I've been discussing lately with The fanzine guys and the club about the giants focussing on selected away games to really focus on to push our away following. With the brilliant showing at wire, it seems a good time to try and capitalise with that fresh in the memory.

Saints away has been chosen as the 1st Giant Away Day. Friday 10th July. Night matches seem to lend themselves to a better atmosphere , and saints have one of the bigger away ends.

The club have indicated that they are keen to help foster this idea, and I'll continue to talk to them to formalise some of the ideas. Some ideas so far are to encourage as many flags, scarves, banners etc as possible. Really create a sea of claret and gold. Other ideas are being thrown around. Anything to try and create the best atmosphere possible. Inflatables have been mooted, the wackier the better.

From a numbers point of view, I reckon we could target 2,000 plus. I think the club should publicly target this as a minimum. Create an event within the regular season. If everyone that went to wire were to go, with an average of a + 1 we wouldn't be far off. I've started early, and got around 4/5 guys who don't normally go to commit.

Any ideas gratefully received. I'll keep updating as get info from the club etc. Any ideas for banners etc would be great to hear.

Sounds good but how do you propose to make people get off their sofas in the 1st place ?
We have trouble getting folk to home games down the road.....maybe try and coax a coach firm into offering free travel like they did the other year for a couple of directors/hospitality boxes for a home game ?

How about trying to get both clubs on board with the idea and maybe offer each others clubs season ticket holders reduced prices for both games ?.

Thing is with something like this the fans will need some kind of incentive or other to make the effort to attend but i'm sure the usual 2-300 away fans will be up for it anyway.
Personally i would have tried the Salford game myself - closer and on a Sunday !

would be amazed if we could get 2k to travel to st helens on a friday night.

the club put on free coaches to the first away game at saints a few seasons ago did we get 2k then go? dont think we did and the club cant really do more than that!

st helens charge the entrance fee so cant change that.

Good idea but the usual that went to wire will prob be there but take a few off that too if its on tv.

Great idea- esp as its my birthday!
The only way I can see this happening is by having cheap travel and agreement with saints for half price away tickets for both fixtures- like KR did with widnes.
Saints isn't the easiest to get to - not like warrington with the good train links.
Castleford may normally be a good option- but it's thursday.

Everyone at the fanzine is really excited about the idea, its just we will need a lot of input and help with both ideas and assistance in meeting the target. Not sure we are 100% on the target yet. Things as simple as offering lifts and so on could really make a difference. Like it is mentioned dragging a few extras a long will really push towards making it another amazing night like Wire just with around 1,000 more people there to share it with.

Great idea and we will be there anyway but would love another night or even better than last Friday at wire. Needs to be well publicised and for a good while. Discounted travel and or admission should help some go. Be big help if the team is going well.wherever you tried to do it someone will find a reason not to use that particular game so just go for it.....and we are just back from holiday so already know will be there, tv or not!

We didn't have 1,000 at wire which is easily one of the best supported away games, i'd guess 5-600.
think we took 850 to Saints with the free travel so to get 2,000 to go and pay full whack on a Friday is a massive task and i can't see it working without financial help from the club(s).

Like i said, great idea and i will fully support it but Salford which is 16 miles nearer and on a Sunday afternoon making it Family friendly would have been a better choice in my opinion.

Thats my point i think a target of around 1,500 might be better.

Problem with salford are the transport links.

Good idea but bearing in mind its a week before a lot of people will be going to Perpignan and cost as well as taking annual leave could be an issue?
I don't disagree with it I'm sure it would be great of we can get a good following certainly free transport and reduced tickets would help

But the fact its a Friday night would put a lot off I think

Yeah, there are pros and cons on whichever match picked. I've asked club for official sales to saints last few seasons, and then set a target with that in mind. As mentioned on here , my 2000 may be a touch optimistic

, but I still think the club/we should challenge ourselves.

The key is to try and make it seem like an event within the normal season. Bit similar to what Wigan did with their 'big one' themed matches over the last few seasons. Need the club to buy into that, which hopefully they will.

yep wigan did the big one with us and our turn out was very poor! think it was £5 a ticket too!

anything near 800 would be great

prob had 400/500 at wire and that wasnt on tv

Interesting feedback from club. Last year we took 220 to saints. With the free travel we took 750. We took 450 to wire.

If we could match the 750 that would be a real result. If club were to contact everyone that went to wire as targeted sales. Run concentrated marketing as an event fixture, I think we could certainly achieve it.

As fans we have the fanzine, Facebook, the supporters group, this forum.

The club is going to be targeting the magic event as a similar thing.

this could work if the club started pushing it and maybe some of the sponsors could get involved, like has been said before, if the club can offer free/ subsidised travel it could help.
although our away followings have been pretty decent so far this year, saints on a friday night has always been a hard pull, as there are no directs trains and it takes over 2 hours to get back.

also don't forget a lot of our away support is form based, if we are on a bad run then people just won't be bothered going