The Broncos and the Panthers have been named the official winners of the 2014 NRL Membership race.
Since the start of the race on 24 February, the Broncos have signed 8,890 members, while the Panthers have grown their membership by an extraordinary 131 per cent since 2013.
In the Membership Growth race the Roosters placed second signing 4,900 members, followed by the Rabbitohs who have welcomed an additional 4,315 members since the race began.
“On behalf of the whole Broncos organisation, I would like to thank every single one of our 27,657 members for this win – not only those 8,890 who signed up during the NRL Membership Race,” Paul White, Chief Executive Officer, Brisbane Broncos said.
“I genuinely love hearing from members on game-days at home and around the country, at our regular member events, and also online via social media.
“So please continue to provide your feedback to our team so we can keep looking after you the best we can, and together we can hopefully keep winning these NRL Membership Races.”
In the Percentage Growth race the Warriors came second with a 45 per cent increase in members while the Sharks placed third with a percentage increase of 41 per cent.
"This result is testimony to the extraordinary work by our extraordinary people here at Panthers,” Panthers General Manager Phil Gould said.
“An exhaustive overhaul of our systems, processes and clever member options ensured this wonderful outcome.
“We're thrilled to have won this competition and we’re already well underway towards evaluating our membership offerings for 2015".
For the first time, every club in the NRL now has more than 8,000 members.
The Rabbitohs have become the first club in the history of the game to pass 30,000 members.
Nine clubs have also broken their own club membership records including the Storm who have broken membership records for a third consecutive year.
“The start of the 2014 season has been incredibly exciting on the field and that has undoubtedly helped to drive club membership numbers,” NRL Head of Marketing, Content and Digital, Lewis Pullen said.
“In just over three months our clubs have signed 63,720 members and have averaged an increase of 28 per cent across the board, which has been a commendable result.
“We are really excited about hearing how the club members would like to spend their part of the winning’s in coming weeks.
“We will work with the clubs in the second half of the season to highlight the value of becoming a club member and planning is already underway for 2015.
“Membership growth is also contributing to the NRL being on target to reach the game’s match day attendance goals this year.”
Membership Growth Race:
1. Broncos
2. Roosters
3. Rabbitohs
Proportion Growth Race:
1. Panthers
2. Warriors
3. Sharks
