RLWC Attendance-O-Meter

[Just Browny]

Just now, Big Picture said:

How small was it?

40k and some, but I feel like that must be ticket sales rather than attendees as there didn't seem like that many in the ground.

[Sports Prophet]

4 minutes ago, Just Browny said:

Very disappointing crowd.

 

1 minute ago, Big Picture said:

How small was it?

It was certainly a downsize from the semi final in 2013 from what I could see.

[Chrispmartha]

2 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

 

It was certainly a downsize from the semi final in 2013 from what I could see.

2013 was a double header, we’ve had more people watching the 2013 semi finals this year, and it will have been far more profitable 

[Sports Prophet]

Just now, Chrispmartha said:

2013 was a double header, we’ve had more people watching the 2013 semi finals this year, and it will have been far more profitable 

Good to hear. I agree with @Just Browny, looked small attendance and even falling short of 50k is not good enough in my opinion.

[GeordieSaint]

59 minutes ago, EggFace said:

Should of been played in the heartlands as that game descried a packed house but well done to the fans for attending.

Oh literally go look in a mirror and slap yourself across the face. Where in the heartlands can fit 40k in? Less Old Trafford, all the football grounds are in use today.

And frankly just coming from the game, thousands of new fans just loved that game despite the result. People around me where wetting themselves with excitement. Yes, the crowd was not good enough but this frankly ridiculous mentality of heartlands over everything is why we are in the devastating position we are in today.

 

[Guest]

Funny to see half the people around me leave when full time ended. Unaware it was sudden death. 

[Guest]

So the comments about 35k being sold by SJP were clearly economical then 

[crashmon]

5 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

Oh literally go look in a mirror and slap yourself across the face. Where in the heartlands can fit 40k in? Less Old Trafford, all the football grounds are in use today.

And frankly just coming from the game, thousands of new fans just loved that game despite the result. People around me where wetting themselves with excitement. Yes, the crowd was not good enough but this frankly ridiculous mentality of heartlands over everything is why we are in the devastating position we are in today.

 

TBF, this is the one positive for today, it was a fantastic game for new fans, and we had a lot of those today.... 

Now you build on that by having another international game in London next year, but will England do that.  I'm not holding my breath

[pahars]

I don’t think it was that bad an attendance at all. 
 

Firstly the London casual sports fan sees Australia and New Zealand as big rugby games and wouldn’t see Samoa in the same way- especially after we battered them in the first game. 
 

Secondly having Aus v NZ a few hours before in the heartlands probably meant a few thousand fewer northern travelling fans. 
 

Ultimately getting 40,000+ twice outside the heartlands for games against Samoa is a great result. 

[SouthLondonRL]

It was a great atmosphere in the ground and in the pubs around the ground.

Disappointing attendance, however I only booked tickets this morning and my friends normally all football fans all want to watch the New Zealand series next year. Build it and they will come!

[gingerjon]

Incidentally, the last time I can remember seeing so many positive comments on social media from non RL people was during the last home semi final nine years ago.

[Dave T]

45 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

2013 was a double header, we’ve had more people watching the 2013 semi finals this year, and it will have been far more profitable 

We'll have to see on these financial in reality. The two numbers announced conveniently total just higher than 2013's semis in the same way that the 23k announced at Wigan conveniently broke the record for a QF by a few hundred. 

Don't believe a word from them. 

[Chrispmartha]

5 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Incidentally, the last time I can remember seeing so many positive comments on social media from non RL people was during the last home semi final nine years ago.

All the negativity is from RL fans, just read this forum

[Dave T]

6 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Incidentally, the last time I can remember seeing so many positive comments on social media from non RL people was during the last home semi final nine years ago.

On the actual crowd, they are a bit weird at events like this. We clearly tapped into the student and travelling Aussies market, at least in the section I was in, and tbh for much of the game it was an unpleasant and unfriendly atmosphere. 

What I would say on the positive though is that the number of fans just watching the match on a pure entertainment basis meant that they just cheered and clapped anything positive. They weren't interested in the nuances, obviously they hated set restarts, but their general enthusiasm did create a better atmosphere than maybe what you get with a 'purist' crowd. There is a lot to enkoy with that. 

I really had a love/hate kind of day.  I had a nice day at the Rugby, but the event was dire. I liked much of the atmosphere, but there were loads of nobs. I liked the ground, but I hated things like access and closed bars. 

[EggFace]

38 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

Oh literally go look in a mirror and slap yourself across the face. Where in the heartlands can fit 40k in? Less Old Trafford, all the football grounds are in use today.

And frankly just coming from the game, thousands of new fans just loved that game despite the result. People around me where wetting themselves with excitement. Yes, the crowd was not good enough but this frankly ridiculous mentality of heartlands over everything is why we are in the devastating position we are in today.

 

Come down Geordie as just wished the game which might of been my best game I have ever seen deserved a packed crowd and wonder if it would of been better at ground guaranteed a sell out as I got a bit sick of friends and family on the phone after the game saying why the empty seats.

[Tommygilf]

2 minutes ago, Dave T said:

On the actual crowd, they are a bit weird at events like this. We clearly tapped into the student and travelling Aussies market, at least in the section I was in, and tbh for much of the game it was an unpleasant and unfriendly atmosphere. 

What I would say on the positive though is that the number of fans just watching the match on a pure entertainment basis meant that they just cheered and clapped anything positive. They weren't interested in the nuances, obviously they hated set restarts, but their general enthusiasm did create a better atmosphere than maybe what you get with a 'purist' crowd. There is a lot to enkoy with that. 

I really had a love/hate kind of day.  I had a nice day at the Rugby, but the event was dire. I liked much of the atmosphere, but there were loads of nobs. I liked the ground, but I hated things like access and closed bars. 

Out of interest whereabouts in the ground were you sat?

[St Reatham]

Today’s attendance looked correct from where I was sitting, and from the time it took me to exit the stadium and get anywhere near to the Underground.

[Dave T]

4 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Out of interest whereabouts in the ground were you sat?

Upper tier corner down behind cameras to the right. Lots of Aussies supporting Samoa. Block 128.

[Tommygilf]

2 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Upper tier corner down behind cameras to the right. Lots of Aussies supporting Samoa. Block 128.

Ah I think I sat there for football actually! 

Shame about the Aussies being there.

[Dave T]

Today was also the clearest example of expensive sections being empty. They have clearly done quite well allocating expensive seats to sponsors and freebies at some games, but today in the biggest ground so far it was striking. 

[Jughead]

1 minute ago, Dave T said:

Today was also the clearest example of expensive sections being empty. They have clearly done quite well allocating expensive seats to sponsors and freebies at some games, but today in the biggest ground so far it was striking. 

It looked similar to Wembley when that first open in that the middle section was empty, when Club Wembley wasn’t an option. That’s certainly how it looked on TV, anyway. 

I thought it was a decent crowd and looked quite good on TV and didn’t appear to have as obvious gaps within the stands in the way the Cup Final at Tottenham clearly did. 

[Chrispmartha]

1 minute ago, Jughead said:

It looked similar to Wembley when that first open in that the middle section was empty, when Club Wembley wasn’t an option. That’s certainly how it looked on TV, anyway. 

I thought it was a decent crowd and looked quite good on TV and didn’t appear to have as obvious gaps within the stands in the way the Cup Final at Tottenham clearly did. 

It looked fine in tv, and it sounded great.

[Tommygilf]

1 minute ago, Jughead said:

It looked similar to Wembley when that first open in that the middle section was empty, when Club Wembley wasn’t an option. That’s certainly how it looked on TV, anyway. 

I thought it was a decent crowd and looked quite good on TV and didn’t appear to have as obvious gaps within the stands in the way the Cup Final at Tottenham clearly did. 

A lot of the games corporate partners are northern based it seems.

[Dave T]

3 minutes ago, Jughead said:

It looked similar to Wembley when that first open in that the middle section was empty, when Club Wembley wasn’t an option. That’s certainly how it looked on TV, anyway. 

I thought it was a decent crowd and looked quite good on TV and didn’t appear to have as obvious gaps within the stands in the way the Cup Final at Tottenham clearly did. 

The boxes were all closed, and the two ends of the Club seats were closed completely. There were plenty empty in that middle tier open sections. 

Behind the sticks to the left was very empty, and tbh there were huge empty sections around the upper tiers particularly. 

I would say, that it is possibly difficult to talk numbers because the seats were huge and like Wembley a few empty seats makes it look bad. 

But not a single section was full, and that was an issue for the feel of the event for me. 

[Dave T]

4 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

A lot of the games corporate partners are northern based it seems.

Well, I raised it on a thread earlier in the tournament, but all these sponsors appear to be a quality bit of BS too. The majority of the time the advertising boards are advertising the actual tournament, tickets, the app etc. 

Anyone ever see anything of this Pepsi Max sponsorship?