Yep - he mentions it pretty much every post so I haven’t missed it.
I think the MCC and AFL reserve should be ticketed the same way that club members are - give them a pre-sale to buy a ticket - and anything unsold in that day should be turned over to club members or the general public.
The fans of the teams are the people who should get to see the game - sure bring along a neutral friend - but having huge sections of the ground that are reserved for the MCC/AFL while club members face a sell out, sucks.
Thank you @Frankie for explaining (or reminding) @Moe, harsh and jealous much? Waited 19 long years and it is absolutely not taking any seat, the membership is my year round seat to everything. I don’t just fork out hundreds of dollars annually to keep it for shits and giggles. I also never take it for granted, it’s a privilege, so much so I can (hypothetically) waltz up to a Prelim at first bounce, come and go as I please, etc. Not trying to sound high and mighty or my own class either, it is what it is. And fyi, I may mention my seating location for interest sake often (MCC reserve), not that I have a membership.
But they already have a ticket. Sure, there’s opportunity to reserve a seat, but I effectively have a ticket to Friday night, at this stage I probably won’t use it.
Many Richmond and Collingwood members would also pay hundreds annually - and many will miss out on going to the match because it sells out at something like 2/3s of capacity because the amount of seats in the MCG reserved for MCC/AFL members.
I’m sure it’s great for the people who have MCC memberships - that’s the problem - the MCC members get too good of a deal at the expense of footy fans more generally - having MCC seats sit empty in a sold out match because the public can’t buy them at any price.
That’s not to say everything’s fine outside the MCC section, I think part of this would be helped by tiered pre-sales - when you have both clubs with more members than there are tickets for sale, and you being able to buy more than one ticket per membership - it doesn’t make sense to treat a 3 game GA membership the same as a level 2 season reserved seat ticket. Likewise, AFL members who nominate the competing clubs should have priority access over those who haven’t.
The point is, I am fairly certain you aren’t a member (or even a supporter) of the two competing clubs on Friday night. I am certain that not every supporter of the two competing clubs that could get entry into the MCC on the night will. So in the regard, you are taking a seat from a supporter.
Completely understand how you’ve spent 19 years for whatever membership it is you have but I personally think the MCC is an outdated elitist system (dress code is one example). Any available seating should be opened up on, say, Wednesday to anyone who wants to purchase it. If they’re happy with the dress code then what is the issue?
How dare Melbourne Cricket Club members get a good deal of access to events at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
You may be interested to know that AFL members can take out club support which is essentially a paid up membership for their chosen club. Similar deal with MCC although I think it may only be Melbourne whose deal included joint members in the club total.
Yeah, the AFL membership gives them access during the H&A season. If they want seats at specific games they need to reserve a seat. And then for finals they need to pay for a seat as AFL memberships only have walk up during the H&A season. And then the seating capacity for finals is determined by the AFL. So it’s kinda the same but not really.
Also, I believe every Victorian club counted MCC members in their total. Whereas members of other grounds (AO for example) were removed from those clubs totals in AFL figures.
That Victorian taxpayers have spent and will spend billions on MCG upgrades. It’s a publicly funded venue - tickets should be accessible to the public.
They can have a stadium membership scheme like most other stadiums, but it shouldn’t have anywhere near the amount of capacity dedicated exclusively to it - a few thousand seats - and unused seats should be available to the public for purchase.
Laughable Glenn, the MCC reserve has only existed for how long now? Not taking seats from any general public, its not the general public. Has to be thought of like this, when tickets go on sale, it’s really 78,000 that’s available (i.e.) minus the ~22,000 MCC potential.
Laughable? Thanks, enjoy your elitist seat old mate. Hope you’re happy keeping a supporter of an actual team good enough to make it away just because you waited 19 years for the right to go and got to a line before they did Or have a better (dearer) membership.
Has to be thought of like this, it’s a stadium with 100,000 capacity. Laughable that there isn’t 100,000 tickets.
As an aside, I guess WWE events aren’t to the MCC tastes? I don’t remember seating the MCC demanding seating for that…
They are, subject to capacity. You may also be interested to know the MCC pays event organisers, AFL, CA etc for every person who attends in the reserve.
I don’t make the rules LOL I feel you’re being a bit personal there. As I stated, MCC is MCC, century old, nothing to do with taking seats away from anyone because they’ve never been available to them in the first place. Fair go.
Capacity that is artificially reduced by a massive pre-allocation to a private member’s club.
So just one example I’ll grab - there was apparently a $90 million shortfall in MCG redevelopment funds at one stage prior to the commonwealth games - MCG funding fallout
Of the $90 million - taxpayers paid $77 million, and the MCC paid $13 million - yet that resulted in 1000 extra MCC seats, and 900 extra for the general public.
Really paying their way…
But do they pay for all the empty seats that could have been sold had they been open to the general public to purchase?
Do they pay the market rate that those seats would sell for, if available?
I’m not being personal at all. Merely used a piece of information you made readily available. If you took offence to that, sorry.
My point is, supporters of other clubs are taking away seats from members of clubs who have made it that far. From what I have gathered, you don’t support either team, so you’re lumped in there.