RLWC Attendance-O-Meter

[Jill Halfpenny fan]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

How about TV viewers? If you look at Mexico 86 and Italia 90 many of the crowds were woeful, but it didn’t detract from them being great tournaments. 

I remember seeing a figure of 30 odd million for one final, might have been Japan with the UK providing a large proportion.

[The Masked Poster]

Vis-a-vis tickets.

It might seem irrelevant but I got a text from a mate last night saying he'd got free tickets to see Billy Idol (and killing joke) in Leeds. He said apparently Ticketmaster often give away a certain number of tickets at the last minute for gigs that haven't sold out. And it was zero - no booking fee or anything!

If a big organisation like Ticketmaster can do something like this, why can't the RLWC? Yes people who bought tickets in advance for a fair few quid will probably be annoyed but their logic seems to be that it's better to have a full event. Surely that would be preferable in some of the "less popular" games? 

[Mr Frisky]

3 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

Vis-a-vis tickets.

It might seem irrelevant but I got a text from a mate last night saying he'd got free tickets to see Billy Idol (and killing joke) in Leeds. He said apparently Ticketmaster often give away a certain number of tickets at the last minute for gigs that haven't sold out. And it was zero - no booking fee or anything!

If a big organisation like Ticketmaster can do something like this, why can't the RLWC? Yes people who bought tickets in advance for a fair few quid will probably be annoyed but their logic seems to be that it's better to have a full event. Surely that would be preferable in some of the "less popular" games? 

Cheers mate- ill look out for an email from RLWC offering me free Billy Idol tickets

[The Masked Poster]

6 minutes ago, Mr Frisky said:

Cheers mate- ill look out for an email from RLWC offering me free Billy Idol tickets

Good luck.

The point stands though 

[bratman]

4 hours ago, GUBRATS said:

My son commented on the ticketing website as being " rubbish " and highly confusing , in the past he has purchased tickets , transport and accommodation for games as far flung as Yekaterinburg for the football WC in Russia without problems 

It is rubbish! And very often way too slow.

[OriginalMrC]

16 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

Vis-a-vis tickets.

It might seem irrelevant but I got a text from a mate last night saying he'd got free tickets to see Billy Idol (and killing joke) in Leeds. He said apparently Ticketmaster often give away a certain number of tickets at the last minute for gigs that haven't sold out. And it was zero - no booking fee or anything!

If a big organisation like Ticketmaster can do something like this, why can't the RLWC? Yes people who bought tickets in advance for a fair few quid will probably be annoyed but their logic seems to be that it's better to have a full event. Surely that would be preferable in some of the "less popular" games? 

Ticketmaster does dynamic pricing. If they did that for this world cup they'd be giving away 1000s of tickets for nothing

[The Masked Poster]

5 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

Ticketmaster does dynamic pricing. If they did that for this world cup they'd be giving away 1000s of tickets for nothing

So what? 

If people aren't attending does it ultimately matter if it was packed out with people on freebies? It would surely look better than the half empty grounds we are getting.

But whatever, I was just trying to make a point as I was a bit disappointed with crowds. To quote Jim Royle "Stick it up yer R'ss". 

 

[Eddie]

3 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

So what? 

If people aren't attending does it ultimately matter if it was packed out with people on freebies? It would surely look better than the half empty grounds we are getting.

But whatever, I was just trying to make a point as I was a bit disappointed with crowds. To quote Jim Royle "Stick it up yer R'ss". 

 

How would they target who to give the tickets to? I bet if free tickets were given to everyone in Middlesborough they still wouldn’t get 10k for the Tonga v CI game. 

[RigbyLuger]

I can't wait for this thread to explore when Tonga play Cook Islands. After years of is not selling out England vs. Whoever mod-season at bargain basement prices, what were the excuses then?

[The Masked Poster]

1 minute ago, Eddie said:

How would they target who to give the tickets to? I bet if free tickets were given to everyone in Middlesborough they still wouldn’t get 10k for the Tonga v CI game. 

I've literally no idea mate. I'm just trying to come up with ideas , however ludicrous they must seem to this forum.

I'm sure the best option is to keep doing the same thing as we've always done and have these debates about low crowds in *another* 20 years. 

Cheers 

[Eddie]

7 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

I've literally no idea mate. I'm just trying to come up with ideas , however ludicrous they must seem to this forum.

I'm sure the best option is to keep doing the same thing as we've always done and have these debates about low crowds in *another* 20 years. 

Cheers 

Giving away free tickets to get people into grounds would be desperate and demean the competition imho. Though I appreciate why you’ve suggested it as some of the games haven’t looked great on tv in terms of the crowd. 

[RigbyLuger]

We haven't had a crowd at any game smaller than the lowest at the Women's Euros have we? That was with much more hype, more budget and lower prices 

[The Masked Poster]

10 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Giving away free tickets to get people into grounds would be desperate and demean the competition imho. Though I appreciate why you’ve suggested it as some of the games haven’t looked great on tv in terms of the crowd. 

What's more demeaning? Letting some people in for free or letting players travel from the other side of the planet to play in deserted grounds? 

I do appreciate your input though. 

[N2022]

6 minutes ago, RigbyLuger said:

We haven't had a crowd at any game smaller than the lowest at the Women's Euros have we? That was with much more hype, more budget and lower prices 

Whilst you might be right, I'm not convinced this view of things is especially helpful - things are not OK just because the lowest attendance for a World Cup is better than the lowest at Women's Euros. I say that not to disparage women's sport on any level, as I'm a fan of much of it, but let's be honest it's got much less history of bringing in big crowds, so that it brought in so many should be a wake up call to sports like RL. RL should be aspiring to more and I think more innovation would help.

[Eddie]

2 minutes ago, N2022 said:

Whilst you might be right, I'm not convinced this view of things is especially helpful - things are not OK just because the lowest attendance for a World Cup is better than the lowest at Women's Euros. I say that not to disparage women's sport on any level, as I'm a fan of much of it, but let's be honest it's got much less history of bringing in big crowds, so that it brought in so many should be a wake up call to sports like RL. RL should be aspiring to more and I think more innovation would help.

If RL was given the relentless exposure that the BBC and Sky Sports give women’s football this World Cup would be packed out also. 

[Anita Bath]

1 hour ago, thirteenthman said:

Row Z I think 

Be careful with assumptions. I once bought a ticket for an England v Emerging Springbok game in Cape Town while on a business trip.

Weather was awful, driving rain etc so asked for row Z to make sure I was undercover. Newlands stadium has row Z at the front and I got completely drenched!

[The Masked Poster]

3 minutes ago, N2022 said:

Whilst you might be right, I'm not convinced this view of things is especially helpful - things are not OK just because the lowest attendance for a World Cup is better than the lowest at Women's Euros. I say that not to disparage women's sport on any level, as I'm a fan of much of it, but let's be honest it's got much less history of bringing in big crowds, so that it brought in so many should be a wake up call to sports like RL. RL should be aspiring to more and I think more innovation would help.

This is exactly the problem. It's like the standard is almost anything will do...it could be worse...not bad considering. Now, as contradictory as it might sound, I'm not that arsed about the crowds in this WC, I'm more concerned about the very good action on the pitch. But at the same time, RL simply has to do better. It's always going to be better next time. 

Frustrating. 

[N2022]

4 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

What's more demeaning? Letting some people in for free or letting players travel from the other side of the planet to play in deserted grounds? 

I do appreciate your input though. 

I'm not a pro sportsman, but I would want to play in the best atmosphere possible, so likely a close to full-house. Money men will see the short-term balance sheet differently but better in many respects to have 7,500 in an 8,000 seater than 11,000 in a 35,000 seater ground. Some sense that a future generation and new fans are discovering the sport, maybe some interaction with the fans. My boys get bats signed at the cricket, little sign of autographing etc at Eng v Fra. I said it yesterday, and litttle love for it, but mismatches (pot 1 v pot 4 could be 50-minute games in double header to give a festival feel - get all the local schools and clubs in).

[N2022]

12 minutes ago, Eddie said:

If RL was given the relentless exposure that the BBC and Sky Sports give women’s football this World Cup would be packed out also. 

To be honest, I don't think it would be packed out, but you are right to point out that they promote it massively. Though BBC's coverage of this tournament is good, its promotion of particular games has seemed variable. RL could help itself, though, by organising a consistent international schedule between RLWC, in the way that RU has 6 nations to keep itself prominent, and by giving young families more Sat / Sun afternoon games at some SL venues.

[EggFace]

5 hours ago, Madrileño said:

Both these examples really compound what has gone wrong with the RLWC. 

We had a full year extra to assess where sales were at, and ramp up a campaign to get stadia filled up. 

We have completely failed to do it.

I HATE using union as an example, but in 1999 the union world cup was unrecognisable from its current size. Tickets were freely available for pool games, and South Africa and Scotland both played in front of 4 figure crowds for blow out matches. Games between minnows like Spain and Uraguay were easy to get tickets for as well.

4 years later, (2003) that had completely changed. Australia hosted, and they sold out a lot of stadia, and games between minnows like Namibia and Romania pulled 15000 in Tasmania, an area where no rugby is played.  

The way they did it was fairly simple. They allocated each host city a team and pushed the city to adopt that team, and get out and support them. (Like tasmanians with Namibia). On the back of that 2003 competition, union's world cup has become a tourism behemoth with people booking up years in advance. 

We have had 20 years to copy this model, and repeatedly fail to do so (Australia 2017) or do so in a completely half assed manner. 

Is it really that hard to get 9/10,000 people into Warrington's nice stadium to watch the Kiwis, for example? (Warrington has 200,000 people in it, and there is a massive NZ population in the UK, mainly around London. The Kiwis are one of the best teams known the world). 

I enjoyed 1999 RUWC but must of the time they had good crowds and it was Scotland who let the side down I think.

[GUBRATS]

One price , fill from the middles , you can then use the less desirable seats for school and community initiatives 

Not rocket surgery 

[OriginalMrC]

1 hour ago, The Masked Poster said:

So what? 

If people aren't attending does it ultimately matter if it was packed out with people on freebies? It would surely look better than the half empty grounds we are getting.

But whatever, I was just trying to make a point as I was a bit disappointed with crowds. To quote Jim Royle "Stick it up yer R'ss". 

 

So you don't believe that the world cup should make money? Giving tickets away for free is a terrible business model 

[GUBRATS]

2 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

So you don't believe that the world cup should make money? Giving tickets away for free is a terrible business model 

Only free tickets should be for people ( kids ) doing stuff at the games , like the dances at HT , very cheap however is OK if it's multi purchase's for schools/community clubs in the actual ' cheap seats ' 

[The Masked Poster]

14 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

So you don't believe that the world cup should make money? Giving tickets away for free is a terrible business model 

A model that tinpot businesses like Ticketmaster seem to use. But not behemoths like the RLWC. 

Why not get real? If people aren't going to attend something, it's probably better to get "not arsed" people in to fill those spaces. Who knows, they might like what they see. 

I'm talking about desperate measures because we seem to be in desperate measures territory. 

[JohnM]

Which ticketing engine is the RLWC 2021 site using? Any idea?