Sydney Swans

Each year, more than 100,000 fans pack into the MCG for the AFL Grand Final — the pinnacle moment of a season the Sydney Swans spend engaging members and sponsors throughout, generating income and building loyalty along the way. Managing that day-to-day, across tens of thousands of members and multiple corporate sponsors, is no small task: every fan needs the right ticket for the right game, and every sponsor needs their entitlements delivered exactly when and where promised.

The Swans had been managing all of this through what IT Manager Mitchell Miller describes as a "monster spreadsheet" — a time-consuming, inefficient approach that made it hard to track more than 17,000 entitlements across 70-plus sponsors alongside 50,000 members.

Built on Microsoft Dynamics 365, EngageRM gave the Swans a single place to manage complex corporate sponsorship and hospitality arrangements — something Miller notes other solutions simply couldn't do, since they weren't able to track seating arrangements, sponsorship entitlements and membership engagement together in one place. Integration with PerfectTablePlan, used to manage sponsor seating at some venues, was an added bonus the club hadn't expected.

Moving off a manual, spreadsheet-anchored approach has given the Swans far greater flexibility, agility and insight to work with. Events staff have found real time savings, players have clear visibility of their own sponsor obligations, and membership attendance has increased with fewer empty seats on game day.

The Swans will keep benefiting from EngageRM's ongoing development as the industry and the club's own requirements continue to shift — and, thanks to a closer, more connected relationship with fans and sponsors alike, the club is kicking goals both on the field and off it.