Toulouse Olympique are hoping their shock home win against champions St Helens will kickstart more support in France’s third largest city.
Super League’s newest club have attracted 5,238, 4,887, 5,466 and 5,568 to their four home games so far this season, way short of the club’ s stated aim of average 10k gates at Stade Ernest Wallon.
But Chief Executive Cedric Garcia is confident that the numbers will improve thanks to several factors including Covid, rugby union and the victory over Saints.
He told League Express, “We knew we would be starting in a Covid environment with no food and drink allowed at the stadium and the need for vaccination passes.
“The Six Nations tournament seemed to have a France game on television for each of our fixtures and there was always something working against us but all those factors are disappearing.
“Slowly the other competitions in rugby union and Rugby League will finish their winter seasons. I know we will attract League fans from the Midi-Pyrenees region and the crowd will grow if we win one or two more games.
“Those fans who were there against St Helens will speak about this game and it was very well reported in the media.
“We keep working, my communications and marketing team are doing everything they can to explore every potential to encourage new fans.”
Garcia also responded to some criticism over lack of television coverage of fixtures at Stade Wallon.
The CEO explained, “The television rights belong to Sky and we are not allowed to put a small production on our social network or the Our League app.
“We must independently source a bigger deal and this year beIN Sports is the official broadcaster in France.
“The only solution would be for us to pay the costs of production which are around 20,000 euros per game and we don’t have the resources to do that because of our unique financial position within the competition.
“We are alone in Super League in that we must pay for all the travel expenses for visiting teams and match officials.
“Of course we are grateful to be in Super League but we have a huge financial burden that no other club must bear.
“When we started this ten-year campaign to get into Super League, we were budgeting for the future like any other club in the competition but by the time we got here so many things had changed.
“The deal that we have is not the same as Catalans and when we asked why, we were told it’s not the same timing and we had no choice so we agreed.
“So, because of our unique costs we cannot afford to pay for television coverage and it does seem unfair that two French teams are competing in Super League with different agreements.
“We’ll keep working and hopefully, alongside Catalans in 2023 we will strike a better deal.”
The above content is also available in the regular weekly edition of League Express, on newsstands every Monday in the UK and as a digital download. Click here for more details.
