KNIGHTS chief executive Philip Gardner is "daring to dream" of the day when sell-out crowds at McDonald Jones Stadium evolve into sold-out seasons.
After capacity turnouts of 29,018 and 29,423 for back-to-back wins against South Sydney and Cronulla respectively, Newcastle have earned a home play-off next week - which is certain to attract an unprecedented third-consecutive full house.
The clamour of fans piling on the bandwagon during the Knights' eight-game winning streak has boosted this season's average attendance to 21,312 - the third-best in the club's history, behind only the 1990 (22,018) and 2006 (21,848) campaigns.
Whatever Adam O'Brien's troops achieve in the finals this year should only enhance their pulling power and marketability as the Knights strive to sell memberships over the off-season.
"The goal for the club is to get the stadium to be sold out, season to season," Gardner told the Newcastle Herald.
"We'd obviously have to keep some allocation of tickets available each game for visiting teams, but if you could get the season tickets up to 18,000 to 20,000, effectively that's sold out every week.
"That's got to be the goal. If we can become a consistent top-four club, I'm sure we have enough support to fill up that stadium week in, week out.
"That's hopefully where we're heading.
"We want to build on this year and be even better next year.
"We can all dare to dream."
Gardner had no doubt Knights fans were "the best in the game".
"If you take out Magic Round and the double-header in Perth, which bumped up the numbers for some clubs, we had the second-best crowd average, behind Brisbane," Gardner said.
"That's phenomenal, for a region of this size. Our fans have been unbelievable. The noise and atmosphere at our games has been incredible."
Gardner said the "phones have been running hot" at Knights HQ with inquiries about ticket sales for next week's play-off, but the match is an NRL-controlled fixture and nothing can be confirmed until after this weekend's last round of matches.
"We don't know who we're playing, or on what day, or what time," Gardner said.
"So that's the issue. That won't be worked out until after the last game on Sunday.
"Once that has been decided by the NRL, we'll be in contact with our members, but they won't all be able to sit in their usual seats, because that's all controlled by the NRL."
