Hull FC heading for membership record

[Eddie]

15 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

What makes you think football has been kept out of the places?

The amount of Everton/Liverpool/Man Utd/Man City fans in those areas will be huge.

Just because there isn't a local football team doesn't mean there aren't football fans. I reckon there'll be more regular football fans than rugby league fans in those towns, whether that's local non-league or the a Premier League. Football is king.

I meant football teams haven’t flourished in those places, in fact considering their sizes it’s incredible how low down the pyramid St Helens Town and Warrington Town are. I know there’ll be plenty of Liverpool and Everton fans in St Helens but I doubt there are 12,000 regularly going to Anfield or Goodison. 

[Chris22]

Absolutely true. I appreciate that this will do little to shake the 'scouser' perception but...when Liverpool made the Champions League finals in 2018 and 2019, many houses in St Helens were adorned with Liverpool flags, lot of cars had stickers and flags, even my local was decorated out in Liverpool memorabilia.

When Saints made their first Challenge Cup Final in a decade, next to nothing. Walking around the town you would not have known that Saints were in a cup final if you had no interest in the sport. You could not have missed that Liverpool had a big game coming up.

And then there's lots of Everton, Man United and increasingly Man City fans in St Helens. In terms of football, the support is split amongst 4 teams in St Helens, meanwhile the town is more united when it comes to rugby.

The same applies in Wigan. Wigan Athletic draw similar crowds to the rugby team despite being a lower-end Championship club and there you see lots of non-Wigan football kits, but rarely see any non-Wigan rugby shirts.

Football dominates everywhere and even in our heartlands we can't compete with that. One of the BBC RL podcasts made a point that stuck with me, if you are the 'third' sport in the town / city, or you are unlikely to succeed.

Nevertheless, and back to the point of the thread, it's great to see both Hull clubs reporting high season ticket sales.

[Dave T]

9 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I meant football teams haven’t flourished in those places, in fact considering their sizes it’s incredible how low down the pyramid St Helens Town and Warrington Town are. I know there’ll be plenty of Liverpool and Everton fans in St Helens but I doubt there are 12,000 regularly going to Anfield or Goodison. 

The likes of Warrington Town haven't suffered due to RL clubs. Other football competition dwarfs them. 

[Eddie]

15 minutes ago, Dave T said:

The likes of Warrington Town haven't suffered due to RL clubs. Other football competition dwarfs them. 

You’d still expect a Town the size of Warrington to have a football team higher than the Northern Premier League. 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

2 minutes ago, Eddie said:

You’d still expect a Town the size of Warrington to have a football team higher than the Northern Premier League. 

I think Bedford is supposed to be the biggest town with no league football club? 

Supposedly Rugby dominates but I can tell you it doesn't and that there are far more soccer shirts in town than rugby.

Though the rugby club still gets more people at games than the non league soccer club

[Gooleboy]

Just now, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

I think Bedford is supposed to be the biggest town with no league football club? 

Supposedly Rugby dominates but I can tell you it doesn't and that there are far more soccer shirts in town than rugby.

Though the rugby club still gets more people at games than the non league soccer club

As far as I know Wakefield is the biggest city without a professional football club.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

6 minutes ago, Gooleboy said:

As far as I know Wakefield is the biggest city without a professional football club.

Yep, city wise I think it is. Bedford is the town one

[Wellsy4HullFC]

34 minutes ago, Eddie said:

You’d still expect a Town the size of Warrington to have a football team higher than the Northern Premier League. 

Why? They are literally surrounded by some of the biggest football clubs in the world. Why would anyone bother supporting them?

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

On 29/12/2019 at 20:35, Total Rugby League said:

Hull FC’s impressive off-field work continues after they passed this weekend’s membership discount deadline with more than 8,000 members signed up It’s the most the...

View the full article

Superb well done Hull! 

[Eddie]

6 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Why? They are literally surrounded by some of the biggest football clubs in the world. Why would anyone bother supporting them?

In that case are you baffled why teams like Stalybridge Celtic, Rochdale, Altringham, Tranmere and Stockport are in higher divisions than Warrington, despite being closer to Manchester or Liverpool than Warrington is? And how have Wigan Athletic made it to the football league?

[Wellsy4HullFC]

1 minute ago, Eddie said:

In that case are you baffled why teams like Stalybridge Celtic, Rochdale, Altringham, Tranmere and Stockport are in higher divisions than Warrington, despite being closer to Manchester or Liverpool than Warrington is? And how have Wigan Athletic made it to the football league?

It's all about investment these days.

If someone turned around and decided they wanted to get Warrington into the Football League, it wouldn't matter how many fans they had. Look at Salford City. Eventually, I wouldn't be surprised if the city began getting behind them.

[DimmestStar]

On 31/12/2019 at 19:00, Eddie said:

Thanks HG! I love Derby rivalries and have often said that on this forum when some people dismiss HRK as unnecessary, the Hull Derby is one of my favourite games to watch on tv I’d love to go to one. 

In 2019 Hull FC averaged 11,478 Hull KR averaged 8,185.

Season tickets for 2020 (so far) Hull FC 8,000 Hull KR 6,000.

Rovers of course were near the bottom all year it would be interesting to see what would happen to attendances if they actually had some success.

Average attendances

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest
Castleford Tigers	14	101,542	7,253	9,316	5,323
Catalans Dragons	14	143,560	10,560	31,555	7,237
Huddersfield Giants	14	73,133	5,222	6,809	4,451
Hull FC	14	160,694	11,478	20,044	9,830
Hull KR	14	114,587	8,185	12,100	7,065
Leeds Rhinos	14	165,742	11,838	14,085	11,229
London Broncos	14	28,297	2,021	3,051	1,133
Salford Red Devils	14	51,476	3,676	5,393	2,368
St Helens	15	178,639	11,910	17,088	9,090
Wakefield Trinity	14	76,554	5,468	6,785	4,270
Warrington Wolves	15	159,182	10,970	14,211	5,627
Wigan Warriors	16	182,914	11,432	22,050	9,247

[GUBRATS]

9 hours ago, Eddie said:

I meant football teams haven’t flourished in those places, in fact considering their sizes it’s incredible how low down the pyramid St Helens Town and Warrington Town are. I know there’ll be plenty of Liverpool and Everton fans in St Helens but I doubt there are 12,000 regularly going to Anfield or Goodison. 

Maybe not , but there'll be double that sat in pubs and at home watching it on the box , my brother in law I work with ' big ' City fan , I've seen City play more than him live and I'm a Utd fan 

There are those who go to live matches and those that don't , no matter what the cost , even free , they still won't go but don't miss a game on the TV 

[GUBRATS]

8 hours ago, Eddie said:

In that case are you baffled why teams like Stalybridge Celtic, Rochdale, Altringham, Tranmere and Stockport are in higher divisions than Warrington, despite being closer to Manchester or Liverpool than Warrington is? And how have Wigan Athletic made it to the football league?

Wigan town/County used to be a FL team many years earlier , even as a non league team they got 27,000 against Man City in the cup at Springfield Park , I attended FA Cup matches against old 3rd division teams in the 70s with over 10,000 on 

There has always been a dormant support for football in Wigan , when Dave Whelan took over and the investment followed they were always going to move up the ladder , they are essentially a top half League 1 club 

[Mr Frisky]

1 hour ago, DimmestStar said:

In 2019 Hull FC averaged 11,478 Hull KR averaged 8,185.

Season tickets for 2020 (so far) Hull FC 8,000 Hull KR 6,000.

Rovers of course were near the bottom all year it would be interesting to see what would happen to attendances if they actually had some success.

Average attendances

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest
Castleford Tigers	14	101,542	7,253	9,316	5,323
Catalans Dragons	14	143,560	10,560	31,555	7,237
Huddersfield Giants	14	73,133	5,222	6,809	4,451
Hull FC	14	160,694	11,478	20,044	9,830
Hull KR	14	114,587	8,185	12,100	7,065
Leeds Rhinos	14	165,742	11,838	14,085	11,229
London Broncos	14	28,297	2,021	3,051	1,133
Salford Red Devils	14	51,476	3,676	5,393	2,368
St Helens	15	178,639	11,910	17,088	9,090
Wakefield Trinity	14	76,554	5,468	6,785	4,270
Warrington Wolves	15	159,182	10,970	14,211	5,627
Wigan Warriors	16	182,914	11,432	22,050	9,247

Not great to see Wigan and Leeds averages dropping by 3 or 4 k over the past few years.

However some of the other clubs are up so guess it all averages out in the end.

[GUBRATS]

3 minutes ago, Mr Frisky said:

Not great to see Wigan and Leeds averages dropping by 3 or 4 k over the past few years.

However some of the other clubs are up so guess it all averages out in the end.

Leeds due to the stadium re vamp , Wigan due to boring Aussie style RL

[Eddie]

8 hours ago, GUBRATS said:

Leeds due to the stadium re vamp , Wigan due to boring Aussie style RL

I think Wigan’s average used to be closer to 16k. Do you think that massive drop is really due to their playing style? I hope it is that and not a general reduction in support for RL in the town, it would be great to see their crowds back up to 15k. 

[aj1908]

8 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I think Wigan’s average used to be closer to 16k. Do you think that massive drop is really due to their playing style? I hope it is that and not a general reduction in support for RL in the town, it would be great to see their crowds back up to 15k. 

yes and at a time when the latics were in premier league too.

maybe wheelan was a better owner than leneghan in hindsight.  wigan have been very disappoining under the new owner.

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

Leeds’s highest attendance of 14k must be the lowest highest attendance for a long time.

We used to average more than 14k

[Eddie]

13 minutes ago, aj1908 said:

yes and at a time when the latics were in premier league too.

maybe wheelan was a better owner than leneghan in hindsight.  wigan have been very disappoining under the new owner.

Wigan have been in the championship and league one for a few years now, their crowds have been dropping off over the last few seasons so not sure if that’s the reason. I do find it odd that a lot of people in Wigan are either football or rugby fans though, and hate the other sport. Why not both. 

[aj1908]

9 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Wigan have been in the championship and league one for a few years now, their crowds have been dropping off over the last few seasons so not sure if that’s the reason. I do find it odd that a lot of people in Wigan are either football or rugby fans though, and hate the other sport. Why not both. 

why wouldnt more people go to watch wigan once the latics did a double relegation.  its weird.

[Dunbar]

9 hours ago, GUBRATS said:

Wigan due to boring Aussie style RL

Do you watch much Australian Rugby League?

[Dunbar]

Good news from FC.

I am sure that Leeds will top last year with the stadium work done and more ambition while Wigan should register a gain with some exciting additions to the squad.

Toronto replace London which adds to the overall number... we should see a positive uptick in the Super League this year.

[GUBRATS]

46 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Wigan have been in the championship and league one for a few years now, their crowds have been dropping off over the last few seasons so not sure if that’s the reason. I do find it odd that a lot of people in Wigan are either football or rugby fans though, and hate the other sport. Why not both. 

For many years RL was ' top dog ' in Wigan with Athletic non league , and the Rugby fans were always happy to remind the footy fans of it , then along comes Whelan , bails out a financially crippled RL club giving back the footy fans some pride , they are then happy to remind the ' lodgers ' of their place 

 

[overtheborder]

Great effort, huge potential at the club with the size of the ground - if they can fill that or get close to it, that could make for a great spectacle.