What was the attendance?

Think the crowd at Batley was 2132. But the crowd for the tie of the round at Headingley for Leeds v Wigan was a miserley 9242. I sense the game at the top level (and in particular the CC prior to the semis) are losing their appeal and
attendances are suffering. Its not that long ago and this fixture would have commanded 15,000-18,000 at Headingley. Maybe our crowds in comparison are not that bad.....

heard the crowd at Headingley was restricted due to the Cricket!

Even though it was called off!

That's correct. As soon as you announce a game as all-ticket, it instantly puts off thousands. That's the RL way.

Des Johnson making a name for himself again ............................



[uFrom the St Helens forum[/u

I tend to agree, I don't think that one was in doubt. Although I didn't expect that scoreline, I'm sure Cats had injuries and suspensions that were somewhere around double figures at the beginning of the week!



Oh dear, what's happened there then? Looks like Sparrow gave a good account of themselves on the pitch at least.

Do Saints even have a Directors Box, Eamon McManus seems to sit in a section of that main stand, with all the other supporters only a couple of rows away, I'd imagine Des would have been sat in a similar place

Did you hear Dave Woods try and hype it up ridiculously? "This would have been a sell out if the gate hadn't been restricted" There were massive gaps in the main stand and in the Wigan end.

Must say though his commentary is a lot better though, makes a refreshing from Ray "He's going for the li...ooh look at that face in the crowd!" French.

Yeah, that'd be because of the restricted capacity

I meant that the areas of the ground which are usually densely populated weren't yesterday. Wigan didn't bring as many over as I thought they would either.

Mind you, that could well be Leeds' average gate once the Football season starts up again...

Yes, they weren't allowed to be densely populated because there was a restriction on the capacity...



Wigan took over 2,100 which isn't bad going, to be fair.

[uFrom the VT[/u
".......they ambushed a burger van and ate all the burgers."

Are you insinuating the 'RFL' way, as in trying to blame Red Hall for that?

That's a bit desperate. Games are usually made all ticket on the insistence of the police and would have been a requirement where a restricted gate was in force so as to prevent walk up and turning people away - which, if that had happened, someone would have been slated for.

Try thinking things through before posting.

Wont be long before the usual suspects will be on here defending his alledged actions again.

Try reading things properly before posting

He doesn't say the 'RFL' way he he said the RL (rugby league) way.

You just beat me to it, I read it and didn`t think he was" insinuating" anything at all about the RFL , I thought he was merely pointing out that the RL crowd soon gets put off by announcements of all ticket games.

Bull.

Why should the 'RL' crowd be put off by all-ticket announcements?

Wembley's all ticket but it's full every year.

So if I interpreted the post wrong, what's the poster trying to say? Don't make any game all ticket?

Just shows you should stick to bowing to my superior knowledge Linda.

Wembley is never full

Trust me on this one, I think it's fair to say I've got quite a bit of experience in the field. Of course people buy in advance for Wembley, despite the fact it rarely sells out, because nobody in their right mind would travel that far without a ticket.

However, announcing a game as 'all ticket' when the sales were already very poor (again, trust me on that one) destroys any sort of walk up and people just make alternative plans.

The Headingley game was all ticket due to the fact Yorkshire CC were meant to be playing at the same time. Therefore the Leeds council put a 10,000 limit on the game. The crowd of just over 9,000 was a result of that. It had nothing to do with it being all ticket. This was a precaution as the main stand is shared between both the cricket and rugby clubs and wouldn't have been able to cope with both games on at the same time.

I think the worst crowd of the round is St Helens, as it sounds that Barrow brought half of the crowd for that game. Not a great effort by them for a quarter final. Even if they were odds on favourites to win it.

Because it was declared all-ticket, people who can't commit to going to the game until nearer the time just end up assuming that they won't be able to get a ticket and therefore make other plans - announcing you can pay on the day barely 24 hours before kick off is simply shutting the gate after the horse has bolted.

Anyroad, as it is, I would actually suggest that a capacity of 10,000 would mean that Headingley doesn't satisfy Super League standards for that fixture and should therefore have found an alternative venue, be that Elland Road or switching the tie to Wigan.

Once again, it was all ticket because of the cricket. When Yorkshire play at home, they use the Headigley rugby pitch as a car park to keep the surrounding streets free of traffic sue to the permit parking only restrictions. Therefore by limiting the rugby crowd to 10,000, they can control the amount of traffic that will turn up on that day and cause conjestion. If they had made it pay on the day, then you could have had 15,000 turning up to watch a game with only 10,000 tickets available and the cricket crowd all needing places to park their cars which would have caused all sorts of problems. It's not always about making things easier for people to get in. Some things are just not in the clubs hands and are imposed by outside parties, such as police, councils and residents.

Secondly minimum crowd capacity does not apply to Challenge Cup games. The only games that have a self imposed capacity minimum are semi finals by the RFL. Therefore Leeds were well within their rights to play the game at home and not give up home advantage. Also Elland road is having a new surface layed for the new season and therefore the game couldn't be played there.

Well aware of the reasons that the capacity was limited, thank you very much, and Leeds were well aware of it as soon as the dates were confirmed, hence jacking the prices up for optimum revenue.

Personally, I think it's a sad day when the self-proclaimed biggest club in RL plays second fiddle to a 4 day county cricket match that would have had one man and his dog turn up (ok, maybe two men and his dog while they were playing a proper county).

Yes I think most people will agree with you on that one , it`s just an "odd one " that wo`nt.