The Who said:
While probably all of us on here are members I can understand why other supporters prefer to buy tickets, or take the chance of being given free tickets, when they are available to attend. It's a financial decision.
We members are prepared to support the club by signing up early, even though it is not economical. At most matches I see discount tickets, tickets given away free, and I also know that people associated with Channel Nein and the NRL get their friends into matches, bypassing the turnstyles. Many supporters don't want to commit themselves to attending each home game.
The only solution I can see, if you want to boost membership numbers, is to offer a greater variety of memberships at cheaper prices.
I think you have a valid point on the free ticket situation, there are a lot of people who say they are huge Sea Eagles fans but have never paid for a ticket in their life. This is slowly changing and will continue to change as the club moves away from an era where a leagues club propped up any losses made during the year. We now have a business model that has to break even in order to survive. Souths members have a great mentality because they know what it feels like to completely lose their team and now realise their financial support keeps their team afloat.
As for the ticket deals, when we look at a ticketing promotion, the very first thing we make sure to consider is that we are not undercutting the average per game price of a membership. There is absolutely no doubt that it is more economical to purchase a membership compared to buying tickets game by game.
We not only have the cheapest junior membership in the NRL, we also have one of the best per game average price for our season memberships. This is something we are proud of considering we have such a limited capacity at Brookvale Oval.