Buying an Essendon Football Club membership has never been so easy! The Bombers today launched a revolutionary approach to on-line membership renewal or purchase – it’s the simple and efficient way to ensure you are a part of the 2003 action. In a first for an AFL club, those purchasing a new membership can now easily access the package that best suits them. Answer four simple questions and the new “Easy Guide” will display the most suitable membership options. Within minutes you can have your 2003 membership and reserved seat secured for the upcoming season.

And for existing members who wish to renew, the process is even easier. Members will receive a unique reference number - it will be located on the membership brochure being mailed out this week. All these members need to do is type in this number and confirm personal details in the appropriate form and their 2002 membership details will be displayed. To maintain that membership and reserved seat should you have one, all you need to do is hit the “Renew” button and the job is done.

Essendon chief executive Peter Jackson said the club wanted to make the purchase and renewal of membership as easy as possible for the upcoming season. “The website is a secure and efficient way of renewing or purchasing memberships and it has proved enormously popular with our members -–particuarly last year,” Jackson said. “The membership spend on our website jumped from $71,000 in 2001 to $480,000 last season so our supporters are obviously feeling more comfortable using the service provided. It is secure, efficient and completed in a matter of minutes.”

Jackson said the “Easy Guide” on the website had been set up in a bid to simplify the whole procedure. “Before this system we were in a Catch 22 situation – you want supporters to have plenty of options when it comes to choosing a membership but you don’t want them to have to sift through pages and pages of a membership brochure to find what suits them. This new system alleviates that problem – the options are still there and they can be easily located based on the answers to a few simple questions,” Jackson said.

Essendon Football Club is hoping to close in on a membership figure of 40,000 in 2003 and Jackson said there are many reasons for supporters to get on board. “I know the football department don’t like making this excuse but we were decimated by injury in 2002 and still managed to finish 5th – that is a great credit to the team,” Jackson said. “Surely we are due for things to go right on the injury front. If we can have a reasonable run with injuries I think we can put a side on the ground that can match it with any in the competition.

“And why wouldn’t Essendon fans want to be there to watch the likes of James Hird, Matthew Lloyd, the Johnsons and some of the other great talent this club has. We are very lucky to have the list we do at the moment and times like these don’t last forever. I encourage all Essendon supporters to become members in 2003. If the players can get the support they need from the outer it just might drive them somewhere special in 2003.”