PORT Adelaide has 40,000 members for the first time.

The Power yesterday met its target for signing a record 40,000th member seven weeks ahead of its June 29 deadline.

Club president David Koch says the record membership figure at Alberton reaffirms that the Port Adelaide Football Club has a place in the AFL.

The 10 per cent increase in membership this season - along with more fans buying season tickets to home games at AAMI Stadium - has boosted Port's bottom line by $1 million.

"Last year, we were accused or seen as irrelevant," noted Koch yesterday in an exclusive interview with The Advertiser .

"We heard that South Australia could not afford nor sustain two AFL teams. Well, we're showing we can."

Koch has relabelled his club's once-ambitious campaign from "Drive to 40,000" to "Drive to 40-plus ... No limits".

He expects the move to Adelaide Oval next season to entice a new group of supporters to ultimately lift the Power's membership base to 50,000.

"Just as (coach) Ken Hinkley has put no limit to what the players can achieve on the field, we should be doing the same off the field," said Koch.

"We are not afraid to set the bar high."

Port's 40,000-and-rising membership number supersedes the club's record membership of 38,305 in 1998 when the Power started its second AFL season having justified its entry to the national league by pushing for a finals berth up to the last game of the home-and-away series in 1997.

Originally published as Power hits its 40,000 target