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While enjoying lunch at Top Ryde shopping centre in Sydney – in the annoying time between the ceremony and the reception at someone’s wedding – brilliant ideas regarding improving NRL game-day experience and community engagement sprung to mind.
I came up with a few pearls of wisdom. Here they are.
1. Shopping centres
With 5,000 people turning out 15 mins down the road, I was upset to see one tigers jersey the whole time. Shopping centres are hubs for the community and have huge potential to engage the undecided fans. Each of the Sydney clubs have between 10-20,000 rusted on supporters who turn out week in week out.
To get the next 10 thousand, we need to engage families and the community. Clubs should organise advertising deals with the various shopping centres to display club colours, advertise upcoming home games, sell memberships, anything.
I’d love to see Westfield Parramatta and Castle Towers draped in blue and gold, Macarthur Square in gold and black and Warringah Mall in maroon and white.
2. Jersey price and colours
Having worked in merchandise at Manly for six years I know that selling a jersey at between $150-180 is not an easy task. It gets even worse when you come to kids jerseys, which cost $130 and probably fits them for one year.
We should reprice them, making all jerseys for adults $99 and kids jerseys between $50-70. It’ll get people buying one to two jerseys every year.
For the kids, often it is the first jersey they are bought that may decide their team for life. All teams should be limited to one alternate jersey each season, including all the special rounds.
Seeing jerseys around the suburbs, shopping centres and on game day adds to the atmosphere and engages the community. This is very prominent in the US sports.
3. Discounts for wearing your jersey
This has been thrown around and is a great idea. I think discount beers and food for a person in the current season’s jersey will boost sales and encourage people to wear the home colours.
It is very noticeable in Melbourne with the AFL and Storm games that the crowd is decked out in team colours. This adds to the atmosphere the look and feel on TV, which is just a further incentive.
I have been disappointed with the lack of new ideas from the Independent Commission in these areas, especially with the amount of money received from TV.
Reforming NRL jerseys and merchandise is a good start.
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