Average Attendance 2018

[Blind side johnny]

13 hours ago, Piggy's mate said:

No I meant bigger than them. We attract better players better coaches better match day experience and a better class of fan.. ergo bigger club

Oh, and you were doing so well until the last point in your argument. Such a shame.

[Blind side johnny]

10 hours ago, DOGFATHER said:

Can I assume that you believe the figures above are accurate?

I see attendance figures quoted in the rugby papers most weeks, and the same game can apparently have anywhere from 550 to over 800, depending on which paper you read.

I also remember going to Halifax, for one of the last matches of the season (it was the season before Widnes won, sorry, were awarded a place in SL) and as part of Halifax's own bid to get a license, they needed to achieve average gates of 2000 at home that season.

Officially, there were over 4000 at that game against us. I reckon at least 2500 of them were not only silent, but they were wearing the best camouflage known to man, because they were absolutely invisible to the 1500 (at best) who were visible at the game.

 

This is sadly a common problem at our level isn't it Dogfather. I do wonder at some of the attendances that are announced nowadays. i go back far enough to remember when clubs would deliberately announce gates which were lower than in reality in the hope of reducing taxes; nowadays that tendency seems to have been reversed.

[Dog forever]

11 hours ago, DOGFATHER said:

Can I assume that you believe the figures above are accurate?

I see attendance figures quoted in the rugby papers most weeks, and the same game can apparently have anywhere from 550 to over 800, depending on which paper you read.

I also remember going to Halifax, for one of the last matches of the season (it was the season before Widnes won, sorry, were awarded a place in SL) and as part of Halifax's own bid to get a license, they needed to achieve average gates of 2000 at home that season.

Officially, there were over 4000 at that game against us. I reckon at least 2500 of them were not only silent, but they were wearing the best camouflage known to man, because they were absolutely invisible to the 1500 (at best) who were visible at the game.

 

I know which game you mean I was there. The attendance it gave in the papers was a joke. 

[DOGFATHER]

2 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

This is sadly a common problem at our level isn't it Dogfather. I do wonder at some of the attendances that are announced nowadays. i go back far enough to remember when clubs would deliberately announce gates which were lower than in reality in the hope of reducing taxes; nowadays that tendency seems to have been reversed.

Do you mean like the shared gates, at the Boxing Day friendlies at Tetley's Stadium?

 Sorry BSJ, I couldn't resist that one.

To a certain extent, I could understand clubs under-inflating the figures in the past, to sidestep larger tax bills. Especially since so many large corporations exploit widely known loopholes in the system (such as the Dutch Sandwich), without any kind of reproach or attempts to close the holes to make them pay their fair share.

Over-inflating them though, does seem to be very strange. I cannot see how this would benefit anyone.