I loved Kogarah Jubilee cheering my favourite team. I loved the Sunday trek to other suburban grounds: Brookvale, the old North Sydney Oval, Henson Park, Leichhardt, Redfern, Belmore, Lidcombe, Parramatta, Cronulla, Penrith, the old Sports Ground or the mighty SCG. Great days indeed. Fanatical: The Broncos' supporter base is the envy of other clubs. Credit:Getty Images However, there is a commercial reality to the business of sport these days that cannot be ignored. If fans want their team to be competitive; actually, if fans want their club to SURVIVE, then they must understand the landscape has changed. When I was growing up, the major rugby league competition was based exclusively in Sydney. It was district versus district: Manly, Norths, Easts, Souths, Wests, Newtown, Balmain, St George, Cronulla, Canterbury, Parramatta, Penrith.

In 2014 these district clubs compete with much larger areas such as New Zealand, Melbourne, Brisbane and North Queensland. Rugby League these days also competes with other professional codes, which are well funded and well organised. So, when your club decides to move its home game from the suburbs to the big stadium, rather than sitting back and scoffing at all the empty blue seats you can see in the background of your television screen, why not look for ways we can fill those seats? Why wouldn’t we want Dragons and Tigers playing in front of 50,000 fans on a Sunday afternoon in Sydney? Instead of boycotting the event and watching on TV, ask yourselves WHY your club decided to move to a larger stadium? Did they do it just to annoy people? Or is there a financial reality to this move that will ultimately determine your club’s very existence. Almost three years ago, it’s fair to say the Panthers’ existence was seriously threatened. Actually, we were headed over a waterfall.

When the new board and management finally started to turn the big boat around and head for smoother waters, we began the process of determining what kind of club we wanted the Penrith Panthers to become into the future; to ensure it was never again in this precarious position. We visited a number of the major sporting clubs around the country. During this last off-season, our management team travelled overseas to USA, England and Dubai, studying major sporting franchises and venues. We now have a master plan for the next 15 years. Everything planned for Panthers is designed to be of major benefit to our growing regional city of Penrith: our hospitality club, community and sporting precinct at Mulgoa Road, Penrith; plus our junior league and professional football programs at Panthers. Despite travelling around the world in our search for answers, there was no greater inspiration to us than that of the Brisbane Broncos. When we visited the Broncos, chief executive Paul White and coach Anthony Griffin could not have been more accommodating.

They showed us every facet of their business, their venue and game-day management, their game development programs for rugby league in south-east Queensland, and their highly professional player development programs specifically designed for the Broncos. I won’t go into the specifics of the information revealed, however I can give you a brief comparison between the Broncos and Panthers at that time. The Broncos were on target for 30,000 fully ticketed members, with expected growth to 35,000 over the next few seasons. The Panthers had fewer than 5000 ticketed members. The Broncos were generating more than three times the revenue of the Panthers. They were attracting three times the game-day attendance numbers. Their merchandise sales were off the scale compared to Panthers. At Panthers home games, our corporate entertainment area seated on average about 280 people to a great pre-match function. The Broncos would cater for more than 3000 people in similar function areas at each home game.

The Broncos were budgeting for a significant profit. The Panthers' football program would lose more than $5 million that year. At the end of our visit I distinctly remember heading back the airport in the taxi with my head spinning. I was travelling with Panthers Group CEO Warren Wilson. I turned to him and said, “Can you believe we are in the same competition as those guys?” Warren simply shook his head and replied, “We have some work to do”. The thing that struck us though, was our potential and our responsibility to our area. The Penrith junior league stretches from Blacktown to Katoomba and from Hawkesbury to Wallacia. It’s the largest junior league nursery in the world. Why wouldn’t we want this vast rugby league heartland to be represented by a football club that was as big, as recognisable, as financial and as successful as the Brisbane Broncos? We wanted Panthers to be a source of inspiration and aspiration for the west. We wanted Panthers to be used as a platform for governments and corporates to engage with the people of the west and provide them with the support, the facilities, education and employment opportunities they deserve. That’s our dream. We can deliver these outcomes for the community.

However, we cannot hope to be the club we want to be, if we continue to draw only 10,000 fans to home games every week. The business of supporting community needs and rugby league is expensive, let alone trying to maintain a respectable profile in the NRL. Over the next five years we’re taking one home game each season to Bathurst. We believe we have a strong responsibility to nurture and develop the game of rugby league in neighbouring country areas. We’ve also had discussions with five major cities around Australia and overseas, all of which can guarantee financial packages significantly greater than what we currently earn from home games at Penrith. In recent times the Panthers have suffered the lowest home-game attendances in the NRL, lowest membership numbers in the NRL, lowest merchandise sales and lowest sponsorship yield. Compounding the lowest membership numbers, inexplicably an average of only 50 per cent of our members (season ticket holders) bothered to attend home games. In the honesty stakes, we acknowledged, based on external research commissioned by the NRL, Penrith was also one of the poorest game-day experiences.

Last weekend we introduced significant changes to our stadium, along with other game-day initiatives, all of which were previously unimaginable at Panthers. The most noteworthy was the transformation to stadium branding and signage. Corporate sponsorship is now at an all-time high. We achieved our best-ever result in merchandise sales, our membership numbers have soared in sharp contrast to declining numbers elsewhere, there are new food and beverage options, prices have been overhauled, Kidz Korner was an overwhelming success; even the revamped Panther cheer-girls were a hit with fans young and old. We’re even trialling apps that will enable fans to order and pay for food and drink on mobiles and go to designated pick up areas to collect. This isn’t an NRL initiative - it’s ours - and there is much more to come. Of course we had complaints. Some people dislike change. What we are most proud of, however, is the overwhelming response from fans has been very positive and upbeat. There are even those who may not be thrilled with some of our choices, but commented favourably that they respect our ambition. We all understand that all things will not please all people, but unless we can create a game-day experience that attracts new fans, we are resigned to having to move games to other venues. We don’t want to move our home games, but could be forced to travel afar unless there is a dramatic shift in the attendances at our current home.

Loading Ideally, we would love the west to have a new modern stadium, equipped with state-of--the-art facilities and quality corporate hospitality attractions. I’m sure the crowds would come and our business would be then strong enough to deliver on our other goals for the city of Penrith and the community. Until such times as that becomes a possibility, we have to get on with the reality of survival.