I refer to Item 3 in your list, charlie. Salford in new ground, large city. pathetic couple of thousand spectators: Castleford in crappy stadium, small town, large attendances of 8 or 9 thousand. Wakefield in crappy stadium, city of 80,000, attendances of 4500 ish, playing good rugby: Reason - APATHY

Wakefield Trinity want to send players into the junior and comprehensive schools around dishing out free tickets of which a few hundred would want their dads or big brothers and sisters to go with them.

I tend to disagree with the decision not to give discounted rates to students. I think its better to have a couple of hundred students in the ground paying reduced ticket price, than none at all.

I wonder if it has been worth it overall, don't suppose you can accurately work it out, I believe the school's is the way to go, get them young at all costs, personally think u13 should be free at all games, this should be RL wide.

The game itself might be the beginning and end of everything for the die-hards but its not enough for everyone, it has to offer other attractions.
Sure, the game itself is the central event but it can't be the only reason to be there, Match day needs to be exactly that, a day of entertainment for everyone.
At the moment, we only cater for die-hards, the recent upturn in success on the field is a help but I think its a bit of a blinkered ideal to think that that's all you need to grow an attendance.
Can't wait to get the hell out of there tbh......and I'm a die-hard [iEst1980[/i

Good point that Inside Man about Under 13s being free, though not sure how viable it is.

I would maybe target that to Under 11s.

On top of the abovein getting kids in.

I do remember that there used to be a kidzone/fanzone around where the matchday ticket booth is now

Surely all clubs have nothing substantial to lose by letting u13s in free. There would be longer term benefits I'm sure.

Not just looking at the the benefits to the club but RL at an amateur level is moribund, we need to have more kids interested in playing as well as watching, we will reap the benefits long term.

I think getting people in at an early age is critical and key to getting them hooked. I first started going just before my teenage years and was then going almost every home game, and some away right up to when I went to University. As a school kid I felt very proud to have a season ticket which was reasonably priced.

Then in the 90s I went to University and began work away from Wakefield. I could rarely afford to go to games in the early 90s and transport was an issue too. However since I've become financially more stable and am now able to drive I've been back for many years. Why am I back? Simple really, I was hooked from an early age. That is why I am prepared to drive 100+ miles most weekends to watch Trinity.

The crowds haven't been pathetic, why the need for the OTT language. They are honest figures which is far more important. More would be better obviously.

Sorry but I Don't think saying honest figures sums up the very poor attendance for such a big game.

What crowd were you expecting for a Thursday night Sky match?

Not a big one to be honest, hence me posting the Question.

That's what I meant by honest. It looked ok me under the circumstances. It's all about perceptions really. Under Glover we thought we were smashing box office records, turned out half were in on feebies. Even then he'd have added another thousand non existent 1000 non existent fans for good measure.

At least with Carter you know they all paid and at the end of the day that's what counts.

Crowds are always linked to results. How many more would be going to Hull tonight but for that cock up last week? That was just one game!

Participation numbers from 6-12 years old are up and a lot of work has been done by WT community team to help with that, the area in decline is from 15-18 years old where the community game is on its backside, not to mention open age sides dropping like flies, 2 years ago the Pennine league had just short of 100 teams in their league s and now it is short of 50 teams registered to play 13 a side, this is the area where the apathy lies and needs to be addressed as so many potentially good players are leaving the game. We won't find all the next world beaters by just looking at U12's to 14's as players are nowhere near fully developed at these ages, there is more potential to be found at 17-19 year olds, so rather than picking up a 100 15's and then letting 93 of them go at 17 and probably lose them from the game (as a player and a supporter) forever, the focus should be moved to the area of the game that is genuinely in decline and offers genuine potential.

I thought in the region of 5,800 considering what's to play for, the quality of play etc, I'd have expected 6,400 on a Sunday.
Unrealistic? Obviously.