The AFL today released its match day membership figures for season 2011 and reported Essendon’s access membership total of 42,559.
Essendon Football Club’s official membership total stands at 50,271 members.
The differentiation between the figures is due to the AFL excluding Essendon’s non access membership packages including its Beyond the Boundary membership package.
Essendon has almost 6,000 Beyond the Boundary members who are therefore not recognised in the official AFL statistics.
Essendon chief commercial officer Richard Burnet confirmed the club had broken the 50,000 membership milestone.
“Essendon Football Club has a national following and many of our members are unable to attend games”
“Our Beyond the Boundary members tell us that they don’t want to go to the games but want to be recognised as members due to their support and passion for the club,” Burnet said.
“They pay more than 3 game members but just because we don’t add a bar-code to their membership doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be categorised as a member.”
“It’s understood the AFL will look to include these figures next year.”
Other clubs have chosen to bar-code all their members, including Baby and typical ‘non-game day access members’ equivalent to Essendon Football Club’s Beyond the Boundary membership.
