6000 is decent Blobby under the circumstances and I wouldn't pay any attention to those who like these pinis measuring contests.Sure, Saints don't want to be at Widnes but what's the alternative,Sherdley Park?The fans should just give it a chance and make the best of the situation,all will seem much better when the lighter and warmer evenings are upon us and Saints have a few wins under their belt.

The is alot of circumstances that will reduce the crowds at saints games being played at Widnes.

Some fans just like at other clubs just can't afford it due to current climate.

Some fans I knew used to go straight to KR from work but now have 20 min traveling which means will miss the kick off.

Some can't drive and won't want the hassle of getting there and back.

Some will just not go as it's in Widnes.

I think 6,000 or so is pretty ok attendance seeing as it was Quins and it's basically away for our fans too.

Considering every one of our games are Away 6000 fans is a decent turn out.
The south stand is the biggest problem, £26.00 a ticket isn,t exactly dangling a carrot for fans to turn out at a neutral venue.

Saints average last 2 trophy less seasons have been around 11000 trophy hunter fans. Will probably be around 8500 dejected fans this season.
So this will be reasonable under the present circumstances.

I,m sure this topic won,t turn up next season when we play were we belong.

Shouldn't that be Sarf !!!!!

The worse we got the larger the crowds got - go figure ! Probably the Dunkirk spirit

I'll tell you what, it just shows what sort of supporters you have. You have been used to cups and trophies for years on end and as soon as you have a bad patch. you respond in this way.

The skunkdome is barely any further for loads of your lot, especially the ones who walk around Westbrook Asda with their red v shirts after a win.

Extremely fickle fans, and I am enjoying every minute of it.

Who outsang the other 5,994 by all accounts!

I didn't realise people went along for a singing contest.Perhaps they would be better advised auditioning for Britains got talent or something similar rather than attending a game of RL.

compare their crowds against London at Wilderspool and some of them even dipped below 4,000 !!

Given the dismal economic forecast for the next 2-3 years (and longer) I think it won't be too far into the future when 6,000 is seen as a decent turnout.

I wonder what the Saints directors forecast their attendances to be at Widnes?

Because if they are significantly lower than anticipated, then this could well have an effect on projected income and thus the Salary Cap.

After all, the RFL say that the cap is now "monitored on a `live` and ongoing basis, enabling breaches to be inverstigated......"

And so it may well be that players will have to be unloaded for Saints to be kept within the Cap.

Perhaps Eastmond leaving early to RU will help solve the problem?

The salary cap no longer is based on a percentage of income, so it will not effect Saints in that way. Salford/ Cas/ Quins etc are all allowed to spend the same as Saints, Wigan, Wire, Leeds etc.

Saints will be fine ,people are Skint,26 quid sorry I can't do that with my kids ,smaller clubs ie warrington always get cocky at this stage of the season ,leave them to it.

Oh, i've spent my fair share of time in the South, and the majority of language that comes out of the natives mouths could hardly be considered to be coherent English.

Anyway, as many... MANY people have stated in this thread, I don't think 6000 is that bad of an attendance in all honesty. If we were playing on Saturday or Sunday afternoons/evenings then i'd think that attendances for ALL games attendances would be vastly improved this season, simply for the fact that many people - no matter how loyal a supporter - don't want to spend their Friday evenings rushing about after work getting ready for the game then having to get down to Widnes, and pay £26 to watch it. People simply can't afford to do it in this current climate, and the time issue - especially for people with young kids, I would imagine, is a great factor in putting people off of attending.

I think the number of people that can't be @rsed to go to Widnes to watch their team far outnumber those who have been forced away because of the economic climate. Poor, poor excuse IMO.

6050 !! where have saints other 4000 fans gone?

not totally surprised though, i was there for saints v hudds pre season game and hardly any saints turned up for that either, think it was about 1000 the crowd

When Wigan played a home game against Bradford the other year at the Stobart the attendance was only 800 higher than what Saints achieved tonight.

Given that the 800 difference was probably Bradford fans, its hard for the pies to criticise Saints.

Our atendances at Saints this year are well within the predictions of fans and also the club.

Im actually encourages somewhat in that Quins is usually pretty much one of the poorest attended games for Saints matches. Therefore our average for the season will end up above this 6k figure and probably in the region of 7k.
This will still put us above a significant number of SL teams which i regard as the bigger concern.

Cheers, thanks.

Wigan play in somebody elses stadium and they get good crowds?

You'd have a fair point if St. Helens to Widnes was the same distance as Wigan to Widnes, and the Wigan game at Halton had a degree of guaranteed support to start with through season ticket sales rather than being an additional game at the end of the season. Also the Wigan game was on Sky.

Yes some fans can't be bothered going to Widnes but the current economic reality can't be ignored either.

Last week 600 people from St Helens Council found out they were losing their job and thats just the tip of the iceberg. Others have already left work through early retirement and people are being far more financially careful. We are far from getting out of the economic slump and £26 a ticket is just too much for some people at the moment.

Wigan fans only had one week's notice when they were to play there.

Also the distance you have to travel is 8.1 miles, less than half the distance we had to. Us travelling to LSV would be a better comparison, we sure would have many more than 6k on, we have 10.5k Season Ticket Holders for starters.

Just to add some neutrality to the debate. 6,050 sounds like an awful crowd when put next to St Helens name but I don't think it is really. Here's something I posted on another forum,

I currently live about half a mile from the ground and the parked cars came up to my front door almost. This used to happen only when Widnes got 10k plus and up to my house would usually be probably more like 12k. It never happened when we were last in SL. It is of course nothing like a science but it suggests how much they are missing out from the numbers of people that walk from the local area. If we suspect that at KR they would have got 8500ish, it seems about right.

The previous week it was 99. I wouldn't believe all that St Helens Council stick in their press releases.

Saints need to look at the pricing policy. I know of 2 students that went for tickets to be told it was £26. No suprise they didnt bother.