Perth Wildcats Owner Offers Prize for Loudest Fan at Upcoming Game
Perth Wildcats owner Mark Arena encourages fans to be the loudest and most intimidating at an upcoming game, offering a prize for the most feral fan while addressing ticketing issues.
Perth Wildcats owner Mark Arena is offering a massive prize to the most feral fan at Tuesday night's play-in game against South East Melbourne at Perth High Performance Centre, urging members to be the loudest and most intimidating they've ever been.
The Wildcats were forced to move the game from RAC Arena after learning that Kylie Minogue had booked out their home court for the week. This will mean less than half of the club's members will be able to purchase seats to the smaller venue.
Arena is determined to give his team the largest home court advantage possible after not playing there since 2012. Captain Jesse Wagstaff is the only remaining player from that era.
Arena is offering a seat next to him in the owner's box for the club's next final to the person deemed to be leading the feral charge. That match will be a semifinal if the Wildcats win or a knockout play-in game if they lose.
He said it was vital to replicate the atmosphere that more than 13,000 fans produce at RAC Arena.
“We need it to be family-friendly feral,” Arena told The West Australian.
“We'll be looking for people who are super supportive, really loud, really getting behind the team and obviously wearing red.
“We want it to be intense and intimidating for the opposition and we want to be able to hear a pin drop when our guys are shooting free throws. I hope everyone who is very lucky to get a ticket is really loud and super intimidating for South East Melbourne. Being a smaller venue, it is loud enough as it is, but we want to take it to the next level.”
Fans will have to wait longer to secure their seats after purchasing codes for members were shared online. That prompted the club to delay the on-sale time from midday on Sunday to 10am on Monday to avoid non-members from being able to jump the queue.
“In hindsight we made the decision that was wrong to provide a single code to all of our members,” Arena said.
“Unfortunately some of our members shared that online which means anyone with the code can use it. We backtracked and are issuing per-member codes via email.
“That's meant we've had to push out ticketing sales. It's not ideal but it was really, really important to give all of our members a shot.”
