Would this work?

All tickets to a superleague game Away from home is for example £10 or £12 per adult. Every team in the league would love to boost bums on seats. As a Wigan fan, we have a situation tomorrow where it will cost £25 to see us play Hull. I know for a fact that hundreds are boycotting/can't afford to pay so much so it seems madness why Hull would charge it.Adding that to traveling costs to Hull and other spends you are talking a small fortune. In my opinion, there should be incentives for people who make the effort to follow their teams across the country. This could be policed simply by selling to season ticket holders of the opposition (to avoid home fans purchasing away stand tickets). I would have no problems at all knowing a Salford, Wakefield , Bradford fan etc have only paid £10 to see their team play us at the DW providing attendances show an increase.
Would you?
Some of the away followings in superleague are embarrassing

I think even better would be for the RFL to get sponsorship deals with major coach companies. Every club offer return coach travel plus game entry for 25quid. Max 15 coaches per club giving around 750 travelling fans. Home club gets 10 quid a head plus big food and drinks sales and the games get great atmospheres etc.

same moan different title!

It's 2012. £25 really isn't all that much anymore.

Hundreds boycotting, fook me, given you normally bring a few hundred at best I fully expect an an empty north stand tomorrow.

Can you also explain how Hull fans are exempt from travel costs (extra significant given the closest away ground is Cas) & other spends given they seem to make to to most away grounds in reasonable numbers? It can't just be the £5 pound less (or 6 pounds if we decide to go in the other end of the stadium) it costs to get in at Wigan.

if u earn £1000 per week i guess not if u earn £200 a week it is

if u think wigan only bring a few hundred i suggest a trip down to spec savers

I dont know how it would work, but a home and away season ticket would be excellent. There should be some way of sharing out the revenue that would encourage more away support.
The comments on here are all valid regarding entrance costs, plus trave and if there are families travelling together its certainly an expensive afternoon out (even with the cheap kids tickets).

I am not sure it would boost crowds enough to make it worthwhile, it would just mean taking less money from the same people who would go anyway

No you don't know, you are guessing (exaggerating).

Just to point out that Hull FC and Hull KR fans have numerous long trips along the M62. We are each other's only other club within 50 miles or so.

Wigan have Saints, Warrington, Widnes and Salford all within 20 miles. That would be like Hull playing in Brough, Hessle, Beverley and Giberdyke.

an 'away' season ticket could be a potential idea - just put all the money from that into a pot and split it equally amongst the clubs. would need some consideration around Catalans and London, which are 2 that most 'away' fans are less likely to go to, so a few different options would be needed (e.g. 6 games for £100, 10 for £175 or all 13 incl. Magic weekend for £200).

The problems with offering an 'away season ticket' are that it would need the clubs to publish and fix a price for their 'away stand' months before the season starts, so that an accurate price is calculated for the offer.

the next issue is how you distribute the revenue, do the clubs promoting the tickets get a commission?

the other issue is that each ground would have to 'reserve' a space for the away season ticket holders which could be an issue at the smaller capacity grounds. For example if Hull sold 500 away season tickets, HullKR would have to keep space for 500 fans free at Craven Park...when potentially not all 500 fans may turn up.

Exactly. Like you say barring HKR our (and Rovers) closest away trip is 50 odd miles away, people seem to forget that. West Yorkshire teams are an hour away from East Yorkshire and Lancashire, and the Lancashire teams like you point out have three or four sides within a 20 mile radius. Driving to Huddersfield last weekend who are a Yorkshire side still took close to two hours, yet there will still 2500 FC fans in attendance. Every other week we have uproar about our pricing for away supporters, yet the reality is that even if we let away fans in for a fiver, we would still see the same pathetic numbers travelling from most teams.

I had an away season ticket when I was a junior, never caused any problems in terms of capacity
But free junior season tickets are revenue generators as you cant go on your own, adult season tickets not so much as I mentioned above - and it would leave even more of the money clubs earn front loaded in the season, that would be bad for those poorly managed clubs who spend it all when they get it
also, you dont get a medal for travelling further than others, it's not a big deal

How about supporters realise that entertainment comes at a price?

Every single crowds threat on here descends into a call for "cheap tickets", "free cup tickets" or some form of concession. Are fans from other sports this averse to paying the going rate for live sport?

How about reducing the cost of season tickets to say £70 if 12,000 people say sign up for one? Not only will it bring more people in but they'll also donate the rest of the season ticket cost if you ask for it mid season.

Yours


Peter Hood

away season tickets are a good idea in my view. if not that then you should be able to buy bundles of tickets for a lower price. the next 5 away games for 70quid etc. live sport does come at a price but more should be done to try and increase attendances.

Aside from a few clubs, RL fans are well known to be poor travellers if it's anything more than an hour or so. I can't honestly believe the whining and moaning about an extra couple of quid more to sit in the KC (specifically) that has been spouted on another thread.
If supposedly hundreds of Wigan fans are not coming/boycotting tomorrow because they have to pay £23 (ticket price in advance) to watch their team in the best SL stadium then it's a poor reflection on Wigan fans IMO

A full away season ticket won't work for the simple fact that not all fans can make all games, a batch of 5 or 10 games might but you'd have to get them to go to specific games so the club would know whom to pay what after arranging an advance group ticket purchase rate, basically it would work out far too complex for clubs with too much hassle involved.

I would think given what away fans are like for the most part this would have a very low take up in any case especially when you take the upfront cost involved on top of a home season ticket.
Let's be honest, only the two Hull clubs travel in numbers no matter how far nor how much they have to pay,(that doesn't obviously include 'local' matches a few miles up the road) clearly both hull clubs fans put far more into all the other SL clubs coffers than do other SL teams fans coming over for the return fixtures on the East coast.
In any case, fans like travelling in small groups as it affords them flexibility for travelling arrangements so don't think hiring loads of coaches would work either

Rugby League, working man's game...blah blah blah. A Wigan vs. St. Helens/Warrington/Leeds ticket at £18 in my stand is underpriced as far as i'm concerned.

u must have more money than most or less sense

The people I work with seem to find the money to pay for a Man Utd/City ticket at £40 a time and that's like watching paint dry, even they admit they rarely enjoy it.

In my opinion, keep away tickets the same as home as not to cause problems and the only free tickets should go to under 16's season ticket holders.

More positive interaction with the local community and media would help. Most of our clubs are happy to take the sky money and just see what happens with crowds, then blame the RFL for not making them more successful.

For once she's right. Try having a look at tickets for RU matches (not the Wembley giveaways that Sarries lose money on), far more expensive. Having said that, the current Hull tactic of charging visitors more than home fans is a disgrace.

I paid 19 quid to watch Northampton v Bradford from behind the goal in league 2 the other day. Unbelievable.

Both Hull clubs must be (well are) looking at different ways to generate cash other than away fans. Away fans constantly have excuses ,some rightly expressed, of why they shouldn't travel to Hull.

Well the Hull clubs are now looking at ways for their fans to spend money at their clubs and not travel in their numbers, then after they've raised their home crowds by reducing ticket prices for home supporters you can all and moan why they don't boost your attendances any more.