Thoughts?

Genuine? Trying to con Sheffield out of a grand or two?

One of the lowest crowd figures I've ever seen for a Saints home game.

Well I didn't go because I went watching my amateur win the NWC Bowl .. gutted I wasnt playing

That's ridiculous! But then this was the first game I've missed as I work Saturday's, that said a mate took my season ticket so my seat was filled! Was the crowd that low?
Pretty poor for a Saturday afternoon

Seemed more than that to me but you can never really tell to be honest.

I didn't go because I wasn't willing to travel to Widnes and pay that price to watch a formality.

I fully understand why others would do the same, I usually go to most home and away so I assume the less frequent supporters felt even more inclined to give it a miss.

A similar attendance to last year when we played Barrow in the cup on a Saturday afternoon.

And the rest, this cr@p RFL rule about S/T holders gettin in free is doing NL1 clubs out of a lot of vital money. Poor crowd I agree.

You weren't willing to pay £10 to support your team? I guess you aren't in a position to complain about any future attendances then!

We lost three players to injury in that 'formality', incidentally. Could cost us greatly next weekend given that one of our new injuries is Kyle Eastmond.

If it had been full whack, I doubt there'd have been that many there. They are trying to get the attendances up for the early rounds, simple as that.

I was working, hence my absence. However, I didn't try and attempt to get the day off, unlike some other matches this season.

I agree, Cup crowds are low and need to be improved. But we have earned this tie and the payday that goes with it. The money we should make from this game is a lot of money at our level. The RFL dont subsidise it, we just get the crumbs.

My sympathies,but when we are only getting 10k for Wire,7k for Cas,there was never much chance of more than 3.5k against Sheffield.Without the season ticket deal the crowd would have been much worse,you would not have walked away with any more money.
Well played today and good luck for the rest of the season.

Playing away from St Helens cant help with crowds either. But thanks and best to you lot too, very gracious in victory.

I often think with the crowds being so low nowa days, it would be more benefitial to have a home game for the clubs outside of SL.

With no season ticket discount, you would still maybe get some extra turning up to watch the home side take on the SL team, and the SL team would bring a few away fans too.

At £10 a head. That's £35k from todays game, once you deduct free entrance and then Saints share, there will be precious little for the Sheffield team.

Where as 2k fans at Sheffield, That would have offered alot more to the non-SL sides.

The whole thing needs a revamp for me. It needs moving later in the season and to be more compressed, there are other things that could be tried such as seeding or letting non-SL sides get a home tie, but in it's current format it's a dying Cup. The fans are voting with their feet. As have the TV viewers with their remotes. It needs a spark in it's current guise, I dunno if it will survive.

I can't really put my finger on why attendances are so low, at least not on one thing alone.

There are far too many excuses big and small that could be given, from the gulf in class between leagues, the lack of exposure in the sport nationally making it less appealing to broadcasters and therefore viewers, the rise and rise in popularity of the roundball game amongst families, or just the economy.

Moving the date of the final and compacting rounds would be difficult, do you have a mid-season break of say 3-4 weeks from superleague and play several rounds consecutively and maybe use this break to also play the mid-season international with player from the remaining teams in the cup being ineligable? But then are teams that get knocked out early not going to get an unfair advantage (i.e. rest) before the season restarts again? Would it not be better to play the entire comp at the start of the season and cut the amount of teams in superleague to allow the season to finish at the same time?

I didn't go because I was playing and losing in said game!

thought the Leigh v Cats attendance of 2237 was disappointing too,would have expected at least 3000 for the 'treat' of seeing a SL team on your home ground ?

Who was playing mate?

Fax -v- Bradford was almost 6000. Puts Saints fans to shame, I reckon.

Bradford have famously sold thousands of season tickets because of the "10,000" deal they had on pre-season, and travelling from Bradford to Halifax is a breeze. I'd guess the 'free entry' bunch made up a good proportion of the crowd.

Good turnout for a non-SL televised fixture, mind.

And travelling from St Helens to Widnes is difficult?

No (well, actually, it was on Saturday given the police incident under Sherdley Bridge), but travelling and then paying £10 for non ST holders for a foregone conclusion has obviously put people off.

I'm not defending the turnout from Saints, btw, just adding my thoughts on why the turnout for the Fax - Bulls game was perhaps surprisingly high.

No. Nor was I willing to travel.



Yes, players can get injured in formalities.

5045 according to the Beeb.

Still better than Saints' fans' pathetic effort!