I'm not a betting man but I would be willing to chance a few shillings that should attendances next year take a turn for the better our friend William will not be so prolific with his offerings.

If you read the earlier posts in this thread, he did say that one of his reasons for doing this was because the RFL made a song and dance about increases in 2012 but weren't so keen as to make any public statement as to a reduction in fan numbers that should be a major concern to them.

I've much better things to do with my life than read 140 odd pages of some geeks hobbyhorse ramblings.

you're not from round these parts are you stranger

You mean he's surprised that a business isn't shouting from the rooftops a lower than expected business outcome? Really?



I think the rfl should be taking out full page adds confessing its poor management and telling the world crowds are down, as should all the over sports who have seen a drop this year!

I simply pointed out young bill's reason d'être. I did not say I agreed with it'

What like? Posting on the very same thread?

One post or 140 pages. Some difference.

[uHessle Roader Stats[/u

First post on this thread = Feb 11th
Last post on this thread to date = Aug 7th
Most active dates = Feb 26th (4 posts), Mar 20th (3 posts)
Total number of posts on this thread to date = 23

*********************************************
"I've much better things to do with my life..."
% decrease in interest = -100.00%

...THAN...

..."read 140 odd pages of some geeks hobbyhorse ramblings"
% increase in interest = +100.00%
*********************************************

I applaud the Admins allowing this to rumble on beyond 100 pages. There's still plenty of fish in this ever expanding pond.

[uRound 24 Cheapo Super League Ticket Offers LATEST...[/u

[uWigan V Huddersfield[/u - [url=http://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/manchester/wigan-warriors-ltd/24113477GROUPON - 2 tickets for £16 OR 4 tickets for £29[/url.
Also, there's a Heinz ex-employee offer of 6 tickets for just £30.

The above ought to ensure a bumper attendance in excess of the attendance at the same fixture last year, assuming the League Leaders Shield being up for grabs isn't enough of an incentive in itself.

[uBradford V Catalan[/u - [url=http://www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/news__video/article/8484/bring-a-buddy-Bring a Buddy for just a fiver![/url

[uSalford V Leeds[/u - [url=http://www.manchesterpride.com/whatson/fringe/sport/salfordredsvleedsrhinosManchester Pride £10 tickets offer![/url

[uHull KR V Hull[/u - [url=http://www.hullkr.co.uk/club-community/news/article/three-game-ticket-offer-ends-tomorrow-at-5pmPart of a cheap 3 game ticket offer![/url

If anyone is aware of any further cheap ticket offers (groupon, wowcher, buddy, BOGOF 2 for 1, cheapo 3's, etc) for the rest of the upcoming SL fixtures in Round 24, feel free to post them on this thread.

Ah so you're willing to add context to attendances only when there is an increase?

As I've been accused of pretty much everything on this thread at some stage (this would include accusations regarding my alleged unwillingness to provide context in cases where attendances have decreased) then feel free to throw that accusation in too if it floats your insecure boat.

It has been alluded to several times in this thread that Huddersfield (down by 20.94%) and Bradford (down by 27.27%) home attendances have significantly decreased and a major factor for that is the withdrawal of ridiculously cheap season tickets which have been replaced by more realistically-priced memberships. Sundry reactive cheap ticket offers this season at both those clubs (BOGOF 2 for 1, Bring a Buddy, Groupon, £15, £10 and £5 offers, etc) have achieved little in the way of countering those huge decreases.

Perhaps you could provide some context as to why your club St Helens home attendances are currently 20.31% down on last season?

Rugby League Marketing 101:

a. Stick posts in the ground
b. announce kick off times
c. panic sell at cheap prices at the end of the season when points a & b fail
d. repeat a & b next year and look surprised when they deliver the same results

Glad to.

Number of reasons:

- stadium issues - people were unhappy with it and that let to some ST holders not renewing. Also, you will always get people going to see what the fuss is at a new stadium. These issues probably didn't persuade them to keep with it

- performances - probably the biggest reason. We've been utterly gash this season, especially at home. Without the draw of a brand new stadium, it's left to mainly ST holders going.

- matches - we've been unfortunate since the Wigan game fell on a Monday night (so we lost around 2-3k), the Salford game got 5k for when it snowed badly (should be double) and we have yet to play Warrington (our biggest attendance along with Wigan)

You forgot the bit about putting out a press release to tell everyone how great the RFL is.

Another angle to look at the cheap Groupon/Wowcher/BOGOF offers is that they further de-value a season ticket.

One of the main selling points of a Season ticket is that it saves you money (usually marketed as getting a number of games free - usually 3 or 4). All it takes now is to miss a couple of games because of holidays or work commitments, and then throw in some of the cheap deals and suddenly the 'extra value' of your season ticket is gone. And that's without mentioning that some of the guff on show throughout the regular season isnt worth full admission prices anyway. Using these offers on a regular basis as a sport is a slippery slope.

I thought we would have learned our lesson about de-valuing our product with the ridiculous Stobart deal - One that I have no doubt has played its part in not getting a main sponsor this year.

The RFL is quite happy to have 100 or so little sponsors paying 1K each, they think that is promoting the game more.

The RFL brought in more sponsorship money from having numerous different sponsors than they did from having 1 single sponsor.

I don't get a season ticket anymore mainly for that reason.

Ultimately If I had a season ticket I would still miss a few games a year either through holidays or work. Factor that with some games that I'm not to bothered about watching and being able to get cheap tickets through various offers throughout the season it just isn't worth forking out for one.

These kind of comments are incredible. ST are so cheap for top level RL. You get more commitment from League 2 soccer fans. And that truly is dross.

Yes.. I can see why a season ticket isn't for you.

The thing is, you can't blame people for questioning the value of a ST. The fact League 2 soccer is more expensive has absolutley no bearing on rugby league.

It's the product that is to blame at the moment. If the RFL can fix the league structures so that the majority of games are meainingful and full bloodied, people wouldn't be getting switched off by certain games. Unfortunately at the moment, the balance is the wrong way - there are becoming too many meaningless, low intensity games. There will always be some lop sided games, that is the nature of a physical sport like rugby league, that 1 team can get on top - however, at the moment, there are too many games where teams are not approaching the game with full intensity.

So until the RFL guarantee all games are 12-12 there's no point buying a ST. Rubbish. Some of the most enjoyable games I've seen as a club fan are one sided. It's the nature of the sport I love. Get a grip and stop moaning for the sake of it.

Agree with this, and I suspect Saints home attendances could have been even worse were it not for those who purchased the cheaper 5 year season ticket deals. They don't yet have the option of not renewing.


I think another factor is the increasing realisation that a lot of these regular season SL fixtures have become meaningless to such a degree that it doesn't matter how gash Saints performances are throughout, as they'll still qualify for the play-offs. This realisation also rubs off on the teams performances in terms of lack of intensity and effort most of the time. This has certainly been the case at Leeds for several seasons now since the 14 team, Top 8 play-off SL structure was introduced.


Saints home attendances this season for every game have been down on last year. There's a consistency in spite of the odd anomaly. The Warrington home game won't make much difference to their overall home attendance figures compared to last year because the attendance for that fixture last year (almost 16k) has not yet been included in the stats.