big game for the crusaders this, if you win then your on 8 points already more then last year and in a good position to challenge maybe for the top 8.also the fact of its the first game on the road in south wales so what will the response be like from the fans will they turn up in numbers unlike last year and will they cheer and support the crusaders.what crowd are the crusaders and you lot expecting for this game, what are ticket sales like,what line up do we expect to see and score predictions.
i"ll go for
crusaders 26 quins 14
att - 3,500
now what crowd would you get if it was at wrexham id guess about 5-6k

There has been very little publicity in South Wales for this match by the Crusaders I think they should just make a clean break of it and just work on North Wales only , now we have the Scorpions down here .I believe the contract to take games on thre road was done before the establishment of South Wales RL so this might be the last year we see the 'Crusaders' playing down here in South Wales (unless they draw Scorpions in Cup in future???)
Not expecting many for this match to be honest, Alfie is not a huge factor ,many people are still sore over the issue of the loss of the club from Bridgend.Shame really , probably around 2,000 crowd? I'll be there nonetheless

I agree with CCR. Better that The Crusaders RL just concentrate on Wrexham now.
They're (and by They I mean mainly Mike Turner) are not as popular down here as they once were (such as they were). They'd be better off cutting their losses and staying oop North, leaving the south to SWS.

I'll be surprised if the attendance exceeds 1600.

shame really becasue you"d think that if the game was in wrexham the crowd would be around 5-6k maybe to keep up an impressive average but if there is only a couple of thousand could drag down the average abit which is very important for the crusaders this year to prove to people that the new wrexham crusaders will work and succeed and should get a licence.
what are ticket prices for this?

£10 ticket prices i've heard. The crusaders have sold 3000 tickets already.

airlie,
I take a different view on this.......

The fact is the Crusaders now look like a professional outfit both on and off the field - unlike last season, when the words "right shambles" came to mind.

Yes, it would have been better had the Quins game been on over the weekend but circumstances were against this and will effect the gate.

Absolutely no-way though, should we discourage the Crusaders from coming down to South Wales for their on-the-road matches and the future Bradford game will be terrific for the sport on South Wales.

The Quins game will be great for the Neath RFC who have got behind the Scorpions and will be great for some of the Crusaders' players coming to South Wales for the first time.

It also gives the RL public in South Wales a Superleague match to see ( even if it is on a Thursday night)

Ticket prices are £8 for adults £4 for children. Good value for a super league match i think.

great value hope many people take advantage of that
3k already sold any links dont really believe that but hope a good gate is on show though

3000 sold already is good news though, strange time to play it but all three sides that usually play out of the Gnoll are playing on the Easter weekend, so I guess the pitch needs time to recover. The club certainly has alot more credibility than last year certainly on the pitch as well as off which is great to see.

We'll wait and see what comes Thursday and see what the followers of the game in South Wales think.

3000 tickets sold already?

I challenge that. I REALLY challenge that. We didn't get 3000 against Quins when we actually HAD a Superleague team down here.

SWS are getting just over 600 in C1. Most of the ex-Celtic Crusaders supporters seem to be not bothering, other than the handful that travel up North.

A quick question for Port.

If Mike Turner is running a professional outift this year, why did Mike Turner run a shambles last year.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm impressed the way Wrexham Crusaders averages double the attendances Celtic Crusaders did and obviously Moss' money seems more secure than Samuel's money, but why the rush to slag off what we had?

The "opportunity" to see a Superleague team? That would be as exciting as the thief that stole my bike giving me the "opportunity" to watch him ride it past me.

Better that the brand is built exclusively in Wrexham and stop pretending they care about us.

Good luck to you and all, but enough of the crocodile tears. We all KNOW that after the licenses are awarded South Wales will never see the Crusaders again.

[url=http://www.slstats.org/2009/4/13/Celtic+Crusaders+V+Harlequins+RL.htmlhere you go[/url......

You got a job yet , or is Abi still keeping you ?

Grendel..........I have great difficulty reading your posts.........can you write in english please

its weird but they appear like this to me and perhaps others ?


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The answer is that Mike Turner has nothing to do with the running of the club this year. He is totally incompetent and the new regime know this, he's now a 'commercial executive' or something and is being kept as far away from the actual running of the club as possible.

that means we had over 3000 then!!

Yep.

Any fresh injury news for the hectic easter fixtures?

Raynor should be fit again so looks like a fully fit squad apart from Lee who is out long-term. Some new signings to possibly come as well.

Really Port? REALLY?

Well perhaps you should get some one with an education (that's learnin' in your language) to read it to you. Why not get the seven year old that writes your posts out for you to do it.

Couldn't be further from the truth. Mike Turner is 100% involved and is one of the men in charge of marketing which is his forte. He inherited a shambles at the start of 2009 after the people who'd previously run the club made mistakes, ran it into the ground and said "there you go I'm off, I'll leave you to it". The club was on its knees by March due to things not being done properly from July 2008. Leighton Samuel had then run out of money and it was left to Mike Turner to try and run things single handed while at the same time searching for new investors. Whatever mistakes he made (everyone does, we're human), he's the one who struck the deal with Wrexham to save the club. He's now the man in charge of marketing and sponsorship up there and you can work the results out for yourself. And who do you think brought in Brian Noble, Iestyn Harris and Jon Sharp?

Thanks Gutterfax. That's the offical attendance figures. Samuel had a history of exaggerating figures either way. For the fire officer you can subtract 500. For the RFL you can add 500.

So when things go wrong the man in charge can blame the previous incumbents but when things go well it's all him?

Did the RFL task force (you know, the ones who got Brian noble on board and who still pay him) have nothing to do with it?

I didn't know you posted on here Mike.

Sometimes there's just too much to do to save things. Like I said, he made mistakes, everyone does, but I know how committed he was in trying to save the club when it was is in the crap and I firmly believe that if he had been at the club from 2007 rather than a certain other person whose initials would be Dreadfully Tiresome to mention, things would have been a lot better. Perhaps some of the same errors would have been made but you can be rest assured that a sponsorship deal with stupid conditions wouldn't have been signed and the marketing for Super League would have started in July 2008 not December.

No it's not just Mike up there, he's mainly the sponsorship and marketing guru now, something he does best as can be seen from previous clubs. The good thing about the Crusaders now is that there are at least three times the staff doing things from the marketing, media and administration.

The other things that are going well up there compared to Bridgend are...

Wrexham having a dedicated local daily paper - Bridgend may have had the Gazette which was very supportive but it was a weekly and if it's in a daily it's thrust home more. There was the Echo but it's Cardiff-based and had other priorities. Up in Wrexham, The Leader gives the Crusaders front and back page on a semi-regular basis and are very supportive.

The council - The Wrexham council saw Super League as an event straight away and immediately promoted the Leeds game around their town with banners, posters and flyers etc. They even did a mailshot and have seconded one of their media guys to assist in writing articles and organise match days. The Bridgend Council allegedly refused to do this as "they didn't see Super League as an event".

Lack of competition - in South Wales, there are eight more full-time professional clubs, in North Wales there are none and they wanted a team to support. The population of South Wales may be a lot more but there's a lot more competition for the money too.


However this week, the Crusaders are back down here, they're a better team on the field too as we all know and I think this will be a game and night to remember against Quins.

Fair play CC, I hope you enjoy the game. I'll be doing other things myself. Either shopping or rendering by the looks of it.

Hey Cardiff Cymru

Grendel used to think I was Mike Turner , now he thinks its you