St George Illawarra chief executive Peter Doust supports priority seating for members of the home team should crowd numbers eventually exceed smaller venue capacities.
Kogarah’s WIN Jubilee Oval has been flagged as the first of six suburban facilities to host home-member-only crowds when overall numbers swell beyond its 20,500 limit.
Full coverage of the DragonsAt present, the Dragons have about 14,500 members and the club is confident its membership base will surpass the 20,650 fans reached in 2011.
While those figures are not high enough to prompt Red V member-only crowds at WIN Jubilee or Wollongong’s WIN Stadium, which holds 20,500 people, Doust said fans were already limited in their seating selections.
‘‘We will continue to aggressively pursue growth within our ticketed membership categories so it is feasible that at some stage in the future you may need to be a Red V Member to access the best seats at the biggest games,’’ he said.
‘‘We haven’t reached the stage yet where only members are able to access our home games, however demand has already exceeded supply in some of our premium reserved seating categories.’’
The NRL is tipped to exceed 200,000 members across 16 clubs this year.
Other clubs closing in on their home ground seating capacities are Parramatta, Wests Tigers, Penrith, Manly and Cronulla.
There are obvious financial incentives for clubs that can successfully stock up on paid supporters. The Dragons’ membership numbers are set to double from that of four years ago, with six-game adult memberships starting at $90.
But the NRL said it would not force clubs to allocate opposition seating during popular home games, despite speculation that the Wests Tigers might ban entry to Sharks supporters during Sunday week’s first round game at Leichhardt.
The Tigers have opted to open a three-hour window to Sharks fans wanting to buy remaining tickets for the match from 9 o’clock this morning.
‘‘Further growth within our Red V Membership program will be vital to the ongoing success of our club and we continue to actively encourage our fans to take the step up and become financial members of the Dragons,’’ the Dragons’ head said.
‘‘The growth we have enjoyed over recent years demonstrates that a large section of our fans understand the value involved in becoming a Red V Member.
‘‘The only way to guarantee yourself a great seat for all the on-field action in 2012 is by becoming a Red V Member.’’
Dragons players Ben Creagh and Jack De Belin hit the phones yesterday in an effort to increase the club’s membership numbers.
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