I this morning renewed my 2016 membership for my favourite NRL team – I’m not exactly sure of their membership target, but I assume it would be around 20,000 (as it was for 2015).
Their stadium has a capacity of 30,000.
The NSW Swifts have sold their entire membership quota for 2016. That’s 2,739 members. It may not seem like a lot, but their home stadium only holds a capacity of 3,400. The NSW Swifts crowd is 81 per cent members. In comparison, Sydney FC in the A-League has “over 10,000 members” according to their website.
Rounding that up to 12,000 members in their home stadium that has a capacity of 45,500, Sydney FC boast a crowd of members at 26 per cent.
The ANZ Championship for 2016 does not kick off for another six months.
So why can’t the NSW Swifts move into a bigger facility?
Close to their home at Olympic Park is All Phones Arena. Perhaps we can float the idea of stadium netball, outdoors, and move to a smaller football stadium such as Pirtek or Brookvale?
It’s not unreasonable to assume that the Swifts, on the back of the Netball World Cup recently won in Sydney by Australia, should have a bigger stadium, or at least access to a bigger headquarters for their games. However, their transition to semi professional to elite cannot be complete without a larger home base to call their own.
You would never ask or expect a Greg Inglis, Buddy Franklin or Shane Smeltz to play in such a small stadium, why is it assumed that these players should just stick with what they’ve got and not be given the opportunity to sell out 30,000 seats?
The Swifts boast an impressive 2016 line up with arguably the best defender in the league in Sharni Layton, and the introduction of Silver Fern Laura Langman, a major signing for the club.
NSW Netball has registered 113,000 participants a large number in comparison to the number of memberships available for their team.
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