Is the Summer Bash destined to be a flop?

[GUBRATS]

It boils down to which clubs are in the Championship and how they are doing , this year we have 3 of the top 4 who won't contribute hardly any fans , if Leigh lose to London on Monday our  ' Bash ' sales will be massively down on previous years , after seeing Fax's home fans a couple of weeks back I doubt they'll bring more than a couple of hundred 

It will be easily the lowest ever attendance 

[Lounge Room Lizard]

4 hours ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:

You can insult me all you, Mr Lizard. But before you fall off that high horse you just saddled up, tell me where I said expansion didn't exist in the North East? My point is there is no evidence Magic being held in the city has done anything to aide this. Unless you have some tangible proof more than 'some locals went to a few games'? 

You made the claim hat Magie had done nothing to aide the development of the game there. You need to provide the evident to show that. Your comments came across as ignorant and clueless on the situation in the North East. Thats your problem not Mine. 

[paulwalker71]

28 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

It will be easily the lowest ever attendance 

It WILL be the lowest attendance. I don't see any club taking more than a few hundred except Leigh

[GUBRATS]

3 minutes ago, paulwalker71 said:

It WILL be the lowest attendance. I don't see any club taking more than a few hundred except Leigh

If we lose on monday , I doubt we'll have more than 6/7 hundred there 

[paulwalker71]

Just now, GUBRATS said:

If we lose on monday , I doubt we'll have more than 6/7 hundred there 

Well if you look at last year, the stated attendance was 11,557. Given that both the Bulls and Hull KR took over 3K, you can see what's going to happen with the Bulls and HKR being replaced (in effect) by Leigh and Toronto.

Maybe 6K total attendance - but of course, many of those will be there just for 'their' game, or for just the day. It's going to look pretty sparse on TV

 

[RayCee]

5 hours ago, John WP Fan said:

I am surprised and disappointed to hear that the crowds at Summer Bash might be so small. I hope you're wrong. Some of the ties look very compelling to me, especially Leigh/Toronto and Toulouse/London. C'mon everyone, please turn up at Blackpool to support a team, or to support RL in general, or just to complain about Toronto being a fake team with no away fans.

These weekends are a new twist for me that I have not seen done in any other sport, and I can't wait to see them!

John, the attendances for the Summer Bash are officially:

2015 15,671

2016 15,912

2017 16,444

So it isn't that badly supported going by those figures. It's also of note they have been going up too! Enjoy yourself John. 

[fevtom]

I suppose ot depends what you judge success by. Magic weekend typically gets around 4x the average super league game in total per day. If we judge the championship by the same standards, what’s the average championship crowd? (Excluding Toronto and Toulouse since most of their home fans won’t come over) around 1,000? 

In which case to have the same relative success of super league then they only need to sell 4,000 tickets each day. I know it doesn’t sound a lot but perhaps that’s what we should be setting our standards by.

[Magic XIII]

7 hours ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:

You can insult me all you, Mr Lizard. But before you fall off that high horse you just saddled up, tell me where I said expansion didn't exist in the North East? My point is there is no evidence Magic being held in the city has done anything to aide this. Unless you have some tangible proof more than 'some locals went to a few games'? 

How are Hunslet getting on developing / expanding the interest in rugby league ?

[GUBRATS]

2 hours ago, RayCee said:

John, the attendances for the Summer Bash are officially:

2015 15,671

2016 15,912

2017 16,444

So it isn't that badly supported going by those figures. It's also of note they have been going up too! Enjoy yourself John. 

Those must be the totals for each individual match , ie counting those that watched all three games on one day 3 times 

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

As others have stated Blackpool's a dump. The only reason the Bash is held there is because it fits in with the perception that Championship Club's supporters are flat cap wearing whippet owners for who a day out to the seaside is a rare, wonderous experience.

[M j M]

Blackpool at least provides something different to the usual for the regular fans who (like it or not) make up the majority of the attendees. Headingley I could see an argument for providing something similar for them and is (or was, hopefully will go back to being) pretty user-friendly in terms of providing space to wander around and plenty of bars etc nearby.

However 'unsletgreenandgold's other suggestion of Elland Road for the Magic Weekend makes me cringe at the horror of it. The ground that gets Magic can't be a knee-crunching nightmare in the middle of a motorway junction.

[GUBRATS]

5 minutes ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

As others have stated Blackpool's a dump. The only reason the Bash is held there is because it fits in with the perception that Championship Club's supporters are flat cap wearing whippet owners for who a day out to the seaside is a rare, wonderous experience.

Yup , thats the one , missus and friends staying over , i'm going home after the game 

[Newcastle Thunder]

9 hours ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:

What has Newcastle done for RL to deserve that kind of income from RL fans? We talk about Challenge Cup final being a 'day out' too. So two of the biggest events are played away from the areas the game thrives in.....and we wonder why we get such poor attendances for normal league games.......

We talk about expansion as though the game is solid in the Heartlands. To be clear i'm all for expansion but not at the price of alienating the lifeblood to the sport 

Bigger average attendances then Hunslet 

[Newcastle Thunder]

The magic weekend has been brilliant for the area! It’s also been brilliant for the sport of RL, if you want the sport to improve then actually playing in major cities will help

We have had the three highest attended MW in Newcastle 

And to show how far Thunder have come, in 4 years our averages attendance has went from 200 to 960, not to bad 

We have an academy that is producing quality players and getting results against our super league opponents, we have 150 young players attending development days, we have nearly 40% of the first team squad being local players. There is over 700 local kids playing playing the sport in our area....... all of this paints a decent picture of what Newcastle gives back to the sport!! 

 

[themainbrace]

Well said that man (or woman).  I went to Newcastle a couple of years ago and spoke to locals who were in the crowd and also to locals in and around the city - the event does give the game some profile in the North East.

The North East does look like one of RL's success stories in terms of expansion .  Exactly, how much Magic Weekend has contributed is difficult to measure and it's  only one event a year - so there's a limit how much effect it could have wherever we play it. 

[headtackle]

why not either have in Manchester/Leeds on the same weekend at a couple of venues 

or show a bit of unity and play over a bank holiday weekend and have magic and championship games on the same days at the same venue.

 

[Hopping Mad]

I can't think of anything that would tempt me to visit a toilet like Blackpool.

[paulwalker71]

1 hour ago, GUBRATS said:

Those must be the totals for each individual match , ie counting those that watched all three games on one day 3 times 

Yes, I don't know how they count up the numbers, but the official capacity of Bloomfield Road is 17,388.

You've only got to glance at the Summer Bash on Sky to see that the stated attendance is nonsense. There are swathes of empty seats, and one complete side is not even open.

[saintspete83]

Isn't the summer bash supposed to be another tool of spreading the word of RL? Yet everyone seems to think the attendance should basically be made up of only those who go and attend weekly championship games. Any sport with good marketing would be promoting the  event using fact that big city teams like London, Toronto, Toulouse will be there but in good old Rugby League the RFL and most fans will be making up excuses that those teams will have no following hence the poor attendance. Dinosaur thinking as always. 

[Gerrumonside ref]

1 hour ago, Newcastle Thunder said:

The magic weekend has been brilliant for the area! It’s also been brilliant for the sport of RL, if you want the sport to improve then actually playing in major cities will help

We have had the three highest attended MW in Newcastle 

And to show how far Thunder have come, in 4 years our averages attendance has went from 200 to 960, not to bad 

We have an academy that is producing quality players and getting results against our super league opponents, we have 150 young players attending development days, we have nearly 40% of the first team squad being local players. There is over 700 local kids playing playing the sport in our area....... all of this paints a decent picture of what Newcastle gives back to the sport!! 

 

Sounds like Magic should stay at Newcastle if this is the case.

Perhaps for the years it isn’t played there, England RL should play a decent fixture there against a good Southern Hemisphere team at St James’ Park with maybe Wales vs France as the curtain raiser.

 

[Cowardly Fan]

9 minutes ago, saintspete83 said:

Isn't the summer bash supposed to be another tool of spreading the word of RL? Yet everyone seems to think the attendance should basically be made up of only those who go and attend weekly championship games. Any sport with good marketing would be promoting the  event using fact that big city teams like London, Toronto, Toulouse will be there but in good old Rugby League the RFL and most fans will be making up excuses that those teams will have no following hence the poor attendance. Dinosaur thinking as always. 

I think there's an opportunity for that, but Blackpool is the wrong location for it. 

Blackpool appears to have been chosen mainly to attract travelling fans, possibly low cost to rent the ground as well. I'm not aware of any links to local clubs. Newcastle is good as it offers both the nightlife/city break and links to local clubs.

York could be an option, as the club seems to be quite forward thinking. Otherwise I'd consider somewhere in the Midlands, but not sure on suitable stadiums. 

[GUBRATS]

12 minutes ago, saintspete83 said:

Isn't the summer bash supposed to be another tool of spreading the word of RL? Yet everyone seems to think the attendance should basically be made up of only those who go and attend weekly championship games. Any sport with good marketing would be promoting the  event using fact that big city teams like London, Toronto, Toulouse will be there but in good old Rugby League the RFL and most fans will be making up excuses that those teams will have no following hence the poor attendance. Dinosaur thinking as always. 

Not really no , the summer bash is an afterthought excuse so the Championships cant complain they arent getting the same as SL 

Magic works , Bash doesnt really ! But not sure what else the RFL can do 

[Cowardly Fan]

1 hour ago, Newcastle Thunder said:

The magic weekend has been brilliant for the area! It’s also been brilliant for the sport of RL, if you want the sport to improve then actually playing in major cities will help

We have had the three highest attended MW in Newcastle 

And to show how far Thunder have come, in 4 years our averages attendance has went from 200 to 960, not to bad 

We have an academy that is producing quality players and getting results against our super league opponents, we have 150 young players attending development days, we have nearly 40% of the first team squad being local players. There is over 700 local kids playing playing the sport in our area....... all of this paints a decent picture of what Newcastle gives back to the sport!! 

 

Good to hear. Do you know if Thunder are allowed to email the local people who attend Magic? 

[RS]

Maybe the Summer Bash works on the level that it gives the players and fans of Championship clubs a day in the Sun. 

Any wider promotion of the game may be some consequential benefit but not a necessity. When you think the CC Final, the biggest event by far over the history of RL in the UK, has done little or nothing for RL development in the huge city of London its hardly fair to expext the SB to have any effect.

In short why not enjoy it for what it is.

[Newcastle Thunder]

9 hours ago, Cowardly Fan said:

Good to hear. Do you know if Thunder are allowed to email the local people who attend Magic? 

We get to advertise for our Magic Night Out game via the Rfl to anyone who buys a magic weekend ticket