Membership numbers

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

These are the membership numbers for the NRL clubs, I presume it must include members who only attend sporadically and not every week, but all the same they are some impressive numbers.

I’d like Super League clubs to be more open and transparent and publish their numbers too, it can only be a good thing IMO and makes it competitive in who can get the most people signed up to memberships. 

[Spidey]

Just now, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

These are the membership numbers for the NRL clubs, I presume it must include members who only attend sporadically and not every week, but all the same they are some impressive numbers.

I’d like Super League clubs to be more open and transparent and publish their numbers too, it can only be a good thing IMO and makes it competitive in who can get the most people signed up to memberships. 

Super League aren’t consistent enough in regards to memberships. Some just offer Season Tickets others offer memberships with perks. It’s a bit different to how the NRL clubs are set up I think 

[bobbruce]

1 minute ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

These are the membership numbers for the NRL clubs, I presume it must include members who only attend sporadically and not every week, but all the same they are some impressive numbers.

I’d like Super League clubs to be more open and transparent and publish their numbers too, it can only be a good thing IMO and makes it competitive in who can get the most people signed up to memberships. 

These memberships also include non trending members. You sign up and get sent a pack of goodies with a monthly magazine. Something that I’m amazed SL clubs don’t do.

[Mr Plow]

26 minutes ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

I’d like Super League clubs to be more open and transparent and publish their numbers too, it can only be a good thing IMO and makes it competitive in who can get the most people signed up to memberships. 

Would be interesting to see however I can’t see the numbers for Wakefield for example being good. 
 

I wonder what the ratio between members and casual fans is at games?

[Forever Trinity]

Sales up to Christmas were in with club forecasts not sure what its at now but they were on track to equal last years, is everyone else?

[RP London]

1 hour ago, bobbruce said:

These memberships also include non trending members. You sign up and get sent a pack of goodies with a monthly magazine. Something that I’m amazed SL clubs don’t do.

what... you mean money for very little work?? why would anyone want to do that! 

[Karen]

1 hour ago, bobbruce said:

These memberships also include non trending members. You sign up and get sent a pack of goodies with a monthly magazine. Something that I’m amazed SL clubs don’t do.

Indeed, we are members at NZ Warriors, something we did last season to help them out with their added costs of staying in Australia and something I think we will continue to do.

TBF, Leeds do do a basic membership as my husband has one. He doesn't need a season pass as he works for the club on match day (or he did before Covid), so he does his bit by paying for a basic membership which I think was £25. I'm sure Hull FC do one too.

[RP London]

52 minutes ago, Mr Plow said:

Would be interesting to see however I can’t see the numbers for Wakefield for example being good. 
 

I wonder what the ratio between members and casual fans is at games?

I think that is a good thing about publishing numbers thought (and goes back to something i said on another thread about not fearing to fail). get numbers published, IF your numbers are embarrassing then good, do a better job. If you are going to get judges on them then maybe you will work out better ways, you will also be able to see who is actually doing well as some may surprise you (and would then keep negative comments away). 

This sort of thing is a must if the game is to move forward IMHO. 

For example, people talk about what clubs bring to the table into super league, well there could be some clubs bringing more than we know (and some bringing considerably less)

[Tommygilf]

Cas posted this

Must be around 2.5k at best then?

[Tommygilf]

19 minutes ago, RP London said:

I think that is a good thing about publishing numbers thought (and goes back to something i said on another thread about not fearing to fail). get numbers published, IF your numbers are embarrassing then good, do a better job. If you are going to get judges on them then maybe you will work out better ways, you will also be able to see who is actually doing well as some may surprise you (and would then keep negative comments away). 

This sort of thing is a must if the game is to move forward IMHO. 

For example, people talk about what clubs bring to the table into super league, well there could be some clubs bringing more than we know (and some bringing considerably less)

The RFL have published the OuRLeague numbers but only for non Super League clubs.

[The Future is League]

1 hour ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

The Warriors and the Titans have a lot of work to do on their memberships

[Tommygilf]

1 hour ago, bobbruce said:

These memberships also include non trending members. You sign up and get sent a pack of goodies with a monthly magazine. Something that I’m amazed SL clubs don’t do.

Leeds have as far as I know 3 levels of membership. Bronze is membership but non-attending or couple of matches covered maybe. Silver is the standard fare most fans have and is the level that flexi STs are based off. Gold gives access to certain bars around the ground iirc.

The Bronze level style membership is certainly something I think could be expanded, but there's a wider question about UK fan culture there too.

[Tommygilf]

An area I think the past year (and much of this year) must have shown needs expanding is a fleshed out virtual membership/Season ticket system for clubs.

[gingerjon]

What do you get for being a member of an NRL club?

[Whippet13]

1 hour ago, bobbruce said:

These memberships also include non trending members. You sign up and get sent a pack of goodies with a monthly magazine. Something that I’m amazed SL clubs don’t do.

Wigan do something similar to this:

https://wiganwarriors.com/tickets/memberships

[Heritage XIII]

2 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

The Warriors and the Titans have a lot of work to do on their memberships

Titans numbers are woeful but Warriors are coming into their second season of playing in Australia. Prior to covid I think they had 18,000 plus members. Definately one of the hardest hit due to circumstances out of their control not being able to play home games in NZ hence not being able to sell match memberships.

[Eddie]

5 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

The Warriors and the Titans have a lot of work to do on their memberships

There might be a reason while NZW’s are so low, not playing games in their own country this season for example. If you look at it like that, 6k is impressive. 

[Toby Chopra]

2 hours ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

Pretty average number for Roosters there, I thought they were a bigger club than that. 

[RP London]

25 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

The RFL have published the OuRLeague numbers but only for non Super League clubs.

Which is a good start but the official paid up memberships at the clubs would be more useful I would say.

[RP London]

21 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

The Warriors and the Titans have a lot of work to do on their memberships

St Georges looks a little suspicious too

[RP London]

21 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

An area I think the past year (and much of this year) must have shown needs expanding is a fleshed out virtual membership/Season ticket system for clubs.

Completely this.. this is a no brainer IMHO.. and it is how you can increase the growth of the game in new areas, it also allows you potentially to play an "on the road" style game in areas where you know you have supports (giving discounts for those with this style of membership). That then helps get a good crowd while encouraging them to bring new fans etc etc.. 

it works in so many ways and I would guess is easier now than ever with new tech developed in the last year by football etc.

[Tommygilf]

3 minutes ago, RP London said:

Which is a good start but the official paid up memberships at the clubs would be more useful I would say.

Having both to compare would be useful too.v

[whatmichaelsays]

27 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Leeds have as far as I know 3 levels of membership. Bronze is membership but non-attending or couple of matches covered maybe. Silver is the standard fare most fans have and is the level that flexi STs are based off. Gold gives access to certain bars around the ground iirc.

The Bronze level style membership is certainly something I think could be expanded, but there's a wider question about UK fan culture there too.

I had a bronze card for a few years as I simply missed too many games through work, holidays and family commitments to make the full season ticket worthwhile. 

The problem with it is that, from the fan perspective, it only really offered any value if tickets are difficult to get, which is rarely the case in RL. Other than not paying a booking fee, the only other perks were not having paper tickets (irrelevant in the age of mobile phone ticketing) and being able to join the priority queue for finals tickets - but it's not like those are hard to get hold of. 

There weren't enough other perks to really make it valuable and in the end, I found I was mainly buying it for symbolic or altruistic reasons. 

I also wonder if the club has data on how many fans "downgraded" from silver to bronze and started being more selective about their games. It would be interesting to see if the bronze card supported overall membership numbers or whether it cannibalised the full season ticket sales, 

Edited March 23, 2021 by whatmichaelsays

[Tommygilf]

1 minute ago, RP London said:

Completely this.. this is a no brainer IMHO.. and it is how you can increase the growth of the game in new areas, it also allows you potentially to play an "on the road" style game in areas where you know you have supports (giving discounts for those with this style of membership). That then helps get a good crowd while encouraging them to bring new fans etc etc.. 

it works in so many ways and I would guess is easier now than ever with new tech developed in the last year by football etc.

It allows fans who move away (which is increasingly common) to remain connected to the club in a way that doesn't involve significant travel or a Sky Sports subscription.