Richard Lewis recently said in an interview that in 10 years time Harlequins will be averaging 10,000 attendances in Super League. Do you think this is a realistic target?

i hope so

Yes, IMHO.

It is possible, as long as there is a correlation between the huge increase in those now playing the sport down here and the amount coming through the turnstiles at The Twickenham Stoop.

If the club working in tandem with supporters get their "marketing strategy" correct I'd expect to see season on season increases.

As for 10,000 as an average, I welcome Lewis's faith that the game in the "smoke" can deliver those numbers.

I suppose only time will tell but at The Stoop we have the capacity that's for sure.

Keep the faith.

It would seem that Mr Lewis has something in common with the title of your M board

Oh Dear another quiet night up t'north, shouldn't you be watching coronation street now

Feret's have escaped , no leccy

What the whole country north of watford

david kicked off big style when he found out tina was going out with Jason

what happend in eastenders?

Gary almost discovered Phil and Dawn and Shirley discovered Heathers pregnant. Not as good as Corrie

They were all miserable moaning bugggers

Maybe he`s going to make it compulsary for all the Northern supporters to attend.

You would be miserable in east london.

What the wonderful cosmopolitan metropolis that is London , a place us notherners could only dream of , all those pavements laden with gold



Or so we are always being told

He could be miserable anywhere mate, he is an expert in doom and gloom.

Quite excited

We have a relegation fight to look forward to

No, tbh I think that is an utterly ridiculous target and completley unrealistic. Fair enough, be positive and hopeful but a 10k average in 10 years time is unfeasible and impossible. I would rather that changes are made within the club for the better and a 5 year plan is implented to improve our attendances to the minimum required level to break even (or at least be competitive financially), instead of plucking pointless and irrelevent 10 year figures out of the air.

I think an average of 6000 would suit suit me at the moment, with the odd bumper crowd.

But that target is a few years away tbh.

Mmmmm.....nice if it happens, but I reckon it won't happen in my lifetime.

Below are the average gates for Londons' SL team from 2000 to 2009.......as you can see we have a 3,600 odd average over that period so to increase this by 30% is going to nigh on impossible without some serious outlay on Marketing.
I have always said, 5,000 should be the first target and then...thereafter, the crowds will grow "organically", but 10,000 is just pie in the sky....
3430
3232
3803
3545
3460
3918
4238
3428
3630
3368 (to date)

Of the teams now in SL, below is the average gate for each team over the years (since 2001) when they visit the Stoop. (Still to play this year)
Celtic C's 2245
Salford 2670
Hudds* 2800
Wakefield 2896
Catalans 2971
Warrington 3413
Castleford 3567
Hull FC 3708
Hull KR 3776
Bradford 4016
Leeds 4596
Wigan 4762
Saints 4764

* 12,000 double header adjusted to 2,800

If we are to try to get an average of 5,000 by the next round of franchise/licence applications, then we need to add nearly 19,000 to the gates per season, over the next 2 seasons (1,500 a game). Given that away fan numbers are well down this year (not saying we should rely on them) due to Crusaders, France & Scotland being added to the "big trips", I would love to know how the RFL and The Quins team think they will find these people. An increase of 30% in gates is not impossible, but if each customer is worth £9.50 (IL's figures, not mine), then basic economics state that it will cost nearly £20 to get them in for the first time and you start making money the third time they visit. By my calculations, this points to a spend of £380,000 to get these people to TW2.......what are the odds of DH sanctioning that kind of marketing spend?
£760,000 over 26 games to achieve the 5k average that gets a 40% capacity point........ Is 1 point worth that much money?

League as a sport needs to get a boost before we see 10k crowds down here with any sort of regularity.
Union had it with its world cup win and players becoming household names, to go with the work the clubs had been doing. Cricket had its (temp) boost with the advent of that nonsense 20/20.


New peeps to sport tend to go about once or maybe twice in their first year.
A couple more after that, and then they start thinking about attending more regularly.

For years the team has moved location and seen wholesale changes to the squad. meaning that its effectively the first time going each year.

I know people keep saying "give it time" but really thats what we need, together with the community work etc.

10k crowds in ten years a bit of a stretch, although if we can build each year and start challenging for honours, who knows.

Although I support the slow build strategy, part of me thinks that you can't jump a canyon in small steps. At some stage there will need to be a surge, maybe on the back of a trophy or someone coming in and employing Gutterfax........

towards the exit

How's the gardening leave going?

Could well be the first post of yours I have really agreed with. Any growth has zip to do with marketing in the first instance, it has to do with evolving a desire to want to watch that sport live as part of the natural psyche of the viewer, and that as a generalism, is not prevelant in the South of England.