Members will recall that a Provisional membership category was introduced late last year as part of the committee’s long-term aim of maintaining an acceptable waiting time for membership.

With the membership season nearing its end, it is timely to report some early observations.

This third tier of membership carries fewer benefits and more limited access to the Members Reserve than those provided to Full and Restricted members.

By reducing the number and type of events, and facilities within the Reserve, that Provisional members have access to, the introduction of these new members was expected to have minimal impact on existing members, especially in the early years.

Pleasingly, to this point our expectations have been met.

The club elected its first intake of Provisional members in late-October, and many had their first taste of club life during the cricket season, while some waited until the AFL season began before experiencing life in the Reserve.

After 17 rounds of the AFL season, the average attendance in the Reserve per match was 10,120 – comprising 5542 members and 4578 visitors. 

These numbers are slightly down compared to the same stage of last season, when we had welcomed an average of 10,569 people (5579 members and 4990 visitors), although the performance of a few Melbourne-based football teams has certainly had an impact on attendance.

Only three games have attracted more than 18,000 people in the Reserve, which was the threshold we set at the start of the season when assessing whether Provisional members would be granted access.

None of those three matches - Richmond v Carlton (March 24), Melbourne v Richmond (April 24) and Collingwood v Essendon (April 25) – drew more than 20,000 people into our 23,000 capacity area.

Interestingly, this year a lower percentage of people have accepted the offer of Provisional or Restricted membership than the historical trend of Restricted membership offers, although there are still a few weeks remaining in the membership season.

It is expected that around 8000 candidates will have accepted Provisional membership before the membership season ends on August 31.

In considering the intake of Provisional members for the 2016/17 season the committee has decided to monitor the acceptance rate for another year to assess whether the uptake rate this season is the new norm. 

Therefore, the intake for next season is designed to introduce up to 10,000 new Provisional members – a total of 18,000 in two years – which will make significant inroads into our lengthy waiting list.