The Tigers are not the only Super League club who need to work out their marketing.
As a game we are still coming up short here.

I'd be interested to hear Wakey fans' views on whether the marketing of their club has deteriorated as a consequence of abandoning the franchise experiment. My own view is that their club would spend as much as they possibly could on players regardless of the system, as no amount of marketing obscures the fact that a club is seriously under-gunned. Just my impression, mind, and I stand to be corrected by those who know better.

I can't be bothered to go through the whole thread, but does anyone know if the Super 8s were part of the season ticket for their club? I know Hull KR made all games in the league and 8s format, part of the season ticket. If other clubs got their fans to pay extra for the 8s fixtures then that could have been a reason for the drop in attendances.

Marketing at Wakefield wasn't too bad under the failed Glover/Elston regime and for a time, crowd numbers increased towards an 8000 average.
However, on the back of cheap tickets and overspending in most departments, the club was the brink.
Swingeing cuts followed and for 12 months or so, survival was the only aim and marketing spend was not much above nil.
Only now are we seeing a positive change and having used up yet another life, we are looking forward to a better future on and off the field.

Regardless of marketing, the new system, inflicts more damage on clubs at the lower end of SL than any level of marketing.

With the prospect of annual relegation battles, it becomes difficult to attract sponsors and spectators as the trap door to the Championship remains open.

Income is also adversely affected, with the prospect of playing Sheffield or Halifax at home, compared with home fixtures against any of the top 8 clubs (apart form Huddersfield

), there is a loss of revenue and attracting players, long after the top 8 have finalised their squads, becomes hazardous and expensive, which perpetuates the likelihood of remaining at the wrong end of the comp.

The new system, whilst allowing the possibility of promotion from the Championship will widen the gap between the haves and have not's and all the marketing in the world isn't going to change this.

The million pound game aside, which every club wants to avoid, the middle 8's are massively damaging to any club finishing outside the top 8.

Its sport, winners and losers in equal numbers

Yeah I agree that this is the only real sensible way to draw an accurate comparison.
From my observations as an FC season ticket holder, towards the back end of the 8's comp, a lot of our group despite also having season tickets, did not actually bother attending the match (I did attend FWIW) I would imagine that these people were included on the attendance as a ticket already sold? I would imagine, and be stunned whether or not people would have therefore paid to actually watch those matches. But, you could also argue that the same would be applicable in the old format.

reductive nonsense, a simple outlook for a simple person.

If this were true, were was the improvement congruent with the falls we saw at Bradford and London?

Stupid thread by stupid poster, trying to oversimplify a complicated issue by blaming the structure, and when showed up has tried their usual tactics of boring everybody into submission and then started insults

Usual nonsense

lovelorn puppy dog is not a good look for a 50+year old man.

it has been fun to watch yours and the usual RFL cheerleaders (If Ol Billy was right about only one thing (and he probably was only right about one thing) Moonies was a great description) desperately try and shut down any debate about improvement. Absolutely terrified about the question being asked, never mind its answer.

The same points could be got across though with reasoned (yet still strong) debate but characters like him and others approach it as a wind up merchant instead and trot out all that 'moonies' (whatever they are) crap when people react. Can't hear many people who are RFL cheerleaders, they are just don't throw their toys around like others.

The cheerleaders have thrown their pom-poms out of the pram. Look through the thread, there is very little discussion of actual improvements to be made, it was taken over by the cheerleaders and the vested interests desperately trying to distract from the question they were so terrified of.

The most ridiculous part is that the question they were so afraid of, wasnt should we have a different system, but what should we do, knowing we have this system, knowing we are stuck with thursday nights, to improve results?

The answer it seems, is nothing

Oi numnuts this fella hit the nail on its yead pages ago now go and rant somewhere else please ,the hatred inside you is strong

You didn't help yourself with the title of your thread, when the article is about 1 team out of 16. And even then they state “The Super 8s is a great concept and we did back it from the start so we’re not going to moan about it now".

I posted my thoughts on the ideal system but the catch 22 we have is that we don't have 14-16 strong clubs to play once home and away in SL with a simple play off for promotion and relegation. Reducing games means more reduced revenue potential for clubs so what do you do? I can understand the franchise system leading to apathy from championship supporters so that doesn't seem the answer either.

Cas and others I'm sure will be looking to address their strategies and short comings (what business wouldn't) with the benefit of the first year under their belt.

To quote a terrible terrible song, "oh i think that i've found myself a cheerleader"

Every club bar Hudds posted lower crowds in the super 8s than the respective regular season fixtures. Leeds lost 10k fans from the regular season to the super 8s. 3 of their 4 games were on a Friday.

"Waah waah thursday!" whilst a nice safety blanket for you is not the answer for 2 reasons, 1) of 28 games 21 werent on a thursday so it doesnt even explain the fall, and 2) we are stuck with Thursdays and have been for years now, blaming thursdays is no longer a reason, its an excuse.

Again, im not saying change the super 8s. Im saying make it work. Whilst i think it is a terrible system and its failings obvious, we have it, so what can we do to improve results?

also, it isnt one team, it was all of them bar huddersfield. Leeds, in a treble winning season, with 3 games out of 4 played on a friday, playing Warrington, Saint Helens, Wigan, and Castleford lost 10k fans. Castleford nearly 5k, Wigan nearly 5k. Im not even arguing that the super 8s caused that fall, simply that it didnt attract people in and of itself like we were told they would (which is demonstrable by the attendances)

your last sentence is exactly what i am asking, we hve learned that people wont just turn up because of 'importance' we have learned that thursdays get worse attendances (as we have known for years) we are being told that notice was a problem so what is being done to overcome those issues?

As for complaining about people not coming up with ideas, a bit rich when all you've pretty much come up with is let's have a repeat of the GF on the opening week and them play for a trophy........ironic on two counts as firstly that has nothing to do with the Super 8's period the argument was about and secondly you've spent your time stating how importance doesn't equate to better attendance yet your grand idea is lets introduce a Mickey Mouse trophy for the opening game in the hope having more to play for will boost crowds.

Not being privy to clubs marketing strategies (or the RFL for that matter),and with the super 8s being 7 months away I'm not sure any of us would have seen any progress in this department yet.

As has already been stated it's not like you've proposed any ideas yourself that have then been shot down so I'm not sure what your angle is on this.

aaah Mr Moon Mr Moon, you post too soon.

I also said, move the Magic Weekend to the first week of the Super 8s. We could even have 4 games on each day, the top 8 playing their super 8s, mixed with the 4 championship clubs playing the 4 other SL sides. Then, you wouldnt have any problems with notice would you. 12 of the 16 sides would know where and when they were playing. It would also start the series off with a bang, and remove the imbalance in the first and second parts of the year.

I also said we could look at repeating what Wigan have done with the Big One/heinz and work with large local employers to get them to buy tickets in bulk.

I also pointed out that we could work with schools, youth organisations, junior clubs etc to get kids through the doors. After all, if thursdays are a problem for families, and kids, its less of a problem during august when the kids arent at school isnt it.

I also asked about an 'all access' season ticket sold at a premium, any game, anywhere, all your clubs home and away games, all the internationals, all the finals, and other club games. Maybe if Leeds played on the thursday, a Leeds fan might wander down to Cas, or Wakefield on a Friday summers evening to watch a game. Maybe even take a friend or two.

Perhaps you should put the pom-poms down and read next time.

Why? if clubs were doing anything on season tickets for instance, this is exactly when we would see that activity.

And i also asked others for their ideas, im not sure we need to wait for the RFL/clubs marketing strategies for them.

I'd also point out, i will be buying tickets for the NFL series in London this month, for games on the 2nd and 30th of October. They started marketing those tickets to me in November.

Only RL would have fans at the same time as claiming attendances are poor because of the short notice of the games, also be saying we shouldnt see any activity because its too early

OK, so what are your ideas then if you're upset with others not offering up theirs?

see above

Errrrrm how exactly do they sell tickets for games that don't exist yet? Teams don't know when or how many home games they will be playing, or even what half of the draw they'll be in! If you'd made a point about the Grand Final then that would be valid but there again they went on sale straight after the Leeds Wigan game.

Maybe teams are and have built in offers for the super 8s and youre getting worked up over nothing. Or do you know the activity of every club?

Some good ideas in there, would be good to have the magic weekend launch the super 8s, I wonder if they've looked at this and if there are any logistical reasons for not pursuing.

No some teams wouldn't know what day they were playing until the final round of fixtures, neither would they know who they were playing which wouldn't help sales and one extra week wouldn't make really any difference to the short notice to the Super 8 fixtures especially if fans are splashing out on tickets/travel and accommodation to the Magic Weekend.



Working with schools and junior clubs......damn I bet no clubs do that......you do follow Leeds don't you?



What "premium price" would this be? Surely one that would have to reflect the potential of going to International games and the finals as well as your sides games plus any other weekly game. If done at a true price hardly anybody will buy that on the off chance they could pop down to Wakey when Leeds aren't playing. If done cheap to attract sales then you're underselling matches and you aren't making the money you should be on them.