THE AFL’s annual member audit has confirmed the Port Adelaide Football Club has broken its own membership record.
Just days after the club’s official membership reached a record 62,321, the AFL’s audited number was confirmed as 56,532.
This represents a 21 per-cent increase on 2020 and a nine per-cent increase on 2019.
The AFL audit applies criteria across the league’s 18 clubs in order to provide a standardised view of membership club-by-club and AFL-wide each year.
The primary difference between Port Adelaide’s official member number and the AFL audited number is the allocation of the Adelaide Oval stadium members who have access to all Port Adelaide games, with Port Adelaide allocated 2,217 (27%) of the 8000 stadium members.
The club’s previous best audited number was 54,386 back in 2018, and Port Adelaide chief executive officer Matthew Richardson says it is a remarkable show of loyalty by the club’s supporters that a new record had been set in a year impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic has clearly had a huge impact on the entire community but to have significant growth in our member base despite the challenges we are all living through is an incredible effort,” Mr Richardson said.
“That we have been able to achieve this together is a sign of the connection our people have with this club – something the AFL’s mid-year member research proves is the best in the competition.
“Our club has also been benchmarked number one across the league for overall satisfaction and for value for money, member communications and service.
“We pride ourselves on being a member-first club and at a time when we have set deliberately ambitious goals as part of our Chasing Greatness strategy, today’s numbers are a strong endorsement of the confidence our people have in our club’s future.
“We have such incredibly loyal and supportive members and I know the players and coaches, staff and the board are extremely grateful for that.”
Following its audit, the AFL has announced ten of the 18 clubs broke membership records, and the overall member number across the competition had surpassed 1,113,441, beating the previous record of 1,057,572 that was set in 2019.
