BIG Crowds Mean BIG Changes

The Chambers Franklyn, City of Joondalup Wolves are excited to announce significant changes and upgrades to the delivery of our NBL1 game night experience at HBF Arena.

The Wolves have experienced massive growth in the last few years, thanks in part to the development of the NBL1 format and the continued commitment from all involved to deliver the best basketball game night experience possible.

Due to the amazing success of the 2023 season and NBL1 National Finals, we have made the decision to play all home games on the court that offers the most seating potential and overall size to support the rapid growth of our fanbase, corporate partners and game night ticket sales. This means all Wolves NBL1 home games will be played on the same stage as the NBL1 National Finals and Perth Wildcats pre-season games, known to our members as ‘Court 6’.

This means we will have access to 2,000 seats, standing room for 250 and 28 corporate boxes, giving us the largest overall stadium in the league.

While we recognise the show court on that side of HBF Arena is a little older and is in need of a facelift and some NBL1 standard upgrades, we could not look past the fact that it has 2,000 seats and that we have outgrown our current set up.

The new changes will feature two courtside bars, upstairs balcony bar area, VIP balcony club, increased activation space, more baseline seating, 10 new corporate boxes, multiple function spaces, increased wheelchair and accessible seating, larger café area and increased total grandstand seating capacity.

All of the old favourites will be back with the merch stand, Wolves Den bar, Super Couch, VIP recliners and Green Zone seats all featuring in our new game night set up. Most importantly, the man on the mic, the great Neil Barnard will be back along with Wally the Wolf and all of our game night activations on show. 2024 game nights will feature a bigger, better light and laser show and maybe even some pyrotechnics and a DJ to keep our fans entertained.

As these proposed changes are significant and require considerable investment from the State Government and Venues West, unfortunately this will be a transition year where not everything will be ready for game one. Due to lead times on equipment and contractors, getting the venue up to full NBL1 specifications will take considerable time and will be a work in progress both in 2024 and beyond.

Some of the upgrades Wolves fans can expect during the year are; new floor mounted hoops, improved lighting, new scoreboards, digital screen, stadium sound system, new signage, new special seating and most importantly brand-new grandstand seating.

Each grandstand on the show court has 900 seats. However, unfortunately in the first half of the season, we will have only one of the two grandstands available for use by spectators due to the entire court 7 retractable grandstand being fully replaced. Because of this, it is still very important to stress that not everyone is guaranteed a seat on game nights and the only way to guarantee a seat is by purchasing a 2024 season membership package.

To date we have had over 650 expressions of interest for 2024 season memberships, meaning only 250 additional general admission seats will be available in the first half of the season. To put that in perspective, in 2023 we had 150 season members and even then, it was difficult to get a seat. This is why it is imperative to ensure you purchase a membership to guarantee your seat. Once the court 7 grandstand is replaced a further 900 seats will be available for general admission seating in the second half of the season.

Last year over half our games were declared a sell-out including a record crowd across the two games in our home opener of 1,548. It was impossible to get a seat and standing room was the only option for most nights. We know at times our fans got a little frustrated, but we did our best to accommodate everyone in what was an unexpected growth period.

Wolves CEO Andrew Summerville had this to say about the big move:

“This is a really exciting time for our club. To be honest it is a little bit scary to make such a big move and I hope we can pull it off. We are disappointed that it won’t be physically possible to have it all done for round one, but we are confident it was the right time and decision regardless. It is absolutely incredible that we are even in this position to be forced to move to a bigger arena. We are honoured to have the greatest fans in the league, and we can’t thank them enough for their ongoing support. It blew my mind last year to see people arriving 5 hours before tip-off and camping in the hallway just to guarantee themselves a seat. People would rush the doors like a Black Friday sale and at one point the line was out the doors of HBF Arena and across the car park.

I would like to thank the State Government, Venues West, David Etherton, Doug Hamilton Daniel Etter and everyone involved in the capital works department at HBF Arena. I would especially like to thank our great friends and huge supporters of the Wolves Emily Hamilton and Mark Folkard for their assistance in helping us access the necessary support to make this happen.

It will be a transition year and not everything will be perfect. We anticipate a few teething problems but trust our fans will see the overall benefit and be patient with us and Venues West while we upgrade this show court in 2024 and beyond.

Trust me, the worst mistake a Wolves fan can make now is to assume there are plenty of seats and try and get a ticket at the door. With only 900 seats for the first half of the season and over 650 reserved seats to be sold, even the move to the bigger arena won’t change the fact that a Wolves ticket is the hottest ticket in town”.

Now the Wolves have made the move, memberships packages will go on sale shortly, with round 1 tickets and special seating options to follow shortly. We have been holding off on some exciting player announcements until we could release our memberships as we are sure our fans are going to want to get a membership to see our signings in action.

We want to thank our amazing members, fans and sponsors for your continued support, and we look forward to an amazing 2024 season!

Season Memberships will be available for purchase February 1st.