Parramatta Eels’ membership ambition to become most popular NRL team
The feeling is growing in Parramatta. Enjoying a surge in memberships, fuelled by the hope of ending a 34-year title drought, the Eels have revealed their ambitious plans to become the NRL’s most popular team.
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Parramatta will launch their highly anticipated campaign to win their first premiership in 34 years propelled by figures that show they are closing in on being the No.1-supported rugby league team in Australia.
Widely tipped by experts and commentators to feature in this year’s grand final, Parramatta will kick off the 2020 NRL season against Canterbury on Thursday night at Bankwest Stadium.
And the Eels will do so with a record number of 26,505 blue and gold members.
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According to data supplied by the NRL, only the Pride of the League, South Sydney (28,413), and Brisbane (27,463), once regarded as the biggest sporting brand in Australian sport, boast more football club members.
But the ambitious Eels are fixed on increasing their membership numbers beyond that of their rivals — with a bold target of securing 40,000 ticketed and non-ticked football members.
“That’s (40,000) where we’ve set ourselves,” Eels CEO Jim Sarantinos told The Sunday Telegraph.
“We’ve got a long way to go, but I’m reasonably confident this year we’ll be able to get close to 30,000. Our ambition is to be the leading Sydney club from a membership perspective.
“You look at Souths, who are the leading Sydney club — they had a massive boost in their membership after they won the premiership (in 2014).
“Well, we haven’t had that for 34 years. What’s going to happen to our membership base if we can achieve that? There’s a lot of optimism from our fans from what we did last year and what we are building for this year. We have a great stadium, so if we were to win a premiership, our membership numbers could go through the roof.
“It’s obviously all highly optimistic, but unashamedly we’re really focused on it.”
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The belief from success-starved Eels fans ahead of the 2020 season and their willingness to support the club financially through memberships is staggering given the club’s state of absolute peril only four years ago.
The 2016 salary cap scandal, which revealed systematic cheating, rocked the club with a $1 million fine and created widespread instability on and off the field that contributed to an embarrassing wooden spoon in 2018.
NRL CEO Todd Greenberg said he was in awe of the Eels’ recovery mission.
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“They deserve huge kudos for the way they’ve turned the club around,” Greenberg said.
“They were at their absolute low point.
“But adversity brings opportunity and for that club, they changed their constitution and people like Max Donnelly came in. Now, with the chairman Sean (McElduff) and CEO in Jim, they’re well led, they’re well governed, they’ve got good structures in place and they’re now playing out of the best rectangular stadium in the state.
“So I think they’re perfectly poised, on the back of a good season last year on the field, to capture that success off the field.
“I’m delighted to see Parramatta membership numbers so strong and heading down the path of what looks like to be a sellout in the first round on Thursday night.”
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Sarantinos said the club’s record membership climb — which includes a 29 per cent growth in the Northern Territory — wasn’t by fluke.
He and his membership team spent several days meeting with the biggest membership clubs in the AFL, including Richmond, Geelong, Hawthorn and Essendon last year.
The Eels returned with a plan to create “membership packages” for everyone.
“At Bankwest (Stadium), there really isn’t a bad seat in the house, even behind the posts. So we’ve decided to offer a family membership for four people behind the posts for $300 a year.
“So you can basically go to the footy as a family of four for $7 per person. You tell me what you can do for $7 per person these days?
“We’re trying to change the culture of the importance of being a member, as distinct from being a fan.
“That messaging probably has been driven hard enough, across the game. And we’re going to really drive that over the next few years.
“We want to be a top-four club, every year, on and off the field.”