For those of you who haven’t seen, the club is hosting fans to watch the Europa League final on Thursday morning. Coffees and breakfasts will be made available. I applaud the club for hosting the event as a step in the right direction for club culture, but I’d also have a few thoughts on the event too.

Look to locals

Firstly, I don’t think anyone is expecting a huge turnout. 5am on Thursday is tough as it is but South fans also have the broadest geographical footprint of any NPL club. Between my group of South mates for example, we probably average a 40 minute drive to get to games, it’s hard to see any of us doing that at 4am on a work day! What’s the obvious lesson here? I can think of a few. Firstly, is the importance of the club to develop a local fan base, something that should be easier with the prospect of national competition, but certainly something they can focus on now. Drawing more fans from Middle Park, Albert Park, South Melbourne and Port Melbourne will do wonders for the longer term culture of the club and bring more life to the social club generally.

Radicalise the casuals

But as well as focusing on fans closer, the club need to look at converting the casuals to hardcores. Volunteers double as attendees to club events and programs to actively engage fans foster this kind of development. What does this look like? It can be lower sponsorship tiers, charity fundraising programs, more frequent social events, or even a fan table at Jersey night (wink). People want to get involved, but many community clubs struggle to provide a suitable onramp, rather they wait for self-motivated members to carve out their own volunteer experience. South will benefit greatly from creating a more accessible onramp for fans to be actively involved, and will convert that energy to bigger attendances.

Persistence pays

Firstly, the bread and butter of a football club is football, and the focus of a clubs should always be maximising the enjoyment of the matchday experience. Bringing life to the social club is a complimentary endeavour that benefits the club but should nevertheless be a secondary focus. The ease of simple events like screening the Europa League final shows that the club is capable of simple events but persistence and coordination in these kinds of endeavours are key. Throughout the years the club has experimented with everything from futsal, table football, restaurants and even a lottery. Here’s my idea – leverage matchdays and theme events out of the social club around them.

In my experience in the community space, the easiest way to hold an event is when the club is already open and people are there. Hold events and activities in the social club before or after both men’s and women’s games when additional resourcing required is minimal (the club and kitchen are already staffed, and there is already a crowd there for games). The more frequently people spend prolonged time in the social club, the more likely they are to invest that early morning drive to get there on-non-match days.

To further underline my point, I see a lot of people complaining of the lack of social events at the club, but few of them go to the NPL Women’s games – myself included. A trivia event, fundraiser etc that draws even another 20 people to the ground at NPL Women’s games will contributed to the club culture, increase attendances at the women’s games, and open up another 16 or so ‘events’ for fans to attend. The club’s already open!

Obviously there’s a lot more to be said about this but for now, if you can, head to Lakeside for the Europa League final, and well done to the Board for the effort.

Most importantly, good luck Ange!