Thursday, March 27
Geelong Advertiser _ Peter Begg

GEELONG Football Club is on track to reach its target of 24,000 members this season, with 18,100 signed up by yesterday afternoon.

Club president Frank Costa yesterday said he was hopeful the club would come home with a wet sail in the race to sell memberships.

Mr Costa said the club was about two per cent behind budget last week.

But he said the club sold about 400 memberships on one day this week.

The club's first round match is on Sunday against the Western Bulldogs.

Mr Costa's comments were echoed by the club's membership manager Ben Cavenagh, who said this week had been a hectic time for membership sales.

Mr Cavenagh said the club sold 400 membership on Tuesday, taking the club over the 18,000 mark.

The club has set a target of 24,000 this season, slightly higher than the target of 23,800 last season.

The club was bolstered by the sale of 250 memberships last Thursday night when Channel Nine Footy Show held its annual membership drive for all clubs.

Mr Costa was speaking at a lunch at Skilled Stadium to raise money for the Bone Marrow Donor Institute.

The lunch attracted 180 members of the business community, and raised up to $10,000 towards the institute's accommodation centre for country people in North Melbourne.

Mr Costa was speaking about growing a business and a football club in changing times.

He said the so-called ``culture'' of a business or a football club was all important, and the culture of Geelong Football Club had changed in recent years under the leadership of chief executive Brian Cook and coach Mark Thompson.