What Can Wests Tigers Learn From This?

[MightyMaggy]

This is the current announcement on the Western Sydney Wanderers web site!

**_The numbers of our Members are growing with the Club passing 12,000 renewals late yesterday afternoon with over 70% of 2013/14 Members now renewed for the 2014/15 season.\
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There are now just five days left for 2013/14 Members to renew and guarantee their seats for the 2014/15 season so we are calling on you Join Us At Wanderland today.\
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Members who don't renew by midnight this Sunday will have their seats released to existing Members requesting a seat change followed by our growing list of new non-ticketed Members who are on the Ticketed Membership Waiting List.\
\_**
The start of the season is almost two months away, but this Club have already sold 12,000 seats FOR THE SEASON. Note there are 30 per cent of their members, who have yet to renew and they have a growing list of NEW NON-TICKETED MEMBERS, WHO ARE ON THE WAITING LIST!
Twelve months ago I posted details of the growth of this Club and compared it with the relatively poor performance of Wests Tigers. Many Forum members scoffed at the success of this Club and gave reasons why it is a "flash-in-the-pan". Two years ago, this Club did not exist and they are already looking for a higher capacity ground, because they cannot fit all their supporters into Parramatta Stadium.
Wouldn't Wests Tigers like to be in this position!

 

[happy_tiger]

I guess that means having one home ground , a board that is all on the same page and a playing group that is putting in despite being on the bottom of the ladder is important to their fans

 

[Jerry_Seinfeld]

I guess that means having one home ground , a board that is all on the same page and a playing group that is putting in despite being on the bottom of the ladder is important to their fans

Is it really fair for a merged team with such a broad geographical base to have one home ground.I mean homebush is the obvious answer ofr one ground.In 5 to ten years from now would people be happy with 6 Homebush and 6 Campbelltown(but be based out of inner west /concord
head office and training etc).Would this be too much for Leichhardt faithful Im not sure.I mean ideally it is one home ground which is ideal however there is the issue of the expanding Macarthur area being represented as it can gather us many more new supporters over the next 25 years.Especially if Campbelltown wins the new Stadium on offer.

 

[genoshan]

They are not merged. It is a joint venture

 

[glebe_tiger]

i think anyone dismissing the rise of the wanderers in western sydney as just a passing fad or when they start going bad no one will follow them, should think again. league will always have a place in western sydney as a heartland but they will struggle to capture people of the newly migrated population from nations that are more soccer inclined. anglos and islanders will always have a strong input in these regions, but from other ethnicities i think soccer will win more so than league and afl.

 

[radiowave82]

The fact that the Western Sydney Wanderers have done so well in their first few seasons in the A-League would certainly be helping them.

 

[foreveratiger]

Once our spine of our team play to the potential that people are thinking of , we will win games , and with that will increase memberships .
This has been our worst season in the history of the Wests Tigers i reckon (injuries, coach, Board ,Media scrutiny) and when you consider where we are on the table ? they have exceeded my expectation anyway .
The way forward let's forget Balmain vs Wests mentality , we need to find a Stadium we call home with state of the art facilities , not one day the players training Campelltown next day Leichardt then the day after Concord we need stability , as much as it hurts me this 4 games at Leichardt and 4 at Campbelltown is just not working , Especially at Campbelltown where there has been very poor crowds.
Let's get an independent Board and cut the BS thinking of themselves and start thinking of our future generations cause the way we are going my kids won't have a side to support.
Just my thoughts

 

[system]

Success does strange things.

Remember the crowds in 05/06?

 

[balmain boy]

We can learn that when there's only 2 clubs in one big city, and one such club is based in that sport's heartland and has an extraordinarily successful first 2 seasons and have a small stadium that demand may often outreach supply.

It's no flash in the pan, its strategy. But very, very different circumstances. If they had a bigger stadium they would have had much fewer members from the get go. People would know they can buy tickets to any match on game-day. As it is, only 70% of their members go to all their games. Despite having sell outs, the ground has never reached capacity as members don't show.

While having high membership numbers is great for any club, having members who buy passes only to go to 3-4 games a season is quite rude and annoying when it stops fans from filling the stadium and supporting their team.

League has a thousand clubs in Sydney so you can't compare. The only possible comparison could be with a 2nd team in Brisbane, but there the Broncos have had a monopoly on the hearts and souls of league fans for a few decades now.

 

[TrueTiger]

@most posters on this forum,there has been great input to the topic at hand,In my opinion Campbelltown stadium is a great place to watch footy at.My wife and kids love it and I absolutely love going there.We buy the children merchandise, food ,drinks etc,all easily acessable. I make the trip up from Moss Vale with my mates when I can and Iam a member of Wests leagues club,the mighty Wests Tigers own my heart and soul.In the old days growing up,trips to Liechard and Lidcombe oval were big trips but we loved it ,so I do appreciate both sides of the JV.We must all stick together and hope we end up with the most popular venue for all. But in the words of the great TrueTiger …What is popular is not always right...What is right is not always popular........

 

[Geo]

Winning football games will increase membership…just guessing

 

[TurnStyle]

tbh, i dont know what the tigers can learn from the wanderers, but the fact that football (as it is known everywhere in the world except for here and the US…) is probably the most supported sport world wide, and as mentioned, any immigrants from a vast majority of nationalities will have come from a football dominated homeland - so any kids will already have parents who support football from that demographic.

as it is, wests have a 'stretched' presence in sydney - as far as i can tell from all the way over here in perth - and i strongly agree that any club needs to be based in the one place to build tradition. as it is, people from the campeltown area know they only have 4 matches there, likewise those from leichhardt.

having all home games at the one venue (wherever is deemed to be more advantageous) paradoxically takes the club backwards to move forward, as people in that area will be more likely to have a full vested interest in their local club.

i think it is obvious all sides of the jv need to do what is best for the club and i think that the factions need to be eliminated to the point where the term JV is redundant. even if the junior areas are in separate locations (*a previous post in another thread suggested this) they should be called Wests Tigers West and West Tigers South (or wherever... i dont know - im here in perth!!) and they should be run as two conferences and have a 'Super Bowl' type grand final to determine the Wests Tigers Juniors champs etc.

in all grades down to grass roots, there should be no teams known as wests or balmain. i may need correcting on this, but it seems as though in the lower grades (like harold matthews cup is it?) - just looked it up and yes, there is wests and balmain. i say they should be the wests tigers rep team instead.

what needs to be done is any and all teams branded other than wests tigers should merge and be wests tigers. i especially cant see why junior rep teams are still divided.

there may be plenty of valid reasons why this wont work, so itd be good to hear from those in the know as to why it couldnt.

anyway, i just think that REAL unification of the club is what needs to be learnt....

 

[glebe_tiger]

The fact that the Western Sydney Wanderers have done so well in their first few seasons in the A-League would certainly be helping them.

…that may all well be true but people are attracted to the wanderers not just because of their success but the spectacle surrounding their fans. something which league will never be able to replicate here.

 

[Tigertigertiger]

Wait until they start running last and see how many members they get and people turning up to games.

 

[MightyMaggy]

Success does strange things.

Remember the crowds in 05/06?

Just checked the average home-and-away numbers for Wests Tigers, which are:-
2005 17391
2006 18014
2010 18791(Best to date)
2014 17622
The average attendance for this year is 231 better than 2005?

 

[hybrid_tiger]

Wait until they start running last and see how many members they get and people turning up to games.

More than the Wests Tigers, that's for sure.

 

[gallagher]

Success does strange things.

Remember the crowds in 05/06?

Just checked the average home-and-away numbers for Wests Tigers, which are:-
2005 17391
2006 18014
2010 18791(Best to date)
2014 17622
The average attendance for this year is 231 better than 2005?

Wheres those stats from?
This site http://stats.rleague.com/rl/crowds/wests_tigers.html has 2005 as 18789 and this year as 14683.

In comparison to WSW this site http://www.aleaguestats.com/ALeagueStats_1CrowdStats.html#AverageCrowds says they averaged 15170 this year.
So were only about 500 short of them which is pretty good, turning those fans into members is the key.