Crowds

[tandle]

.exrlref and herbie are bang on with what they say about playing at boundary park. but the main disaster  was being relegated and going back to whitebank it needs a match being played at bp, lets say against Bradford   just to test the water if we cant get a decent crowd we will at least know where we stand. I did a costing on the return to white bank and it worked out at £5.600 per game playing 30 matches on gates of 500.  I believe on these figures we could not survive so on 450 gates no chance any forcasts on the gate against London skolars ?

[roughyed34]

Probably around 400/420 for London Skolars, tangle.

Clubs believe it or not are in a worse position financially than us, look at Haven for example and Rochdale making pay cuts before the season started,Sheffield and Swinton have had a few worries earlier in the season too.

The facts are that the club IS surviving on low gates and has done for a while. AFAIK the lads get paid on time as do our hosts. Its not about chucking figures about, its all about increasing the crowd at the Vestacare to watch an attractive and winning Oldham team and holding on to those new/lapsed fans if/when we move from there.

You say we cant survive,but we do.

Some people who have come down to the games after a bit of a sabbatical have been quite impressed with the work done at the ground, maybe if people gave it a chance they would enjoy the matches and the sport on offer and not worry too much about the surroundings, after all i go to watch the team not the ground! There has been no problem for viewing this season even with 750+ in for the York game,plenty of room round the perimeter (look at the highlight videos for confirmation of this). Toilets are an issue, and questions have been raised to put some around the ground.

People have given valid and understandable reasons before in this thread for not attending games,fair enough, but surely for a so called RL town we can do better than 450 people at games regardless of facilities?

[tandle]

iam afraid 34 facilities these days have a lot to do with it most supporters do not want to stand. also this league is a shambles to see some of the scores this season makes a mockery of this once great game, people talk of a breakaway who would want to watch scores of 90 nil on tv. playing at whitebank maybe survival  but thats all its going to be..

[Tangle]

I am afraid the crowd will be down by 2 next home match as we carried on to France for our holidays after Coventry .Back to normal for the Workington game .As to the scores there where some one sided matches in the fifties .

[roughyed34]

Apart from the modern all seater grounds i would suggest that the majority of spectators at Champ/league one and a couple in SL would actually be in standing areas tandle, yes other grounds may have more seats than us but even at Leigh,Cas,Warrington,Saints,Bradford,Worky,Batley for example they have large standing areas. That points to standing still having a place in RL, Bradford got 4000 against us with the majority standing even though the seating capacity is 5000 or so.

The league does have some massive scores but overall the quality is pretty decent in League 1,despite the one sided games. 

Survival for most clubs in the lower echelons is the norm unfortunately these days, we have to cut costs to fit in with budgets etc, BP would be a big chunk of the funding (in this league or the higher one) and would impact on the teams success which imho is critical going forward.

Give me a top 3 League 1 side playing good rugby and winning (not just against the so called weaker team's) based at Vestacare rather than a poor side at an expensive BP in front of no more than go now anyday of the week.

The future as i have said before probably does lie in a groundshare if we get promotion and can establish ourselves in the championship. Sound Latics out by all means as a contingency in case that happens, as it stands we are doing a bit better than just surviving, if we remain in League 1 we will remain at the Vestacare i should think. 

Depends if people in Oldham want a successful Oldham RLFC or not, 450 or so seem to keep the faith, im sure we would love a few more to join us!

[FailsworthYed]

Ok, apart from the bottom 4 clubs the league is very competitive and anybody can beat anybody. 

We are playing well and the lads look very together. I wish we could get more through the turnstile but it wouldn't make for a good viewing experience imho. The ground needs some elevation and further development but let's get promoted first and then we'll have a decision to make. 

[wozz]

Against Doncaster i thought what a good match that was, i thought both teams put on a proper entertaining game, cracker of a match for lads that have to go to work on Monday (skill was 100%)brilliant 

[roughyed34]

1 hour ago, FailsworthYed said:

Ok, apart from the bottom 4 clubs the league is very competitive and anybody can beat anybody. 

We are playing well and the lads look very together. I wish we could get more through the turnstile but it wouldn't make for a good viewing experience imho. The ground needs some elevation and further development but let's get promoted first and then we'll have a decision to make. 

Only thing i slightly disagree on is that a few more in would impact viewing. On current crowds/space at the ground i would say we could accommodate another 200 without too much of an issue. Anything over the York attendance would be a push for sure but i reckon anywhere between 600-750 would be fine. Depends if everyone wants to be at the same end though lol.

[Dave Naylor]

Do you know what, I actually like watching games at Whitebank/Vestacare.  It's an oddball little stadium but AVROs are chuffed to bits with what they've achieved and well done to them.  The club house is spot on and the place is just smarter and tidier than it was before the improvements.

Since every game is an away game for me—apart from Hunslet next week—I pass through Oldham on my way down from the M62 on game days.  In the recent sunshine I see lots of people sat outside pubs and I often think that they could be doing the same just few miles down the road and having a jolly entertaining afternoon in the bargain.

We're playing a bottom four side at the weekend yet I'm looking forward to it with the same excitement that I'd have if we were playing a top four side. 

Danny Langtree's aggressive awesomeness.  The tackling machine that is Benty.  The long striding Bridgey.  Luke Nelmes on one of his crash-bang-wallop drives.  Lee Kershaw and his jinking runs.  Chewy and his eye for the gap.  The guile of Gaz Owen and Wilko and Hooley.  It's hard to know where to stop and I could go on about the merits of all the squad.

I was only saying to Roger H the other day that if you had to pick a stand-out player so far this year, there'd be lots of candidates.  Langers would probably win it but there's a bunch of players right behind him and that's a great position for us to be in.

As the League Express write-up from the weekend pointed out, we've got strength in depth.  Ha!

If you haven't been down to the Vestacare this year,  just do it. 12/14 quid in and then a beer in the sun with a bunch of Oldhamers shouting for the town team. 

Come on, it's blummin great. 

 

 

  

[Whitworth Yed]

15 hours ago, tandle said:

 it needs a match being played at bp, lets say against Bradford   just to test the water if we cant get a decent crowd we will at least know where we stand.

Bradford at BP would give off a false attendance as Bradford always boost attendances due to their away following. If you were to do it then you would have to do it with a Doncaster or Keighley.

However, it has been mentioned before by 34 I think (apologies if not) that we would need to break the 1000 marker at every game held at BP just to pay the rent and that isn't going to happen at the moment. Also would the atmosphere be any good in a 13.5k seater stadium with 700-1000 people in it?  Spotland is a cracking ground but even that seems a bit lacking in atmosphere when they only have the one side open.

I have no issue with the Vestacare at the moment and would happily go back to Bower Fold next season when we win promotion back to the Championship.

[eclecticsheep]

if only rugby oldhams offer to put some step terracing along the whitebank road side could have been negotiated...for whatever is said on here you cannot see adequately, and if the rain comes forget it....

Whitebank has the potential...but the motivation will not be there since the lease was surrendered....

And superleague seem to be after as much of the sky pot as they can grab....

hardly inspires one with hope for the future...

And last but not least Chris himself is not at all well...

And where would ORLFC be without him?

 

 

[Logic]

Life is far too short not to enjoy living EVERY day and as far as I'm concerned, I have always taken great pleasure from following MY TEAM, Oldham RLFC. That is, wherever they have played and in all sorts of conditions. Currently, at the Vestacare Stadium, where I like being close to the action, there is great rugby on show and the commitment and spirit of the players is second to none and I can't think of anywhere I'd rather prefer to be on a Sunday afternoon. As for the future, whatever will be, will be, but I've been saying that for some years now … and still enjoying it.