RLWC Attendance-O-Meter

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

41 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

Yeah I feel like that .....harder for me to drag people along midweek but I'll still try 

[JonM]

1 minute ago, Number 16 said:

I watched the highlights of Scotland defeating West Indies in Hobart in cricket's T20 WC and there were more than a few empty seats in that stadium. 'Sparse' is the word I'd use.

It's a good point - and cricket fans are just talking about the game - not how many people were watching.

That said, there was 18 000 for the game in Geelong (Sri Lanka vs Namibia) because they were able to tap into the immigrant population. Did the RLWC organisation make any attempt to do something similar with any of our games, I wonder?

[crashmon]

I'd also have played the two france games (Greece and Samoa) around London. Large number of French expats you can target (London is the 4th Largest French city in terms of population of French citizens).NZ vs Jamaica games with again a large number of west Indian community in London.   Wales V Cook Islands game in Bristol.

You can still have all the Eng and Aus games in the north, and just have 5 or 6 games in the south / midlands.  Your problem is having so many games in such a small area, you will struggle to get many for your France v Greece,  PNG vs Cook Islands, Italy vs Fiji etc

[londonrlfan]

1 minute ago, JonM said:

It's a good point - and cricket fans are just talking about the game - not how many people were watching.

That said, there was 18 000 for the game in Geelong (Sri Lanka vs Namibia) because they were able to tap into the immigrant population. Did the RLWC organisation make any attempt to do something similar with any of our games, I wonder?

I doubt it. We could promote it to the Greek, Jamaican, Aussie, Kiwi, French, Lebanese, Italian populations in England, but they'd rather preach it to the choir. 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

13 minutes ago, londonrlfan said:

Middlesbrough is a poor choice imo. But when you've forced yourself to only play in a small corner of the country, there won't be many stadiums we could realistically use. 

Middlesbrough is an absolute joke.....if you are having it away from heartlands then why limit it to a sparsely populated corner well away from the vast majority of the country ?

[Damien]

3 minutes ago, crashmon said:

I'd also have played the two france games (Greece and Samoa) around London. Large number of French expats you can target (London is the 4th Largest French city in terms of population of French citizens).NZ vs Jamaica games with again a large number of west Indian community in London.   Wales V Cook Islands game in Bristol.

You can still have all the Eng and Aus games in the north, and just have 5 or 6 games in the south / midlands.  Your problem is having so many games in such a small area, you will struggle to get many for your France v Greece,  PNG vs Cook Islands, Italy vs Fiji etc

Whilst I agree with the sentiment 5k at the first game in Warrington, for one of the marquee teams, is an indication of the issue being more than simply too many games in a small area.

[Jim from Oz]

TV ratings in Australia (I suspect many people are like me and are watching games streamed via Kayo):
 

 

[gingerjon]

8 minutes ago, Number 16 said:

I watched the highlights of Scotland defeating West Indies in Hobart in cricket's T20 WC and there were more than a few empty seats in that stadium. 'Sparse' is the word I'd use.

Not every attendance at the women's football Euros were huge either. Nearly 600k attended the 31 games, but around half was for England's six matches.

Both these are of national sports in their respective host country, so maybe we should keep our performance in perspective.

It really is only one game that is massively below where it should have been - New Zealand v Lebanon - and two that looked a bit bobbins on TV (that one and Ireland v Jamaica). I still think we'll easily pass the 2013 attendance and income - it's just that it could have been *even better*, and easier to sell once the tournament started, with not too much more effort.

Just to say, though, that the T20 is split into two sections so although this is the World Cup, it also sort of isn't. The countries expected to win are still playing warm up games and this is a preliminary round within the competition.

[londonrlfan]

NZ v Jamaica at Loftus Road advertised all over the Notting Hill Carnival. Would that really have been that expensive to promote? That's something Eric Perez was really good at when Canada played Jamaica, promoting to the Jamaican population. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, londonrlfan said:

NZ v Jamaica at Loftus Road advertised all over the Notting Hill Carnival. Would that really have been that expensive to promote? That's something Eric Perez was really good at when Canada played Jamaica, promoting to the Jamaican population. 

Having seen Aus v NZ at Quins back in the day - I am not sure that RL is a great sell in London. It might have done better - but might not have. And would have probably cost a lot more to put on.

 

It's up in the air for me.

[Eddie]

25 minutes ago, londonrlfan said:

Middlesbrough is a poor choice imo. But when you've forced yourself to only play in a small corner of the country, there won't be many stadiums we could realistically use. 

It’s the most bizarre choice of the lot, they can’t have thought they’d get any sort of crowd there surely. 

[crashmon]

The games with Minnow teams played outside of the heartlands in the south / wales did extremely well in 2013, Cook Islands vs USA on a cold wed night in Bristol being a great example.  Bath / Bristol / gloucester is about a RU heartland as you can get, and 2013 they got a full house with 2 teams nobody had ever heard of.

Your not selling RL, your selling Jamaica, your selling France.   Its the Novelty value of it.

My point is not so much Eng or Aus as they will get more of a draw in the North than the South, but the minnow games, you target area's with those communitys.    Not having at least one Jamaica game and one France game in the south makes no sense, and having one wales game in the South west (Cook Islands would have been my pick) would be what I would have tried to do

Edited October 17, 2022 by crashmon

[MattSantos]

17 minutes ago, Number 16 said:

I watched the highlights of Scotland defeating West Indies in Hobart in cricket's T20 WC and there were more than a few empty seats in that stadium. 'Sparse' is the word I'd use.

Not every attendance at the women's football Euros were huge either. Nearly 600k attended the 31 games, but around half was for England's six matches.

Both these are of national sports in their respective host country, so maybe we should keep our performance in perspective.

I'm not that fussed over the attendances and i don't think that many people are these days, despite the 000s of threads...

My concern is that the attendances are a symptom of poor management and it's this that is frustrating. Certainly for me anyway. 

I don't mind the losing (small attendances), if we'd play well, ie set up decent pricing structures, tried to spread it geographically, have a decent website, be able to choose seats etc etc etc, but we're seeing too many management issues over and over again.

 

[Dave T]

7 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

It really is only one game that is massively below where it should have been - New Zealand v Lebanon - and two that looked a bit bobbins on TV (that one and Ireland v Jamaica). I still think we'll easily pass the 2013 attendance and income - it's just that it could have been *even better*, and easier to sell once the tournament started, with not too much more effort.

Just to say, though, that the T20 is split into two sections so although this is the World Cup, it also sort of isn't. The countries expected to win are still playing warm up games and this is a preliminary round within the competition.

Jamaica v Ireland at Headingly is a poor choice of venue - this is exactly the kind of game that was played in Rochdale/Halifax/Workington in 2013 and looked good. 6k at those grounds (and probably more) wouldn't have led to the negative perception.

But actual numbers-wise, it is maybe 1-2k down on what 2013 was delivering for this kind of game.

[londonrlfan]

6 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Having seen Aus v NZ at Quins back in the day - I am not sure that RL is a great sell in London. It might have done better - but might not have. And would have probably cost a lot more to put on.

 

It's up in the air for me.

I disagree tbh. The Stoop was sold out that game. When Aus played NZ at Warrington, it didn't even sell out. RL internationals have always been well attended in London. 

[Martyn Sadler]

There is a lot of concern about some disappointing attendances with the cost of tickets being largely to blame.

There are probably some valid criticisms we could make in relation to the marketing and pricing strategies. But wouldn't it be sensible for the tournament to progress a little further before we all rush too hastily to judgement?

[londonrlfan]

Just now, Dave T said:

Jamaica v Ireland at Headingly is a poor choice of venue - this is exactly the kind of game that was played in Rochdale/Halifax/Workington in 2013 and looked good. 6k at those grounds (and probably more) wouldn't have led to the negative perception.

But actual numbers-wise, it is maybe 1-2k down on what 2013 was delivering for this kind of game.

The big sell of Leeds was all the Jamaican heritage in the city. But I'm not sure they even tried/bothered to promote it. 

[Damien]

6 minutes ago, Eddie said:

It’s the most bizarre choice of the lot, they can’t have thought they’d get any sort of crowd there surely. 

The issue is just the stadium being so big. If it was a 15k ground it'd be fine, as it is it is 34k!

[theswanmcr]

6 minutes ago, Martyn Sadler said:

There is a lot of concern about some disappointing attendances with the cost of tickets being largely to blame.

There are probably some valid criticisms we could make in relation to the marketing and pricing strategies. But wouldn't it be sensible for the tournament to progress a little further before we all rush too hastily to judgement?

Ok then… but why not ask some questions rather than rush to judge/wait and see.

Are the RLWC concerned about attendance and valid complaints of ticket pricing after first weekend?

What plans do they have in place to boost tickets sales for non-England games?

Why was the NZvLeb game billed as ‘low availability’ when only 5k there? Was this deliberate twisting of the facts or an admin error?

Do they believe the RL public has confidence that they are delivering the best World Cup that we can?

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by theswanmcr

[Harry Stottle]

7 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Having seen Aus v NZ at Quins back in the day - I am not sure that RL is a great sell in London. It might have done better - but might not have. And would have probably cost a lot more to put on.

 

It's up in the air for me.

I think that is evident, with the best will in the world will the Bronco's ever make headway in an oversubscribed area of professional football, wherever they have layed their hat in the last 40years it is not long before they have moved on, the local populas just doesn't seem to be persuaded.

[RP London]

Its worth pointing out as well that while there may have been some better places to put the games on "around the country" the hosting of the event was helped by money from the Northern Powerhouse which means that pretty much the whole tournament needs to be hosted in the North so we were limited in what we could do.. ie not being able to take loads of matches to London. 

Perhaps there were better locations in the north but those locations also have to be interested to host which not everywhere will be.

[Harry Stottle]

11 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Jamaica v Ireland at Headingly is a poor choice of venue - this is exactly the kind of game that was played in Rochdale/Halifax/Workington in 2013 and looked good. 6k at those grounds (and probably more) wouldn't have led to the negative perception.

But actual numbers-wise, it is maybe 1-2k down on what 2013 was delivering for this kind of game.

May be and in contradiction of my last post to Leonard, as a one off there is a Jamaican population of 250,000 in Gtr London, how many times have they had the opportunity to watch a national team representing them.

[Damien]

10 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Jamaica v Ireland at Headingly is a poor choice of venue - this is exactly the kind of game that was played in Rochdale/Halifax/Workington in 2013 and looked good. 6k at those grounds (and probably more) wouldn't have led to the negative perception.

But actual numbers-wise, it is maybe 1-2k down on what 2013 was delivering for this kind of game.

I know we had the host bidding process but the likes of York with a 8.5k capacity was made for some of the less appealing fixtures. A game could have been taken to places like this, and as you say Rochdale, and while still in the North would have been sold to different fans. I don't think we had to have host towns and cities with so many games each.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

I think that is evident, with the best will in the world will the Bronco's ever make headway in an oversubscribed area of professional football, wherever they have layed their hat in the last 40years it is not long before they have moved on, the local populas just doesn't seem to be persuaded.

Ackers, KPP and McMeeken - all with strong London links.

London still punches above its weight.

 

[crashmon]

2 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

I think that is evident, with the best will in the world will the Bronco's ever make headway in an oversubscribed area of professional football, wherever they have layed their hat in the last 40years it is not long before they have moved on, the local populas just doesn't seem to be persuaded.

Broncos are done, and I'm a 20 year ST holder at the broncos (apart from last year).  But all we are doing here is trying to sell a couple of one off games and get the local French / Jamacian / Greek communities to buy into those 1 or 2 games