I think the RFL/clubs should offer a package in addition to season tickets. So you can buy say WCC/international/Magic Weekend/CC round/CC Semi/CC Final/GF and choose 3 or more and the level of ticket and get a discount accordingly, more tickets bought, better discount. Also an away fan season ticket, say a half season or full season, you pick which teams.
Now everything is compue=terised it's easy to allocate the monies to each club based on what any given away fan has bought, also buying one benefits your own team who get a % of the advanced ticket sales.
However because tickets have being heavily discounted in the past for main events fans now just wait for tickets to be given away. if the RFL stop doing this fans either pay or don't, if they don't go then it's them missing out. We've already seen what happens when you devalue something by giving it away for nothing/low amount. The suggestion by some fans that tickets are expensive (unless discounted) and is given as the reason not to go, is by and large invalid IMHO.
Sure, some simply can't afford to go, i totally get that, but making out that a few quid makes the difference (the disciount amount) is nonsense when most would mickey that amount on a couple of pints/packet of fags.

As an aside, I long for Sunday games at FC, not just because I live in the South and getting up for a Friday is a real bind most of the season but also because games up until May can be absolutely fuggin freezing, we would do miles better with Sunday afternoon games and I really don't beleive that friday's are better at all.

Given how the allocation of tickets for the FC/leeds game was absolutely farcical with fans queing outside the ground from the evening before because the allocations were relatively small and perception of not getting enough tickets (we ended up with blocks of Leeds tickets in the end) meant that some fans were put off, some couldn't get to sit together once the 'members' had had theirs and/or in an area of the stadium they wanted to sit.
A bigger stadia allays all of that and cuts down costs to the RFL so there should be more money to the clubs.
You could even have a double seat allocation, seat in the cop end for your teams game and one somewhere else when the other two teams are playing. Big enough ground it would be doable.

Mate your argument is awful. Cas is a small town and for the population it holds we have the best % who attend games. For where Wigan are as a club your support is pants.

You won't reply to my other points because I'm right. Maybe not a couple thousand but not a massive following. Big club like Wigan should have a much better support. Simple.

Semi finals for big clubs like Wigan are ten a penny and the novalty for the part timers wears off sadly. When you're an unsuccessful club like Cas, big games like a semi or a final are fresh and you get friends, family members etc who wouldn't dream of going to a game usually turning up.

Wigan were the second best supported club at the weekend, Cas weren't even in the top four

Salford and Hull took more than Wigan so I've heard.

Cas weren't in the top 4 pal but are in the league. Just saying.

So, what you are saying is that the majority of Wigan fans are just glory hunters, waiting to go to a cup final and cant be bothered supporting their team in the earlier rounds.
Ten a penny = Part time supporters

Salford took more than Wigan? Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. No.

Well Cas should have a semi final in a few weeks at their Home ground, let's see how many they sell

No, but Wigan is neither a particularly well populated or affluent town and financial decisions must be made for families and such, particularly in the first week of summer holidays and on the back of talking huge support to Newcastle, 2,000+ to Perpignan and at the end of a spell of 2 straight months of consecutive away games.

You can only dream of the support we have, and you know it.

If anything it's teams like us and Salford where fans look like part timers considering in the last two years we've both taken more than our average home crowds to a semi final.

Yes I said that on page one of this thread, hardly now a revelation.

Totally agree with the Wigan fans on this one. It's just a random game to them, seeing how often they have been in a semi final before. It's easy for cas fans to point the figure considering they have never been In a semi final before

Regards

King James

Lol.
Our home crowds have been awful this season and we still average nearly 14,000, yours is 8,700. We also have a football team to compete with. Well done on the "highest percentage of townspeople attending" award though.

You heard wrong mate. Only Hull took more to a semi final than Wigan at the weekend. It ain't anything to brag about mind! The crowds across the board aren't good enough.

You might want to brush up on your RL history there. Cas Tigers have have been to a semi final.

A Wakefield fan....seriously?!



Better part time then not at all! I love threads like this when teams like Wigan and Leeds get a bagging because 'some' of their supporters have got a bit too used to big games. Those two clubs have had the biggest average attendances in the league for donkeys years, they hold all the crowd records and take healthy away followings (compared to most other clubs) around the superleague grounds but because they didn't take 50% of their population to a semi, fans of teams who've been dragging the averages down since superleague begin spy an oppprtinity.

Cup attendances are an issue for the whole game to work put. Superleague attendances are an issue for a handful of clubs to find answers to.

Hmmm, so because finals/semis are ten a penny Wigan fans can't be d.
1959 27,906 v Leigh @ Swinton
1961 35,118 v Halfiax @ swinton
1963 21,420 v HKR @ leeds
1965 26,658 v Swinton @ 'tellins
1966 22,758 v leeds @ Hudds
1968 30,058 v leeds @ swinton
1970 18,495 v HKR @ Leeds
that's 7 semis in 12 years

1988 20,783 v salford @Bolton
1989 26,529 v Warrington @Maine Rd.
1990 26,489 v St.Helens @Old Trafford
1991 19,057 v Oldham @ Bolton
1992 18,027 v Bradford @ Bolton
1993 20,085 v Bradford @ elland Rd.
1994 17,049 v Cas @ Headingly
1995 12,749 v Oldham @ Hudds

I guess by '95 Wigan fans were bored to tears of winning everything with a team laden with bought internationals.

I don't get the apathy tbh (from any club) excuses like it's not on the season ticket are garbage, the interest in the game isn't what it once was and I can't see that changing significantly anytime soon.

Bingo! We have a winner.

As I said it's a problem for the whole game to fix. If Wigan and Leeds are only taking less then 6,000 fans to semi finals then it shouldn't be celebrated.

A double header could be a quick win for the game. Decent sized stadium, reasonable ticket prices and a bit of marketing and there would be no reason they shouldn't be able to get crowds in.

Cant see the BBC allowing that. Good idea in theory though

Double headers would achieve nothing.

26k total attendance for the two semis. I reckon you could easy get 30-35k for a double header at the Etihad.

A double header would only serve to paper over the cracks.

The semi-final attendances are just another symptom of a serious and worrying apathy towards the game from many of it's traditional hardcore fans.
We've talked about it plenty, but that apathy is a culmination of lots of things, the main being;
- Various league formats that have over saturated what were once deemed as 'big games' (in years gone by all fans of the game would look forward to a Wigan/Saints, Leeds/Bradford, Wigan/Leeds, Saints/Wire, Saints/Leeds etc), now even fans of those teams aren't that fired up for those games
- Various rule changes have sanitised the game, so it's not so much of a gladatorial battle - having a proper battle on the pitch, followed by a beer afterwards is part of the fabric of our game - the softening up period, forwards having a good old school battle and being enforcers, the odd bit of biff to sort out players who step out of line, or go too far with cheap tactics (you wouldn't get half as much of the cheap stuff like cannon ball tackles, niggle, wrestle if players were allowed to sort it out themselves. (I believe the loss of this element of the game to try and make it more family friendly has actually driven many of the traditional fans away and is a big reason the old rivalry games don't float peoples boat as much nowadays)
- The lack of genuine confrontation and fireworks in a game, plus new soul-less stadiums has had a significant impact on the atmosphere and feeling within the ground at live games - you rarely get that spine tingling feeling at a game anymore, so watching it on TV doesn't feel like you're missing as much as it used to do (I'll never forget the atmosphere at Central Park when Cassidy elbowed Morley in the face - the hatred, the anger and the anticipation of how the Leeds players were going to right that wrong made for the best atmosphere I've ever known at a game - you simply don't get that anymore. If there's a bad tackle, the player goes on report and the other players have no real way of settling it.
- A decline in standards of teams

So whilst plenty of people will still buy season tickets as part of family tradition, with home games being part of their routine, when it comes to one off games where they then have to dip their hands in their pockets, people are finding something better to do with their money, or are happy to just watch it on the TV. The product isn't as good anymore, and the benefit ofattending live over watching on TV has significantly reduced.

As we all know, there are serious issues within the game - but lets keep papering over the cracks, put a positive spin on things and burry our heads in the sand.

Cant argue with any of that and part of the problem with RL is that any "growth" in the sport is coming from taking more and more money from existing supporters, rather than working harder to attract new supporters.
There is no doubt that when less fashionable clubs make it to a semi final, its a much bigger deal than when Leeds or Wigan get there.
However, the numbers of Wigan fans at Doncaster last year were absolutely pitiful and although more of you made it to Warrington, the place should have been sold out.

As for the Wembley final, I'm still dreaming of seeing Trinity get there, it's been a long time.