Warriors rated No 1 with fans

Warriors chief executive Cameron George could do little to hide his excitment when the NRL released its fan survey numbers for 2018.

What a difference a year can make.

The Warriors have gone from being ranked dead last (16th) in fan/ membership experience to No 1 in the space of 12 months.

The survey put the Warriors atop of overall membership satisfaction, cost, probability for members to resign for 2019 and second for overall game-day experience.

It’s a massive win for the club who set about ‘‘winning back the fans’’ after disappointing 2017 campaign, George said.

With a greatly improved on-field season and ‘‘plenty of hard work behind the scenes’’, George said the organisation should be proud of what it had achieved – but he wasn’t ready to settle for No 1.

In an ambitious ‘‘but very achievable’’ proclamation, George said the club was working towards the entire 2019 season being sold out at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium. Before Christmas.

‘‘How cool would that be? And it’s very achievable if every member brings a mate along and you can have your own designated seat for the 2019 season,’’ he said.

‘‘It would be amazing, and I’d say a first for a sports club in this part of the world, to go to the NRL before the year is out and say we’re already sold out.’’

George said it was extremely satisfying to see the satisfaction numbers reflect was had been ‘‘a massive effort’’ from all staff since November last year.

‘‘But the work doesn’t stop, we need to use this to spring board us into 2019 and come back even bigger and better.’’

Part of that involves slashing ticket and membership prices.

The cost of being a Warriors member will be halved in 2019.

After seeing the benefits both on and off the field of this year’s two sell-outs at Mt Smart Stadium, the club announced that all reserved seat memberships for next season will be reduced to $199, down from $400.