Who is going to the Forum on Saturday?

[Hailstorm]

Looking at the seating plan on the Storm website, in particular, the artist's impression of views from various bays it looks to me that the players would run out on the Western side through the race on the 50 metre line. It looks like the players benches are at the front of bays 26 & 28.

Well spotted Surandy       

[Hailstorm]

Thank you to everyone for updating those of us who couldn't be there, very much appreciated. From the sounds of things it was unsurprisingly a PR exercise to appease what is obviosusly a growing number of disgruntled members, though in saying that i doubt that much, if anything will change from the whole exercise.

Until this year, besides them starting to charge GA members to get in the social club a few years ago i've never been critical of anything the club has done and have always supported it but IMO they've really dropped the ball in a few ways with the new stadium. I have absolutely NO problem with the price rises which were to be expected with the new stadium and don't mind at all paying it but there's really a few more aspects that have really left me asking WTF?

The whole line of "well we've sold 3,000 memberships in 2 weeks" bullshit just doesn't cut it and proves nothing. We've bought those memberships for this year cos we love the club, the players and the coach regardless of the shit conditions they've placed on us. That doesn't for one second mean we agree with some of the crap decisions the suits in the top office have made in regards to memberships and seating just because we'll play out of the new stadium.

I'll step down from my soap box now and say again, thanks for the run down of yesterday guys.

Totally agree with you Ice.
I will also buy our memberships this year but that does not stop me being very angry at the way this has all gone.  I will ALWAYS support the TEAM but the admin seem to have lost the bloody plot when it comes to the people who turn up week in & week out to fill those empty seats!

I second that!!       

[stormsally]

I got the impression that the answer to moving to GA with guests was NO until he realised that this frankly didn't make sense.  I don't think it is about TV appearance, because in reality it isn't likely to be very many each game, but it is a point that you would be taking two seats.  Unless sold out makes more sense.

The lost of decent reserve area, and decent reserve area prices is the biggest blow.  A concession last year (RA) I'm sure cost just over $100 and now (RS) it is $370.

Family membership, we have almost always had one, even when our kids got too old.  It was always handy to have a 'Junior' pass - and even more now, to allow flag waving room.  It will add to the number of memberships. They way I am hoping it will work is if I get an extra visitor, and they purchase a seat in the similar area, we will be able to isle hop and they will sit in my 'junior' seat.

Gareth would be seen by some as Victorian, he came from VRL U16 and was identified as talent by Melbourne, but until there is an U8 - Storm it isn't really convincing. 

[Surandy]

Gareth would be seen by some as Victorian, he came from VRL U16

Jeremy Smith played VRL under 14's and under 16's

[Mikey]

Look I'm prob not going to be very poular for saying this but I think the club are doing a great job with membership. Yes I think there are some valid concerns but people must understand organising new membertship at a brand new stadium is far from the easy job that many people think it is.

Don't get me wrong some of the concerns are more then far and there will be some teething probs with the stadium I suspect but the clubs has done some great things. I think allowing us to change our seat if we're not happy after the broncos game is a fantastic idea.

I really think a lot of people don't realise what a big job organising new membership for the new stadium is.

[Ice]

Look I'm prob not going to be very poular for saying this but I think the club are doing a great job with membership. Yes I think there are some valid concerns but people must understand organising new membertship at a brand new stadium is far from the easy job that many people think it is.

Don't get me wrong some of the concerns are more then far and there will be some teething probs with the stadium I suspect but the clubs has done some great things. I think allowing us to change our seat if we're not happy after the broncos game is a fantastic idea.

I really think a lot of people don't realise what a big job organising new membership for the new stadium is.

Nobody is saying they don't expect any teething problems and i'm sure every single person appreciates exactly how big the job is in organising a new stadium but those aren't the things people are complaining about. It's things like not having a designated reserve area where you can bring extra family/friends/potential new members, charging an extra $90 on top of the $430 for a premiers club membership or a over $300 for champions club etc.

That's only 2 points i brought up because those are the ones that have cause the most disgruntlement for many members. These thing have sweet FA to do with teething problems or organising memberships at the new stadium, they were concious decisons that were hardly made on a whim and  so your point there doesn't at all fit the argument. Just in our instance, our group has had for the last 5 years or 2 blokes that weren't members with the rest of us but still came to 6-8 home games every year, not to mention countless others who have come over the years to less games than that but still paid their money to get in.

The 6 of us who have always been general members decided we'd upgrade to the highest memberships in the new stadium. Those other 2 blokes haven't and i can tell you know that those 2 and the others who have come along over the years will be lost to the Storm and doubt will go any more. While these blokes are rugby league fans and enjoy the game they, they aren't passionate about it like we are go just as much for the social aspect of it as well. If they can't sit with us whenever they want then they just won't come.

It's all well and good to say "well they should just get a membership" but they or any others shouldn't have to pay $430 in one hit just to be able to sit with us and i'm sure there's many many other people who are in the same boat. The fact is that not everyone is or ever will become a member and we NEED these people to come to our games. Even if they never did become members they're still paying their money to get through the gates which the club gets their share of. How many new people/semi regulars do you think are going to go if they can't sit with their member friends.

Allowing us to change out seat is a good thing for sure but at the same time i think it's something they had to do given it's the first year in a brand new stadium. I mean when we buy tickets to any seated sporting event at any venue we have a choice of where we sit from the best available and we decide from there whether we want that seat or not. Given we haven't got that option as obviously the Storm cant tell us (through no fault of their own) it stands to reason they give us that weeks grace period to change if we don't like it. You have to remember that i think the vast majority of members will be reserving these same seats for many years to come so of course they shouldn't be expected to be tied down to them if they don't like them in the first place.

Again i and i'm sure everyone else will expect teething problems, just as i'm sure we all know and appreciate the enormity of starting from scratch. People aren't stupid enough to not realize these things regardless of you thinking they probably are. But as i said these issues that have got many pissed off have nothing to do whatsoever with that.

[StormRepublic]

Hi Ice, it was great the Storm had a designated reserve area at Olympic Park. But what other teams in any other codes had this? I know no AFL team has it. Maybe you should have got a general admission membership and upgraded on game day if you wanted a seat on the sides depending on who was going.
Also at Olympic Park if you had the top membership you couldn't bring people along to sit next too you anyway.

[Ice]

I don't know why comparisons are always being made to AFL clubs or other NRL teams, should we do things the same as AFL clubs just because they do it? That's the thing that always made the Storm different, we were always did things differently to the AFL and i think you'd struggle to find anyone who would say that it wasn't better. But if you want to make a comparison AFL members can get guest passes and bring along friends to sit in the AFL reserve.

It's totally irrellevant to my point if you had the top membership at OP you still couldn't bring friends, what i was saying is that from my understanding there's nowhere else in the new stadium besides general membership you can bring friends along if they want to come whether it be in premiers or champions club. At least at OP there was SOMEWHERE else besides GA you could take them. Fair enough if they didn't want to allow that in the premiers club but can you give me one valid reason why they wouldn't allow it in the champions category or anywhere else on the sides?

If you can give me one decent reason that makes sense and tell me how it'll help boosting the crowds doing it the way they've done then i'm more than happy take it on board and agree with you but i sure as hell can't think of any.



.

[Tigger]

I think another point people are missing is the size of the Premiers membership areas.  I hate to say it (and would love to be proven wrong) but I really don't see the eastern side of the premiers membership having enough people to even half fill the seats there.  Surely the admin could have made the upper level seats a reserved area? 
I do know that the club can do certain things with their seating and am at a loss as to why they've done away with the option. 

If I hear any more folk saying how the club are trying their best with seating members in a new stadium I'll go nuts!  It's seriously not that hard if you put your mind to it.  I've been there for the move to and from Colonial and know while it's not always easy (and it's not rocket science either!) there are options and you can make things work if you put in some effort.

[glennb]

We the packages I checked a few other NRL membership packages out.  The ones I looke at are very simliar to ours in the way the are set up and price wise.  At Olympic park we had (it seems) different membership packages to othe NRL clubs because Olympic park was different.  Now we are in a purpose bulit rugby league stadium it seems we are doing what avery other NRL club.  Reading some of the NRL club packages you would think it all came from the one place.

Like ICE said "we should not have to do what other NRl clubs seem to do, we should do what is best for Storm.

I was wondering does the NRL have any say in the whay the clubs memberships are set up?  Or was our packages really done like they are after alot of "research"

[Tigger]

I can tell you Glennb, the NRL doesn't have any input into clubs membership packages.  Another thing people forget when it comes to other NRL clubs - they have Leagues Club Memberships and ticketed memberships are an afterthought really. 
It is silly to compare with any other clubs I agree, unfortunately you will always get people making stupid comparisons to justify things...

[madstorm]

I filled in their "extensive research" Survey and not once was their a question "Would you be terribly pissed that there will be no Reserved area and you are not going to be able to bring friends and sit with them as we are not going to allow downgrading you seats to GA?".  There was also no question asking  "Do you know which of your children is your favorite as we no longer recognise the average family has two children any more.  We also will go into melt down if you try adding two children to your membership as there is only enough room on the form for one.  Do you mind?".  I think they looked at their extensive research and said, "Nah don't like the answers on here, F@#K IT, we'll do it our way and try and baffle them with bullshit"!!!! 

[Tigger]

I filled in their "extensive research" Survey and not once was their a question "Would you be terribly pissed that there will be no Reserved area and you are not going to be able to bring friends and sit with them as we are not going to allow downgrading you seats to GA?".  There was also no question asking  "Do you know which of your children is your favorite as we no longer recognise the average family has two children any more.  We also will go into melt down if you try adding two children to your membership as there is only enough room on the form for one.  Do you mind?".  I think they looked at their extensive research and said, "Nah don't like the answers on here, F@#K IT, we'll do it our way and try and baffle them with bullshit"!!!!   

 

[Ice]

Just read that myself

[Surandy]

I think another point people are missing is the size of the Premiers membership areas.  I hate to say it (and would love to be proven wrong) but I really don't see the eastern side of the premiers membership having enough people to even half fill the seats there.  Surely the admin could have made the upper level seats a reserved area? 
I do know that the club can do certain things with their seating and am at a loss as to why they've done away with the option. 

If I hear any more folk saying how the club are trying their best with seating members in a new stadium I'll go nuts!  It's seriously not that hard if you put your mind to it.  I've been there for the move to and from Colonial and know while it's not always easy (and it's not rocket science either!) there are options and you can make things work if you put in some effort.

Hmm, trying to squeeze 8,000 existing members (assuming everyone renewed) into a 31,000 seat stadium. Such a difficult task that!