A-League club Western Sydney Wanderers knew "they had tapped into a fanatical football market, but even they were surprised by how lucrative their debut season proved to be," according to Carly Adno of the Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH. The Wanderers had budgeted for A$300,000 ($281,400) in revenue from "over-the-counter merchandise sales at matches and events, as well as club-specific mail order items, but by the end of the season" the figure totaled A$1.8M. The biggest-selling items, "jerseys and scarves, flew off the shelves at such a rapid rate that retailers were continuously running out of stock." Nike, a club sponsor, could "barely keep up with the demand." The Wanderers "have, unsurprisingly, also set the benchmark with regards to membership sales." If "they weren't forced to cap their membership at 15,600 after plans to increase the capacity of Parramatta Stadium from 20,741 to over 24,000 were temporarily put on hold, the figures would have been much higher." Wanderers Exec Chair Lyall Gorman said, "We really haven’t done a marketing campaign on it this year either. We actually had a budget to do a marketing campaign and we haven’t had to call on that, so that’s been great as well. It’s a wonderful story and it reflects the pride and passion of not just the western Sydney football family, but the western Sydney region as a whole" (DAILY TELEGRAPH, 10/4).
