RLWC Attendance-O-Meter

[Dave T]

Just now, Northern Eel said:

That's another really solid effort in Newcastle. The North East folk have certainly not disappointed us with their attendance at this World Cup.

Agreed. They have been not a million miles from what we have seen at Workington in the past. Cleay 3 games is far too much, the scheduling has been poor, but 6k plus for lesser games is not shoddy, particularly when you look at what heartlands has delivered. 

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

Think the announcer just said 6,736 at Newcastle this evening.

More than Sco v Italy without the tailwind of SJP and fans in town.

And well more than Fiji v Italy

Great number

And the Toon played at home.

[N2022]

Just now, Dave T said:

Agreed. They have been not a million miles from what we have seen at Workington in the past. Cleay 3 games is far too much, the scheduling has been poor, but 6k plus for lesser games is not shoddy, particularly when you look at what heartlands has delivered. 

Bizarrely, as I haven't been aware of such direct marketing for other fixtures, despite attending Eng v Samoa and France and buying for Eng QF, just opened my e-mail and found that RLWC sent me a promotional message for Fiji Scotland tickets, just after 2pm today. Bit optimistic on their part? 

[eal]

Not a bad crowd in Newcastle. The crowds seem to be trending up from last weekend.

[Dave T]

Just now, eal said:

Not a bad crowd in Newcastle. The crowds seem to be trending up from last weekend.

It would appear that grounds with multiple games are seeing fans pick and choose which ones they want to attend. Which shouldn't be a surprise really. 

[EggFace]

13 minutes ago, eal said:

Not a bad crowd in Newcastle. The crowds seem to be trending up from last weekend.

I'm gutted as had a bad stomach and was put off at the game last week with poor crowd and on a perfect Indian summer afternoon so missed this one with freebies

[Chrispmartha]

Looks a shocking turn out at Saints, I would have thought Australia might have  been a bit of a draw for them

[GeordieSaint]

5 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

Looks a shocking turn out at Saints, I would have thought Australia might have  been a bit of a draw for them

5-6k I reckon. They’ve saturated the St Helens market; 3rd game in about 10 days.

[Exiled Wiganer]

It’s not too bad at Saints. These 4 games have exceeded my expectations. And was very good at Newcastle. Who saw a very good match, with beautiful singing. 

[Big Picture]

1 hour ago, GeordieSaint said:

Think the announcer just said 6,736 at Newcastle this evening.

That takes the total above 200,000 to 203,778, though the average dipped slightly to 10,725.

[Northern Eel]

1 hour ago, Big Picture said:

That takes the total above 200,000 to 203,778, though the average dipped slightly to 10,725.

Add 5,586 from the Australia v Italy game and we are edging onto 210,000. We are just about going to nudge 400,000 by the time we are done.

[Guest]

30 minutes ago, Northern Eel said:

Add 5,586 from the Australia v Italy game and we are edging onto 210,000. We are just about going to nudge 400,000 by the time we are done.

An England final run should guarantee 20k + 50k +75k = 145k, but yes, around there and I would hope a touch more than that if they could maybe sell out the DW and the Emirates too.

[Big Picture]

1 hour ago, Northern Eel said:

Add 5,586 from the Australia v Italy game and we are edging onto 210,000. We are just about going to nudge 400,000 by the time we are done.

209,364 to be precise for an average of 10,468.

[paulwalker71]

It seems disappointing that Australia drew a smaller turnout in the heartlands than Fiji vs Scotland did in an expansion outpost.

Something has got badly awry with the planning for these group games.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

209,364 to be precise for an average of 10,468.

Forgotten about the rest of round 3. Add in Elland road at 20k plus and we should well exceed 400k. Probably be 15k to 20k short of 2013. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, paulwalker71 said:

It seems disappointing that Australia drew a smaller turnout in the heartlands than Fiji vs Scotland did in an expansion outpost.

Something has got badly awry with the planning for these group games.

And NZ Vs Lebanon

Both odd turnouts.

[Chrispmartha]

8 minutes ago, paulwalker71 said:

It seems disappointing that Australia drew a smaller turnout in the heartlands than Fiji vs Scotland did in an expansion outpost.

Something has got badly awry with the planning for these group games.

Maybe flip it round, it’s encouraging that more people want to see Scotland in a non heartland area.

 

but to be honest both Saints and Warrington crowds have been ###### poor.

One of the biggest issues fir this WC has not been spreading the games around, Saints, Leigh, doncaster and Warrington should have had one group stage game each. Headingley possibly two, York should have definitely  had one, and Id have taken a few more down south.

This would have given each town/city one game to focus on and market.

[ATLANTISMAN]

3 hours ago, Big Picture said:

That takes the total above 200,000 to 203,778, though the average dipped slightly to 10,725.

My forecast now is a total is around 440000/450000 overall if England win their Qtr Final.

Final should sell out regardless of an England semi-final win.

P

[GeordieSaint]

We’ll be lucky to get 50k at all the QFs at this rate. 

[Chrispmartha]

1 minute ago, GeordieSaint said:

We’ll be lucky to get 50k at all the QFs at this rate. 

Disagree i think we’ll see decent attendances from the QF onwards.

Id like to think Wigan next Saturday will be close to capacity 

[Josef K]

I have just got back from the Australia/Italy match as i nipped into town for a pint after. Italy gave it a go but too many errors against the Kangaroos is not recommended, the Aussies scored some nice tries though. I have to admit the match dragged and i couldn’t wait for the FT hooter. My young granddaughter who came the match wasn’t impressed with the one sidedness. She had only just come back from a week in Spain, i asked her which did she enjoy most the week away or tonight’s match. It was quite clear it was tonight’s big match. 
The big positive was the match kicking off on time, i don’t know why we can’t do that for the League campaign. My next match is the final. 

[Chrispmartha]

7 minutes ago, Josef K said:

I have just got back from the Australia/Italy match as i nipped into town for a pint after. Italy gave it a go but too many errors against the Kangaroos is not recommended, the Aussies scored some nice tries though. I have to admit the match dragged and i couldn’t wait for the FT hooter. My young granddaughter who came the match wasn’t impressed with the one sidedness. She had only just come back from a week in Spain, i asked her which did she enjoy most the week away or tonight’s match. It was quite clear it was tonight’s big match. 
The big positive was the match kicking off on time, i don’t know why we can’t do that for the League campaign. My next match is the final. 

I was bored at today’s England game but  everyone around me was really into England battering another team - this is why International RL is so important, people engage with it and want to see a winning national side (a lot of people around me were not ‘RL’ people )

[Sports Prophet]

I remember a time when Australian rugby league fans, especially those in Sydney, were being lambasted by most on this forum as international RL snobs.

I don’t think we can say that the northern English heartlands have overwhelmingly showed them up.

Has the marketing been up to scratch? I would have expected billboards, cool video productions and blanket advertising on C4 during SL season. What is the story have the marketing team been selling this tournament? 

Venue choice, saturation, poor marketing, prices… whatever the excuse, this tournament has reinforced to me that international fixtures and events are neither a golden goose, nor the best vehicle to drive growth outside the heartlands.

Edited October 30, 2022 by Sports Prophet

[Josef K]

36 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

I was bored at today’s England game but  everyone around me was really into England battering another team - this is why International RL is so important, people engage with it and want to see a winning national side (a lot of people around me were not ‘RL’ people )

I totally agree with you Chrispmartha and id imagine a lot of fans who were at the England Vs Greece game perhaps hadn’t attended many RL matches, or even watched England live in any sport. I hope that the next RLWC we have here we might’ve learned some lessons from this one and perhaps we can have more matches outside the heartlands. Then we can entice curious sports fans to come and watch RL internationals. 
After the match a mate hung around with his lad to have photos with some of the players and he said “they were fantastic, really polite and happy to have photos taken”. He said his lad was thrilled because he got his photo taken with one of his Aussie heroes Latrell Mitchell. 

[Ste93]

Interesting seeing some of the comments about the England game, in the ground I was disappointed in the turnout (the main stand was empty) but apparently it looked good on tv and the best turnout in Sheffield for a league game ever so hard to complain.

I went to the game with 6 friends (3 of which was their first league game) and they all had a good time but it's hard to argue a closer game would have been more enjoyable but we can only play the countries we have.

Looking forward to DW, Elland road and the final I have tickets for and hope they're good games with good atmospheres.

The last comment I have was everyone I was with was interested in the idea of going to a super league game next year in Leeds as you can combine a Friday night game into a good night out, no offence to the town's but the appeal of a good city centre around a game of top level sport is appealing to the floating sports fan.