It’s great to have the A-Leagues season back and we thank you for your support as members, fans, and sponsors for the coming season. Hopefully, you’ve all now got a sense of how exciting our teams are this year.
We’ve just returned from what’s always a tough road trip to Perth, where our Men launched their 2023/24 campaign with a spirited 2-2 draw. Some great individual performances from some of the exciting young talent that have joined the squad this season and we look forward to Reno Piscopo and Archie Goodwin getting back on the pitch following their recovery from their respective injuries.
Our Women’s team are also off to a good start with their season, kicking things off with an important win against our F3 rivals, Central Coast Mariners. Followed by a closely fought loss to league leaders Perth Glory on the weekend. As those combinations continue to form amongst what is pretty much a new-look squad this season, we’re excited about the potential that this group is showing under Gary van Egmond’s leadership.
What’s been just as pleasing is seeing the record number of fans that turned out en masse to support round one of the ALW competition – with over 26,000 fans attending across the league.
We’re excited about continuing this ground swell into our first home game in two weeks’ time, where we’ll be looking to break some records of our own in a massive double header against Western Sydney Wanderers. We’re calling on all of our Members and fans to fill McDonald Jones Stadium on November 5 as we look to break our own Club record for the biggest crowd at an ALW match – the record currently stands at 4,168.
Tickets for this match and all of our Men’s and Women’s home games for the 23/24 season are on sale now via Ticketmaster HERE.
Today is a big day for the Club. After nearly three years of support by our current ownership group, and with the knowledge that the Club has been stabilised and set up for sustainable growth – on and off the field, we’re kicking off a formal process to find a more permanent owner for the Club.
Interest in the A-League is at a high with participation booming, the Matildas and Socceroos shaking up the international scene and the A-Leagues crowds, viewership and digital engagement now surging forward.
And this has converted into interest in Club ownership. Last week we saw the Perth Glory sold to a consortium from Melbourne and just prior to that, a US based sports business purchased the new Auckland licence.
With the Perth Glory sale now complete, we’ve engaged the firm that ran that process to step straight across and lead our sale. Scott Langdon, from KordaMentha has been engaged and his team will today start the process for sale.
This step is a really important part of our growth as a Club and shifting to a permanent owner for the Club will set us up for a new period of growth and success.
Looking to where we are right now, the signs are really positive. Our Membership numbers for the upcoming season are in good shape with our total membership already past last year’s mark of 7,300. Interest in our Women’s team has been fantastic with membership tripling year on year – and we’d love to keep that going. Please encourage your friends and family to join you with a range of affordable memberships available.
I’d like to again acknowledge and thank our major partners Port of Newcastle, Ampcontrol, Greater Bank, University of Newcastle, Inspirations Paint and Legend Sportswear for their ongoing support, along with all of our supporting partners. Our sponsorship family continues to strengthen with existing partners renewing or expanding their support and we look forward to announcing some new additions in the near future.
From a league perspective, you will have seen the announcement last week regarding the addition of ‘Unite Round’ this season and next, in partnership with the NSW Government and Destination NSW – with Sydney playing host to all 12 Isuzu UTE A-League Men and Liberty A-League Women matches between Jan 12 – 14. Stay tuned for more information on this event, with Jets Members able to access discounted tickets.
As a result of Unite Round, this means that our A-League Men’s fixture against Brisbane Roar originally scheduled for Saturday 13 January will now shift to Tuesday 23 January at McDonald Jones Stadium (7 pm kick-off).
There’s also been an update to the fixture when our A-League Men take on Melbourne City in Round 6. This match will now shift from Saturday 2 December to Sunday 3 December with a 5pm kick-off, at McDonald Jones Stadium.
I look forward to seeing you all throughout the season – and hope that you all make the commitment to be at our first game, the big rivalry and double-header v the Western Sydney Wanderers.
Yours sincerely, Shane Mattiske, Newcastle Jets Executive Chairman.
