This is the part i cant understand if there is as claimed going to be close on two hours between games, then wont 90% of the union fans been gone by then.
Lets be honest we are all upset about watching a game that 80% of us dont follow(100% in St's case), but i read on the union forum that a fare few of them wont be hanging a round for our game anyway and i expect leeds fans who they playing that day wont be hanging round either for reasons of travelling home.

What i like to know is union away fans in the same stand is away fans are for our games

. If so lets be honest again i wouldnt think they(Leeds) have the greatest away support (im not sure on this im just going on fact that Leeds is a League city more then a union). So if they dont have a big following then surely that stand would be by the time our game starts about 80% empty.

If all above is the case then i cant see why if Saints fans who only want to turn up for league game cant get in for £15. the club only have to do what they do now and let them use the one gate for away fans at that end of the ground. And all those who have hotels booked im sure can find something to do until game time (i.e pop in a pub and watch grand national).

And before anyone asks i dont think i will be at both games. Its not because i dont like union, its because im a disabled season ticket holder and i be better off waiting to come to our game for simple reasons of trying to park (never get a parking space anyway as is always full but thats another story

),but the main fact will be that i never get in the disabled balcony with the union lot being there. so they better be gone when i get there.



Other thing that worrys me about this game. Is fact its on Sky, i just wonder how bad its going to look half way though when the union lot who do stay get fed up or need to get going home and all you can see on tv is fans looking as if walking out, that surely not going to look good for the Club.

This is a problem, especially as we can't get people to the games at a lower price anyway!

What the club should do is allow for tickets to be sold on the gate for £15 if they are purchased after a set time (E.g. when the Union game is over) - however this wouldn't work for those buying in advance from St Helens etc.

The hard part for the club in their defence is how do they know which Union season ticket holders or even casual Union fans will decide after a few beers that they'd like to stay for the League fixture too? This is the problem with any double header...they assume that £25 is a good deal for 2 matches (which in theory it is) However, as already mentioned on here, not everyone wants to see both games. Where do they draw that line? I'd suggest if someone has a practical solution that they recommend it to the club (not just a general email or telephone contact - send it to the entire club board) so that something can be done now...instead of just complaining about it.

I personally will be watching the game at home on Sky, not because of some protest or anyway...its just a hell of a lot cheaper in these hard financial times (on that note, anyone got a balaclava and shotgun I can borrow??) I however do fear for another bumper crowd like we saw against Hudders though!

I made a comment on one of the other boards (VT I think) about this. I am not a Quins fans or a Saints fan but to me it seems more to be a case of Quins RL getting ill treated than Saints fans. You are supposed to be in a partnership to benefit both clubs. The 2 hour gap though will virtually ensure that the Union fans don't stay to watch the RL so you miss out on a potential group of new fans. This seems to me a way for the RU club to do something that on the face of it (a double header to get fans to watch both clubs is how it is billed) benefits both clubs but that pretty much ensures it will fail for the RL club's purposes. They maintain the impression of an effort on their part while actually doing next to nothing other than making what may have been an expansive and open game be played on a cut up pitch in front of a TV audience with an attendance figure announced that for all to see will not be wholly accurate thereby hurting the reputation of your club.

From what I have seen most of the Saints fans booked on coaches wont even get to the ground to see the Union match but still have to pay the £10 more than normal.

After this the sooner QRL get out of the stoop the better.

Actually I forgot to mention that the lady I spoke to at Quins this morning said that the Saints game now kicks off at 5-30pm which means there is only one and a half hours between games and that logistically that is not long enough to separate the games.

And go where? In case you haven't noticed there isn't a queue of people with stadiums at the office door.

Well, yes, but that is because it's Wigan! And soccer! Jeez - that combo is enough to send any Saints fan into meltdown!



The two just don't compare. Honest.

But I'm actually only being asked to pay a measely £6 more than I would to get into my own ground and it's a one-off. If Saints put on a double header with their (newly formed!) girls team and charged £6 extra then would you be mortally offended? It's possible but I wouldn't expect you go ballistic on Saints RLFans board about it. You may be a bit miffed (as they say up north) and you may complain to the club, but I don't think you would get all hysterical and cancel your hotel booking, etc, etc. (Incidentally, we would never do a double header with either RU or soccer because they are all too far away - there is only RL in St Helens, along with an amateur soccer team who rely on their freebie at our ground to keep going)


Don't be persuaded into thinking that the fans on here represent plenty of Saints fans. There are those on RedVee, for instance, who don't see a problem with it. I am sure there will be those who will post on the Saints board here who don't see a problem with it. They just accept it as a one-off. It really is no big deal IMO and to me, when people can readily afford to stay in a hotel but are going ballistic over a pathetic £6 extra, it's just plain embarrassing.

PS: I'm not 'desperately defending' anything. I'm a reasonable person and I think I am responding in a reasonable fashion. I'm one of those people who will not get there in time for the RU match. So I'm even paying for something I have no chance of seeing. However, I'm still not complaining and actually I'm happy to give my support to the London cause (whether or not Quins RL have managed it wisely) while also wanting to support my team. Given the parochial nature of some northern fans - a factor which I think is heavily influencing some Saints' fans' reactions on here - I would have thought you would have appreciated that response rather than criticising it. But I live and I learn!

I know that Gutterfax has already mentioned it and I appreciate that some Saints fans may be annoyed at the additional cost, but for what it is worth quite a few Quins RL fans took a hit when last seasons away fixture at Catalan was changed......4 of us that were intending to go to the Saturday game cancelled when it was changed to Sunday and lost £500 in the process......but I do not recall any Quins fans wanting the Catalans CEO`s head on a stick or Catalan being accused of ripping us off. In this instance we `tenants` do not have control of the ground and ticketing on the day....so it would be appreciated if the `rip off` accusations were directed at Quins RU and not the RL side.

You can hang around the A&E at Prince Charles afterwards too. What an evening!

Did you get all your money back for the cancelled hotel room?
Where did you originally decide to stay?

Could they not issue-

Red tickets for the RU game (& RL game)-£25 cannot be used to enter the ground after the union game has finished to prevent handing them on

Blue tickets for the RL game-£15 to be used 4:15 PM onwards

Season tickets get both which they have sorted anyway.

=#0040FF:cn51w7ynSeason tickets get both which they have sorted anyway


This is a valid point - As a Season ticket holder i got a free ticket to watch the union game - this was an allocated seat in the north stand as my usual seat was being used by the union season ticket holder - I'll take up my usual seat before our game.

This did not cost me a penny more than i have already paid which means that i am getting into the double header for a lot less than non season ticket holders and Saints fans.


when i collected my tickets at the salford game i was told that the number of RL season ticket holders who had taken up this offer was very good. which means that there is a demand to see both games from the RL supporters

I'd pay £40 to sit it crap seats just to watch my club.

£25 is no problem at all.

In all honesty there also seems to be some underlying Union hatred on this thread. I don't go and watch the Union team play live, but I watch on Sky and keep up to date with their news. So if I was to be a netural here...then I'd have to admit that they have got some pretty useful and skillful players. The match will be entertaining, mainly because at the time of the game Leeds will be fighting to avoid relegation and Quins are in a mid table position where European qualification is a possibility. So the match will be a tense encounter with a good atmosphere. I understand that there are people on here that are so far gone on their hatred for Union that they are completely unwilling to watch it, but its not like the club are ripping us off...2 games of top tier rugby (of each code) is something in the World that only Quins (other than Leeds now) can offer...has anyone thought of that?! £25 for a whole day isn't that bad...how much would a premiership football match, ticket to Wimbledon, ticket to a sporting final etc cost? Hey, if anything going to the Union match will give you the experience of one thing a League match won't...and that is filled stadium! Only and before I get the "slaps" for posting a balanced point I am infact a league fan, I just have taken the blinkers off long ago and can now proudly say I can enjoy Quins and top tier rugby all year round......why not join me, just an idea!

Yup. There's also some underlying anti-expansionist feeling on this thread too! (At least from the northern contingent anyway)

Alas, parochialism of one kind or another is alive and kicking!

The fact of the matter is that Quins RU or RL are using all means at their disposal to try and persuade Quins RL and Saints RFL fans to part with more money than they need to in order to watch a Superleague fixture.
Why? No idea! but it smacks of desperation

Yup, and the joke of it is, that when the subject of getting more bums on seats raises it's head once in a while

everybody always goes on about the Union supporters and why don't they want to experience a League match, but, god forbid many League supporters will actively think about going the other way and experiencing a Union game at the same club.

Sometimes you really do despair of this sport and some of it's supporters, and we wonder why it never gets better exposure than it does and struggles to get known outside of any heartlands area.

Had a look at the seating arrangement for this game and is very nearly a sell out in 3 stands. Lets say Leeds bring a couple of hundred and Saints a Thousand then the ground will be full. I really hope the club rl are heavily marketing to the Union crowd on the deal and be very imaginative for once.

.....and do you think the will

errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr probably not but I live in hope that one day a breakthrough can be made.

Not quite "at the same club" but only just over the road, I'll have you know I've actually paid to go and watch a union match at Twickers. Won't do it again because the game is of no interest to me and I don't expect union supporters to come and watch us if they've no interest either.

[size=50Above referenced Union match involved Steele-Bodger's XV and was in 1960 (+/- 1 year).[/size

I tried looking at the news archive and the articles relating to this couldn't be found

- other stuff could

Was it something to do with the availability of the then-new west stand? I know that I got a seat in there and was able to look across at my existing ST seat in the east stand. So maybe the west stand became available right at the end of the union season and so wasn't used by union supporters and hence was all available to us?

Or maybe I'm mis-remembering as usual.

Can't be bothered replying to messages right now but I have recieved a reply from the club, our esteemed GM will be releasing a statement with regards to this. Look forward to seeing it.

In fact the e-mail I have recieved in "reply" to my message is pathetic and has addressed nothing that I queried. Perhaps they have their hands tied and are unable to express any thoughts on the matter, which is even worse because I suppose the Union lot have effectively told them to shut up. If any other club did this there would be uproar, alas some people on here are STILL thinking it is acceptable. I'm starting to shift more towards the views of rupe1 right now, as Harlequins Rugby United or whatever it is called is the most one sided, embarrassing, and disrespectful thing I have experienced supporting RL in the South. If anyone wants to go to the RU game and whistle at their goal kicks, inform their players at their lack of skill and relay our feelings towards their fanbase, then PM me.

=#FF0000<edited by Homer>