It's good to see Perth people rally behind their teams, let’s hope to see this soon with Adelaide in greater numbers

It's really great having such a well run team on and off the court to support.

I couldn't imagine what it would be like to support a team like Adelaide.

Even Melbourne's organisation. who is doing better but with the backing of the league owner feels a bit too Hollywood.

Perth's such a community club as well.

It's no wonder they have the most loyal and strongest fan base.

If I didn't support Perth i'd be envious of them too I guess.

Perth is a " community club" making money for a Billionaire , LOL.

I couldn't imagine what it would be like to support a team like Adelaide.

What exactly is that supposed to mean?

Bendat has not put his hand in his pocket for a number of years now, as the club has been profitable.

He did inject cash in the early days, but less than what has been put into Melbourne and also Sydney over time.

I have been a Cats supporter since the 90's. I have seen the same faces (getting older!) every season from the Entertainment Centre, Challenge Stadium and now Perth Arena. Also under different owners Stokes, Valhaov/Longley & Bendat

A lot of those people are also active in their local SBL/WABL clubs...I see them there also.

So I really believe it is a strong community club with a very loyal fan base that has been behind the Cats through different players, owners & arena's. Loyal fans make for a strong club.

Also I can't applaud Larry Kestelman enough for what he has done for the NBL...in a couple of years he has achieved more than BA ever did under their administration. Would be great to see the league continue to grow.

They've been doing it very well for a very long time... Having the backing of Bendat for as long as they have always helps, but he wouldn't have put up with it as long as he has if the Wildcats weren't getting the job done on and off the court...

It helps that there hasn't been the competition in the sporting market that other larger cities face, but they've done a great job and the fans have continued to respond...

What code of sport outside of NRL has Perth not have a National Team? There is the same level of sporting competition as any large city in Australia.

What the Wildcats have had is success which draws in fans no doubt.

Perth community generally love their sport...large membership base for both Eagles & Dockers as well.

"I couldn't imagine what it would be like to support a team like Adelaide"

It is a little like reading posts from fanatical Adelaide and Perth fans, you hope it will be worth the effort but you mostly end up dropping your head in regret.

Nevertheless, hope springs eternal.

Perth has as many AFL Teams as QLD & NSW, with a much smaller population.

Ok we dont have any NRL teams, but they dont draw big crowds anymore less than 15,000 average is low for a footy code.

NSW Popn- 7.7m
QLD Popn- 4.82m
VIC Popn- 6.15m
WA Popn - 2.61m

The Perth Wildcats have a very strong and loyal fan base. That has been the open secret for the clubs success.

Money, Stadium, Coaches, Players, Owners, Other competition have all changed, the only constant is the same fans turning up year after year.

"Perth doesn't have ten AFL clubs (and however many NRL clubs there are) to share amongst the population."

You make it sound like one person is only allowed to be a supporter / member of one organisation.

Furthermore AFL = Winter....NBL <> Winter.

In other words, there's going to be roughly 11,689 salty fans on these boards once the Wildcats bow out of the semi finals. ;p

Unfortunately, in Perth AFL is a year round sport.

'No, I'm saying that while we have representation in a majority of the sporting codes, we still only have two AFL teams, not ten. To expand on Wookkkkiiieeee's point, we don't have the same competition that other states face.'

Your point (and Wookies) is invalid AFL/NRL runs April-September so NBL only competes with A-League, Cricket, WNBL. the 10 AFL/NRL clubs have no bearing on NBL support.

If you want to talk 'competition' WA Has the Scorchers who sell out every game in a league that runs concurrently with the NBL.

On 'The West Sport' facebook page, 22 of the first 30 news stories were AFL related. Majority being Eagles and Dockers news.

The other 8 were either winter olympics, soccer and 1 wildcats story.

The Wildcats have their share of a very competitive market, lets not ignore that either.

Perth also had a WNBL team who nearly went the whole season undefeated you'd be lucky to read a single story in the paper about it though

The Glory average fewer fans than the Wildcats, and have way less members, yet you wouldn't think so watching the Perth media. The cover as much Glory if not more than the Wildcats.

For the media, particularly Channel 7 ( who are in cahoots with The West Australian), I feel that the Wildcats success is still a novelty to them and won't take them seriously yet. Though it has improved a lot since the Challenge Stadium / Vlahov ownership days.

I still think Bendat needs to buy the club a private jet, with all the travel that they do, if they can alleviate the waiting in airports and give players extra leg room then that's what should happen.

If we want to act like the NBA then that would go some ways towards being like them.

The Wildcats were making $1m on $10m turnover for consecutive seasons a few years back so an extra injection by Bendat wouldn't go astray

Perth gets around the team because the team puts themselves out there. Damo and Greg Hire are weekly guests on the main radio stations. They run camps and clinics all season and into the off season. The city of Perth (not people but government) helps out a lot as well, in the weeks leading up to the season every street light down St Georges Tce (main st of Perth) is adorned with a wildcats player picture. Living in Sydney for 3 years I never saw a single Kings billboard and many thought they were still out of the league.

As part of the Wildcats players contract they have to do a certain amount of hours a year in community work, most of that is in terms of school visits and clinics

It's great to see membership figures like that but at the same time it's a shame that other clubs aren't around that mark too. There was such a bright future ahead after the league steadily built throughout the 80's and 90's but recently (until the past few seasons) that future was not so bright. Hopefully from now on we'll see some strong clubs and membership numbers elsewhere as well.

History + winning + stadium close to city. Most other clubs are lucky to have 2 out of 3 yr on yr.