Stop holding RL events in Huddersfield, the people there aren't interested

[Damien]

19 hours ago, meast said:

And yet the record attendance at a stadium that's recently hosted premier league football was 24,375 for a RL game.

Well the fact that Football games have a lower capacity due to segregation helps with that.

[Gomersall]

10 minutes ago, Damien said:

Well the fact that Football games have a lower capacity due to segregation helps with that.

Shhhhh.

[Chris22]

4 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

St Helens has a soccer club that draws more fans than the Saints?

No. But there are more people who would associate themselves as Liverpool (football) fans than St Helens (rugby) fans.

And there's also a none top insignificant amount who would support other football clubs.

Football is far more popular in St Helens than rugby league.

[Hopping Mad]

4 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

St Helens has a soccer club that draws more fans than the Saints?

Yesterday's attendance at FC St Helens - by a handful of league positions, the town's second highest ranked football club - was 68.

[Hopping Mad]

4 minutes ago, Chris22 said:

No. But there are more people who would associate themselves as Liverpool (football) fans than St Helens (rugby) fans.

And there's also a none top insignificant amount who would support other football clubs.

Football is far more popular in St Helens than rugby league.

These days, football is the most popular sport just about everywhere in the UK. I don't know what else there is to say on the subject.

[The Daddy]

10 hours ago, meast said:

No, it's a pathetic discussion too.

Huddersfield isn't the problem, end of discussion.

 

 

Childish. If you don't like discussions don't come onto a forum, it's really simple. That's the definition of pathetic 

[Tommygilf]

2 hours ago, Hopping Mad said:

These days, football is the most popular sport just about everywhere in the UK. I don't know what else there is to say on the subject.

I do often think non-UK posters don't fully get how big football is here vs everything else, especially rugby league. Some Aussies for example seem to see it like the NRL vs the A League Soccer (in reverse), when it isn't even close.

We have basically 6 tiers of fully professional football in this country, including the behemoth that is the premier league, and hundreds of semi pro clubs in several regional tiers below that. If club Rugby League, Union or Cricket gets close to league 1 or middling championship levels of football they would be doing excellent. 

That is also a key misunderstanding the Organisers have made, tbh its like they've come from football and transplanted that onto a very basic notion of Rugby League.

[meast]

23 minutes ago, The Daddy said:

Childish. If you don't like discussions don't come onto a forum, it's really simple. That's the definition of pathetic 

But there isn't a discussion to be had, the crowds have been poor at all venues at this world cup due to many factors, so why pick on Huddersfield?

It's just another thinly veiled dig at the Giants IMO.

[meast]

3 hours ago, Damien said:

Well the fact that Football games have a lower capacity due to segregation helps with that.

Point being that people in and around Huddersfield can be interested in RL if the pricing and ticketing is right for them.

[Cowardly Fan]

1 hour ago, The Daddy said:

Childish. If you don't like discussions don't come onto a forum, it's really simple. That's the definition of pathetic 

That's true, but I do wonder why you don't seem to be discussing it yourself?  Have you given your own opinion or even said if you agree with the tweet?

For what it's worth I don't think turnout for internationals is significantly worse for Huddersfield than other locations.  Even if it is I don't follow the conclusion to stop giving them events, building interest takes a lot of time (even generations as we know how much sporting interest is driven by family).  A weakness in the world cup has been saturation, so a retreat would be counter productive.  

[Spidey]

4 hours ago, The Daddy said:

Childish. If you don't like discussions don't come onto a forum, it's really simple. That's the definition of pathetic 

You’ve not added anything to this discussion though

[Ste93]

If you've only got the money to go to one of the knock outs and you live in West Yorkshire, do you go to the quarter final featuring Australia... Or the semi final featuring Australia? I think that must have played a bit of a role in the attendance. Hulls a different story mind.

[Tommygilf]

39 minutes ago, Ste93 said:

If you've only got the money to go to one of the knock outs and you live in West Yorkshire, do you go to the quarter final featuring Australia... Or the semi final featuring Australia? I think that must have played a bit of a role in the attendance. Hulls a different story mind.

I think Hull also suffers when West Yorkshire has games - the 2018 Kiwi tour showed that imo.

[Phil]

On 04/11/2022 at 23:14, Rioman said:

People from outside of Huddersfield were allowed to go as well. 

Yep we traveled all the way from Halifax 

[Madrileño]

1 hour ago, Phil said:

Yep we traveled all the way from Halifax 

A trip to the big smoke. Congratulations!

[Phil]

10 minutes ago, Madrileño said:

A trip to the big smoke. Congratulations!

It was like visiting Royston Vasey 

[Londonbornirishbred]

5 hours ago, Ste93 said:

If you've only got the money to go to one of the knock outs and you live in West Yorkshire, do you go to the quarter final featuring Australia... Or the semi final featuring Australia? I think that must have played a bit of a role in the attendance. Hulls a different story mind.

Is Elland road heading for a sell out then, because that attendance in Huddersfield was shocking. For years all we've heard on forums and chat shows id that the game is crying out for international games and yet when the best sides in the world are on show, RL fans stay away in their thousands. 
Every weekend during the season 60,500 fans watch 6 SL or 7 Championship games, yet we've not had one "sold out" sign after 28 games and we are 170,000 behind the 2013 figure. 

The choices of venues has been shocking at this World Cup. Why pay rent for football stadiums when there are RL stadiums available in places like Widnes, Castleford, HKR etc that would have seen money put into the game. Elland Road? Headingly would have been big enough.

As for Huddersfield. They have a problem, but they do seem to be a pretty well run club who own at least part of their stadium. Many others don't have that luxury and they're not the worst supported side in the country!

[daz39]

5 minutes ago, Londonbornirishbred said:

Is Elland road heading for a sell out then, because that attendance in Huddersfield was shocking. For years all we've heard on forums and chat shows id that the game is crying out for international games and yet when the best sides in the world are on show, RL fans stay away in their thousands. 
Every weekend during the season 60,500 fans watch 6 SL or 7 Championship games, yet we've not had one "sold out" sign after 28 games and we are 170,000 behind the 2013 figure. 

The choices of venues has been shocking at this World Cup. Why pay rent for football stadiums when there are RL stadiums available in places like Widnes, Castleford, HKR etc that would have seen money put into the game. Elland Road? Headingly would have been big enough.

As for Huddersfield. They have a problem, but they do seem to be a pretty well run club who own at least part of their stadium. Many others don't have that luxury and they're not the worst supported side in the country!

Not true at all, we saw today what kind of crowd 2 evenly matched sides can draw, almost a full house for 2 of the worlds best, Friday was one of the worlds best versus a team who were expected to get a hiding, big difference, fans aren't just going to pay money to go to a game just because it was Australia, they want to see competitive games not individual teams.

[Londonbornirishbred]

2 minutes ago, daz39 said:

Not true at all, we saw today what kind of crowd 2 evenly matched sides can draw, almost a full house for 2 of the worlds best, Friday was one of the worlds best versus a team who were expected to get a hiding, big difference, fans aren't just going to pay money to go to a game just because it was Australia, they want to see competitive games not individual teams.

Fiji beat NZ last time out (I was there) and the Kiwis have been poor all comp, so there was a real chance of an upset there, but a city, with 2 SL sides and a healthy amateur set up delivered 7,000 fans? 18,500 is the average across the 2 SL clubs! That's apathy at its finest!

As for Australia v Lebanon? Regardless of the foregone conclusion, if you'd played that game at say Plough Lane and marketed it to the ANZACS in London you'd have got more than 8k. The people of Huddersfield include 5k RL fans and 18,000 football fans. 

The semi-final in London should have been maybe at QPR and between the ANZAC Axis, with England at Elland Rd. As it is, we're faced with the real possibility of both Semi-finals being played to 50% empty stadiums. And as an aside, London based fans wouldn't have baulked at £25 tickets in the way League fans in the North have.

The venue choices have been atrocious at this event

[Tippytoe]

10 hours ago, The Daddy said:

Childish. If you don't like discussions don't come onto a forum, it's really simple. That's the definition of pathetic 

You'd be better aiming your shots at the Rfl marketing team.

[Padge]

On 05/11/2022 at 08:37, Tommygilf said:

Also to add, I expect there to be similar threads for Hull and Warrington in the coming days, dare I even say Wigan too?

World record crowd for a WC quarter final, no cigar.

[Hopping Mad]

28 minutes ago, Londonbornirishbred said:

The people of Huddersfield include 5k RL fans and 18,000 football fans. 

Unlike Huddersfield Rugby League Club, Huddersfield Town Football Club draw support from across Kirklees, which includes Batley and Dewsbury. Those two Heavy Woollen towns have their own rugby league clubs - but no football counterparts above lowly step seven non-league.

[N2022]

10 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

I do often think non-UK posters don't fully get how big football is here vs everything else, especially rugby league. Some Aussies for example seem to see it like the NRL vs the A League Soccer (in reverse), when it isn't even close.

We have basically 6 tiers of fully professional football in this country, including the behemoth that is the premier league, and hundreds of semi pro clubs in several regional tiers below that. If club Rugby League, Union or Cricket gets close to league 1 or middling championship levels of football they would be doing excellent. 

That is also a key misunderstanding the Organisers have made, tbh its like they've come from football and transplanted that onto a very basic notion of Rugby League.

Agree - you get odd games in each 'minor' sport that will throw up a big crowd but the football crowds dwarf most of the rest of it. There are 'sleeping giants' or titled former names in League One drawing over 20,000 regularly and for bigger games more like 30,000. Some former league clubs now outside the main four divisions will still pull 3,000 or 4,000.  

[meast]

1 hour ago, Londonbornirishbred said:

As for Huddersfield. They have a problem, but they do seem to be a pretty well run club who own at least part of their stadium. Many others don't have that luxury and they're not the worst supported side in the country!

What problem do Huddersfield have?

[Londonbornirishbred]

13 minutes ago, meast said:

What problem do Huddersfield have?

How to get more bodies into the stadium on Matchday. Ken Davy is a lovely bloke and I am sure he has made provision for the Club when he passes away, but 5k gates isn't going to bankroll a SL squad.

I applaud them for the stuff they've tried over the years, but they need to find a way to get it up nearer 10,000 (as do about6 other SL sides)