club has broken its all-time membership record with a total of 61,687 members signing up in 2021 and counting.
That number surpasses the previous record of 61,442 achieved in 2018.
The AFL’s official cut-off date for memberships is July 31, meaning there is still time to sign up.
Port Adelaide chief executive Matthew Richardson thanked the club’s members for their loyalty, especially at a time when people are enduring the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Coming out of a COVID year, we can’t thank our members enough for their incredible support in a year when so much uncertainty and change has impacted the season,” Mr Richardson said.
“Across the AFL, members have been incredible in their support of clubs. When you consider, even going into this year there was no guarantee people would be able to get to games, the support of our members has been incredible.
“One of the key things for us is the connection we have with our members, especially in times like these where people are being challenged in so many different parts of their lives. Their football club is a really important part of giving them something to look forward to and that connection we have with them is something we take very seriously.
“One of the great learnings from the whole competition, let alone our club, is the importance of members. The support of our fans and members fuels our club and I know our players understand the importance of that especially.”
Port Adelaide’s membership figure compares favourably with the hugely impacted 2020 season where the club had 51,253 members.
There has been consistent growth across all membership categories with the rapid growth for reserved seat memberships with Grand Final ticket guarantees and record membership among 25-35-year-olds.
The club has noted significant growth in families and female members while reduced game memberships have also been popular given the flexibility they afford people who have busy lifestyles and cannot commit to getting to all eleven home games.
And Mr Richardson revealed the club was close to overtaking Adelaide’s membership number for just the second time.
“I don’t think there’s anything that motivates our people more than beating the Crows and that’s on and off field,” he said. “We believe we are closing the gap on the Crows’ membership number. We announced that early in the week and we’ve since had several hundred more members join up just in the last few days.
“There’s a pay it forward membership where members can nominate supporters or family members or friends that they know of who aren’t members, there’s a call to arms with a number of new membership packages available – there’s a kids’ package, there’s a supporter package so there are a range of options to consider.
“One of our strategic goals is to have more than 100,000 members, so this is a good start to that objective.”
Member satisfaction research shows Port Adelaide benchmarked number one across the league for overall satisfaction and ranked first across the league for value for money, member communications and service.
Port Adelaide Football Club memberships are still available this week from just $25 for a TRUE BELIEVER Membership.
