One of the biggest weekends in the game's calendar and what?

59,462 on Friday......55,664 on Monday.....only 5 of 12 games broke 5 figures and as per usual, the top 5 clubs are the drawcards.

Salford with 2,338.........that is shocking.



Huddersfield, Wakefield and Salford attracted fewer fans than St Helens did on Friday......all the home clubs on Friday exceeded their average, al the clubs on Monday got less.......

I know the game is played on the pitch and not the terraces, but something needs to happen.......Bath host Leicester this coming weekend at Twickenham and there's a fair chance that one game of rah will eclipse either of our Easter weekends totals.......and if we want more TV money then we need to sort out our attendances.

Did you see the weather on Easter Monday? It was crap.

Ditto Thursday for the Cas v Wakey game. He weather is playing havoc - a lot of fans would rather stay at home and watch the games on the TV. If we want more TV money then we have to make the game as attractive as possible on TV for more viewers. Nothing to do with crowds at the game. Sky couldn’t care less if it gets 1 or 10001.

As the dude above me has mentioned, the weather will play a part. Also, Easter games are hit and miss as people tend to go away for Easter. I think Salford are on borrowed time though.

Regards

King James

Absolutely Salford are on borrowed time, without Marwan’s cash propping them up, I’d be pleasantly suprised if Salford weren’t in administration by the end of the year.

What happens to a club if they go into administration before or during the middle 8’s?

One thing that Rugby Union has worked out is that its important to focus less on the quantity of games and more on the quality of the events.

One of the reasons why we still have these convoluted league structures is because we have clubs insisting that they need to flog out talent as much as possible and have a minimum number of games to survive. The notion that they should do more with less - in other words, generate more revenue from fewer games by selling more tickets, commercial packages, sponsorships, merchandise, digital, reaching new audiences, making the game more attractive to media partners, etc - is alien to them.

The game at Elland Road the other week was an example of what we need to be looking at more of. It was a game played by two good teams, in front of a big crowd, and had a sense of occasion. There was nothing more than 2 points at stake - no trophies to be won or the "jepoardy" that so many people on here argue is 'essential' to bring in the crowds, and yet it felt like a big event - a final or semi final, and it looked fantastic for the neutral.

Leeds didn't do anything particularly innovative, spectacular or indeed expensive for that game. They simply put on an event and they (and to their credit, Castleford) hyped it up and told people about it. Something that every marketing manager at every club should be able to do. It doesn't need an Eddie Hearn or a Peter Deakin - it just needs the marketing people who are on the pay-rolls of each and every club to do their jobs.

Rugby Union gets this. Leicester and Bath can take a game to Twickenham knowing full well that their fans won't start kicking off with the usual moans like "what about season tickets?" and "will there be free travel?" that littered the Wigan board when it was announced they were going to Millwall. Saracens can take games to Wembley or Olympic Park knowing that if they set their sales and marketing team a target, they'll hit it - rather than moaning about away fans or the weather. And London Irish can take a game to New York because they see that the potential of a new audience outweights the cost of the flight, whilst our fans moan about Magic Weekend because they don't want to pay for the train ticket.

Rugby Union clubs in this country still play a lot of games, but they focus their energy on hyping up the ones that really matter. The domestic cup competition is pretty much now just a reserve-grade competition, they release their players for internationals before hyping up the European games the following week. They prioritise their key products.

As a sport, we need fewer games and more hype. We need to find more ways to get our current audiences excited, and to find new audiences to excite. We need some creative thinking, some investment in effective marketing, and clubs to see success as more than simply keeping the administrators at bay for another year.

But we as a sport won't do that, because it sounds too much like hard work and it's just much easier to say "we can't afford it", blame the RL and wait for a boxing promoter to save us from ourselves.

Just a small shout-out to the 4,000+ who turned out in the delicious Odsal drizzle on Friday Night for Bradford v Oldham.

When a 3rd tier fixture is getting a higher gate than two super league ones, then asking a question or two is legitimate I'd have thought.

crap weather in hull easter monday but still managed to pull in 11/500+

and a decent turnout form wakefield fans too

I know that it's nothing to do with Hull FC and more to do with the stadium management company but, sticking the away fans in a corner, rather than behind the sticks, will do nothing to encourage greater numbers of away fans.
It's really not a good place to watch the game and it's a poor way to treat visiting fans.

Why do people always find an excuse?

The fact of the matter is crowds are too low whatever the weather!

The weather? Really?
£24 was the starting price for an adult ticket to the the "Big Game" at Twickenham on December 30th last year. The temperature was 1 degree Celsius at KO time and it was absolutely tipping it down, but SEVENTY SEVEN THOUSAND rolled in anyway.
.....we need to stop making excuses for the poor attendances we get. The weather is up there with the dog ate my homework.......

Wakefield fan criticising the view to watch the game as an away fan! How ironic!!

Particularly when last year first game, the weather was horrible and the away fans weren't allowed to go to go in the covered stand, we had to stand out in the rain for 2 hours.

I see his point and it would be better to open the Noryh sand, but apart from Rovers and possible Leeds/Cas no one brings enough to justify opening the North stand. But the view and facilities are still very good and better than a majority of grounds, plus you can choose to buy tickets in any of the other areas.

as a wakefield fan, i wouldnt complain tbh, considering the difficulty in viewing the game at belle view when standing!

as for kc views, hardly a bad view is it and i dont get how its poor, you were undercover!

Bradford Bulls are a MASSIVE club, and hopefully will be back in Super League soon. They are are even bigger than Toronto/Manchester Wolfpack, and that take's some doing !

Leeds' figures tbf are going to be hit this year due to the building work and limited capacity at Headingley we have this year. Given we are usually the top avg. attendance in the league they will be an impact on the overall average/total in SL this year that people should (but probably won't) take into consideration when the inevitable attendance figure threads pop up.

Averages to date.....Leeds taking thhe game to Bell End Road was a cracking idea.
Leeds 15,318
St Helens 13,145
Hull FC 11,408
Warrington 11,370
Wigan 11,209
Hull KR 8,785
Castleford 7,708
Catalans 7,551
Huddersfield 5,794
Widnes 5,351
Wakefield 5,112

Salford 3,421
Leigh 3,644
Featherstone 2,405
Toulouse 2,134
Halifax 1,741
Barrow 1,400
Batley 1,195
London 1,072
Dewsbury 821
Swinton 821
Sheffield 689
Rochdale 541
Toronto 0...

Team P W D L Pts
1 TORONTO 9 7 1 1 15
2 Toulouse 9 7 0 2 14
3 F'stone 9 7 0 2 14
4 London 8 6 0 2 12
5 Leigh 9 4 0 5 8
6 Halifax 7 4 0 3 8
7 Batley 7 4 0 3 8
8 Dewsbury 7 3 0 4 6
9 Barrow 8 2 2 4 6
10 Rochdale 7 1 0 6 2
11 Sheffield 8 1 0 7 2
12 Swinton. 8 0 1 7 1

You left a perfect space for the Bradford ave attendance to fit in, seems a shame to not to. 3862 based on two home games vs Hunslet (368icon_cool.gif and Oldham (4036), pretty good for the third tier I'd suggest. I'd expect us to have over 4k average by the end of the season.

Let's address a few things here:

First of all it SNOWED on the Pennines heavily, as well as in Leeds and Bradford. There was also an accident given some idiot drove the wrong way overnight and caused it to shut. That immediately stops more away fans going or have reservations about travelling. We know how notoriously bad the M62 is at the best of times.

Secondly, we didn't know if the game would be on with the flooding and heavy rain. I'm pretty sure a lot of Cas fans didn't want to risk it and likewise any Warrington fans viewing the pictures in the morning and seeing the weather may have held off. Add in the fact, that a lot of people don't want to stand in the pee wet through I can see the valid reason why a lot of people may not want to travel, especially with two games on the box too.

They're valid excuses, along with school holidays and people going away. Given that our last two attendances against Warrington have both gained over 8000 fans, what do you put a nearly 20% drop YoY attendance from?

Great post all valid reasons for a reduced gate, whilst I don't want to go into our crowds per se, we seem to get stitched up with our games, an easter weekend when teams play big derby games we get Catalans year on year and the local derby against Leeds away

. The Catalans game kicks off at midday and then there was Leeds away with all the problems re the weather and M62.

On to this weekends game against Warrington which should be one of our bigger crowds what happens some smart ass decides we should be on sky on a saturday afternoon sandwiched between the Merseyside derby and more importantly the Manchester derby yes the Manchester derby in a place that holds football as a religion and not even any ordinary derby one where City could be crowned champions.

And we wonder why crowds are on the decline.. It beggers belief.

How bad is the weather in St Helens tonight?

When you are analysing figures for only two games you have to take note of the opposition, as an example Leigh’s attendance would have been significantly higher if Featherstone or Halifax had been the visitors rather than London.

4k for 3rd tier is excellent. Hull KR averaged around 2k when we were down there. Would be great to see Bradford back in SL.

Pretty good I reckon.

Given the crowd is up YoY and the highest attendance out of the last 7 meetings between the two sides I’m sure it’s absolutely fine.

However, given we know the fixture has the ability to attract higher, I’d say the earlier kick off at 7:45pm and the M62 is likely to have a knock on effect of the ability for Hull fans to get there.