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Cheap tickets and empty stadiums


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6 minutes ago, Clogiron said:

Maybe, just maybe people think that the team that finishes top of the league should be champions not the winners of some manufactured competition there to screw more money out of people.

The FA Premiership, the biggest competition in Europe, seems to manage perfectly well with that system?

And promotion used to depend on your league position until play-offs were introduced.

And now play-off crowds in football comfortably exceed regular-season crowds, as far as I am aware.

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8 hours ago, Damien said:

A Thursday night game on TV with all fans paying is always going to be a tough sell and most sports would struggle with 5 days notice.

But the Wire fans have known for weeks this was likely , the top 5/6 has been sorted for weeks , these people who spend hundreds buying a ST know full well that they would be playing on Thursday or Friday  this week 

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10 minutes ago, saintspete83 said:

Turn up all year to home games on a thursday, friday, saturday, and sundays for games that are worth 2 points. Then the playoffs arrive when the best 5 sides battle it out with some games being sudden death for a place at the theatre of dreams in front of 70k........... And rugby league fans want it for free on their season ticket or they dont want to pay more then a tenner. 

These players have battled every week through a season that is way too long to achieve a playoff position. Surely that in itself deserves fans to pay £20-30 to turn up and support the players when its really needed. 

Rugby league is also in the entertainment business and if they put a show/match on. Then like everybody else in sport and entertainment they are entitled to charge an entrance fee. 

Unfortunately the sport has had so many freebies and discounted tickets at grand finals, cup finals, international matches that its created a culture that always expects cheap tickets and freebies and some dont realise its actually a business too.

I might go The cinema tomorrow and watch a 3 hour film and the walk out with 20 mins remaining as basically thats what 1000s of RL fans seem to do. 

I must be different as i actually got rid of my season ticket ages ago as some league games felt like they didnt really matter...... But i always made sure i went tbe playoffs and cup games

Or you could just watch the movie at home as it is also on Sky Cinema and save a fair bit.

But analogies dont get fans through the gates. 

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5 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

As of a week and two hours ago they could have been home Thursday, away Friday, or home Friday. 

People arent going to put their lives on hold 

Well I doubt even those who couldn't be bothered going to their own stadium would have gone to an away game , so it was either Thursday or Friday , decisions ,decisions , decisions ?

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2 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Or you could just watch the movie at home as it is also on Sky Cinema and save a fair bit.

But analogies dont get fans through the gates. 

Well that's that sorted then , no need for Cas or Wakey , or indeed any other club to bother with a stadium , just play it on a Park pitch with cameras there 

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10 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

But the Wire fans have known for weeks this was likely , the top 5/6 has been sorted for weeks , these people who spend hundreds buying a ST know full well that they would be playing on Friday or Saturday this week 

You've got the nail on the head. As the game was on a Thursday, and not Friday or Saturday like you say, they couldn't make it 

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The small crowd this evening and in play-off’s in general really does highlight how important ST holders are in terms of attendances and highlights how few tickets are bought by non-ST holders. I once saw a complete look at a Super League clubs business through work and the amount of tickets sold for standard league games is incredibly low. 

 

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29 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

Well that's that sorted then , no need for Cas or Wakey , or indeed any other club to bother with a stadium , just play it on a Park pitch with cameras there 

Nobody will go due to guilt or other people thinking they should go.

The solutions need to be more practical than criticising people and calling it odd.

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1 hour ago, scotchy1 said:

I know this is just a joke about leeds being a bit ###### but you will probably see a disproportionate amount of Salford fans attending this year. 

And probably after 3 or 4 years away from the play-offs we would see a disproportionately large attendance at leeds.

If Leeds have a food season next year I think we’ll see a fair increase in attendances at Headingley, We have had 3 out of the 4 last years in a relegation scrap, a whole load of disruption with the stadium being upgraded (which to be fair the club have handled pretty well) and yet we’re still the best supported club in SL, They get so much right off the pitch they just need to get back to gemgbit right on the pitch.

As for Warrington, tonight’s attendance was pathetic, I know they have done a lot of good things with the Marketing this year but did they have a big push for this game (I didn’t see anything on SM)?

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Oh and I agree that something should be done for playoff games and ST holders, I do think maybe having an opt out system for any home playoff games could work if they have an incentive maybe 1/2 price for ST holders but they are automatically added unless you tell the club you don’t want them or have an add-on pack when you buy your ST, say an extra £15 and it includes any home playoff games should they have any, I’d pay that TBH.

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Just to add, Leeds have offered different levels if ST for next year, you can now buy 3 or 5 game ‘packs’ so you can choose in advance which games you are going to attend and pay upfront for a discount, I think this could be a good Idea and lead to increased crowds for the ‘big’ games during the season

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12 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Play off games should be friday night and saturday afternoon for SL. Followed by saturday evening and Sunday for Championship. 

Why is this so hard to implement?

Because Thursday nights are good for Sky and they ultimately pay for the right to dictate when games are played, Saturday afternoons are dominated by football during the playoffs 

if Warrington fans can’t be arsed going to see their team play a do or die playoff game even on a Thursday night there’s something wrong at the club IMO

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Just now, Chrispmartha said:

Because Thursday nights are good for Sky and they ultimately pay for the right to dictate when games are played, Saturday afternoons are dominated by football during the playoffs 

So play the championship thursday and Sunday then and SL at 3pm on a Saturday when there's no football 

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2 hours ago, scotchy1 said:

The play-offs should be held at neutral grounds. 

One thing we know is a fact, more than any other fact we know about selling tickets for RL games isnt fans wont pay for one off games, its that shorter the runway, the lower the crowd. 

I would happily bet that if we were to play this game even in a none-traditional area, with a years build up would sell more tickets than we did tonight. 

Take the game to the people. Tonight isnt Wire v Cas, its the elimination semi-final. 

Play offs at neutral grounds would get even lower attendances. Higher placed teams have earned their home game, not a neutral venue. ST holders of both clubs should get included in their tickets. 

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Maybe the issue is more to do with the promoter? Finals is actually a 'Super League' property, not a club property, so this was promoted by the Super League marketing team, who are also trying to sell a Grand Final at the same time, and aren't really equiped to move tickets / etc or maybe they simply didn't know how to reach out to the Warrington season ticket holder list or something crazy like that.

If the 5.6K crowd is right for the game, something needs to be looked at... I can't remember Warrington having such a low crowd for a Super League fixture, especially a Final.

Finals, like Easter, Opening Round and Grand Final should be the 'bluechip' events which should be played in front of as large of crowds as possible, if Super League ever wants to build their brand.  

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It's hard to see how marketing or promoting this game was going to improve the crowd. Surely every Warrington and Castleford fan knew this game was on, and of its importance to their season. The hardcore fans are the prime audience and if they chose not to go, does this not suggest that there may be something wrong with the play-off format? The appeal just does not seem to be there. Even after 21 years of end of season play-offs it seems there is still a big difference in mentality between Australian and British RL fans. Would be very interesting to hear the opinions of those who chose not to go. A job for Super League maybe.

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What about just including the cost of the playoff game in the season ticket price? If a club hosts it, STH's go like any other game. If they don't, it's a credit on next year's tickets,  or to the club shop, or if needed a refund. 

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