Travelling Fans

[RayCee]

While some fans rarely if ever travel and others are keen to go whenever they can, what about those in between?

How many will travel so far but longer distances put them off?

Does the opponent make a difference to some as to whether they make the journey?

I assume in some cases when the game is played would play a part, work and family commitments determining if its feasible.

Some may be limited on what they can spend and if finances are tight think twice about travelling when that is an issue.

Some clubs seem to have a culture of traveling more than others so that could be a difference for some. 

[headtackle]

Friday night fixtures, work and the m62 don’t help

[JohnM]

At my age, in my health, living where I do, even a home Wigan 8pm Friday game involves an overnight stay.

[RayCee]

Just now, JohnM said:

At my age, in my health, living where I do, even a home Wigan 8pm Friday game involves an overnight stay.

That's quite an effort you have to put in, not to mention a financial commitment. I hope the Wigan team's performance makes it worth the while. They are going well at the minute. 

[Old Frightful]

I think the reason both Hull clubs seem to always travel in good numbers is that, derby aside, our nearest away game is Castleford at around 50 miles away. So, wherever we play it's always a bit of a trek.

I think I worked it out once that, with the exception of Catalans and Toulouse who obviously would skew the maths, our average distance for away games travel in SL is 90 miles.

On the flip side, there are hardly any occasions when the North Stand (for away speccies) at Hull FC home games is any more than 10% full for games against sides west of the Pennines and 15% full for sides east of the Pennines.

Ironically, if you wanted to follow your team to away games, probably the best location to be based is a few miles east of Huddersfield.

I'd better stop there then...

 

[JohnM]

Might have inadvertently misled people. It's for the reasons stated that I don't go, but would likely go for Sunday afternoon games now that we're out of the restrictions.

Pre-pandemic and pre-health problems, went to a few Hull FC v Wigan Friday night games as Hull is much closer to home.

In general though, maybe travelling to away games on a Friday night  is an issue of time as well as distance.

[Old Frightful]

12 minutes ago, headtackle said:

Friday night fixtures, work and the m62 don’t help

Rather oddly, I've never missed a kick off due to traffic congestion and when you consider that I rarely miss having my intelligence insulted when Hull FC are away, that's not bad going. Of course it helps that we usually set off around 4pm.

The only time I came close was once at Wigan when there had been a fatal accident near the stadium and obviously traffic was near a standstill.

The other time I missed a kick off was also at Wigan but that wasn't anything to do with traffic congestion, it was more due to listening to  the advice of the locals , which has been well documented on here, and no doubt one of them will be along shortly to counter my claim and suggest it was a breakdown in communication...

[gingerjon]

4 minutes ago, Old Frightful said:

The other time I missed a kick off was also at Wigan but that wasn't anything to do with traffic congestion, it was more due to listening to  the advice of the locals , which has been well documented on here, and no doubt one of them will be along shortly to counter my claim and suggest it was a breakdown in communication...

But, like the Murphy's, you're not bitter ...

[RayCee]

13 minutes ago, Old Frightful said:

I think the reason both Hull clubs seem to always travel in good numbers is that, derby aside, our nearest away game is Castleford at around 50 miles away. So, wherever we play it's always a bit of a trek.

I think I worked it out once that, with the exception of Catalans and Toulouse who obviously would skew the maths, our average distance for away games travel in SL is 90 miles.

On the flip side, there are hardly any occasions when the North Stand (for away speccies) at Hull FC home games is any more than 10% full for games against sides west of the Pennines and 15% full for sides east of the Pennines.

Ironically, if you wanted to follow your team to away games, probably the best location to be based is a few miles east of Huddersfield.

I'd better stop there then...

From that I take it Hull FC fans are good travellers whereas those west of the Pennines slightly less so. 

[Loiner]

For me it's purely down to distance and kick off times on a Friday night. Even the recent game at Huddersfield would have meant me getting home well after midnight, at my age that's no good. Back in the day when all games were played on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon my mates and me never missed any away game for years. I know you have to move with the times but sometimes I think sky doesn't even consider the fans, the ones who pay at the turnstiles only the armchair ones.

[Old Frightful]

19 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

But, like the Murphy's, you're not bitter ...

To be fair, given the dodgy advice, we were still only a minute late by which time it was already 6-0 to Wigan.

Even walking into the ground with no view of the pitch we could still tell that the try shouldn’t have been allowed…

[gingerjon]

5 hours ago, RayCee said:

While some fans rarely if ever travel and others are keen to go whenever they can, what about those in between?

How many will travel so far but longer distances put them off?

Does the opponent make a difference to some as to whether they make the journey?

I assume in some cases when the game is played would play a part, work and family commitments determining if its feasible.

Some may be limited on what they can spend and if finances are tight think twice about travelling when that is an issue.

Some clubs seem to have a culture of traveling more than others so that could be a difference for some. 

Realistically, I think we need to factor in the increased cost of petrol now as well. I know that's only really since the start of this season but it does seem to be having an impact on how far and for what reason some people are prepared to travel.

[HawkMan]

I'm just an ignorant Southerner , so someone really needs to educate me on why it seems so problematic for RL fans to travel the not very vast distances to get to games. Whereas football fans flock here, there and everywhere to get to games. Is it money?, is the heartlands located in a unique poverty bubble? Or is the M62 actually the most evilly designed road , designed by a maniac making journeys as difficult as treking the Kyber Pass? 

[JohnM]

1 hour ago, RayCee said:

From that I take it Hull FC fans are good travellers whereas those west of the Pennines slightly less so. 

Needs must ..

I have to say, though, that a trip to Hull to watch Wigan has always been a good experience. The park and ride works well, the ground is good and the forum members we've met up with there have been suitably respectful of WDL members. There have been times, though, that the crowds on  the walk from the Botanic to the ground has seemed somewhat Lowry-esque.

It's 4 years or more though, since our last visit.

 

[Anita Bath]

36 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

I'm just an ignorant Southerner , so someone really needs to educate me on why it seems so problematic for RL fans to travel the not very vast distances to get to games. Whereas football fans flock here, there and everywhere to get to games. Is it money?, is the heartlands located in a unique poverty bubble? Or is the M62 actually the most evilly designed road , designed by a maniac making journeys as difficult as treking the Kyber Pass? 

Friday evening rush hour….M62 a parking lot.  Little football played on Friday night so no comparison.

[RayCee]

20 minutes ago, JohnM said:

Needs must ..

I have to say, though, that a trip to Hull to watch Wigan has always been a good experience. The park and ride works well, the ground is good and the forum members we've met up with there have been suitably respectful of WDL members. There have been times, though, that the crowds on  the walk from the Botanic to the ground has seemed somewhat Lowry-esque.

It's 4 years or more though, since our last visit.

 

Nice to hear your recollections. Living in NZ, I used to go watch the home team (Warriors) but being an away fan wasn’t realistically an option. 

[HawkMan]

20 minutes ago, Anita Bath said:

Friday evening rush hour….M62 a parking lot.  Little football played on Friday night so no comparison.

Thanks for that, now I know. Football is played on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings throughout the season,  but obviously those other motorways that criss cross the country don't have evening traffic and footy fans serenely glide to games,  whilst poor RL fans are trapped in the automobile Vortex Of Hell that is the M62, 90% of traffic is probably fans trying to get to games, but of course never get there.

[meast]

2 hours ago, headtackle said:

Friday night fixtures, work and the m62 don’t help

That's true, but these issues only seem to affect RL fans, football, RU, cricket etc don't seem to have this issue.

And considering I travel to most Giants away games, with a lot of M62 crossing, it's not always that bad, I'd say probably 85% of my journeys have been trouble free, if slightly busy.

[Niels]

3 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

Thanks for that, now I know. Football is played on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings throughout the season,  but obviously those other motorways that criss cross the country don't have evening traffic and footy fans serenely glide to games,  whilst poor RL fans are trapped in the automobile Vortex Of Hell that is the M62, 90% of traffic is probably fans trying to get to games, but of course never get there.

It's a good point.

I think there a number of reasons though I am guessing.

Football has a younger audience. Fans are more affluent. Fanbases are larger. Because of the play offs, number of teams relegated, each game is meaningful. 

On the other side of the coin, our sport takes a lot more away fans than cricket, Union, whose fans don't travel much.

There are anomalies in that French union fans travel in numbers compared to league, even for finals.

 

[meast]

2 hours ago, Old Frightful said:

I think the reason both Hull clubs seem to always travel in good numbers is that, derby aside, our nearest away game is Castleford at around 50 miles away. So, wherever we play it's always a bit of a trek.

I think I worked it out once that, with the exception of Catalans and Toulouse who obviously would skew the maths, our average distance for away games travel in SL is 90 miles.

On the flip side, there are hardly any occasions when the North Stand (for away speccies) at Hull FC home games is any more than 10% full for games against sides west of the Pennines and 15% full for sides east of the Pennines.

Ironically, if you wanted to follow your team to away games, probably the best location to be based is a few miles east of Huddersfield.

I'd better stop there then...

 

Both Hull clubs do often travel well, but not half as much as some of their fans claim they do.

But it's a relatively easy journey from Hull to most places, very little traffic and hold ups really, if a little boring.

Mind you it's fairly easy from Huddersfield too so shouldn't be too many excuses?

[meast]

2 hours ago, Loiner said:

For me it's purely down to distance and kick off times on a Friday night. Even the recent game at Huddersfield would have meant me getting home well after midnight, at my age that's no good. Back in the day when all games were played on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon my mates and me never missed any away game for years. I know you have to move with the times but sometimes I think sky doesn't even consider the fans, the ones who pay at the turnstiles only the armchair ones.

Sky consider eyes on the box and subscriptions, nothing else.

[gingerjon]

Just now, meast said:

Sky consider eyes on the box and subscriptions, nothing else.

And this attitude covers all the sports they show (I know you know this, but we do have a fair number who think that RL is uniquely compromised by Sky/BT's kick off time strategy).

[meast]

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

Realistically, I think we need to factor in the increased cost of petrol now as well. I know that's only really since the start of this season but it does seem to be having an impact on how far and for what reason some people are prepared to travel.

Away fan numbers have been decreasing over a number of years, at Huddersfield, there used to be a few teams that used to bring close to or over 2,000 fans, now there's hardly any.

It used to be the average away following was around 1500, now it's around 700.

Despite their geography and massive success and support,. Leeds usually only bring around 1500-1700.

Consider that to a few years back when Bradford were in a similar position, they used to have 3,000+ fans.

[Dave T]

17 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

Thanks for that, now I know. Football is played on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings throughout the season,  but obviously those other motorways that criss cross the country don't have evening traffic and footy fans serenely glide to games,  whilst poor RL fans are trapped in the automobile Vortex Of Hell that is the M62, 90% of traffic is probably fans trying to get to games, but of course never get there.

RL fans do travel. Our numbers are smaller than football, so fewer will travel.

There isn't any great mystery to it.

In football there are often fewer travelling fans for these difficult midweek games.

[Dave T]

13 minutes ago, meast said:

That's true, but these issues only seem to affect RL fans, football, RU, cricket etc don't seem to have this issue.

And considering I travel to most Giants away games, with a lot of M62 crossing, it's not always that bad, I'd say probably 85% of my journeys have been trouble free, if slightly busy.

Of course those sports have those issues.