RLWC Attendance-O-Meter

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 hour ago, GUBRATS said:

Yes , but you're a rich southerner

On paper yes but have you seen the price of fois gras recently? 

[whatmichaelsays]

7 minutes ago, St Reatham said:

So, it would appear that financial gains from higher ticket prices over more full stadiums is the strategy? If so, I think the reputational damage of partly filled stadiums on national TV will have more of a negative impact unfortunately.

I think the RLWC organisers have gone down the route of selling this as a "world's elite" event, rather than something that was sold at rock-bottom prices. 

I understand the theory, but it's not that easy to put into practice when you consider the context around RL in this country. 

Firstly, a lot of these games are tough sells, and I would have liked to have seen more aggressive pricing in the group stages, aside from potentially the England, Australia and New Zealand games which sould be big draws. I don't think having England and Australia on the same day was particularly helpful either. 

Secondly, RL in this country has been on a treadmill of discounting for years, and that is a hard treadmill to get off. We have had the RFL and clubs conditioning the core audience that RL should be cheap, that discounts will come, and that RL isn't to be percieved as something valuable. You can't just go from that to asking £50 to sit behind the sticks at Hull. 

I agree with Dutton that this should be an event that should attract top-dollar tickets, but I think he's gone too far with the premium pricing, and he has been let down by years of heavy discounting across the rest of RL. 

[Gerrumonside ref]

1 minute ago, Mattrhino said:

What we thinking about the QF's and SF alot of tickets are £75,£85 and £110 

Who is paying £110 to go to Elland Rd? Or £75 at the DW?

It’s a lot of money at this point.

[Dave T]

I think I can get to the Leigh game now

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 minute ago, Dave T said:

I think I can get to the Leigh game now

I should think so too 

I'm actually perusing midweek games right now at work.....think I'm up for a leave work bang on time and zoom up.....gonna be along time before the next one

 

[Jim from Oz]

17 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

Jim you seem to have an interest in these things, any predictions/feelings from yourself about what  sort of aggregate total we might get up to ?

No idea Rocket!

I was keen to attend this event when first announced but the delay caused by COVID/NRL shafting by V'Landys and Gould etc meant I couldn't go this year and I'm sitting at home in Sydney watching it on Kayo ! BTW, my first time EVER paying money to watch sport on pay TV … only the RLWC could make me do that

I am hoping it can beat the Women's Euro total but Sunday's attendances have made me a bit sceptical of organisers' claims re pre-sales etc.

[Dave T]

3 minutes ago, whatmichaelsays said:

I think the RLWC organisers have gone down the route of selling this as a "world's elite" event, rather than something that was sold at rock-bottom prices. 

I understand the theory, but it's not that easy to put into practice when you consider the context around RL in this country. 

Firstly, a lot of these games are tough sells, and I would have liked to have seen more aggressive pricing in the group stages, aside from potentially the England, Australia and New Zealand games which sould be big draws. I don't think having England and Australia on the same day was particularly helpful either. 

Secondly, RL in this country has been on a treadmill of discounting for years, and that is a hard treadmill to get off. We have had the RFL and clubs conditioning the core audience that RL should be cheap, that discounts will come, and that RL isn't to be percieved as something valuable. You can't just go from that to asking £50 to sit behind the sticks at Hull. 

I agree with Dutton that this should be an event that should attract top-dollar tickets, but I think he's gone too far with the premium pricing, and he has been let down by years of heavy discounting across the rest of RL. 

Agreed. 

You do have to do groundwork to charge premium prices though. You can't just change your whole strategy and put your fingers in your ears. 

But don't feel sorry for Dutton. He has been part of this culture. 

The red flags have been there with Dutton before. He was tournament director at the 2016 Four Nations which saw 5.3k at Hull for Australia v Scotland to kick the tournament off. 

Edited October 17, 2022 by Dave T

[Damien]

I personally don't think the attendances, bar the game at Warrington, have been that bad so far. It is clear though that there are issues and the organisers need to get the narrative back pronto. The next England game can't come quick enough at the moment. For me the main issues have been:

Ticket prices - We've said about the pricing for long enough but it has long been clear that there is not demand for certain teams and games at the prices offered. There is no shame in realising that certain games are not marquee. Group games and non England games should have been cheaper, many won't pay £55 for end touchline seats even for the more attractive games. Even the knockout stages are too expensive. In 2013 I paid £15 for 2 quarter final tickets at Wigan and Warrington (and I'll happily admit that was too cheap) that now both cost £70. I have instead gone for the cheaper £55 option and to be honest have done so quite reluctantly but wanted to take the kids.

It's one thing paying these prices at Wembley or the Etihad but bog-standard SL grounds with minimal entertainment and not even national anthem singers? On the whole these matches aren't being played in marquee stadiums and I have lost track of the amount of people on Twitter refusing to go because their normal seat now costs multiples of what they normally pay. Now we can argue this is a World Cup, not a SL game, and I agree but that doesn't justify paying charging 3 times the amount and neither will it make people go. Prices have been hiked up to RU levels but without the stadiums and big matchday experience to go with it.

All of those £70 and £55 tickets could have been £45 and £35, still a substantial increase on 2013 but much more palatable to fans. Then cheaper £35 and £20 tickets with even £15 and £10 tickets for the real unattractive fixture. Child tickets should also be cheaper rather than simply half price. This is all still a big increase on 2013 but much more sensible. We simply shouldn't be in the boat we are now in with this.

Scheduling - The scheduling has been poor and expecting fans to backup and pay high prices less than 24 hours later in the same locations was crazy. Consideration should have been given to the weekend televised matches. Another big, close match should have been scheduled for BBC2 on the Sunday, Tonga v PNG would have been ideal.

Ticketing website - It is simply shocking and has been for months. This has never been rectified of improved and the user experience is poor. Even with an account setup I am sick of having to log in and do the captcha (which I invariably forget) every time I want to look for a ticket. Let people look for tickets and if they are hooked get them to then sign up. Its such a bad experience.

[Dave T]

2 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

I should think so too 

I'm actually perusing midweek games right now at work.....think I'm up for a leave work bang on time and zoom up.....gonna be along time before the next one

 

Funnily enough the low crowds so far have stirred up a reaction in me to want to get to more games. 

Looking at a couple of quarter finals too now and rallying some troops.

[Harry Stottle]

25 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Does Leigh have a library - just not a train station?

No but we are campaigning for one and also a "magic lantern" picture house, supermarkets would be good we still barter for food on the town hall square - well it's a Nissan hut really, the local saloon still has sawdust and spitoons on the floor, but we have a very good horse 'n cart service to take those whose clogs are wearing thin to the next village where there is a bus station.

Will that surfice for now Lenny, ask anytime if you require any more information, I can see you struggle with joined up thinking.

 

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Funnily enough the low crowds so far have stirred up a reaction in me to want to get to more games. 

Looking at a couple of quarter finals too now and rallying some troops.

Me too.

And I really enjoyed Italy v Scotland.

ᴀᴀʀᴏɴ ʙᴏᴡᴇʀ
@AaronBower
·
12h
Last point on World Cup tickets tonight. Jon Dutton told me last week 2013 sales practically surpassed already and hopeful of posting more than 571,000 who watched women’s Euros this summer. Marathon, not a sprint, I hope.

If that is true - it is interesting that it is already more popular than 2013 with weeks of sales to come - despite the perception here that it won't be. Although I am not sure if that is including women's and wheelchair sales.

So the hope must be things will pick up.

[Leyther_Matt]

44 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Hadn't got this far in the thread when I posted my message, thanks Matt.

But Gubrats and @Wolford6on another thread both said they had phoned the office and were told that tickets were not for sale at the ground?

They aren’t at the moment because the equipment hasn’t arrived from Ticketmaster/RLWC but they will be available on the day  

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Harry Stottle said:

No but we are campaigning for one and also a "magic lantern" picture house, supermarkets would be good we still barter for food on the town hall square - well it's a Nissan hut really, the local saloon still has sawdust and spitoons on the floor, but we have a very good horse 'n cart service to take those whose clogs are wearing thin to the next village where there is a bus station.

Will that surfice for now Lenny, ask anytime if you require any more information, I can see you struggle with joined up thinking.

 

I'll buy you a pint when you are back at AFC Wimbledon in 2024.

[Damien]

Just now, Leonard said:

Me too.

And I really enjoyed Italy v Scotland.

ᴀᴀʀᴏɴ ʙᴏᴡᴇʀ
@AaronBower
·
12h
Last point on World Cup tickets tonight. Jon Dutton told me last week 2013 sales practically surpassed already and hopeful of posting more than 571,000 who watched women’s Euros this summer. Marathon, not a sprint, I hope.

If that is true - it is interesting that it is already more popular than 2013 with weeks of sales to come - despite the perception here that it won't be. Although I am not sure if that is including women's and wheelchair sales.

So the hope must be things will pick up.

I think this kind of misses the point. With England winning comprehensibly on Saturday, and God forbid get to the semi-final in London and then final, then well attended England matches alone could make up a good proportion of that 571,000. That doesn't excuse the failures to do much better in many of the other matches. Dutton can be very thankful that England performed as they did on Saturday.

[Toby Chopra]

19 minutes ago, St Reatham said:

So, it would appear that financial gains from higher ticket prices over more full stadiums is the strategy? If so, I think the reputational damage of partly filled stadiums on national TV will have more of a negative impact unfortunately.

I doubt they were choosing one over the other other, I expect they thought they could shift a decent number of tickets AND make a lot of money. But they've badly misjudged the price point for some games but, perhaps understandably, they don't want to start a fire sale now.

If I'm honest, I didn't really clock this issue until recently when others pointed it out, because I had only bought for England games, semi and final at that point, and though pricey, those games didn't seem seem totally unreasonable.

These midweek games are going to look pretty bad, but not sure if it will affect sales for the business end of the tournament. I'm still hopeful. 

 

[Live after death]

19 minutes ago, Mattrhino said:

What we thinking about the QF's and SF alot of tickets are £75,£85 and £110 

Who is paying £110 to go to Elland Rd? Or £75 at the DW?

Disgrace for Elland road were the seat space struggles to get a labtop on.

[crashmon]

We live just outside of west London

In 2013, we went to 10 games,  By far the most enjoyable was the cook Islands vs USA (midweek game) in Bristol, the place was rocking and the game was fantastic (USA got a surprise win).  We also went to both double headers at Cardiff and Wembley.

In 2022 we are going to 0 games.  Mainly because apart from the semi-finals, all the games are in the North and where I don't mind travelling north for one or two games, I'm not making the drive up multiple times, and yes we could go to just the semi-finals, but TBH if they want the game just to be on the M62, then good luck to them, my money will get spent elsewhere.
 

This is not the olympics where you have everything at one venue, and I think once this is all over, not spreading some games accross the country will come back to bite.

Edited October 17, 2022 by crashmon

[JohnM]

18 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I think I can get to the Leigh game now

Wrong thread. You should have posted this on the "negativity " thread.

[Eddie]

20 minutes ago, Mattrhino said:

What we thinking about the QF's and SF alot of tickets are £75,£85 and £110 

Who is paying £110 to go to Elland Rd? Or £75 at the DW?

I got QF tickets for £25 at Hull, seats along the side - that’s good value. There’s 8 of us going up from Norfolk, 6 have zero interest in RL, I’m worried that there’ll be a five figure crowd now as I’ve been telling them how great it will be and originally thought it would be quite full. 

[Toby Chopra]

Just now, Damien said:

I think this kind of misses the point. With England winning comprehensibly on Saturday, and God forbid get to the semi-final in London and then final, then well attended England matches alone could make up a good proportion of that 571,000. That doesn't excuse the failures to do much better in many of the other matches. Dutton can be very thankful that England performed as they did on Saturday.

Yes, this is pretty much where I'm at. They made some pricing misjudgements right back at the beginning, and then haven't adjusted quickly enough to the changing circumstances, but still might come out of it with a fairly decent profit and some memorable matches with which hopefully we can build on.    

[Harry Stottle]

5 minutes ago, Leonard said:

I'll buy you a pint when you are back at AFC Wimbledon in 2024.

If you are not in L1 then I will gladly take you up on that offer

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Damien said:

I think this kind of misses the point. With England winning comprehensibly on Saturday, and God forbid get to the semi-final in London and then final, then well attended England matches alone could make up a good proportion of that 571,000. That doesn't excuse the failures to do much better in many of the other matches. Dutton can be very thankful that England performed as they did on Saturday.

Agreed - but 2013 is being held up as a standard and should easily be surpassed and at materially higher prices.

[Harry Stottle]

2 minutes ago, JohnM said:

Wrong thread. You should have posted this on the "negativity " thread.

Why?

[londonrlfan]

Well if the ticket pricing brings in more money than 2017, then it will be viewed as a success. The empty seats don't make a good viewing spectacle, especially for the detractors who are told RL is big in the North etc. It will give the perception that tickets in the South would've been even worse, but I think the opposite. 

[JohnM]

1 minute ago, Harry Stottle said:

Why?

Well, if you have to ask.....