Personally , I'd let them in cheaper , or at least contribute to their travel costs

The building of a good atmosphere at sporting events cannot be underestimated , especially in the long term benifits of building a good home support base

Rubbish. Do you think Manchester United are bothered about the 2 or 3 thousand city fans that attend or at any of their home matches for that fact. They could fill the ground with all home fans without much detriment to atmosphere. People live in a dream world. Get your own fans in first and worry about away fans later.

I'd happily go to watch Warrington infront of 13,024 home fans every week. We lose 10% of the tickets on away fans anyway.

I agree, a good atmosphere is likely to pull more supporters in. I have to pick and choose away games due to money, and I always choose the games with the best atmosphere.

I also agree with Lefty that it is up to the clubs to fill their own stadium. The only reason united have away fans is because the FA say you must give a certain number of tickets to away fans.

I am not saying it would be good with no away fans, but it would be great if we didn't need them.

Your letting your heights rule your head again.

Warrington need a bigger ground should the progression continue, but if you lose a couple, you will soon see a diference in attendance. Warrington are not a Leeds or Wigan (Yet)

Just look at Leeds. Like Wigan, they used to hold their attendances, but crowds of 12-13000 will result in Leeds not being the force they have been. Some attendances for some teams this year have been shocking.

As I said before, some current SL sides are going to struggle and are only in it for the Sky handout. 2-3000 crowds will effect the league dramatically in terms of teams really feeling the pinch.

The sides that will be effected in my opinion are Salford and Harlequins. If they don't start wining soon, things may get a little interesting.

What are you on about. I am talking about getting home fans in through the door. I have agreed with you about our crowd. The people behind the scenes at Warrington have to work really hard to get bums on seat as believe or not Warrington has a large population that travel and support local premiership football sides.

With the team not performing for so many years now the struggle has become increasingly more difficult. The key to our recent increase has been a new stadium which seems to be the answer if your not Leigh that is.

Back to the break down of fans though. Every club in this country would love all home fans in the ground as they make more money out of them.

So you use the one club potentially in the whole world that fills it's stadium for every match to make your point

Which RL club in the UK is currently anywhere near that situation ? , which RL club in the UK is making a profit ?

For RL to grow as a major sport it needs to increase all revenue streams , the major one is the TV revenue , TV companies prefer to see stadiums full when they are paying to show that sport , part of helping to build home support is having a good away following

when you do get to the stage where you are selling out every match to your home support then fine , the lack of away support is not very important

NO british RL club is anywhere near thet level at the moment

So it is you who is talking rubbish here , maybe Quins would be happier without any away fans , at least they would then be in the majority

Away fans are as relevant to the game as home fans, which is why I have said previously that away following should be reflected in the franchise scoring process. More away fans means more money into clubs to invest into the team, facilities, youth development whatever. If points are awarded for over 40% of capacity and over 10,000 average why not also for level of travelling support?

No club is at that level but that is what we should be aiming for. I am not saying that a club is anywhere near that level. What I AM saying is that ALL focus should be first and foremost aimed at getting locals in through the turnstiles. Any away fans that turn up are a bonus. They are a luxury not necessity. As for you Barnacle Bill well I despair.

Quins would be happier if they were getting 12000 home fans in every game so what is your point?

An increase in home fans = an incremental increase in away fans anyway, so the whole argument is invalid.

Not really but thanks for contributing.

What, so you're denying that a bigger fan base isn't naturally going to lead to more travelling support?

WHAT a LOAD of coddswallop.
How on earth do you expect to measure this? No, go on..humour me...
Lefty does have a point and I don't think he's necessarily disagreeing with you other guys.

It can do but not always. Therefore making your point invalid.

Anyway if that is a product of increasing home crowds then great it sort of goes to prove my point anyway. Get locals in first the rest will follow suit.

Of course it does. If X percentage of fans travel, and there are more fans, then there's obviously going to be more travelling fans. Even if not, there's going to be a bigger pool of potential travelling fans to draw from so this is obviously going to boost numbers. I was agreeing with you. It's a pathetic cop-out when people make a big issue of away support.

Yes agreed.

One point to be considered is the potential financial value of a second french team in television terms. As it stands, the Dragons have brought French TV to the table, but French TV are paying close to zilch for the rights. If having a second (or third) French team in SL means that the French broadcasters are willing to pay, then it may (I stress may) be worth bringing more French teams on board. In the NRL, the most valuable team for the competition are the NZ Warriors because Sky NZ pay for the NRL comp and wouldn't do if the Warriors weren't playing. The Dragons have made the comp more glamourous to Sky, but a second french team (with poss exception of Paris) would make little difference to Sky. In summary, Sky pay approx £1.2 million per club per season for Super League. Quite simply if a French broadcaster can be persuaded to spend £3 million for French rights for 2 French teams, then a second French team would be a good idea. If they'll put up £5million for 3 clubs, even better. But without that kind of cash, SL will have to stick with just one French side.
On a separate, but related question. Do the Quins add anything to the amount of money Sky are willing to spend?
The simple answer is... [uprobably[/u.
I say that because Sky Sports have (privately) always insisted that there is a London side in the competition. Sky aint a charity, so they must have done sufficient research to find out that they can sell more subscriptions to the south of England on the basis of a London club.
Personally, I'm an expansionista by inclination. I tire of supporters of traditional clubs with poor crowds and facilities who want to claim a place at the top table because of history rather than potential. (By the way, we rarely hear from Widnes/Cas/Wakey/Fev fans, that clubs such as Swinton or Oldham deserve a SL place despite their equally glorious history).
But expansionistas must be realistic. If the numbers don't add up, there should be no further expansion. TO and PSG would be fantastic additions, but as the old phrase goes, "Show us the money".

Totally agree, main reason for attending games live instead of watching on tv.

I'd love to see SL form a sponsorship deal with a national coach provider that gave clubs free coach travel for fans to away games. Clubs could sell tickets for 1pound each to determine number needed each week and the coach company provides as many buses as needed in return for a major sponsorship deal.

Would really encourage away fans to attend imo if they didn't have to worry about parking, fuel costs, traffic jams, could have a beer etc.

Come on RFL make it so!

"The building of a good atmosphere at sporting events cannot be underestimated".

It must be pretty small if it cannot be [uunder[/uestimated. Do you mean that it [ushould[/u not be underestimated?

Well you might consider the number of tickets the away club sells for starters. That might be a reasonable way to measure number of away supporters.

Have you ever bought an away ticket from your club? Me and the 6 guys i'm going st helens with haven't.
Warrington's a big place, it's too much of an effort for me to mess around going to the club shop

Can you pay on the turnstile at Warrington ?

Can you pay on the turnstile at Saints ?

If it meant you got free transport to Saints if you bought a ticket from the HJ a week earlier , would you buy a ticket ?

Possibly but I dont think I could be bothered with the hassle of travelling into warrington and plenty others wouldnt.
Alright idea in principle, in reality it'd never work

Can you pay on the turnstile at Warrington ?

Can you pay on the turnstile at saints ?

I'm missing your point fella.
If we're giving license points on the amount of away fans in the away end, Saints don't have one as such, you walk all the way round the stadium and the Warrington away end is usually full of Warrington supporters. For the Wigan game it was a third full of wire fans, sooo how many do wigan count towards their application.

Can you pay at the turnstile at Warrington ?

Can you pay at the turnstile at Saints ?

How hard a question are you finding this ?