The attendance figures for each club in the 2014 regular season (2013 in brackets):
Bradford Bulls: 6,891 (8,575)
Castleford Tigers: 7,068 (6,292)
Catalan Dragons: 7,667 (8,179)
Huddersfield Giants: 6,335 (6,374)
Hull FC: 11,159 (11,680)
Hull Kingston Rovers: 7,848 (7,495)
Leeds Rhinos: 15,068 (15,200)
London Broncos: 1,295 (2,200)
Salford Red Devils: 4,738 (3,17icon_cool.gif
St Helens: 12,120 (11,235)
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats: 4,351 (7,973)
Warrington Wolves: 9,870 (10,633)
Widnes Vikings: 5,635 (6,015)
Wigan Warriors: 14,102 (14,545)

I have been a season ticket holder for many years but next year I will be pay as I go, reasons are, 1, late fixture changes i.e Sunday to Friday,Thursday etc, 2, no compensation for late fixture change from the club, I have missed many matches this season that I have prepaid and I am not alone, many people I have spoken to have the same problem. I know that Sky put a lot of money into the game but why do we have matches that are not televised on a Friday and Thursday, it does nothing to attract away supporters and vise versa , I don,t go to away games which are to far to travel and get up for work next morning. This is not a moan, I am just stating a few facts.

I think there are some encouraging signs there, with quite a few increases.

London's problems this year have been well documented, as have Bradford's so their hefty drop is unsurprising. Wakefield didn't sell season tickets until relatively late and had an unfortunate run of back to back home games which is a pain when you are heavily relying on walk ups. The French are just the French!

I know many people are unhappy about Thursdays, but I've just been flicking through TV channels and I see Anfield is full on a Tuesday night.

Wigan showed the other week that well marketed, one off events such as 'the big one'. People complain the RFL don't sell the game but for me it's the clubs who are falling well short on that front. Monday Night Football is a huge concept, here and in America. It would be very easy for us to do the same here with Thursday games. The golden square, pubs, restaurants, Gemini and UCI are all full on a Thursday night, why should the HJ be an exception?

The golden square, pubs, restaurants, Gemini and UCI are all full on a Thursday night, ........................ your having a laugh !!!!!!!!!! Odeon is seldom full even at a weekend. Even "Orange Wednesday" are not as popular as they used to be.

We will be back at Wilderspool levels dropping 1000 supporters per year....

Encouraging signs? 10 out of 14 teams have lower attendances and that's encouraging?

There are a lot of people unhappy about evening rugby, as they had to get the season tickets before the fixtures were known and then find out they cannot take young children to half the games.I know quite a few who aren't getting season tickets next year because of it.

Wigan had two matches above 20,000 and still had lower average crowds. That to me shows that you have to lower the prices to get people in. They come once and dissappear.

Just for clarity, which of the many late fixtures changes have you not been able to attend this year ?

Aside from ourselves and those mentioned, most are only by a few hundred. I was in the Connie Club on Saturday and the Catalan v Cas game just seemed like a hinderence to the large number of football fans in there. It made me realise how good Thursday night games are for us. I had a look a few weeks back and Thursday night games have often even getting double what we had in the days of Saturday evening games. Don't forget until this year the Saturday evening football was on ESPN etc so there would be even more competition.

We can't give tickets away, refuse to play in the best tv slots then expect to compete with union and the NRL. Rugby league is exceptional value. Rugby Union World Cup Final tickets start at £150!

Sorry GO but you are burying your head in the sand on this one IMO. After discussing it, reading endless numbers of posts, chatting with people at matches etc etc it looks as though there are a number of reasons why attendances are falling;

Thursday night matches.
No real wage increases.
Quality of the product on offer.
League games seen as irrelevant after Leeds win it from 5th twice.

You can add to that the question of why have they fallen this year after a very successful world cup. Surely that should have at least arrested the decline ?

Next year at least the issue of the SL format will be addressed. Hopefully it will breathe a bit of life into what has become a pretty stale competition. And from being against the marquee player proposal, I am now coming around to the idea in order to bring a bit of quality into the game . But I don't see the 'Thursday night' / late changes of date problem going away, Sky pay the money and call the tune, so I don't see that changing.

You know, I'm not sure you canuse the late changes excuse this year, hence Me asking the op.


If I remember correctly, we've only had two fixture changes this year, cas at home, which we got about a months notice, and giants at home, which I can't find but I think was about 3 weeks notice.


Now granted for people in certain industries i understand that's not much time to change leave etc. But the op is making it sound like he's missed a Fuck ton, and deserves a t-shirt or some to make up for it, when really 98% me fixtures this year have been set in stone since November last year.

Ok, you may have a point about late changes. Perhaps it's not as important, but if you are a regular ST holder who works shifts, it might still colour your judgement when deciding to buy another one this year. Thursday night games are not very popular though, and the all important kids (tomorrows fans) probably don't go much for obvious reasons. And you can probably add to that the feeling that the ST holder is no longer as important to the club as he/she used to be, otherwise "they wouldn't muck about so much with the dates and time".

Looking outside SL for a moment, the WC angle is interesting. Here was a competition that caused people in Workington & Rochdale to flood through the turnstiles in thousands, and yet for home games for their home town the same people and officials can barely muster enough spectators to warrant printing the tickets, Why?

I don't think there is one reason for the overall malaise, I think it's a combination of all rhe factors people have named. I do think there has been lots of complacency and back-slapping in the RFL and I think some clubs are still of the mindset that they are in the rugby league business, as opposed to the entertainment one, and don't have to sell the product to their spectators.

That is the problem, in a nutshell. Like I said earlier, on a Thursday night pubs, bars, shopping centres and cinemas are all packed. Yet reading this forum you'd think everyone was tucked up in bed with a horlicks by 8.

43,000 at Anfield tonight. I work in Liverpool, I haven't heard a single complaint today that the game is being played on a Tuesday?

I'd hope that the Rfl and clubs are getting together to letter bomb the Shit out of any mailing lists, and ex season ticket holders telling them that next year is different, really trying to sell the new structure

The promotion has been spot on so far from Red Hall, they have done a particularly good job of explaining it but I think as a pessimistic sport it will take next year for people to see it in action before they are convinced.

The sheer size of our towns population and the fact we can't sell out a 14,000 capacity ground is worrying. I think a lot comes down to club promotion. Too many times I've been stood at a bus stop on the way to the game to be asked 'oh... Are WE playing tonight? I hope we do em' it's quite obvious the interest is there otherwise people wouldn't be seeing wire shirts and referring to the team as 'we'.

We've discussed this ad infinitum and for me I think the problem is being a 'New Town' most people here have no real affinity to the club and have never been encouraged to go along and watch. I'd be really interested to know what % of the population in Chapelford have been to a game.

RL fans moaning. NEVER.

Until a month ago, the Thursday nights (along with the Friday ones) were agreed before the season started. Seasons before, Sky were changing matches at the drop of a hat. So, we can't blame Sky for this season's drop in attendance, due to late inconveniences.

Similarly, attendances have been falling through the floor for the CC. Do we blame the Beeb?
When Wembley was 100,000 we'd get big attendances. In the last 20 years, since allseater knocked it down to 90,000, we get HUGE gaps in the seats, so we have alack of interest in the CC.

Are Sky's commentators to blame, for continuously making GF night, the "be all and end all" as far as European Rugby League is concerned, to the detriment of the weekly rounds? After all, only 2 teams make GF night. There's 27 weekly rounds to think of. It MUST p155 the likes of Wakefield/Widnes etc, who have NO CHANCE of making the big night. Their money/support/petrol may as well been piddled up the wall, because they're not going to be involved.

Looking at Warrington alone, we were getting consistent 5 figure attendances, with 8000 ST holders after we won the LLS, and the country was in the grips of a recession. Since then, we've won the CC, and got to 2 GF's, yet our attendances go down ever since, yet the recession is over. Are our marketing dept letting us down, or are the people of Warrington just getting peed off with RL?

I don't think the new town argument stands up as people generally have some pride and allegiance to the place they've been brought up in. Yes, many parents in this town will have originated from outside the town and have loyalty to say Liverpool or Man U but the kids will have more of an affiliation to their social and physical surroundings. Take Irish immigration in Liverpool; the next generation I'm guessing will support England eg. Wayne Rooney, Proud Englishman and captain with Irish parents.

I think a major part of the problem is that RL can't attract the big players anymore. Re the recent discussions on Fui a Fui Moi Moi; I noticed that a few fans mentioned they'd change their mind and review their ST if he were to play next season.

For the sake of Sl's attendances, I think we need to look at bringing in the marque player rule. Would one player really out balance the league in favour of 'the haves'? It would certainly bring more fans through the gate.

In the past 2 years we've lost players such as - King, Morley, Briers, Solomona, Hodgeson, Carvell etc and not replaced them. I don't blame the club at all, they're still doing their utmost to make the best of the wage restrictions but is it any wonder our attendances have gone down.

It's not that long ago the club were talking about adding another tier onto the South stand to increase the capacity, but that now looks like the biggest White Elephant since Poetry Recital for Beginners by Gareth Hock was published.

I think the attendances are final proof, if any were needed, that the punter coming through the turnstile is now small-fry revenue and in terms of the business, secondary. Forget building another tier, build another corporate conference centre and a dozen hospitality boxes, fill them 52 weeks a year and if the increased revenue is ploughed back into the team, speccies can please themselves if they come or not.

You can't compare football crowds with Rugby crowds. Football crowds are drawing from a much wider fanbase.

A large majority of our crowds are made up from season ticket holders and if the play off attendances aren't great it's because the season ticket holders aren't willing to part with their money when there could be three big ganes to choose from in the following three weeks. Especially when you can still see the game on the tv.

The Thursday night games are clearly not working in terms of attendance, so it needs looking at. I don't know where you're getting your 'everywhere else is busy on Thursdays from'. I often go out on a Thursday and pubs, restaurants and the cinema are usually empty. I've even found the same to be true in Manchester.

Isn't the population of Liverpool about 800,000 ? ....That's 4 times the size of Warrington & 3 times the gate ,and many Liverpool supporters are from far & wide ,outside the city.

ok so attendances are falling this year but weren't they rising a few years ago?

I thought we were getting good gates in the years 2010 to 2012, what were the factors then that were increasing our attendances?

Was it because the league format placed more emphasis on the league leaders shield and so there were fewer meaningless games?

Was it because back then Sky didn't change fixtures so fans knew when the games would be?

Was it because the economy was booming then so people had more money?

Was it because the RFL/Warrington Wolves were doing more advertising and you could see billboards advertising rugby league all over the city?

I know its disappointing that attendances are falling now but it's only a few years ago that we were in our best era for decades in terms of attendances, certainly well dwarfing what we would bring in in the latter decades at Wilderspool, so what were the factors that made rugby league so popular on an unprecedented scale in Warrington just a few years ago?

One positive note is that we don't need to create any new supporters we just need to re-engage the lapsed and latent fan base.

What you notice at the matches is the number of young people at matches ,lads & girls, beer flowing having a good time ,but a lot of them will be lost to the terraces when they get married ,kids come along & for the next 10 or 20 years they can't afford to come to the match. In the greater scheme of things the match is an expensive luxury than can be done without.

I agree with this 100%, next year when fans start to see how the structure will work then we will hopefully see bigger attendances!