This month's newsletter is going to be a little different to normal...
31st May saw our beloved side return to Australian soil for the first time in 30 years.
In what was an amazing display of passion, close to 100+ club members from Melbourne travelled across the Nullarbor to unite with Milan Club Sydney + Adelaide for the largest rossonero gathering on Australian soil, ever.
It proved a beautiful moment to reflect on how far our club has come. After starting in 2017, we are now in our 7th year. In this time, we have gathered as a community to watch hundreds of games together, seen the map of Melbourne featured on AC Milan's away jersey in our record-breaking Scudetto season and built a strong relationship with club including players and management alike not mention being featured across several reputable news outlets during this time.
Recently, astute followers will have noticed we have undergone a rebrand and launched a new website. Soon, we hope to have finalised the membership process on the site so that we can officially "launch" our 2024/25 membership campaign.
In 2024/25 we want to break the 200 member threshold for the first time!
Back to the weekend.
My absolute highlight of the trip was seeing the strength of community we have built. It was amazing to share our Milan Clubs Australia dinner with so many other passionate fans, immediately after the much anticipated "meet and greet" that saw every single member get every single photo and every single autograph with every single player in the team including legends Serginho, Daniele Massaro and Franco Baresi.
Other highlights of the trip included the "tifo" which as amazingly produced by Milan Club Adelaide, the "pre-match party" at Crown, and the Italian Festa organised by the WA Italian Club on Saturday.
A big thanks must be extended to Andrew Greig in particular who has spent many sleepless nights working on the development of our new website amongst planning for the trip.
It is fair to say that the whole experience far exceeded what even the most optimistic of us could have hoped for!
You can view more detailed photos from the trip and upload your own files here.
Now that we have returned, expect regular club activities to resume.
This season we have marginally increased the membership renewal price to $24.99 due to the increased costs required to manage our new near-automated online infrastructure while we have significantly increased the price for new members. This will not impact existing members.
After the success of Milan's recent trip to Perth, we hope to see them back in Australian sooner rather than later and hope to be able to offer our members another incredible experience whether it be back in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane or maybe even Tasmania!
In the meantime, if you would like to support the activities of the club please get in touch. There is plenty of new merchandise available for sale on our website including beach towels and hoodies - perfect for Winter... or Summer in Europe!
Also, GRAZIE MILLE to our loyal members who continue to stick with our club. See a list of our "record-breaking" members here. All of our members with 5+ years of membership were recently sent a custom banner too, as a way to express our appreciation for your support.
As always, we still have spots open on the committee and are looking to find a clubhouse / venue to call our permanent home so get in touch if you have any leads / ideas / can assist in these areas.
FORZA MILAN!
Taylor Battistella, Milan Club Melbourne President
