Will the s#@t hit the fan?

Interesting to note that the AFL is searching for a general manager of fan development and customer acquisition.

The AFL mention, from time to time, that fans are important and there are occasional surveys which have the sniff of quieting the murmur of discontent about them. But a general manager of fan development? That's a new tack.

As a fan, AussieRulesBlog doesn't feel like we need development and we're already a dedicated fan, so we don't need acquiring. So, what might this new role look to?

Not altogether surprisingly, we have a couple of ideas on the matter.

Fan education
The fans that surround AussieRulesBlog most weeks at the footy have a pretty tenuous grasp on the rules of the game. The demented howl of "Baaaallllllllll!!!!!!!" the moment a player is tackled is as clear a demonstration as any that we're not selling the crowd short.

To be fair, many media callers and commentators, who should be very well informed on the rules of the game, make some howlers of comments, so a lot of the time the crowd aren't being shown a very high bar to aspire to.

Providing rulebooks to fans is not going to cut the mustard. A YouTube AFL channel with videos describing how rules are to be umpired would be a good start. And then advertise it to within an inch of its life. Eventually some of the great unwashed will beging to understand. This strategy would also do a helluva lot for umpire appreciation!

Fan information
We've mentioned this one before, but these days there are many things happening on the field that fans at the stadium are simply left to wonder about. As just about any AFL telecast will illustrate, decisions against a team induce an almost demonic fury amongst some of its supporters. When Mr Justice McBurney swans in and pays a free kick for some pathetic acting performance 100 metres or more away from the ball, the rage is raised to a whole new level.

When every AFL venue now includes a huge video-screen-come-scoreboard, scoreboard announcements would seem to be an easy way to inform everyone at the stadium. Someone could monitor the umpires' audio feed and type a précised version of the decision onto the scoreboard. For example, "50m penalty, high contact #9 on #23". Seeing that, everyone at the stadium knows where the decision has come from, and why. We may still disagree with it, loudly, but we're not caught wondering (and thinking the worst).

Fans' hip pockets
We wonder when was the last time that Vlad or a Commissioner — or a club President — bought a pie, some chips and a beer at the footy. Do they know that you need a new mortgage to feed an average family? Do the caterers have to make their entire profit for their world operations from their AFL operations? They're certainly not paying top dollar for their staff. Catering outlets are often object lessons in disorganised chaos, so there aren't too many time and motion studies being completed.

So where does the money go? A mass-produced, cardboard-like pie that dreams of being close to a piece of meat costs nearly twice as much as its artisan look-alike at a cake shop. Where are the gold cups for our beer? Surely we're entitled to them given the price we pay? And don't start on the price of WATER! Bottled water is already scandalous and the normal price of bottled water would make Dick Turpin blush, but at the footy?

So, there you go, Mr General Manager of Fan Development. There's a few things to be getting on with.