The director of the Tasmania Devils AFL has revealed the club is edging closer to the 200,000 mark for Foundation Members, with more than 20,000 people joining over the weekend.
McCann told ABC Radio their initial order of 30,000 Devils stickers had to be dramatically increased, saying their printer “is now running 15 hours a day” to churn out nearly 300,000 stickers.
“We knew we had good community support, but the speed that it’s coming at was totally incredible, and to be honest [was] very humbling,” she said.
McCann said membership data has been heavily analysed since the team was revealed to gain deeper insights into the club’s membership demographics.
Tasmanian residents made up approximately 80% of the 100,000 members within the first 24 hours of the sale last week, but McCann says the club is now working out how many Tasmanian expats are also members.
“They might be domiciled in Victoria or even in Arizona, but they are actually Tasmanians at heart,” she said.
“[Tasmanian resident members] started off extremely high out of the box with a very very big response and then we’ve seen that distribute out a little bit more as the numbers have continued to increase.”
Although the Tasmania Football Club had initially aimed for 40,000 members by October 31, that milestone was achieved within mere hours of the team’s launch on March 18.
The team is now exploring strategies to maintain engagement with Foundation Members leading up to the first game in 2028, as well as considering permanent ways to honour those who have pledged their support.
The Devils currently boast an impressive 170,000 Foundation Members.
