I think your right about the away games, maybe that's the mindset of a lot of fans now who used to go to away games, my other half has a job travelling away now so might be away for a few weeks so we pick and chose even home games now, why shud the amount of travelling rovers and hull that used to say two years ago do it when the other clubs apart from a selected few continue to make away crowds inflated because they're home attendance is so poor.

A bit unfair. I'm sure I read somewhere that rovers are decimated by injuries, which is obviously a step above injury problems or even and injury crisis. Add into that the embarrassing refereeing display and I think a rovers did brilliantly to keep it down to 50

We need a bit of sanity & realistic thinking here,
We have a small squad with young players who are having to replace the likes of Newton, Vella, Gallea, Green & Brisco, Our home produced players in Whellam, Salter, Josh Hodgson are progressing well, Eden, Brown, & Caro need time. We have also lost three young players who we would have assumed would be in the squad in Sheriffe, Peterson (on a long holliday in Aus) & Taylor who thinks he is to good for East Hull. Dobson, Patterson, Dave Hodgson, Hall, Pea & Burns are left to bulk up a thin squad.
Sandercock should keep his own council & use the correct channels to voice his concerns on the standard of referees, the correct channel is not the BBC or Sky it makes the club & him look foolish. He should stick to how well we played or did not play.
As for complaining at £24 to watch the game? get real we need to be paying twice that to have viable clubs the only thing you get with cheap prices is insolvency, we can't go on expecting a fully pro game at semi pro prices. As a season pass holder (consession over 60) I still dont see why they let me in for a reduction I can well aford to pay normal price, we have to stop living in the past, In real terms I am paying half what I paid in the 1970's to watch the club but they are now full time players & playing in a stadium that is years ahead of what we had in the past all this has to be paid for.

To be honest I don't give a monkeys now about the league it will take us many to win it but lets try to get to Wembley they is not to many games to play to get their if we can beat st Helens and get a decent draw next time

Problem with all this is although probably true it doesn’t meet the financial constraints of most people.
I am currently employed with a wage a fair bit above average, I’m still cutting back on away trips, and TBH if I never had a pass I’d be picking and choosing games. If they’re on tv I don’t go. 1st 4 away games on tv hence I never went to one, that got me out of the habit. Add that to the general poor standard games (Wigan especially), lack of atmosphere and rubbish weather and it’s no surprise gates are down.

Currently a season pass works out (at discount rate) at about £16 a game for an adult. Is that low??

Hull City are likely to be in the PL next year and are currently offering a season pass which works out at £19 a game. Now working on relative wages between our squad and a PL squad I assume the difference isn’t being made up be footfall. Will this affect RL gates in Hull??

Bottom line is if RL wants to compete and improve as a product price on the gate won’t make a lot of difference, the marketing of the game as a whole will do. It needs to be promoted into a product that is seen as premium and desirable, how is the big question. Doubling prices is not the answer.

A few points.

1) We have a squad of 30 players, as confirmed in a recent interview our wonderful coach gave to the BBC.
2) Josh Hodgson isn't home grown.
3) Do you seriously think increasing game day admission prices to £48 a game will save the sport? I took my wife on Sunday, and due to the inconvienience of Rovers moving the shop into town, and then reducing opening hours to 10-4 only, we didn't buy in advance. So, my costs for Sunday, £30 in petrol, £48 tickets, £5 parking & £4 for 2 cuppas. Grand total to watch us concede 50 points = £87.

Prices need capping at 20 quid at all grounds, coupled with a marketing drive to get numbers up.

To make an analogy, pay for a Ford Ka dont expect Porche performance. I know people are struggling but that dosn't alter the fact that we can't sustain the game at current price levels. I went to see the Rod Stewart in concert traveled a similar distance as to an away game got roughly the same amount of entertainment (two hours) & a similar size crowd. I got little change out off £600! for the two of us, that is how to make profits, not aiming the game at people who can't afford it anyway. It is a harsh world we are in & the point I was trying to make is that with the spend we have they are doing OK. Somtimes we get a great performance & turn over the likes of Warrinton & Leeds other times we get ripped to pieces By Salford & I except that as part of the price for supporting Rovers. I dont have deluded expectations of endless winning runs but take pleasure in watching our younger players mature. To watch the shear joy on Josh Hodsons face after his try against saints was worth the entrance fee alone (OK he is not from our juniors but he is a local lad). I would sooner see the club stay mid table than be in debt, I worry for the Giants & others including us, they would colapse over night if they lost their backer, at least we would struggle on a bit longer with 7K crowds.

Problem is that although I'd quite like one I can't afford a Porsche , neither can most people. The Rod Stewart analogy is ok but would you return every other week to watch Rod even if his voice was off one week and he forgot the words the next.

I'll accept mid table, I can't see this improving over the next few years even with a big backer but I wont do it at any cost.

Wigan is about £16 to get in, how does that work??

That's a really rubbish analogy. If Rovers are a Ford Ka, and Wigan (for example) are a Porsche, then why are prices at the DW the same (or less) than at Craven Park? As for Rod Stewart (each to their own I suppose, personally I'd shut the curtains if he was in my front garden), as BR points out, do you go to every show on his tour?

RL has to compete in a shrinking market, with other live sports events. The prices are presently comparable with Championship football and to push them higher would be commercial suicide. Increasing overall revenue is far more sustainable than increasing prices, thus alienating the majority of the working class folk that are the bedrock of our support.

Wigan get about 14,000 average. So can probably afford to charge a bit less than teams like us with a 7.5k average or even more so Huddersfield with their attendances.

I've never read such ridiculous posts as the ones by Beverley red

You dont read your own posts then do you

Thats a bit unfair on Cabbie.

Mine are miles worse.

What is ridiculous? our club can't survive without a wealthy benefactor, therefore we are not charging enough, if our fans can't afford to attend then we are stuffed all round. Clubs with larger crowds can afford to charge less the Giants & Rovers can't. It is simple economics you can't survive by charging less for your product than it costs to produce. My whole argument is that we are doing fine for the amount we spend & but Leeds & Wigan we are not.

Ok then Bev red lets charge everyone who comes to the next game a grand each to get in then we'll be sorted and out of debt ridicolous isn't it

You're missing the other obvious option which is to spend what you earn. What do you think rovers' average attendance would be if they charged £48 to get in? Do you think it would generate more revenue than the current entrance fee?

REduce the salary cap I say. The players who can earn more else where will be leaving anyway and those that can't go to union or oz will still mostly be earning significantly more than those paying to watch them. The average salary in SL is around £70k - do you think the majority of players could earn £70k if they weren't pro rugby players.

Oay them what the game can afford

you were well and truly HAD if you paid £600 for two of you to see rod stewart.IMO

Ok I may not be putting my point well, what I wanted to put across is that some folk on here expect far to much from the limited resources available to us & the low price they are paying for the match day experiance. I am a fan of the game & the people who play & watch it but no amount of wishfull thinking can cover the fact that without rich patrons we would not have a club playing at this level, I am happy with that & just get frustrated with people expecting to get somthing for nothing. To me £24 for a game is reasonable, half of what I would pay for a meal out or a night in the pub. I would love an investor like the guy at salford to come in to the club & then we might have a reason to complain that the team was not perfoming but as it stands I think we get good value from what we can afford.

24quid is reasonable 48quid isn't

I can understand the argument you’re putting across but there is a big BUT that needs addressing. If all reports are correct and I believe NH has confirmed this. Until last year we were at full cap, last year and this we are approx. £100k below full cap, so let’s say one good (not exceptional) player down.
So with the exception of the year we finished 4th and to some extents even that year we have never really competed with the top clubs. If you look at our relative playing squad it certainly doesn’t look or feel like a club that is only one player down either. I think this is where the frustration lies with fans, we are told we are spending the same as say a wire or Leeds yet the product we see is miles away. If we had Roman Abramovich in charge we’d still be only able to spend £100k more so would he improve the situation other than being able to improve the infrastructure and employ a better back room staff.
I can see where JTP is coming from with reducing the cap, not sure on the stats but I think only one club makes a profit (leeds) so to stop clubs drowning maybe reduce the pay, but this would just reduce the product and the vicious circle would ensue. £70k is the average wage, but this is heavily tilted by every clubs Sam Tomkins type who will be on double plus that sum. The average player will be on £30 - £40k and for a career that effectively ends at 32 (and could be at the weekend) is not overly attractive.

As I said earlier footfall is not the be all and end all its only a gauge of how well the sport is performing and in the big picture gate receipts will not save any club or the sport on its own.

Hypothetically if RL was very cheap to watch for a year and say the total attendances were raised by 50% that would attract bigger sponsors, potentially bigger tv deals and potentially get people hooked. Don’t think it would work BTW as people would get used to not paying much but it would have more of a chance than fleecing the already strapped fans and forcing them away.
I fear this weekend (and ultimately the RLWC) can do more damage to our sport than good. We will have games on national tv and I would bet are reasonably poorly attended, little atmosphere and the impression of an amateur sport, we need to fill these games out one way or another to tempt supporters this worth watching.

There are things (within the rules!) that allow rich clubs to stretch the cap a bit further. Also if you can break into the top 4 regularly and win a couple of trophies, players will come for a bit less - breaking in initially is the tough bit and it'll be interesting to see how a cashed-up Salford get on. Then there's the advantage of being able to pay transfer (big) fees to get who you want rather than just who is available ooc. And, most importantly perhaps, pour money into your academy structure.
The wages issue from a player POV is interesting. I was discussing the other day, hypothetically, about the best path for a promising young player in the game, assuming the lad is bright as well. I'd say semi-pro has to be very attractive, unless you think you're going to be a really top player. You can start your 'real' career, that will hopefully last you a working lifetime, at the same time as everybody else, earn a few quid extra without relying on it too much and never feeling in any way like you need to start on the HGH to make sure you get another contract to support your family.

A lot of sense there, I am sure that I recall an interview with Sinfield were he implied that players at Leeds were playing for less than they could get at other clubs, I also recall Justin Morgan saying that Rovers as a new club into Super league (at the time) were having to pay over the odds to get players as there was no garantee that we would not get relagated or licence renewed. I would expect Wigan & Saints can hang onto their young promising players with the expectation of trophys to come, where we :- (a) dont as yet have that production line of talent (b) the few we have produced have not stayed Taylor is the prime example. Back in the late 60's I & lot of others turned our backs on the chance of a contract. as we could earn more working or could not risk a career that would provide for the rest of our lives. It is a dilema for the game, we have to find the right type of player but can't afford to pay what they are worth. Because of that we dont compete with NZ & Aus at international level & therefore dont get TV coverage, the Sothern hemesphere dont care about it & we loose out on sponsorship. I dont have an answer but I think that allowing Sandercock & the board time to get a sustainable system into place is our priority & whatever the performance on the field we will just have to take it good or bad & hope it comes right in the end.

What you also have to appreciate is its not just about what you are spending on the cap. The giants have also recently been spending uo to the cap - but the cap only covers players wages a lot of money is spent elsewhere. Clubs like wigan, Leeds etc have more money up be able to spend on marketing also training facilities, kit and staff. If wigan players have better facilities and better recovery and more physio etc they have an advantage. I'm sure I read somewhere that wigan had 13 members of staff associated with their first team alone. Clubs like kr and giants have to pay players more to entice then to come so are not getting the value for money other clubs may be.