Just got back from the Wire v Hull game.

Knock out game and warringtons last home game yet only 7000 odd turn out. Decent number from Hull, easy 2k.

Why the apathy towards the play offs?

Because of its contrived nature!

Maybe everyone likes the play-offs - just without ticket incentives, this is just the true display of how popular RL really is?

Maybe give ST holders half price tickets for the play off games?

RFL Need to do something and fast. I would ask all clubs to offer fans a bolt on "play off" season ticket voucher for say £20 at the time of purchase (less dependent on ST type - ie less for juniors / OAPs) which would entitle you to a ticket for any potential play off games home and /or away at the end of reg season, not including GF.

If your team then didn't make the playoffs you could redeem that £20 against a GF ticket.

I like this idea but I would be less inclined to see the £20 given for a GF ticket, as I like to see as many tickets reserved as possible for the teams in the grand final. I believe you are on the right tracks here, if every season ticket holder at every club paid an Extra £20 towards there season ticket which meant they could get into play off games with there season ticket I am sure it would boost attendances and wouldn't put a lot of people off. Each club then sends £20 off each season ticket into the play off pot and its just pot luck on whether your team get there or not.

You won't miss the £20 as much when your not paying for Rugby every week.

What are the Sky viewing figures like for the play off games?

That wouldn't have helped last night's gate, the voucher would've been used last week

I think it's the season ticket holders who don't show up, which means their mates who go with them don't go and the crowds knackered.

Just offer ST holders an incentive for the money they paid in, ST holders half price sounds a good idea to me. Same in Challenge Cup games.

Why not have a different tier season tickets prices at clubs?

Such as the best price is just for league games, I think the best price this season was £200.

Another £x on top of that to include any potential cup or play off games, and even then with a bit of imagination could have different prices within these.

That way if people want to cough up extra at the beginning of the season to include as many matches as possible they can do, like wise if someone wants to pay the lower price they have that option to.

Honestly. If we need to give away discounted tickets and incentives to watch what is supposed to be the pinnacle of the season, then God help us all. Can anyone notice this is a self-defeating argument? How is the sport going to get more valuable when it is devaluing what is supposed to be the sport's greatest asset?

Its a watered down play off system se we get watered down attendances. First round play off matches for the top 4 is a complete waste of time, sometimes you have to beat the same team twice to ge to the grand final, surely once is enough.
Suspect that the drop in attendances will migrate to the sky viewing figures, its only in the semi final eliminators the play off has great credible value and attendances are acceptable.
Which suggest we should have a top 4 or 5 in the first place. Can't accept 8th place should be given the chance to be superleague champions making 4 play off games having greater value over 27 previous games, no wonder we have seasons with less intensive games since the top 8 play off has been introduced.

Agreed,

Top 5, 12 team league.

The play off system has too many teams in it, it has that number of teams to attempt to keep interest longer in the season, so reduce the number of teams involved and you reduce the interst in the regular season, there is no answer other than to improve all the clubs until like in Australia there are different teams in the play offs every year

Whilst the play off format clearly needs addressing there appears to be a supposition that under the old top 5 or top 6 systems crowds were rather better. I'm not sure they were - or at least they were still not fully comparable to the equivalent regular season attendances. So whilst going back to something more elite is important, I'm not convinced it will fully address some of the underlying issues - foremost of which is that Rugby League fans are tight and are happy to watch on TV!

It reinforces the often posted perception that RL fans are less affluent than their Union counterparts, and that is the reason it cannot draw the equvilant TV money

For me back to the Top 5 system, the playoffs only really get interesting next weekend.

Or a Top 2 championship with the team finishing first automatically selected for the WCC, a mid-season break for internationals/origin or whatever with another competition thrown in at the end of the season.

To be successful the new comp would have to be radically different from the CC - Maybe RL nines knockout comp? I also like the idea of a comp of based home grown players only, to foster youth development.

i can only assume its cost, people with ST go to home games as they have already paid for them so maybe they feel that having to pay for a home game is alien to them and cant/wont find the money.

Success costs, that has always been the case , as has been suggested, RL fans are inherently tight fisted, especially the Yorkshire ones

There's a comparison of play-off attendances between 2000 (Top 5 system) and 2011 (Top 8 system) [url=http://www.redvee.net/forums/showthread.php?22521-State-of-the-game-part-2&p=448922&viewfull=1#post448922[uHERE[/u[/url which indicate that attendances were better under the Top 5 system.

This.

I can only assume that this forum is populated by nobody other than those who worked in the Bradford Bulls marketing office. Every single thread about crowds results in a call for cheap or free tickets.

When you bought your season ticket at the start of the season, you bought something that you knew was only good for 13 home Super League fixtures, plus a few other perks that your club may have thrown in. Why then, all of a sudden, this clamour for free entry or discounts to something that you never paid for?

The onus is on the RFL to turn the play-offs into a premium product and that means turning them into an 'elite' competition that people will pay for. After all, how often do you see Apple or BMW discounting their products? How many empty seats do other sports have at 'all-pay' games - the UEFA Champions League or the Heineken Cup?

That means making the play-offs at most, a top six competition (and probably a top five). Forget all of this "everybody can join in" attitude because we're worried that teams "won't have anything to play for" (for some reason, the concept of professional pride is no longer something to turn up to work for) - the play-offs is an elite competition and if that means becoming a bit "elitist" to make a quality showpiece, then so be it.

Friday night's Catalans - Leeds match is something that every single Super League game should be - intense, gripping and competitive. We need to encourage more games like that and if it means letting go of some of the clingers on, so be it. Super League will be a better place without teams who can't meet the standard we expect.

Then if, IF, Super League achieves that and the fans are still staying away, then I'd suggest that RL is simply appealing to the wrong audience or an audience that simply isn't there.

When the Leeds v Bulls games were posting full house signs did people say "well that's rubbish, almost everyone there got in for a fiver"

Or did they say "brilliant, how do we replicate it"


When the RFU get 40k in Wembley for a league game, or 80k at Twickers for a double header do we say "but they all got in for free" or do we wring our hands and wonder how to replicate it?

If you want mass market it's simple
1. Pile it high
2. Sell it cheap
3. Make it easy

Once you've got bums on seats then think about "brand value"

everyone who buys a season ticket get a free CC ticket to any match bar semis and the final - at any ground

And the same for the playoffs

Bloody simple
All it needs is clubs to stop messing about and have some vision and will.
Stop being small time shop keepers and start being national CEOs.

Are you gerald Ratner...

No

I value the product of RL.

HTH.

A good summation that from the redvee forum (never thought I'd say that!).

The crux of the matter is that every game mattered in 2000 with a tangible reward at the end of it (i.e. - you're out, or you're in the GF). Little wonder the gates were higher.