There are a great deal more people in the Leeds area that are fans of the sport , but they don't attend the Rhinos games . They follow the other local teams .


You were aware that there is more than one RL team in the City ?

Thats assuming that you follow the mantra of "faithful supporter" and "supporter 'till I die" that most angst ridden teenagers hang their hat on - some people never grow up of course and their sporting club of choice becomes the most important thing in their life, a new shirt and a season ticket becomes the first thing they absolutely must buy before Christmas every year in the belief that if they don't then their club of choice will wither and die, for without these "faithful" supporters the world will end.

However most of us grow out of that stage when our balls drop and we come to realise that professional sporting clubs are just a business, a business that is slightly unique in that it gathers around it unquestioning "faithful" supporters who will pump money into it shortly after the start of their lean time - ie at the end of one season and the long barren wait for the next one to start, a time of serious cash flow problems for many professional sporting clubs but fortunately a time when the "faithful" will come and buy something from you that isn't even tangible yet, and they won't ask for anything in return or question anything you say, and will pay any price increase you care to inflict on them, and if during the next twelve months you serve up a dish of dire excrement as your product then they'll just come back this time next year and give you some more money if you tell them nice warm things.

So there are always "the faithful", they are a constant and are happy to be milked, the rest of the fluctuations are down to market forces and are the same market forces that every other retail outlet knows well, you have a sale on you get more people through your shop door, you show a film with millions of dollars of publicity you'll get full houses, give away free beer your pub will have to employ a bouncer to stop people getting in, give a good product and entertain your customers and you'll be locking the doors before you start every event, withdraw all of this and you'll drop back to the faithful old milking cows.

You call them "bandwagoners", most businesses call them "customers".

Thought your support last night was excellent for a nothing game. Good numbers, loud and a great appreciation for Horne.

At the CC final there were a group of scottish people behind me who were rhinos fans.

How dare these people put money into the game.

Never understood people criticising bandwagoners.

FWIW, leeds are one of only 4 teams to bring over 1000 away fans to huddersfield this year, the other 3 were castleford,wigan and st helens (twice)
usually you could guarantee that both hull clubs, bradford, warrington, wigan,leeds and saints would usually bring over 1000 but not this year, castleford brought over double of the amount they brought last year,obviously due to their good season.
i think it goes to show that away support across the game is down.

I think the point WE makes about bandwagon supporters (re 2004) is bollox, fans come and go, how teams play and perform will 99/100 have an affect on attendances and income, that's only natural. It doesn't define X amount of fans bandwaggoners, it means they are prepared to spend money regularly to support a team/nbe entertained.
it isn't easy for some to watch their team every week (financially) and when you aren't exactly playing attractive or even worse unattractive and losing rugby then fans get disheartened and think there's better things to spend money on.

Yes one could say that with the relative higher income demographic that Leeds as a city has had (since long before rugby came about) over pretty much all the other SL clubs towns/cities alongside the vastly larger population they've always had an advantage.
It shows in the long term success of the club since RL inception.

That said they've been getting very good gates for a long while, that's not only down to fans loyalty but also how the club are seen by their fans too. I also think the way the games are scheduled has a measurable impact, Friday nights for me is almost impossible to get up to Hull from Hertfordshire and for fans living in big cities it isn't always easy to get away and out of 'town' in time for away travel.
Asking fans of clubs to travel for an 8pm Friday kickoff when they are sometimes based 130+ miles away is just asking for trouble in terms of expectation of away support.
Making the travel easier/cheaper for away fans would encourage more away supporters but it needs joined up thinking from all the clubs and the RFL to bring this about as well as a possible away fixture season ticket (blocks of 5 say) and to stop SKY dictating schedules such as the Thursday night games which is having a drastic effect on attendances (& also the recovery imbalance for teams)

I think the traditional Sunday afternoon game has plenty of miles left in terms of increasing numbers & is important to keep families on board but the SKY masters will ensure that we won't ever go back to 1 match on a Friday, one on a Saturday and the rest on Sunday, this alone has had a huge effect all on its own for away support.