koli

How to create a positive “buzz” around the game is the key that no one has recently found the answer too. The advent of Fulham and the ‘82 Kangroos did that to some extent. Super League more decisively for a few years -Bull mania, Paris SG ,Branson at the Broncos,the shift to summer. We need a new narrative n buzz but easier said than done.

We did get Stephens Jones at the match and in the Sunday Times today. I assume coverage of different sports in the “quality” press reflects the interests of their now relatively small concentrated reader base.RU and cricket very over represented relative to the general population ,EFL even more underrepresented than RL. They are in the business of making money so assume it’s customer based rather than prejudice.

The big council estates in the arc beyond Queens Drive to the M57 -Speke,Halewood ,Netherly,Huyton,Norris Green Fazakerly etc were built to house people from central Liverpool as the old tenement slums were cleared in from the 1930s onwards. Kirby,Skelmersdale and large areas of Runcorn were developed in the 50s and 60s as new towns again housing people from central Liverpool. As late as the 1970s you’d hear old people with full wooly Lancashire accents in Huyton village ,Roby and Knotty Ash as a reminder of the pre Livetpool expansion. Whiston is different and while the Scouse accent has infiltrated in recent years they wouldn’t consider themselves Liverpudlian in the same way .

Back in the day Oldham had crowds at similar levels to St Helens and Warrington . Widnes somewhat smaller. Suggests that with a successful SL team 10k type possible for Oldham….unless like Huddersfield changing demographics n too long out of the top flight. More recently unsuccessful Widnes SL sides pulled in 6k to 7k .

To be pedantic the CCF was usually the 4th last game of the season followed by Championship/Premiership semis and the Championship/Premiership Final

It was the best final atmosphere wise that I’ve been at for quite a few years.

You could strike at the ptb and more importantly there were contested scrums and a lot of them. Heavier balls,muddy pitches and no substitutions meant that knock ons were a lot more frequent -hence the number of scrums. My dad’s generation would say that the best period ever for attacking rugby was in the ‘50s with wingers like Tommy Voll and Brian Bevan scoring over 50 tries a season.

It’s an important point about governance.Wigan n Warrington arranged a regular round fixture before the fixture list had been set and presented it as a faite accompli. Good idea or not it’s clearly not the way it should be done .

I believe he was Ryan’s uncle.

Last season we only played Cas at home once (twice away) and the crowd was around 11,500

At my age the 90s counts as relatively recent!

A fairly recent phenomena I think following the Lactics getting into the higher divisions n may have a lot to do with relative ease of getting tickets versus the bigger NW clubs. Growing up in the 60s/70s the west side of St Helens followed LFC n EFC while east side MUFC and to a smaller extent BWFC and MCFC. When I was a small boy there were still former St Helens Recs supporters who would support Wigan or Widnes rather than Saints.

Crowds dropped from mid 50s to mid 70s and with increasing speed from the mid 60s before recovering gradually over the 80s Soccer saw a very similar pattern. SL gave a big boost but at a cost to Cup and lower league crowds and things have stagnated over last 10 years or so . Soccer in contrast has boomed especially in PL and Championship and still, somewhat unbelievably to me ,club RU has exceeded certainly my expectations.

Plus a lot of the really big gates were for cup games and the decline of the Challenge Cup a factor.

Sadly too true.The “surge “ capacity for big games seems much reduced.As you say a Saints v Wigan cup quarter final could attract 30k plus .Mot sure why -maybe the move to a more season ticket/membership approach reduces the casual interest other than for Wembley or OT.