GWS Giants chairman Tim Reed on lofty ambitions and cracking the Western Sydney market
GWS Giants’ chairman has made the bold declaration the club is on the cusp of its first premiership. Plus, the strategy to boost crowd numbers in Sydney’s west revealed.
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The GWS Giants are ready to embrace more critical judgement over their crowd numbers as they prepare to enter the next phase of their life as the AFL’s youngest club.
Despite positive results both on and off the field since their inception, a perennial issue for GWS has been attracting fans to its home games at Sydney Olympic Park.
In 2023, the Giants averaged an attendance of 10,293 at the venue. They also had the lowest average home crowd in the AFL.
While the sentiment around the club is that they have turned a corner following some disappointing numbers post-Covid, there is a belief around the AFL that 2024 could be a make-or-break year for GWS to turn that into bums on seats.
After falling just one point short of a grand final last season there has never been more excitement around the Giants. They play an entertaining brand of football under Adam Kingsley and their membership numbers have reached record levels.
That’s why chairman Tim Reed, who replaced inaugural chair Tony Shepherd in the role last October, welcomes the pressure on the club to have a tangible improvement in crowds.
Reed comes from a strong business background and looks at the Giants’ potential through an economic lens. They are no longer in a ‘start-up’ phase. It’s time for them to “scale-up”.
“It’s not just the hope but the expectation,” Reed said.
“I think with the degree of success we’ve had we can safely say we’re past that [early] phase, and we are entering a different stage of the club. It is a stage where we really want to compound our success.
“Covid was a bit of a setback, but we’re building a generation institution. We’re not building for this season or next season … we want to have kids that are coming now bring their kids. We want to be that club deeply embedded in Western Sydney.
“Is there room for us to grow? 100 per cent. Are we expecting to grow this year? Absolutely.
“ENGIE Stadium will sell out. Then it will sell out multiple times and then it will sell out to the point where we’ve got capacity limits and we’ll be talking about when’s the right opportunity for us to seek a bigger venue. And I’m absolutely confident that that will happen.”
Internally, the club is forecasting “double-digit percentage growth” in crowd figures in 2024 and the signs are already there that they could be in for a bumper year.
At least two sellouts are expected in Sydney – the opening round against Collingwood and the Sydney Derby in round 15 – as well as going close to selling out their three matches in Canberra. If the Giants can get close to an average of 10,000 for their remaining six games at ENGIE Stadium, that would take them close to 130,000 fans for the year.
To help their internal targets, three of their five home games have been scheduled for Saturday at 4.35pm, the timeslot that research suggests draws their best crowds.
As a result of their lofty goals, many within the club believe the crowd for their round one clash against North Melbourne is far more important than the 20,000+ they will attract against Collingwood. Plans have already been put in place to turn the Kangaroos game into a spectacle with 2-for-1 ticket promotions across social media and a tribute for inaugural captain Phil Davis.
“Creating such a fantastic opening round game for the Giants, a rematch of last year’s preliminary final, we couldn’t be happier,” Reed said.
“But every single match from there matters … we will bring people in in Opening Round, giving them a great experience and wanting them to want to come back the following week to see North Melbourne when obviously, it’s not a rematch of last year’s prelim.
“The competition is in a different place when you’re pitching different clubs. But absolutely, our consumer team are doing everything they can to create different reasons for people to come to that round one game against North Melbourne.”
Part of the battle for the Giants has always been competing with the plethora of sporting teams in their region. Western Sydney has predominantly been rugby league heartland with the Penrith Panthers, Parramatta Eels and Wests Tigers all having a strong foothold in the area.
The enormous participation rates for soccer in a region so heavily influenced by immigration also means that translating the intricacies of Aussie rules to kids is going to be an uphill battle.
But Reed doesn’t believe that it has to be one or the other. The Giants are here to stay in Western Sydney and they want to encourage fans to have the best of both worlds.
“We talk about being a club like no other and we really mean it,” Reed said. “That means we can do things differently.
“We don’t think you have to be an AFL or an NRL fan. You can be both. We would love those Eels fans to come and watch the Giants, and I reckon they’ll be sold on the fact that while they love watching the Eels, they also love going to Giants games.
“Because of the market that we’re in, you’re spoiled for choice and that means it is a competitive market that we’re operating in. But we don’t see it as an either-or.
“If they can only come to three games a year, then that’s great. Come to one and then come back next year. That’s great as well.
“We welcome all people … we’re a very inclusive club and we always will be. But when we look at the culture of who we are and how we define ourselves, we really do want to make sure that we are representative of the people of Western Sydney.
“We’re confident if people come along and see what it is that they will come back.”
Building recognition is still a core issue for the Giants in an area where awareness is still lower for the AFL as a whole. But with a population of 2.6 million people in Western Sydney, it’s the potential to convert just a small fraction of that figure that makes the Giants’ progress so important.
Exposure has long been GWS’ best weapon. It’s why they’re so present in the community and conduct more school and junior club visits than any other team in the competition.
But it’s winning on that final day in September that Reed believes will generate the cut-through required. And he is happy to share his belief that it will happen sooner rather than later.
“Winning a flag is absolutely important,” Reed said. “It is what drives, it is what motivates, it’s what builds belief.
“It will happen. I’m confident in making that statement. And I think it’s going to happen really soon.
“There’s absolutely some things that I would love to achieve and first and foremost is a premiership. We deserve one, the club deserves one, the players deserve one and so that’s an important goal. Not only in the men’s, but in our women’s team, and also in netball.
“We have three teams that are out there representing Western Sydney and proud of our colours and proud of the community that we come from. And so, right across the board, getting to that ultimate day and with that ultimate win is very, very important.
“A 2024 [AFL premiership] sounds pretty good for me.”
Originally published as GWS Giants chairman Tim Reed on lofty ambitions and cracking the Western Sydney market
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