Excellent post highlighting key issues

I think we're overthinking it to be honest.

We have a crap stadium in which we've largely played crap rugby for most of the season, when we're on SKY, on Friday night and its raining meaning most fans will get wet then it's not hard to fathom why the crowd was low.

Wholeheartedly agree, I've gone from being a home and away wakey fan that went to wembley finals, GB games and watched other teams games on Sky.
I haven't been to a CC final or GB game for years, I rarely go to away games, sky got cancelled and when we were beating Wigan I was at Nostell Priory for armed forces day.
Fair enough life changes and circumstances/financial situations alter, but for me the root cause for much of my apathy is that as a Wakey fan I feel disenfranchised from the wider game.
I see a home Wakey match as a day or evening out with my mates more than the chance to watch "my" team pit their wits and skills against the best in the competition.
I think the game in general and our club could do much more to make the average fan feel more included and valued.
I used to think this was the greatest game, now I'm not so sure that people like me are part of the future of the game, if indeed the game has any kind of sustainable wider appeal.
Certainly recent events call that into question.

My sentiments exactly.

Or is this just superleague, do fans of teams in the Championship and Championship 1 feel apathy towards the game aswell?

Bit like kinleycat my self went to International/County games all away games even went to watch second division games Hunslet/Dewsbury/Batley if we didn't have a game.Now go to some away games but most home games missed Leeds game due to being away for the weekend but did get to watch it on sky.

One thing that seemed obvious over recent weeks is the fall in number of away fans. I am sure many away supporters see a visit to Agbrigg and Belle Vue as one of the less desirable away locations.


However ! what really gets me is the massive latent support the club have and somehow more people need to be encouraged to come along to games. After every game, two or three of us go into various pubs in our 'colours' and the amount of people asking about the match is amazing. If you go into a pub with say 40 or so customers more than half are interested how we have got on. The interest and affection for the team is out there, getting them to pay into the ground is more difficult.

I can fully agree with this. We always call in a few pubs on the walk home from the game and the number of people who ask what the score was is amazing. There are also a number of people who will join in discussion about the game but then reveal they watched it on Sky in town with a gallon of ale, a gallon of ale that would have probably cost the same as the entrance fee to Belle Vue.

When asked how we went on after a game and if we have won I start with"you missed a great game you should have been there" even if its not been a very good game all round.

Shows how many people only turned up because of cheap or free tickets. Loyalty eh? I personally know of people who only went cos they could buy cheap tickets

Talking of freebies, a mate of mine, who, up to this season had been an ST holder, has been to 3 games this year, all with freebie tickets, when asked where there from he wont say, but obviously there still out there.

I noticed there was a clamp down at turnstiles on Friday. People who had bought tickets for the Leeds game had to go in the correct turnstile number on the ticket. A family in front of us were trying to get in at the turnstile next to the Con club with a ticket they had bought but were told to go in the correct turnstile number on Donny Road. Obviously there was a disgruntled reply from the father but the steward replied something along the lines of ''it's so we can tally up the tickets sold correctly, I'll get a rollocking if there's an odd ticket at my turnstile''.

There must still be some issues with fraudulent tickets. If people having to go through corresponding turnstiles eradicates this then I say fair enough.

£22 is a lot of money if money is tight, if you have bags of disposable income then it's ok, plus if the product's poor as ours has been up to the last weeks then people will spend it elsewhere.

"Where have all the fans gone?" Only one man knows the answer to this, and he's no longer at the club

Hit the nail on the head for me!. Add into the mix the constant messing about with KO times / days and some games that I would have gone to, I now couldn't.

Makes me laugh all the excuses.
For example during winter RL there were mid week matches to fit in due postponements and challenge cup disruption.
Summer rugby now and people still finding excuses.
Why do people come on here to moan, but do not attend matches ?

five home games on the trot when most are ready for taking their holidays, this one should be blamed on the stupid system of game selection that the RFL did, ok the Hull game was changed but what is up a simple home away home away, we are not all high profile clubs with greater attendances, just use a bit of common sense

I used to buy season tickets in the olden days when all matches kicked off at 3pm on a Saturday.
Now due to the RL & Sky matches could kick off at any time on Thursdays to Sundays. With my current job this is not practical.
This is the fault of the RL who aren't big enough to stand up to Sky. Basically Sky are the governing body of Rugby League in this country.

I get the impression that people are just battle-weary.

We get promotion and enjoy the first few years of battling to stay in. We survive relegation and there is a bit of a new dawn. Better players arrive, there is talk of a new ground in Thornes Park and everything is rosy for the first time in years. We get a franchise and the Thornes Park goes bang. We go into admin and are back where we started. New owner comes in and suddenly we feel cash-rich. The future is bright and talk of a new ground looks promising again. Guess what, it was fools gold and the new ground is looking like empty hopes again.

So we are back where we started, with a season and a half of poor rugby, facing another relegation fight. I think people are just weary of it all. We were corralled into the North Stand last year, are bossed around by stewards this year, receiving snidey remarks about attendance from the chairman on Twitter (when it isn't the fault of those who turn up).

If we could have Glover's marketing and Carter's business pragmatism, I think we'd do well. It seems we have gone from one extreme to the other. We need to encourage people to think that Belle Vue is a welcoming place to spend the afternoon, and marching your long-serving customers out of the ground over a bottle of pop is not the way. The team is doing their bit.

But I do wonder whether for many this one new dawn too many.

The club could help itself though. Marketing, marketing, marketing.

We did for a period, though Glover's ego over-ruled both other qualities in both men.

I agree with everything Slugger says, but i would go even further back, these problems have been happening for years. At the end of the day call it the dunkirk spirit or gluttons for punishment whatever, but at the end of the day we all suport Wakefield Trinity Wildcats and whilst they keep going we keep going and just keep taking it on the chin hopefully one day we will see the light at the end of the tunnel and come out the other end with a succesfull club that we can all be proud of and say in some small way we were all instrumental in achieving what some people saw as impossible, come on guys pick yourselves up get down to belle vue on thursday and show your pride in backing the team. ILL BE THERE.

Absolutely spot on. After so many disappointments, broken promises and false dawns many have already had enough and many are close to having had enough and it takes nothing for them to hit their limit, hence the blow outs over the stewarding, segregation, kick off times, poor advertising etc etc. Throw in the perceived incompetence, injustices and awful new league structure coming from the rfl and people have just walked away, not only from Wakey but from the game in general. It will take a sustained period of improvement both on and off the field to get them back but without them putting their money in the chances of the club being able to make that happen any time soon is unlikely. It's a catch 22 situation and not one that will be easy to overcome. The pricing policy and benefits of the season tickets this year is crucial given the recent years of cheap offers. The club needs to put up the price but the attendances show that people are reluctant to part with what is deemed the market rate to come to the games and watch lower end superleague rugby in an ancient ground with poor facilities. Getting the balance right is a tough call but absolutely vital if we are to compete next year and not just be marooned in that bottom four play off drop for most of the season. There is no doubt the club need to up it's game regarding marketing but it costs money and that is something we don't have much of. But without it the chances are season ticket sales will be down and nowhere near the 25% increase MC wants.

Will season ticket sales be down next year? I was thinking that the numbers reached rock bottom pre this season.

some movement on the stadium would be a welcome shove in a positive direction,

I suppose its too much to ask to see a JCB on Super Bowl car park (doing doughnuts) with Greg Inglis in the drivers seat

Many got them at the cheap early price offered by Elston & Glover before the true financial state of the the club came to light. They won't be that cheap again so without the hard sell there's a chance some who got them at that price may decide not to bother and pick and choose their games next year, if they bother at all. Just sticking them on sale and hoping 25% more people will fork out up to 25% more than they were on sale for last year wouldn't be a move likely to succeed. The floating fans will need a little more persuading than that through a deal with added benefits and good promotion of the offer.