Gibberish ........ apart from minor sponsors ... any major sponsor of a club is not interested one hoot in the particular fans of that club .... they are spending North of a million each year because the game (NRL) reaches 2 whole states, one southern City, a Manly tragic in Adelaide and Canada and an Island acrooss the ditch.......
Sponsors would be far more interested in how a team in Perth spreads their product profile than any one suburb demongraphic ...
It's not about a one suburb demographic, it's not "just" about supporting a "club", it is about creating a brand, a reputation, an appeal, a standard and distinguishing yourself from the market place----Manly is not just about Manly it is about appealing to the aspirational, intelligent sophisticated well rounded types in "all locations".
The beauty of being in the Sydney Market place is you don't necessarily need to have a large home supporter base to appeal or be noticed by a large population, if you market the club right and have good on field performances to help that along.
In the 70's 80's and 90's good on field performances attracting more free to air time to show off the big ugly wallpaper advertising on a clubs jersey for a six figure sum was the be all and end all of sponsorship success, revenue streams now are so diverse and there are so many different ways to get media exposure beyond free to air.
An example of thinking outside the box, i know many Manly supporters who would never wear the jersey or any form of merchandise because it looks cheap and lacks class for day to day wear.(AKA me and many others) I would love to wear something branded like "Eagles golfing apparel" EGA that has a hint of Manly colours with a more classy looking Eagle emblem that doesn't look like a cartoon character to wear to golf, but can also appeal to non Manly supporters because it looks good.
Eagles Angels worked for it's time because the group came across as smart, sophisticated successful business and sporting women and i'm sure they appealed to many high school girls to broaden the female supporter base along with attracting good sponsorship to the club----(looked classy and worked in the Manly demographic,sponsors wanting to line up or improve their brand image by linking up with this classy network of successful women)
Eagles Angels did lose it's way(among other things) and stagnate but it showed you the power of branding and targeting a demographic.
Manly is in a good position to appeal to sponsors who want to maybe elevate themselves from just being an average brand to give the perception of having more quality linking up with a more "sophisticated" supporter base. BMW might want to advertise their new line up of Electric cars along the Eastern states and want to associate themselves with a club that wont ruin their "brand image".(two examples from different perspectives)
You don't want to be advertising BMW on the Penrith Jersey unless BMW wants a quick fire sale of combustion engine cars that are struggling to sell (the more affluent have moved on to Electric) so they dump the old stock on bogans wanting to look cool for once. I'm getting the feeling this kind of free to air advertising is happening now for the next few years to get rid of such stock in droves to people who "wished they could drive luxury but could never really afford it.
