I have just seen a WG report on ticket sales for the Saints match, and then looked on the online booking system. Seating tickets are certainly disappearing very quickly now. Other than the 'away' block Q in the North I reckon there are only 200 seats max left for the North, East, and North East. Don't know how the West is going, but not sure that Saints will bring as many as normal because of the dissatisfaction with their style of play (and position in table).

Its great to see that fans are returning to the club, whether its the on field side of things or the off field, with all the hardwired and one club mentality or a mixture of both. My question would be, when would the club look at expanding the stadium further? If for example, we have had the sellout against Widnes, possibly a home sellout vs Saints, with other big games against Wigan also likely to bring large attendances. If the home allocation is sold out for virtually every game, would we look to expand or would the club hope that home fans will buy away end tickets to make sure we are selling out the whole stadium before looking to expand again?

Thinking about it, i think some fans would be put off by buying an away end ticket whereas others wouldnt. If we are selling out the home ends, then to me we should be looking at filling another corner or both in. The south stand is getting particularly tight so far this season.

Roger Draper's interview with the WG last year showed that his priority was to help TS get things right on the pitch believing that crowds would improve with results. However, imo it will be some time yet before we see more ground expansion.

Got to hand it to Saints fans as they usually travel in numbers even when they have had a few not so good seasons, I think they will bring a decent following as they always fancy their chances against the wire and usually do well.

I think that at the minute any anyone who REALLY wants a ticket will always be able to get one, but they may find they have to buy them several weeks in advance. I would rather have many more full, or close to full, houses and make every home game a must see/attend event before we consider expansion.

Think expansion will be years away, the club would need to have big attendances for all the games, as it's often been said its a result driven business people only attend when the club is doing well on field, I think it will take a Grand Final win to see regular big crowds.

Yes, I think a club only gradually acquires long term support. So we need to stay in the top four and win something every now and again over a period of say 6-7 years. At the moment Widnes are riding high as well as us, so a bumper crowd at Easter was perhaps no surprise. I reckon if we were regularly attracting crowds of 13-14,000 for games against mid / lower table teams, then it would be good to look at increasing the size. But I also think (said it before) that the West is a problem because we will rarely fill it with away supporters - we need to make full use of that area first. "Sweat your assets", as the financial director might say.

The next expansion was touted to be a second tier on the north stand with another row of corporate boxes. All of the boxes are currently sold out so they should bring good money to the club if it happens. I am sure I saw a union club who had done similar the other week I am sure t was Worcester.

Agree that we need a few more sell outs before we think of expanding. It is a significant investment and you need certainty that it's going to pay back gicen that margins are pretty tight. I'd put a lot of the current interest down to Chris Sandow and the brandof rugby that he brings, shows that a good marquee player can be a really good investment (assuming you don't pay silly money).

Yes, the boxes have been sold out for a while, so assuming we have paid off the corners, I can see this happening in the next few years. It's a safer bet with regards payback as they could probably being in £200k/year if they sold out of the new second tier boxes.

A box is around £15,000 per year. The maths work out quite favourably

I agree and in addition to probably the poorest cost v return on corners?

Saint's selling tickets for 15 pound in the west stand at a reduced rate

No matter how bad we may ever get i think we can be pretty much locked in on 8k core attendances (minus lower league CC games)

Shows how fickle they are, we get drubbed off them for years, game after game and we still turned up in numbers, couple of bad seasons for them and they have to sell tickets at a reduced rate because they aren't selling

One thing I didn't pick up on at first from reading it was this:

[urlhttp://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/sport/wolves/14404704.Tickets_selling_well_for_St_Helens_derby[/url/



Wonder how he was able to ascertain that? Is he just trying to add a fear factor for people to buy tickets in advance for the Saints game, or was there really that much demand for the Widnes game? If that demand is there, their thoughts about expanding the stadium may be sooner rather than later....?

[*
phone calls, and attempted purchases on the website after selling out perhaps

Maybe Roger Draper is just good at promoting,marketing & selling our games. I'm sure qualities like that could benefit RL as a whole.

I was surprised at how many missed out talking to mates who attend on a fairly regular basis even the casual supporter who were genuinely disappointed, let's hope they stick to their promise and don't get caught out again.

Personally, I'd rather create a demand for tickets, and have way more sold out games, than to add on to stands, leaving them half empty most of the time. Make it something people HAVE to be there for, not something easy to attain.

Lets hope Saints bring a good following over given it's their cup final.

13k was the last i heard, so will be decent even if it ends there.

Even if it is 13K or close to it, it will be a big increase on the attendance at the corresponding fixture last year 11'618. Seems that with the winning team comes the bigger following. Even with the relatively few home games we have had this season, there have been over 10.5K more speccies (ave 2.5K more per game) through the turnstiles. A great job by the team and Roger Draper.

i think its a combination, good results(if not superb perfomances ala 2011) but the off field stuff has also been a big thing in getting people interested again.

This crosfields takeover is a good idea as well, engaging the amateur clubs, its a very american 'fan experience' sort of thing to do.

Seems to be working though.

I've not seen the funployees at the last couple of games, are they still around helping out and stuff?

I dont know if you are referring to the Game Changers who are volunteers helping out on game day? My wife is one of them and she has been helping out at every game. From handing out the chocolate eggs at easter, glow sticks for the first night game, collecting memories for the pass it back app alongside other duties. They will be there every game.