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If anyone's interested, here are our season attendance averages from the late 70's up until the mid-90's - the latter era being probably our most successful in terms of win/lose ratio since Wattie Davies and co were winning the Challenge Cup.

79-80; 1330

80-81; 1329

81-82; 1052

82-83; 916

83-84; 864

84-85; 1015

85-86; 930

86-87; 744

87-88; 859

88-89; 924

89-90; 1506

91-92; 1145

92-93; 925

93-94; 1227

94-95; 1509

Interesting reading

Thanks for that terminator

So why the spike in 88-90 season??

Are these just league game averages or do they include challenge cup attendances and other comp attendances??

Would like to see just league one's

Was 86-87 a poor year on the field to cause the 744??

Figures are just figures

It's the stories behind the season's that holds the clue

A good season can bring in the glory hunters...but a bad season can show you your reliable core support.

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Interesting reading

Thanks for that terminator

So why the spike in 88-90 season??

Are these just league game averages or do they include challenge cup attendances and other comp attendances??

Would like to see just league one's

Was 86-87 a poor year on the field to cause the 744??

Figures are just figures

It's the stories behind the season's that holds the clue

A good season can bring in the glory hunters...but a bad season can show you your reliable core support.

In 89-90 we had 3x3000+ home crowds, two of which were against Oldham and Halifax - then big clubs who had just been relegated, and the other one against Dewsbury.

Also, after years in the doldrums, Steve Ball had begun to rejuvenate the club and Paul Daley had been brought in as coach. So I guess there might have been an upturn in interest.

Interestingly, when Dewsbury were last in the top flight back back in 85-86, they still only averaged 1800 home crowds. In the two seasons after the were relegated - 86-87 and 87-88, they averaged just over 600.

What the stats do reveal is that, from 1980 up until the present day, neither of our clubs have consistently attracted average seasonal home attendances of over, say, the 1300 mark - often considerably less.

As a ball-park figure, I'd say there are about 120'000 people in total living in the Heavy Woollen area - which makes both our averages look pretty awful.

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Simple matter of the fact is the hangers on and closet fans that came to blackpool v widnes and our final at leigh v Sheffield do more harm than good

'Shaw cross juniors, Birkenshaw, Mirfield, Heckmondwike Panthers, Stainland Stags and then the Heavy woolen donkeys... WARDY, STOZZA, GT, KARL OR KEAR MUST OF DROPPED A DIGIT FROM MY MOBILE NUMBER! :clapping:

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If anyone's interested, here are our season attendance averages from the late 70's up until the mid-90's - the latter era being probably our most successful in terms of win/lose ratio since Wattie Davies and co were winning the Challenge Cup.

79-80; 1330

80-81; 1329

81-82; 1052

82-83; 916

83-84; 864

84-85; 1015

85-86; 930

86-87; 744

87-88; 859

88-89; 924

89-90; 1506

91-92; 1145

92-93; 925

93-94; 1227

94-95; 1509

 

 

Such data is very interesting isn't it. From a Batley perspective the really saddening feature is to look at the figures from 95 to the present day where a clear drop-off in 1996 can be seen. There can be plenty of speculation as to why but it does coincide with the new SL era and, possibly more significantly, the switch to summer RL.

 

As I said elsewhere these figures may also be analysed in more detail when they are compared with those from other clubs at the same time, although over-analysis can also be counter productive.

Sport, amongst other things, is a dream-world offering escape from harsh reality and the disturbing prospect of change.

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In 89-90 we had 3x3000+ home crowds, two of which were against Oldham and Halifax - then big clubs who had just been relegated, and the other one against Dewsbury.

Also, after years in the doldrums, Steve Ball had begun to rejuvenate the club and Paul Daley had been brought in as coach. So I guess there might have been an upturn in interest.

Interestingly, when Dewsbury were last in the top flight back back in 85-86, they still only averaged 1800 home crowds. In the two seasons after the were relegated - 86-87 and 87-88, they averaged just over 600.

What the stats do reveal is that, from 1980 up until the present day, neither of our clubs have consistently attracted average seasonal home attendances of over, say, the 1300 mark - often considerably less.

As a ball-park figure, I'd say there are about 120'000 people in total living in the Heavy Woollen area - which makes both our averages look pretty awful.

 

 

Even in the mid 70's Dewsbury only averaged over 2000 on a couple of occasions and, in the previous year in the old 1st Division (77-78) we only got 2100.

 

As you rightly say it is tough attracting crowds to sporting events in the HW area.

Sport, amongst other things, is a dream-world offering escape from harsh reality and the disturbing prospect of change.

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Let us ask the "token" Asian season ticket holder how to tap into an untapped market. Genius.

There is other untapped markets that perhaps we have not even thought about.

Since the European union decreed our borders open, there has been a huge influx of Polish, Estonian, Latvian, Slovakian and several other eastern European countries.

Batley is no longer just English and Asian.

There is plenty of Polish and eastern European shops in the local area, that I'm sure would be happy to put a poster up in the window.

Run a promotion, that gets you cheaper entrance into the ground when you show your passport from one of the eastern European countries like we do with super duper league season ticket holders.

A few cans of Tyskie in the bottle bank will keep everyone happy ;)

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Simple matter of the fact is the hangers on and closet fans that came to blackpool v widnes and our final at leigh v Sheffield do more harm than good

No! What they show is that there is a group of people out there who are willing to come and watch Batley under certain circumstances.

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As a fev fan batley is my second choice club but you do have problems with asian folk in your area other year i was takeing my young lad to play batley boys before the match the other mams and dads were told to form a line and walk the pitch because the locals dont like kids playing rugby and just down from the mount and they used to put broken glass onto the pitch where the kid were playing

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As a fev fan batley is my second choice club but you do have problems with asian folk in your area other year i was takeing my young lad to play batley boys before the match the other mams and dads were told to form a line and walk the pitch because the locals dont like kids playing rugby and just down from the mount and they used to put broken glass onto the pitch where the kid were playing

I don't know what you mean in regard to 'forming a line'?

As for the broken glass, was this something you actually saw?

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When you need to search an area with a number of persons, the most effective and efficient way of doing this is to form a line across the area and rigidly keep in formation whilst the search is being carried out.  That way it ensures that no part of the search area is missed.

 

As for the broken glass angle, it is something that has also been repeated in relation to sports fields used by one section of society in other areas of the Heavy Woollen district which are mainly populated by other sections of society.  Whether the stories are true or urban myth I do not know.

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I don't know what you mean in regard to 'forming a line'?

As for the broken glass, was this something you actually saw?

Pretty self explanatory. They walked in a line, shoulder to shoulder down the length of the field to check for unsafe obstruction/debris.

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Pretty self explanatory. They walked in a line, shoulder to shoulder down the length of the field to check for unsafe obstruction/debris.

Thanks for clarifying. It would have been self explanatory to me if the original post had been properly written.

As regards checking the pitch, I'd have thought this was standard practice for any organisation who play on a public facility?

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I don't know what you mean in regard to 'forming a line'?

As for the broken glass, was this something you actually saw?

I presume that it had happened at some time otherwise why take the precaution?  The problem of course is associating the actions of the few with that of the majority. Mindless acts of hooliganism more often than not come from a minority within a certain age group rather than a particular ethnicity.

 

An interesting thread, especially from those who are looking for the opportunities to widen the support base. 

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Under certain circumstances. Distant dog.

You mean finals

'Shaw cross juniors, Birkenshaw, Mirfield, Heckmondwike Panthers, Stainland Stags and then the Heavy woolen donkeys... WARDY, STOZZA, GT, KARL OR KEAR MUST OF DROPPED A DIGIT FROM MY MOBILE NUMBER! :clapping:

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No committees regardless of age group should be expected to inspect a council sports pitch. However a quick stoppage is usually enforced to remove dog mess ordered by a player or ref.

Never played on Taylor street but allegations of secrete glass shards to cause injury seem unlikely.

There was however evidence of this from Dewsburys saville town area. Check with danny lockwood

'Shaw cross juniors, Birkenshaw, Mirfield, Heckmondwike Panthers, Stainland Stags and then the Heavy woolen donkeys... WARDY, STOZZA, GT, KARL OR KEAR MUST OF DROPPED A DIGIT FROM MY MOBILE NUMBER! :clapping:

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Under certain circumstances. Distant dog.

You mean finals

 

Success, positivity, publicity, wider exposure. expectation! 

 

l think, regardless of the circumstances, these people were willing to pay to watch the team. Surely that is a good thing and not harmful!

 

l have said before, but will repeat, l think an opportunity was missed, particularly at the Grand Final, to engage those supporters. We, and l include myself in this, were all caught up in a state of excitement, and almost a feeling of ' we have made it.' In hindsight, and l know it is a wonderful thing, we perhaps should have thought longer term and of ways in which to keep those people who came to that game. 

 

Anyway, things are looking more positive so let's keep the momentum going!

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No committees regardless of age group should be expected to inspect a council sports pitch. However a quick stoppage is usually enforced to remove dog mess ordered by a player or ref.

Never played on Taylor street but allegations of secrete glass shards to cause injury seem unlikely.

There was however evidence of this from Dewsburys saville town area. Check with danny lockwood

 Used to happen all the time on the Saville town playing fields in the seventies.

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 Used to happen all the time on the Saville town playing fields in the seventies.

yep.me and the wife spent an hour before games digging glass out the pitch before kickoff,hard to find it all as they stamped tops a bottles into the pitch and covered it over with grass sods,have had a full bucket before kickoff many a time,back in the days a the local cups were played at saville town, i remember a few of the albion team when sammy morton ran squad getting real bad cuts,broxy were cut to the bone in one a last games to be played before moving to ravensthorpe park then moor,i think council sold it off to local parkland for £5.. :download:

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Batley's British Asian population has nothing whatsoever to do with our low crowds - and neither has Dewsbury's got anything to do with the low crowds at the Tetley's Stadium.

Please stop peddling your veiled bigotry.

To claim that Batley's Asian population has nothing whatsoever to do with our low crowds is naïve bordering on blinkered. It's not the only factor and may well not be the main factor but it is most certainly a factor. I don't think it's in any doubt (and I'm willing to be corrected) that Rugby League is not a sport with which the Asian community is affiliated. Cricket and football would appear to be popular in the area adjacent to Mount Pleasant but not Rugby League which I think is pretty well borne out by the number of our Asian fans which can be counted on one hand.

According to the 2011 Census Batley (inc Birstall) has a population of 46,933 of which 15918 identify as British Asian Indian/Pakistani (plus some statistically insignificant Asian groups).

So tackle some or all of the other issues, take action to engage the Asian families who live on the doorstep of our ground or do nothing at all but don't pretend that 34% of the local population not culturally identifying with the sport you are trying to market does not have a bearing on match attendances.

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To claim that Batley's Asian population has nothing whatsoever to do with our low crowds is naïve bordering on blinkered. It's not the only factor and may well not be the main factor but it is most certainly a factor. I don't think it's in any doubt (and I'm willing to be corrected) that Rugby League is not a sport with which the Asian community is affiliated. Cricket and football would appear to be popular in the area adjacent to Mount Pleasant but not Rugby League which I think is pretty well borne out by the number of our Asian fans which can be counted on one hand.

According to the 2011 Census Batley (inc Birstall) has a population of 46,933 of which 15918 identify as British Asian Indian/Pakistani (plus some statistically insignificant Asian groups).

So tackle some or all of the other issues, take action to engage the Asian families who live on the doorstep of our ground or do nothing at all but don't pretend that 34% of the local population not culturally identifying with the sport you are trying to market does not have a bearing on match attendances.

It would appear that 65.9 percent of the town's population don't culturally identify with Rugby League either - the majority of whom are presumably White British. Perhaps they prefer other sports.

If this is the case - as it appears to be, what I don't understand is why we're basing the debate around low crowd figures on ethnicity.

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It would appear that 65.9 percent of the town's population don't culturally identify with Rugby League either - the majority of whom are presumably White British. Perhaps they prefer other sports.

If this is the case - as it appears to be, what I don't understand is why we're basing the debate around low crowd figures on ethnicity.

The debate is around low crowd figures of which the ethnic make up of the town is a factor and it's most certainly not bigoted to state this. What is bigoted is to blindly and relentlessly deny that this makes a difference. If the club is effectively unable to recruit fans from 34% of it's main target market then this will most certainly affect crowd figures.

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The debate is around low crowd figures of which the ethnic make up of the town is a factor and it's most certainly not bigoted to state this. What is bigoted is to blindly and relentlessly deny that this makes a difference. If the club is effectively unable to recruit fans from 34% of it's main target market then this will most certainly affect crowd figures.

But we're not effectively unable to recruit from just the British Asian population of the town - a hardcore fan base of 500-600 from a 50'000 population would certainly suggest that over 95% of people in Batley don't identify with either the club or Rugby League.

You're right to state that the sports of choice amongst the British Asian population appear to be cricket and football - why should we think that it's different within the White British population? Are they not, then, 'culturally detached' from Rugby League and Batley Bulldogs.

By the way, the member whose original comments I took offence to has made repeated references to 'Mount Taliban' and his/her belief that our stadium will eventually become a Mosque. At the very least, that would suggest that for some reason he views the ethnic make-up of the population who live around our stadium as something worthy of mockery and disdain. Why?

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Even in the mid 70's Dewsbury only averaged over 2000 on a couple of occasions and, in the previous year in the old 1st Division (77-78) we only got 2100.

 

As you rightly say it is tough attracting crowds to sporting events in the HW area.

 

No coincidence that attendances dropped drastically after the running down of the mining and textile industries though BSJ. I was born and bred in Thornhill, and a fair number of my schoolmates and their families were big RL supporters. Many of them were from the mining families relocated to areas like Castleford when the old coombs (and Ingham Rd) pit closed down. If I remember correctly, there was also a resurgence in the fortunes of the local football clubs at that time, which also impacted on support. Other nails in the coffin would have been the increase in televised matches, the move to Sunday rugby, and of course your old favourite Summer rugby, but I can't help but think that having the heart ripped out of our support base, started the snowball rolling down the hill.

Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.

 

George Bernard Shaw.

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