Two seasons ago, Huddersfield Town sold around 16,200 (most priced at £100) season tickets, in a scheme similar to the one being operated at Valley Parade. At that time, most football clubs were still calculating attendances based on ‘bums on seats’, as opposed to tickets sold, and the majority of Town’s home games that season averaged around 11/12,000.

Prices were so cheap, 4/5000 ticket holders (and possibly more if, as expected, 2/3,000 non-ticket holders paid on the gate) were absent from most games. Town’s home gates that season (with the addition of those paying on the gate) should have been around 18/19,000, but in reality, only 11/12,000 turned up- except for the big games against Leeds etc, or when the away team brought a big following.

I heard the Radio Leeds commentator scream ‘never’ when yesterday’s crowd was announced, and if true, wonder if a similar situation to Huddersfield is occurring, with many ticket holders deciding to cherry pick which games they attended? On one hand, you would expect most to cherry pick an attractive first home game of the season, on the other, weather and personal commitments may be a factor. Was it really Lee Crooks commentating on the game? I was not paying attention.

If, as suggested somewhere else, Wigan brought 2/3,000, about 12,000 Bulls fans must have attended. Last season’s opener v Saints pulled in 10,165, and in 2009, Bulls first game v Hull KR attracted 12,141, with the KR contingent similar to Wigan’s. On both occasions, it seems Bulls supporters made up around 9,000 of the gate.

I read somewhere Bulls have never sold over 5,000 season tickets before, or maybe it was a long time ago if they have, and another poor season on the field could highlight a farcical situation. All football clubs now calculated attendances based on season ticket sales, plus those paying on the gate- including away fans; no matter if, fewer actually turn up. I presume Bulls are following suit. The bigger the crowds, the more attractive you are as a business proposition.

If, God forbid, Bulls fail to deliver on the field, will the club still be quoting crowds of circa 11,000- plus those paying on the gate, when only 6,000 are actually in the ground? It could be embarrassing.

The ground was more full than I have seen it for a long time.

I don't think the reported attendance was far wrong. Even if maybe that did not suit the agenda of the Radio Leeds commentator.

Well from my family/group of close friends who bought season tickets there were 3 of us out of a possible 6 who didn't go. None of it was due to cherry picking games due to the teams we were playing.

2 of them were working and 1 of them is not likely to go until the temperature improves a bit due to their age and less commitment to rugby than the rest of us.

When those factors (work and cold) are not there though they will be attending every game as they aren't bothered who we are playing, they just want to watch the Bulls.

If our group can fluctuate so much from week to week due to circumstances beyond our control then I'm sure the same can be said for many other families/groups of friends who bought season tickets.

If we don't have a successful season we will still be going as after 3 to 4 matches we essentially have a free pass to go watch rugby and who wouldn't want to take advantage of that?

That Radio Leeds commentator was Terry Crook.

Only my personal opinion but I thought it was more than the 15,000 figure because the Popular side was full, the Rooley Lane end was about 60% full and you have to ask yourself where could you fit another 11,000 supporters into the ground yesterday?

I don't think I've seen Odsal that full for about 4 years. Hopefully we can keep up those attendances, even if it means it's harder to get to the bar.

You could tell it was a good crowd because of how busy it was outside, not taken me that long to get away from ground for years

Never ceases to amaze me how the (presumably) totally mad management at the Bulls over-declare the attendance at some games, yet under-declare it at others.

But I know they do, because people on here vehemently tell me they do. And so it must be true.



I've been attending Odsal for some decades and can tell you within about 5% what the attendance is, just from experience. On Sunday, the popular side was a busy as it's been for a while, and the main stand was unusually and noticeably well attended. Wigan also brought a fair few, with the result that Rooley Lane end, whilst not packed, was busy. Looked like 15,000 to me, and so it was.

Can't for the life of me think why Terry Crooks would be so taken aback by the announcement that he seemingly actually made some disbelieving comment. We have 11,000+ season ticket holders, there's those that come on the day, and there was a healthy following from Wigan, so why TF [iwouldn't[/i it be 15K?

Conspiracy numpties on forums is one thing, but I'd have thought responsible broadcasters ought to be a bit more circumspect than casting aspersions about a club's honesty in declaring an attendance.

It doesn't really matter, your club has sold over 10k season tickets and have all of the money from them. Who cares if only 8k of them turn up for quins at home, you can be sure that it will be 20k for the Leeds game and happy days at Odsal.

I have been to Odsal many times before and the seating was a lot more full than it usually is and the popular side looking a lot more packed than usual plus there was a good few thousand around the corner and a load of Wiganers. It looked like 15k to me so whats to moan about really?

Praise the club and your fans rather than finding something to moan about.

indeed, i've not seen the pop stand that full for quite a few years. deffo a 15k attendance.

Just two things to say about the size of the crowd on Sunday:

1 - Bloody

2 - Marvellous!

Regardless of the crowd figure, isn't it just damned un-professional of any radio commentator to make such an unfavourable, disbelieving comment ?

Then again, he works for Radio Leeds and that says it all

Well it's certainly been a few years since I've had someone elbowing me in the back all match turning round to chat to their mates!

Great start to the year. Let's hope we keep it up.

Instead of moaning why not email the bloke and ask him why he was so incredulous. I doubt he has a nefarious agenda. terry.crook@superleedsrhinos.co.uk

Instead of moaning why not email the bloke and ask him why he was so incredulous. I doubt he has a nefarious agenda. terry.crook@superleedsrhinos.co.uk

Quote ="Shaggoth"Instead of moaning why not email the bloke and ask him why he was so incredulous. I doubt he has a nefarious agenda. terry.crook@superleedsrhinos.co.uk'"

Quote ="Shaggoth"Instead of moaning why not email the bloke and ask him why he was so incredulous. I doubt he has a nefarious agenda. terry.crook@superleedsrhinos.co.uk'"

Yeah it's Terry Crook though I'm surprised he got to commentate on "the big one". I'll tell you about him before they changed the texting process on Radio Leeds I used to spend my Sunday afternoons when Bulls were away or played earlier texting weird comments into RL with JD. One Sunday afternoon I managed to get loads read out one of them was a comment from a Huddersfield fan talking about how beating Leeds was almost as satisfying as selling her cheating husband's record collection. JD read it out before going to the Tetley's stadium for an update from Tery Cook who spent the next five minutes (slight exaggeration) talking about how some old records are worth decent amounts of brass. The best one that afternoon was following a last gasp victory the following Thursday night for Halifax. JD read the text out with great enthusiasm before tailing off to the end (they mustn't get much time to proof read them) as he read out about how it was exciting but not the best for "Les in Mytholmroyd" considering he only has one lung! Jamie Bloom made a load sigh on air clearly not impressed.

Did anyone read Mick Gledhill's comments in the League Weekly or League Express (can't remember which) this week? Not a letter on the letter's page but an actual comment with photo!

He's in LW every week mate.

Anyway, I knew what HE looks like. Your turn now...

I quite like the Radio Leeds people, even though they are as biased as they come to 'their' sides. Actually that's not quite true, I was forgetting David Doyle Davidson on radio Blunderside, and [ino one [/i can be more biased than that. I just wish they would get some new lines instead of referring to "The Odsal mudbath", which it hasn't been for (well) over thirty years.