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Daily Telegraph said:Fans hand out a $25m war chest
- By Dean Ritchie
- From: The Daily Telegraph
- February 19, 2010 12:00AM
The ultimate recruiter... Eels enforcer Fuifui Moimoi hands out membership forms with fellow prop Justin Poore in Parramatta mall. Picture: Mark Evans Source: The Daily Telegraph
RUGBY League's working-class army of fans has dug deep to rescue ailing Sydney clubs from financial disaster.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal the NRL's loyal supporters are ready to outlay a staggering $25 million this season in memberships for the 16 clubs.
That figure will represent a $5 million increase on this time last year.
The eight Sydney clubs have all secured increases in ticketed memberships, with Parramatta up 64 per cent on last year, the Bulldogs up 34 per cent and Cronulla up 21 per cent.
Fourteen of the 16 clubs have posted healthy increases as clubs continue to reel from leagues club funding cutbacks. Only Gold Coast and Warriors have recorded marginal decreases from 2009.
The NRL has offered $50,000 for the first club to crash through the 10,000 ticketed membership milestone - Souths (9160) and St George Illawarra (9074) lead the field.
Among the big movers are the Eels (from 3704 to 6076), Canterbury (6500 to 9051), the Sharks (2078 to 2501) and Wests Tigers (3249 to 4526), while the Penrith Panthers expect to be $350,000 richer through their membership sales.
"Fans have always been the lifeblood of the game and never more so than now," said Manly chief executive Graham Lowe.
The Sea Eagles have struggled with membership and will focus on increasing their modest number (2529).
Parramatta stars Justin Poore, Fuifui Moimoi, Krisnan Inu, Matt Keating, Joel Reddy and Tim Mannah were in Church Street Mall drumming up business.
The Eels players - still peeved at Kevin Sheedy's snub of Nathan Hindmarsh - were more than aware that rugby league needed additional money to turn back the AFL invasion.
"We want to crack 10,000, the players have had a chat about it with Ossie [Eels CEO Paul Osborne]," Poore said. "We are a traditional club with a big fan base. Our wages are based on people coming through the gates. Some players forget that.
"We want to make Parramatta a place for our team. We really want to make it ours, especially with GWS coming.
"Kevin Sheedy came here and asked who Nathan Hindmarsh was. That was a low blow. Nathan Hindmarsh does so much for rugby league. Who is Nathan Sheedy anyway? AFL is massive in Victoria and WA, but I believe Queensland and NSW are rugby league states.
"They won't overtake that."
Mannah said membership was now crucial to the survival of all clubs.
"It's really important for the game that we make a big deal out of this," Mannah said. "With the pokie tax, clubs have to look at all revenue streams.
"We want Parramatta to be the best followed club and it would be great to be the first team past 10,000.
"We are also aware of the money the AFL is pumping in. It's important all teams in western Sydney step up and work together. We have a great brand, but we can't afford to slip up and let AFL take over. We have to be pro-active."
Wests Tigers have reported a sharp rise in membership since announcing the signing of former Wallaby Lote Tuqiri. All clubs have seen interest increase since the enormously successful All Stars game. The NRL harbours a goal of having 200,000 members by 2013.
You need to keep in mind that they reserve seats for the sponsors and have corporate tickets, the company i work for gets about 10 tickets a game in the Cronin stand on the half way line so if each sponsor had 10 tickets each(others might have more) thats a lot of seats
