Puzzled by the 3,206 reported gate yesterday. I am sure the East holds 4,200 and there were a maximum of 300 empty seats yesterday. Plus we had 100 odd ankle snappers in the stand behind the sticks.
Got to have been 4,000 there surely.
Still, great day........great result and I am full of confidence for the Hudds game next week.....

Whatever the crowd yesterday every home or neutral will be back for the dull game and I expect the marketing to get their behinds in gear for this one.

they will....don't worry.
How many does the east stand hold?

4200

I'm beginning to doubt if we ever accurately measure attendances.

3200/3800. either way its poor. And only having one stand open that holds 4200 doesnt exactly show much confidence from the club in this improving much.

They would all be open if we could fill them. The ends are open for overspill anyway.

Have you considered how much the LV= stand costs to open? For a club clearly haemorrhaging cash, it makes no sense to open unless signs of increased attendances occur. I'd divert your issue over opening the other stand to the chairman (messiah) who covers the clubs losses. Have you considered that he wanted to minimise his losses in the interim if at all possible and that it might have been his financial decision, not a 'club lack of ambition'? In the meantime the nth and sth stands make sense for any overspill.

Plus, opening the LV= would cause half the 4k to go over there and the atmosphere in both would be drastically reduced. Ask anyone who used to attend in the late 90's what 2k in the East stand feels like. Or anyone who came to the Cas fixture last year (2112 - eugh). Might'nt have been the worlds biggest gate yesterday, but then at least the atmos was magic.

As for the common complaint of using the East over the LV (sorry, I know this has been discussed ad naseum) - the facilities beneath the East are magnificent for starters. Also, if Sky (the biggest benefactor of the game) can only film from one side of the pitch, AND they request the club fill the East, then it makes every sense to stack the other side full of people. Part of the problem with RL in London is your average Londoners perception of the sport as minority. As long as they continue(d) to see half empty stands on Sky TV, this will persist and the sport will continue to be generally viewed as a joke down here.

Sports fans are notoriously fickle. If the team get on a roll, people will want to come along and be associated with winners and you'll see things improve....perhaps then you'll see the LV= stand opening up as per Manly?

It'll be interesting to see what happens to the demographic of the fanbase as the season progresses as most of Quins home fixtures are on Sat's at 3pm. I can see how this time works for most hardcore fans and also ensure the club max out on travelling away support (not something a club should be built on I hasten to add...) but I've just had a scout through the SL fixture list and NO other club has any home fixture on a Sat @ 3pm. Could it be that the community game throughout the land plays on Sat morns/afternoons and other RL clubs have built their fan bases around the amateur game....? I've already read many postings about the lack of kids at games; how on earth are the RL loving kids of London & the South supposed to get to games to see their heroes....? It's utterly illogical.

I agree 100% its madness and has certainly cost me and my son as fans.

The strongest argument put forward on was that it was best because then people wouldn't have to wake up with a hangover on Monday after being in the bar.

I really can see no logic at all in playing on a Saturday afternoon

We handed every amateur in the south a season ticket last season and it increased the crowd by 100.

How do Chelsea get a crowd on Sat afternoon when all local players play at 3 on Sat.

It was put to a vote and Sat at 3 was the most popular. You cant keep everyone happy.

On good authority - the club have spent years travelling around, disenfranchising the community, plus over the 10 years that the community game has grown, there have been clashes between Quins/LB's and the community game. The clubs don't feel like they've been embraced, and the choice to play games at 3 on a Sat has nailed that one in. They were never going to turn it around in 1 year. It's a marathon not a sprint and the community needs to be embraced for survivial.

You simply cannot compare Chelsea!
1) it's football, the most popular game on the planet.
2) Chelsea have existed for eons and father after father after father passes down the chelsea mantra through the family.

Check out Wigan Athletic - more popular than Wigan RLFC; why, because that's football for you.
The pies have had to embrace their community program for survivial and the sooner QuinsRL realise that, the better.

Why try to convert randomers to the game down here, when the community are already converted? Embrace them!!!
The hardcore who voted for Sat's would come anyway if you ask me. The community now can't!

ps - I'm not sure you're right about soccer community games 3pm on sat. I think they're generally arranged so that these lads can make pro games and that the Sunday morning 10am k.o. for the amateur game is far more popular.

No

It is a complete lack of ambition. I don't think anybody is demanding both side stands to be open. For a new supporter who turns up on the day, the chances of getting a half decent ticket are virtually zero, even though the stadium is 2/3 empty, because our stand is full of away supporters. LondonBroncosFan turned up at about 12 I hear and got a delightful seat near the bottom of AH. Amazing. So we then open the awful South Stand for about 100 people with no atmosphere whatsoever. Open the North Stand for away fans FFS. Free up some decent seats for walkups and let them go behind the sticks like they do at EVERY other ground. The current situation makes no logical sense and is STUPID.

Assumes Chelsea fans know their fathers. Big ask!

Over the years, our attendance figures are consistantly very good as are our season ticket sales and we have never had to embrace anything for ''survival''? In fact, they increased since the arrival of a Premiership club so your information is totally incorrect.

In general, people in Wigan do not choose between football or Rugby as they are either one sport or the other.

The ''new'' Latics supporters aren't ex-Wigan RL supporters, they are ex-Man United, Liverpool, Everton or Man City general football supporters who have now got a Premiership team or their own.

For a Premiership club, Wigan Athletics attendances are abysmal and although they might get higher gates than the Rugby, Rugby League is still the most popular sport within the town by far.

....embellished for effect I admit. But believe me, your community program have worked overtime since Latics made the top flight to make sure this is the case. (I was actually thinking forward to this and next season and your dwindling support as you achieve zip on the field. Let's see you embrace your community program then)

The most pertinent fact you make here is that Latics fans attend in bigger numbers despite RL being more popular and having far more heritage. What does that say about Football v RL fans! They are different monsters.

Let's get back to the one simple inexorable fact. Rugby is a community sport. Every club in the land has developed its fan base through years and years of being involved in the community through the amateur game and through schools. For those that don't believe it, I suggest you investigate the work of the modern day pioneers, Gary Hetherington and Pete Deakin (RIP).

Incidentally, I hear (allegedly) that the vote last year was conducted online and only the hardcore few voted. That's not representative and it's hardly in the best interests of London RL in 5 years time.

Well im Chelsea and i know mine you Rangers half-wit.

Brilliant - I hear many of them go on an instinct, somewhat like the Salmon of the Capastrano, hoping they can find pops in the crowd...

Brilliant ! oh dear how sad !!!

IL also told us that it's standard practice to count season ticket holders even if they don't actually turn up on the day. I'm one such, so there must have been at least 4001 to count.

Spoke with a few others who were at the game and the majority of opinion was that there were no more than 250 empty seats in the East stand, meaning the gate was reported incorrectly. The problem/question is, WHY?
Also, the bar staff????What is going on??? The guy sat in front of me on Saturday missed 13 minutes of the game when he nipped in for a refill after about 15 minutes of the first half


Also, (as an ex-publican I can comment on this) why don't the staff start pulling pints 10 minutes before half time??? If the 1 stand policy is to be a hit, then the players bar at the top end of the Kings should be opened as well, together with a beer truck in the concourse. Lastly, why are there only about 6 jugs available...Surely the opportunity to sell 4 pints at a time is one that should be exploited further??
Great day out on Saturday but still a few tweeks needed to get it spot on.

How many people missed part of the second half in the queue for the toilets? Ridiculous.

Toilets at the end of the East Stand were half empty.

The toilets at the ends aren't usually busy, it's the one's in the bar at half time and the end of the game.