WESTS TIGERS officials have attributed a membership surge this week to fans wanting to show their support for Benji Marshall.

After yesterday announcing a new jersey sponsorship with Hyundai, Tigers chief executive Stephen Humphreys said the assault charge against Marshall over an altercation in the inner city last Saturday morning had not been damaging to the club. ''From every perspective, we have only seen support,'' Humphreys said. ''With more than 300 fans either becoming new members or renewing, Monday was the busiest day of the Tigers' off-season membership drive.''

As a result, the club won the NRL's ''Battle of The West'' competition between the Tigers, Panthers and Eels after attracting 1011 new members over 10 days up to and including Monday.

''Monday was our biggest day, and it continued on Tuesday and Wednesday,'' Humphreys said. ''There are normally a lot of contributing factors to that, and I think part of that, according to the feedback we are getting from people, is that they really wanted to show their support to the club and to Benji.

''But we are seeing that in lots of different ways, too … the club has been inundated with emails and faxes and phone calls of support, and also from our corporate supporters.''

Humphreys said he had been concerned that the three-year deal with Hyundai might have been jeopardised by the negative publicity after Marshall was accused of punching a man outside McDonald's in George Street just hours after hosting a charity fund-raiser for Children's Cancer Institute Australia. But Humphreys said Hyundai was happy to be associated with the Tigers and Marshall.

''We obviously talked about it during the week, and they were very comfortable with the way it was being handled and the circumstances around it, and all of our other sponsors have been very supportive again of the club and of Benji as an individual,'' he said.