THE Ben Cousins factor is continuing to give Richmond's membership drive an enormous boost.

Membership figures have surged since signing the former West Coast skipper in last month's pre-season draft. "Our membership is at least 4000 up on this time last year and we do attribute quite a lot of this added interest in the club to the signing of Ben Cousins last month," Richmond's commercial operations manager Hamish McKenzie said yesterday.

The Tigers have signed up more than 17,000 match-day members, as well as almost 4000 non-matchday members.

Cousins has won the Tigers plenty of interest from Western Australia, with Richmond "inundated with messages of support and membership inquiries" from that state.

The 30-year-old, who is attempting to overcome drug addiction, won four best-and-fairest awards and the 2005 Brownlow Medal with the Eagles, before being sacked at the end of 2007 then suspended by the AFL for the 2008 season.

Despite the flood of support, the club is still yet to snare a new major sponsor to replace Australian Financial Group, which did not renew its contract after the 2008 season.

"We are in the process of assessing the merits of potential back of jumper sponsors and looking at several options that have been presented to us," McKenzie said.

"We remain in a position where we still welcome sponsor inquiries be that for the back of jumper spot or other sponsorship opportunities."

with AAP