Canberra fans dominating ticket sales for grand final as jerseys fly off the shelves
ANZ Stadium will become a sea of green come grand final day with Raiders fans snapping up $100,000 worth of merchandise and three times as many tickets as Roosters fans.
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The last of 500 Raiders jerseys in stock was sold out just before midnight on Friday.
They were worth $159 each; you do the maths.
Gone too from the Raiders’ official merchandise store is their indigenous jersey, Ricky Stuart Foundation jersey, toddler jersey, training T-shirts, hats, beanies and hoodies.
Want a women’s supporter jersey? Sorry ladies, the last one was sold yesterday.
Canberra fans must think it’s going to rain this Sunday because all the wet-weather jackets are sold out, too.
Since the Raiders reached their first grand final in 25 years, Canberra’s merchandise team has been unable to cope with the demand from desperate fans wanting to turn lime green.
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“It’s unprecedented,” the club’s merchandise team leader Bianca Collier said.
“Since Friday we’ve had 150 separate orders of a number of varying items come through the shop.
“There will be more and more items sold out every day we get closer to the game.”
As of yesterday, the Raiders had sold almost $100,000 worth of merchandise — and there are still six days until the decider against the Sydney Roosters.
Such is the incredible demand from fans for anything lime green, the Raiders took to their social media channels yesterday to warn that any online orders made after midday tomorrow couldn’t be guaranteed to arrive before Sunday’s decider.
And it’s not only the city of Canberra that is going to be covered in green because Raiders fans are set to outnumber Roosters supporters at ANZ Stadium.
“I’ve been told by the NRL that sales for ANZ Stadium corporate suites and hospitality are a three-to-one ratio in our favour and tickets are similar,” Raiders chief executive Don Furner said.
“One-team towns always have that massive support, so it’s great to see.
“I spoke to our merchandise team on the way out of GIO Stadium late on Friday night and we had sold out of everything, which is great.
“I will say, though, you can still get jerseys at Rebel and other sporting stores, so hopefully we can see a sea of green at ANZ.”
Furner said the club was confident that this week would create new-found support for the Raiders and result in an increase in members next season.
“We obviously want to keep them (fans) on for longer than just this week,” Furner said.
“We will go out with our membership packages for next year at the end of this year, but hopefully we will get an uptake in memberships.”
Originally published as Canberra fans dominating ticket sales for grand final as jerseys fly off the shelves