CHIEF operating officer Matthew Green discusses the club’s upcoming tour of China
ONE OF THE GREAT benefits of being involved with a football club is the many and diverse opportunities that present themselves.
This year our players, staff and some of our supporters will be involved with one such amazing opportunity - travelling through China and playing a game in Shanghai.
The game itself has been scheduled by the AFL to coincide with the final weeks of World Expo 2010 in which Australia has a promotional pavilion (the game is on 17 October 2010).
The scale of World Expo is difficult to comprehend, but it is essentially nearly 200 countries building pavilions (most of which are multi-level) and taking over a site the size of an entire Melbourne suburb - with the purpose of promoting each country and facilitating business connections.
The Australian pavilion features many iconic elements with the idea that a demonstration of our indigenous game is a great way to finish off the exhibition.
The AFL offered this opportunity to MFC given our history in the game, our name ‘Melbourne’, and our involvement with previous promotions in China.
The decision to go was an easy one and our thoughts immediately turned to creating a tour that would not only see us play a game in Shanghai and visit World Expo, but would bring the entire club together and allow for significant personal and professional development for players and staff.
We also sought to include some of our key corporate partners on the trip to provide them with the ultimate inner sanctum experience - 25 spots have been left open for this group to join the ‘club tour’.
What has been developed since then is the two week club tour (10 October - 23 October 2010) to a number of regions of China with the following four key elements:
- Visit to a rural area of China with a focus on bringing the team together and building the foundations of our future success.
- Shanghai - some community work to help build a profile for AFL in China; visit to World Expo; attendance at the Asian Championships (an international amateur league); and the game itself.
- Great Wall - take in the amazing landmark through camping at the wall and a hike along the wall.
- Beijing - touring the more traditional Chinese city including the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.
In addition to the above, the tour will have many highlights including: group activities and cultural integration in the Chinese mountains; our version of the Amazing Race in Beijing; a gourmet river cruise through Shanghai; team based activities (players, staff and corporate guests mixed together); and plenty of socialising at dinners and as we travel - to name just a few.
In addition to the two week tour above, the club has arranged a separate six day ‘Supporters Tour’ focusing on Shanghai and the game via our travel partner Travelworld Melbourne Central.
The supporters tour will be hosted by David Schwarz and will come together with the main club Tour for a couple of key functions (including the river cruise and post match function), training sessions and the game itself.
At this stage, we will be taking more than 135 people on the club tour and a further 60 have already booked into the supporters’ tour.
This is a deliberately ambitious project that we hope will be looked back on as part of setting the club up for the sustained period of success that followed.
We hope to see many of you over there with us cheering on the mighty Dees.
If anyone is interested in joining either the club tour or the supporters’ tour, please contact Tom McClure on (03) 9652 1140 or tom.mcclure@melbournefc.com.au.
ONE OF THE GREAT benefits of being involved with a football club is the many and diverse opportunities that present themselves.
This year our players, staff and some of our supporters will be involved with one such amazing opportunity - travelling through China and playing a game in Shanghai.
The game itself has been scheduled by the AFL to coincide with the final weeks of World Expo 2010 in which Australia has a promotional pavilion (the game is on 17 October 2010).
The scale of World Expo is difficult to comprehend, but it is essentially nearly 200 countries building pavilions (most of which are multi-level) and taking over a site the size of an entire Melbourne suburb - with the purpose of promoting each country and facilitating business connections.
The Australian pavilion features many iconic elements with the idea that a demonstration of our indigenous game is a great way to finish off the exhibition.
The AFL offered this opportunity to MFC given our history in the game, our name ‘Melbourne’, and our involvement with previous promotions in China.
The decision to go was an easy one and our thoughts immediately turned to creating a tour that would not only see us play a game in Shanghai and visit World Expo, but would bring the entire club together and allow for significant personal and professional development for players and staff.
We also sought to include some of our key corporate partners on the trip to provide them with the ultimate inner sanctum experience - 25 spots have been left open for this group to join the ‘club tour’.
What has been developed since then is the two week club tour (10 October - 23 October 2010) to a number of regions of China with the following four key elements:
- Visit to a rural area of China with a focus on bringing the team together and building the foundations of our future success.
- Shanghai - some community work to help build a profile for AFL in China; visit to World Expo; attendance at the Asian Championships (an international amateur league); and the game itself.
- Great Wall - take in the amazing landmark through camping at the wall and a hike along the wall.
- Beijing - touring the more traditional Chinese city including the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.
In addition to the above, the tour will have many highlights including: group activities and cultural integration in the Chinese mountains; our version of the Amazing Race in Beijing; a gourmet river cruise through Shanghai; team based activities (players, staff and corporate guests mixed together); and plenty of socialising at dinners and as we travel - to name just a few.
In addition to the two week tour above, the club has arranged a separate six day ‘Supporters Tour’ focusing on Shanghai and the game via our travel partner Travelworld Melbourne Central.
The supporters tour will be hosted by David Schwarz and will come together with the main club Tour for a couple of key functions (including the river cruise and post match function), training sessions and the game itself.
At this stage, we will be taking more than 135 people on the club tour and a further 60 have already booked into the supporters’ tour.
This is a deliberately ambitious project that we hope will be looked back on as part of setting the club up for the sustained period of success that followed.
We hope to see many of you over there with us cheering on the mighty Dees.
If anyone is interested in joining either the club tour or the supporters’ tour, please contact Tom McClure on (03) 9652 1140 or tom.mcclure@melbournefc.com.au.
