For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic prevented crowds from attending NRL games, the Knights will have fans in corporate areas when they take on Melbourne Storm at Gosford on Saturday.
But while many clubs are handing out limited tickets to their sponsors for 'home games', the Knights have opted to also reward a group of their most loyal members.
In a fantastic promotion, any Knights member who has pledged their fees to the club this season will go into a draw to win a double pass to the Storm game.
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The draw will be conducted on Thursday night with the winners of the 50 double passes to be announced by the club on Friday.
Knights chief commercial officer Ross Smart said the NSW government signed off on Wednesday to allow around 170 people to attend the Storm game.
"We wanted to give not only some of our corporates an opportunity to attend but also some of our loyal members," he said.
"We have had around 2,500 of our members take up our pledge offer which has been a great response. Others have committed to next year and there have been very few refunds asked for. Members yet to decide still have time to pledge their fee to the club and get in the draw for the tickets. We'll have to cut it off sometime on Thursday afternoon before we do the random draw.
"They'll then have the opportunity to win one of the 50 double passes up for grabs."
Knights CEO Phil Gardner said the draw was a small way for the club to give something back to their fans.
"For us, some of our corporates will get tickets but I want the majority to go to fans and I think our corporates want that as well to be honest," Gardner said.
"We'll go through the same process again for the following Thursday night game against the Broncos."
Gardner said he was bouyed by the response of the club's members, who have been hit hard by the no crowd edict at games following round one. Members were given three options. Pledge their fee to the club in return for some special benefits, put their fee towards next season's membership or opt for a refund.
"On the first day, we had more than 1000 pledge their fees to us which is a fantastic response," he said. "I can promise all our fans we are working hard to get all of them back at some stage this season."
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