Enough to finance the best Championship squad next year

A bolted on victory against no-marks in one of the worst weeks in the club's history. I went in to work this morning and considered staying there instead of going myself.

Maybe potential investors will take heart from the fact that Bradford's lowest ever SL-era attendance is higher than last year's league leaders attendance when St.Helens visited, one of the eras most trophied clubs. It's an aspirational figure for all bar one of the other clubs in the county against opposition that can be expected to turn up with any fans at all.

For Bradford it's a shocking disgrace and proof of something, probably that they ought to go down.

I suggested on Page 2 of this thread that Bradford's opening attendance of 8,214 against Castleford in Round 1 could well be their 2nd highest home attendance of the season (Leeds obviously being the highest) which drew this [url=http://viewtopic.php?p=17712372&tsmp=1393790510#p17712372"what a contrived, if-my-aunty-had-balls load of piffle" type response from Ferocious Aardvark[/url (No surprises there).

My suggestion was based on two premises...

1) The Round 1 attendance of 8,214 against Castleford was Bradford's lowest ever opening home attendance of any SL season and the [url=http://viewtopic.php?p=17712581&tsmp=1393791992#p17712581first time Bradford have failed to record a five-figure opening home attendance of the season during the entire SL era[/url.

2) Bradford Bulls opening home game of every SL season from 2009 has ended up being their 2nd highest home attendance of the season, the exception to the rule being the occasion when they opened their season at home to Catalan Dragons in Round 1 in 2012 and 10,610 turned up.

2009: 1st Bradford V Leeds 14,554 in Round 8, 2nd Bradford V Hull KR 12,141 in Round 1
2010: 1st Bradford V Leeds 13,269 in Round 15, 2nd Bradford V St Helens 10,165 in Round 2
2011: 1st Bradford V Leeds 19,275 in Round 11, 2nd Bradford V Wigan 15,348 in Round 1
2012: 1st Bradford V Leeds 20,851 in Round 10, 2nd Bradford V Wigan 12,909 in Round 3
2013: 1st Bradford V Leeds 12,016 in Round 14, 2nd Bradford V Wakefield 10,263 in Round 1
=#FF00002014: 1st Bradford V Leeds ?????? in Round 9, 2nd Bradford V Castleford 8,214 in Round 1????

You forgot to mention Bradford's attendance against London today was 83 higher than Widnes managed in Round 1.

Nah, I didn't. No disrespect intended to Widnes but I don't give a flying one about their crowds, especially on a comparative basis with my own club's. Different kind of town almost entirely.

relegation battle driving increased interest and attendances at clubs not competing for the play-offs. Problem was previously they werent playing for anything. British sporting psyche isnt it.

As evidenced at Bradford, Wakefield and London.

Its a good job Bradford are getting rid of their players too, obviously thats the route to strength. The Administrator must be raking it in today having saved Scruton and Sammuts wages as well cutting the attendance by roughly a quarter.

Hey William, you really like statistics don’t ‘ya

.

You must be missing the job this season, go on admit it, just a little bit?

The Bradford crowd isn’t helping with the coffers, I’d have thought a decent percentage are S.T holders?

I presume their playing away next week, so, there’s not a lot of cash coming in for the foreseeable.

Its called sport, there are winners and losers, or we could all just watch the wrestling

It is sport and there are winners and losers. No need for P+R in that though.

And as is being shown, it doesnt drive interest or attendances> it in fact does the opposite. The bottom 3 clubs, the ones currently affected by it are showing a clear and large drop in attendances.

Their ' loss ' others will ' win ' , as I said, watch the wrestling if you dont like it

Will they?

Where are they then? Where are the Bradford, Wakefield and London fans going to watch RL now they arent going to Bradford, Wakefield and London?

Which promoted team is going to bring the 10-12k to the table Bradford did? The 6/7k Wakefield did?

Where's the games 'win'.

Is every sport without P+R, wrestling? Is the NRL wrestling?

The point of the top league is to be the biggest and best it can. If you dont like that, there is plenty of amateur RL for you to go watch.

Slight confusion about one of the crowds, Catalan v Leeds was given as 6,300 (looked much bigger) on SportingLife but 8,500 by Catalan themselves. Also, does anyone know the official attendance for Halifax v Batley? (stated as a clearly incorrect 300 on SportingLife and BBC)

1,798 according to League Express.

The 8500 figure seems to be being passed around between the clubs.

The factors behind the drop in attendances at Wakey, Bulls and Broncos is nothing to do with P&R. I think it will have no impact on attendances either way until the end of the season when there might be one or two big deciding games.

whether or not the drops seen at these clubs is caused by P+R (and there has been a correlation to clubs attendances dropping when in a relegation fight during the last P+R failure) is irrelevant. What we can see, is that it is not driving an increase in attendance as was argued previously.

It was argued avoiding relegation gave clubs something to play for, that we would see clubs who would otherwise stagnate during that season see renewed interest and attendances because of the 'jeopardy' relegation created. This hasnt happened.

This from a data set of 3 rounds.

There is time to change, but thats what the data is telling us now, and it goes against what those in favour of P+R were saying after round 1.

[uSL Round 3 attendances - comparison to same fixtures last year
[/u

Salford V St Helens in 2014 = 6,353
Salford V St Helens in 2013 = 3,248
% increase = +95.60%

Catalan V Leeds in 2014 = 8,500 =#FF0000*SUSPICIOUS ROUNDED CROWD NUMBER*
Catalan V Leeds in 2013 = 9,465
% decrease = -10.20%

Hull KR V Castleford in 2014 = 7,022
Hull KR V Castleford in 2013 = 6,489
% increase = +8.21%

Widnes V Huddersfield in 2014 = 5,577
Widnes V Huddersfield in 2013 = 5,173
% increase = +7.81%

Bradford V London in 2014 = 5,410 =#FF0000*LOWEST ODSAL CROWD EVER IN SL*
Bradford V London in 2013 = 7,148
% decrease = -24.31%

Warrington V Hull in 2014 = 10,276
Warrington V Hull in 2013 = 9,387
% increase = +9.47%

Wigan V Wakefield in 2014 = 11,703
Wigan V Wakefield in 2013 = 12,152
% decrease = -3.69%


Total Attendance in SL Round 3 = 54,841 (Avg: 7,834)
Total Attendance same fixtures last year = 53,062 (Avg: 7,580)
% increase = +3.35%

**********************
[i4 out of 7 fixtures in Round 3 have shown an increase in attendance compared to the same SL fixtures last year.
[/i
**********************



[uChampionship Round 3 attendances - comparison to same fixtures last year
[/u

Sheffield V Barrow in 2014 = 900
Sheffield V Barrow in 2013 = 1,177
% decrease = -23.53%

Crusaders V Featherstone in 2014 = 1,418 =#FF0000*HIGHEST CROWD SINCE CRUSADERS REBIRTH*
Crusaders V Featherstone in 2013 = N/A

Doncaster V Dewsbury in 2014 = 744
Doncaster V Dewsbury in 2013 = 857
% decrease = -13.19%

Halifax V Batley in 2014 = 1,798
Halifax V Batley in 2013 = 1,778
% increase = +1.12%

Leigh V Whitehaven in 2014 = 2,006
Leigh V Whitehaven in 2013 = 1,523
% increase = +31.71%

Rochdale V Keighley in 2014 = 726
Rochdale V Keighley in 2013 = N/A

Workington V Swinton in 2014 = 663
Workington V Swinton in 2013 = 676
% decrease = -1.92%


Total Attendance for comparable games in Championship Round 3 = 6,111 (Avg: 1,222)
Total Attendance same fixtures last year = 6,011 (Avg: 1,202)
% increase = +1.66%

**********************
[i2 out of 5 comparable fixtures in Round 3 have shown an increase in attendance compared to the same Championship fixtures last year.[/i

**********************



[uChampionship 1 Round 1 attendances - comparison to same fixtures last year
[/u

Hemel V Hunslet in 2014 = 450
Hemel V Hunslet in 2013 = N/A

Oxford V London Skolars in 2014 = 435
Oxford V London Skolars in 2013 = 318
% increase = +36.79%

South Wales V Oldham in 2014 = 458
South Wales V Oldham in 2013 = 324
% increase = +41.36%

York V Gloucestershire in 2014 = 648
York V Gloucestershire in 2013 = N/A

Total Attendance for comparable games in Championship 1 Round 1 = 893 (Avg: 447)
Total Attendance same fixtures last year = 642 (Avg: 321)
% increase = +39.25%


**********************
[i2 out of 2 comparable fixtures in Round 1 have shown an increase in attendance compared to the same Championship 1 fixtures last year.[/i

**********************

[iTotal Attendance for comparable games in SL and Championships Round 3 = 61,845 (Avg: 4,41icon_cool.gif
Total Attendance same fixtures last year = 59,715 (Avg: 4,265)
% increase = +3.59%[/i

**********************

[uSL Attendances[/u

Round 1 - =#00BF0010.38% increase
Round 2 - =#FF00000.28% decrease
Round 3 - =#00BF003.35% increase

Total
[i2014 [/i- 174,998
[i2013 [/i- 166,496
% increase = +5.11%

[uChampionship Attendances[/u

Round 1 - =#00BF0039.67% increase
Round 2 - =#FF000011.41% decrease
Round 3 - =#00BF001.66% increase

Total (for comparable fixtures only)
[i2014 [/i- 19,673
[i2013 [/i- 18,031
% increase = +9.11%

[uChampionship 1 Attendances[/u

Round 1 - =#00BF0039.25% increase

Total (for comparable fixtures only)
[i2014 [/i- 893
[i2013 [/i- 642
% increase = +39.25%


[size=150[uTotal[/u (for comparable fixtures only)

[i2014 [/i- 195,564
[i2013 [/i- 185,169
% increase = +5.61%[/size

The ' Win ' wont always match the ' loss ' or visa versa, or wont always happen at the same time, overal if the sport gains more interest then fine

Either way if the Bulls,Wakey and London ( although they have several different issues that could affect attendances this year ) fans cannot be bothered to support THEIR club because they are at risk, they are no great loss to the sport, the vast majority of sports fans never see their club win anything, good job they dont all jack in because of it

Super League XX will see the highest AVERAGE attendance for the competition in its 20th year.....if the RFL had figured out that all they had to do to BOOST AVERAGE attendances was get shot of London, we'd have been relegated a lot sooner



The Crowd at Bradford showed a quite alarming drop, regardless of the shenanigans at the club. As much as I berate the idiots who run the London Broncos at present, I'd still drag my 'arris to the Hive 13 times to cheer on the team...it's what being a "fan" is all about. The Bradford faithful need to get behind their team.....the more of them through the gates the more attractive an investment the club will seem!

If you were a potential investor and you read on here the loyal fans opinions of Mr Khan, and their thoughts on him recovering just a %age of the extremely large sum he put in to ' save THEIR Club, would you be interested?

Brilliant. Its great that the game is so flushed with money and fans that we can afford to alienate those who dont pass the 'starbug test for proper fans'

Im sure Bradford, London and Wakefield feel the big drop in revenue that these supporters bring is 'no great loss to the game'

Absolutely not. If I was seriously considering investing time money and effort into a business, I would ignore all commercial considerations and base my decisions on random posts by internet forum warriors.