From page 1 of the thread:

Leeds:
[iLast year average (13 games) - this year's average (6 games) -12%
First six home fixtures 2008 - First six fixtures 2009 -12%

By opponent (slightly better at -7%): None to compare to Celtic and Salford.

Wakefield -11%
Les Catalans -5%
Wigan -6%
Harlequins -4% [/i

It appears Wigan's crowds are holding up better than Leeds' to this point then while St Helens surge forward on the back of an off season promotion drive.

There are many reason for the decline in attendence, firstly weather such as the game against Celtic i am sure people did not come because of how cold it was, it has rained. Secondly the quality of rugby has not been great. The price rise which considering the current economic climate was a mistake people have to cut back rising unemployment. This also effects the number of away supporters. It will be interseting if it gets warmer will gates rise. We are not the only club suffering, look at Northern 7000 on Sunday. I believe GH will have to cut prices next year.

Leeds Rhinos 28 - 6 Celtic Crusaders 14,827
Leeds Rhinos 18 - 4 Wakefield Trinity 15,643
Leeds Rhinos 34 - 10 Wigan Warriors 17,677
Leeds Rhinos 42 - 14 Catalans Dragons 13,425
Leeds Rhinos 20 - 30 Salford City Reds 14,381
Leeds Rhinos 4 - 21 Harlequins 13,912

Considering the teams we have played, i think the crowds have been o.k so far this season. We have played all of the lesser supported clubs and have the traditionally bigger crowd pullers such as Bradford, Saints and the Hull sides to come.

Leeds : SL Regular Rounds, Home, Attendances

Comp - Year - Aggregate - No Of Games - Average - % +/- On Previous Year

SL 1 - 1996 - 94,395 - 11 - 8,581 -

SL 2 - 1997 - 120,978 - 11 - 10,998 - +28%

SL 3 - 1998 - 133,801 - 11 - 12,163 - +11%

SL 4 - 1999 - 202,232 - 15 - 13,482 - +11%

SL 5 - 2000 - 177,435 - 14 - 12,673 - =red-6%

SL 6 - 2001 - 180,330 - 14 - 12,880 - +2%

SL 7 - 2002 - 170,193 - 14 - 12,156 - =red-6%

SL 8 - 2003 - 179,844 - 14 - 12,846 - +6%

SL 9 - 2004 - 224,390 - 14 - 16,027 - +25%

SL 10 - 2005 - 238,169 - 14 - 17,012 - +6%

SL 11 - 2006 - 219,478 - 14 - 15,677 - =red-8%

SL 12 - 2007 - 228,259 - 13 - 17,558 - +12%

SL 13 - 2008 - 221,555 - 13 - 17,042 - =red-3%

SL 14 - 2009 - 89,865 - 6 - 14,977 - =red-12%

It will be interesting to see the figures come the season end but to this point the 12% fall is entering uncharted territory for the club in the SL Era.

Edit: The 2003 data was incorrect as I erroneously included the 'On The Road' fixture V Salford played in Gateshead. Amended now so sorry about that.

like others have said,all the clubs,wigan apart,with big travelling support are yet to come. i suspect the average will be slightly down at the seasons end but put this down to people not being able to afford to come to games

TVOC..
Can you put the home game results (W/D/L) for each season on that last list so we can see how it affects the attendances please ?

Thats interesting. Under Smith's regime we saw increased attendances in 3 of his 4 seasons, including 2 of the 3 largest increases in the Sl era. 2007 is especially interesting as some on here with an agenda will tell you we played terribly most of that year and only won it when Smith announced his departure.

Was the reduction in 2006 (the only year the fans didn't flock to see Smith's teams) the year the Carnegie Stand was under construction?

Anyway, noticeable that the fans seem to be voting with their feet with the fare served up by "Leeds Greatest Ever Coach"*


*Courtesy Eccleshill Rhino

Yes it was.

I would say dips in 2008 & 2009 are mainly because of non team factors I would say. Although some would stay away from poor form too

Slightly off topic, but i thought there was no repeat fixtures this season given the increase of teams in super league ??? Why on earth are we still playing repeat fixtures ??? The one's I can see are Catalans 3 times, Saints 3 times and Hull FC 3 times !!?? I thought the days of a 'false' league table were behind us..... bloody stupid RFL.

I'm not sure which fixture list you are looking at, but we only play Catalans 3 times

testimonials and challenge cup ties are not super league games

Suprised no-one has mentioned this yet but surely when we have played our games this year has affected attendances. With us been a team who has historically played on Friday nights we have had a game on a monday (Salford), will play HUll on Tue and Huddersfield on a Sunday.

Perhaps the prospect of games throughout the week has put off people buying season tickets?

I also tihink that the particularly cold start to the season will have put off many of the fans who just go to the odd game.

Good one.

I stand corrected. I'm so tired this morning... thats my excuse anyway.. lol

2 of the 3 games you mentioned haven't been played yet but if you're right then the 12% drop could be a lot worse very soon.

yes i think the attendance against hull on tuesday will be another low one given its a midweek game played on sky.

what is the thinking to sky switching this to tueday?

plus do we get any additional cash for the game being shown on sky and hence loss of revenue?

I would imagine its so they can show 3 games instead of 2 on Sky. I believe its Warrington v Wigan on Friday night, Celtic v Catalans on Saturday and then obviously Leeds v Hull on tuesday.

Imagine the attendace for that one



Good chance for the Celts to get back to back wins though

I thought that too


It could be quite a good game though! [size=59Or it could be dire[/size
Good luck to all 27 who go though, God bless em.


Yeah it is, I've been very impressed with Celtic so far despite them only winning the 1 game.

Yeah I agree, I think if this game was on a friday (as scheduled) you would be looking at a pretty healthy attendance tbh. However due to it being in midweek on sky, the crowd will be severely affected imo (for travelling supporters especially). But oh well Im making the journey over, and looking forward to it also.

Updated to include Leeds' finishing position, W/D/L record as requested.

could be worse! www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... ert_Bulls/

could be worse! www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... ert_Bulls/

Given the fact that we still have a few good sides to come to HQ, and given the fact that summer is approaching, attendances should start to improve..though 12% is a lot to pick up! I think we may finish 5% down on last year.

Another fator in this are the 2 new sides in SL, and the fact that we only play each team once. For example, a fan may have last year payed to watch us play Bradford twice and yet will not pay for the coressponding fixture this year (i.e salford or Celtic). If this makes any sence!

I don't think that prices are much of a problem. If you have a desirable product and a captive market, which Leeds have, then you can "get away" with a price increase now and again.

It's actually not a bad step in that situation. It's a lot easier to keep your existing customers than it is to attract new ones. If you can make a little bit more from the customers that you've already got, then you're easing the pressure on your sales team.

Although I agree that the figures are slightly skewed with the teams that we've hosted, I would expect season-on-season figures to go down slightly anyway. Whether that translates to reduced revenue is a different question entirely (it's no secret that the club has focused heavily on corporate sales in recent years).

I don't think the prices or the fixtures have anything to do with it. The product on offer (the Rugby) is poor this season. If you did not have a season ticket it is far easier to say, no I wont bother this week.

Leeds make a decent signing and people would come back to watch, regardless of the fixture.