Attendance thread

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

In this context? Both Leigh and Toulouse (pick most clubs) have fairly comparable home crowds. Yet some are much closer to maxxing out.

And it's taken Leigh 145 years to get 6k. 

[LeytherRob]

13 hours ago, Leonard said:

With a low profile and 1 season in SL when the other clubs shafted them on travel costs.

I think Leigh's max potential is, say, 6K. Toulouse clearly far more.

6k? We averaged 6.5k in 2017 and are currently averaging 7,219 this year. There was only 1 game above 8k in 2017(Saints) vs 3 so far this year with another one likely to come with Wigan at home in the final round, whilst charging some of the highest prices in the league this year for both season tickets and match day admission.

Considering the pricing(during a pretty turbulent financial period for the UK) and the fact that the past 18 months have been a rapid turnaround from a fairly poor period compared to 2017(crowds built on 4 years of sustained  entertaining performances), the crowds this year are a great starting point to build on for what will be the clubs first '2nd' season at the top table.

[LeytherRob]

18 minutes ago, Leonard said:

And it's taken Leigh 145 years to get 6k. 

And it's taken Toulouse 86 years to get less than that, not that it matters though because they're both pointless stats that mean nothing. 

[sweaty craiq]

31 minutes ago, Leonard said:

And it's taken Leigh 145 years to get 6k. 

No we have had 32k on

[Harry Stottle]

3 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

In this context? Both Leigh and Toulouse (pick most clubs) have fairly comparable home crowds. Yet some are much closer to maxxing out.

As I have said previously if Leigh get 6000 home fans that is very commendable about 14% of the target market, lots of other clubs on demographics fair much worse, and we all know who they are.

 You may very well be correct that some are maxing out, but do you want to take a punt on a club that has yet to prove anything?

[gingerjon]

8 hours ago, LeytherRob said:

they're both pointless stats that mean nothing. 

Thread is full of them now that we're back to the hoary old chestnut about amazing percentages being better than actual numbers.

If I were Leigh, I'd be slightly worried about attendances dropping from the start of the season despite the team doing so well. But, across the league, there aren't many, if any, teams who can think their crowds are as good as the best possible.

[Tommygilf]

8 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

As I have said previously if Leigh get 6000 home fans that is very commendable about 14% of the target market, lots of other clubs on demographics fair much worse, and we all know who they are.

 You may very well be correct that some are maxing out, but do you want to take a punt on a club that has yet to prove anything?

They are getting comparable levels of crowds, how is that not proving anything?

[yipyee]

12 hours ago, Josef K said:

Perhaps the police might’ve been against the Saints fans being in the away end which then would have required police in the ground. That would’ve then seen the price rocket.
But i do think it’s sad that only two or three grounds(do Wakey have segregation ?) in the top tier now have stands in which opposition fans can mingle. 

Opposition fans can buy seated tickets and mingle but most choose to stand together

[Eddie]

9 hours ago, EggFace said:

Unions League 1 is better then Rugby Leagues League 1.

They averaged 610 last season, league one was 718. 

[Davo5]

9 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

As I have said previously if Leigh get 6000 home fans that is very commendable about 14% of the target market, lots of other clubs on demographics fair much worse, and we all know who they are.

 You may very well be correct that some are maxing out, but do you want to take a punt on a club that has yet to prove anything?

Surely Superleague clubs should be looking further afield than their town boundaries to attract fans to games.

[Davo5]

9500 at the Catalans/Hull KR game.

[Harry Stottle]

9 hours ago, Leonard said:

And it's taken Leigh 145 years to get 6k. 

Wrong again, and it will probably gall you to learn Leigh averaged 6361 in 1981/2, being the 3rd best supported team in the RL behind both Hull clubs.

[Harry Stottle]

23 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

Surely Superleague clubs should be looking further afield than their town boundaries to attract fans to games.

Tell me Dav, why do you choose to travel 130 miles to Wigan?

You know Leigh are in a pretty condensed area for Professional Rugby League clubs and historically well behind Wigan, Saints and Wire in popularity, I should imagine people from those towns would support their local team other than go to watch a near neighbour, albeit I do know Leigh people who do go to those towns to support those teams, most probably doing so at a time it was convenient to hitch a lift on their bandwagons. 

[Harry Stottle]

1 hour ago, Tommygilf said:

They are getting comparable levels of crowds, how is that not proving anything?

It is quite obvious to me what your intentions would be for Toulouse Olympic in regards as to which division they played in.

Let me put you on the spot Tommy, if you were in charge of the RFL/SL/ IMG and we were catagorically staying with a 12 team SL, and for the sake of discussion Fev get promoted and we lose one of the incumbent SL clubs for 2024, would you fast track Toulouse into SL for 2025, and if so at which clubs expense and why?

And please don't suggest lets see what the IMG browny points bring, you are the decision maker in this process.

Also this question is open to anyone else who cares to answer it.

[HawkMan]

I've said this before, but this IMG malarkey is a farce. Either do licensing properly or don't do it at all. I accept p+ r may not be sustainable, in that case introduce full licensing,  get your big teams and ones with potential in SL and move on. But this proposed halfway house where some teams will know they're safe and others not is a ridiculous concept. The biggest hurdle IMG have to their plans are actually the hearts and minds of the current RL fans in this country. Change that, get folks thinking with an Aussie view of the game, closed shop, which will eventually happen, franchises , and forget about what happens on the pitch being king, and this " golden" future will come about...apparently.  Well Sky who according to some care so much that they're involved in all the discussions,  which I doubt is true, have offered sub £20m on the next TV deal, allegedly, are clearly are not impressed or don't care one way or another.

Edited June 12, 2023 by HawkMan

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

They are getting comparable levels of crowds, how is that not proving anything?

Quite.

The cognitive dissonance is amazing.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

Wrong again, and it will probably gall you to learn Leigh averaged 6361 in 1981/2, being the 3rd best supported team in the RL behind both Hull clubs.

Gall me?

I don't think that is quite the positive stat you portray it.

[LeytherRob]

3 hours ago, gingerjon said:

Thread is full of them now that we're back to the hoary old chestnut about amazing percentages being better than actual numbers.

If I were Leigh, I'd be slightly worried about attendances dropping from the start of the season despite the team doing so well. But, across the league, there aren't many, if any, teams who can think their crowds are as good as the best possible.

The attendances haven't even necessarily dropped off from the start of the season when compared with like for like fixtures, other than the very first game against Salford which is perfectly understandable. There was a huge amount of anticipation, a very well known and popular band booked, the tease of the pyrotechnics/fire display and about a months worth of marketing including adverts on major radio stations etc.

Since then it's back to around 1-2 weeks of lead time to market the games and the numbers have been up and down based on the benchmark of 2017, Saints was 1200 down on 2017 in rd2 but still a respectable 7.7k, Wigan over 2k up in rd3. Hull this week was about 300 down, but Warrington last week was 1100 up on 2017.

The average is going to fall away over the next 4 home games as we have KR, Huddersfield, Wakefield and Catalans to come but then it'll jump up with what should be a big crowd for the final game of the season against Wigan. Our annual pitch relay is coming next month so it'll be about 6 weeks or so between the KR game at the end of this month and Cats on the 19th August so the club has plenty time to market those games and make sure there are as many home fans in as possible for the final run in. 

 

Year	2017	2023
Salford	7002	8589
Saints	9012	7734
Wigan	7080	9189
Salford (Loop)	N/A	6002
Leeds	6692	6686
Castleford	5905	5423
Warrington	7011	8120
Hull FC	6296	6010
Hull KR	N/A
Catalans	5612
Huddersfield	6001
Wakefield	4938
Wigan (Loop)	N/A
Widnes	6195	N/A
Average	6522.181818	7219.125

[Harry Stottle]

4 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Gall me?

I don't think that is quite the positive stat you portray it.

So you don't believe me again, go to Rugby League Project put in year 81/82 and as if by magic the figures will be there in front of your eyes.

[Harry Stottle]

38 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Quite.

The cognitive dissonance is amazing.

Eh, are you trying to sound clever, Cognitive Dissonance 

the discomfort a person feels when their behavior does not align with their values or beliefs

WTF.

[Eddie]

14 minutes ago, LeytherRob said:

The attendances haven't even necessarily dropped off from the start of the season when compared with like for like fixtures, other than the very first game against Salford which is perfectly understandable. There was a huge amount of anticipation, a very well known and popular band booked, the tease of the pyrotechnics/fire display and about a months worth of marketing including adverts on major radio stations etc.

Since then it's back to around 1-2 weeks of lead time to market the games and the numbers have been up and down based on the benchmark of 2017, Saints was 1200 down on 2017 in rd2 but still a respectable 7.7k, Wigan over 2k up in rd3. Hull this week was about 300 down, but Warrington last week was 1100 up on 2017.

The average is going to fall away over the next 4 home games as we have KR, Huddersfield, Wakefield and Catalans to come but then it'll jump up with what should be a big crowd for the final game of the season against Wigan. Our annual pitch relay is coming next month so it'll be about 6 weeks or so between the KR game at the end of this month and Cats on the 19th August so the club has plenty time to market those games and make sure there are as many home fans in as possible for the final run in. 

 

 

Year	2017	2023
Salford	7002	8589
Saints	9012	7734
Wigan	7080	9189
Salford (Loop)	N/A	6002
Leeds	6692	6686
Castleford	5905	5423
Warrington	7011	8120
Hull FC	6296	6010
Hull KR	N/A
Catalans	5612
Huddersfield	6001
Wakefield	4938
Wigan (Loop)	N/A
Widnes	6195	N/A
Average	6522.181818	7219.125

Despite the best effort of some members of the forum, for a rugby league club from a town of 41k people, with Wigan, St Helens and Warrington on one side so not realistically going to pull fans from there, and Manchester on the other (same), to average 6k+ is tremendous. Other then possibly Fev I think they’re the most impressive crowds in the English game. 

[gingerjon]

20 minutes ago, LeytherRob said:

The attendances haven't even necessarily dropped off from the start of the season when compared with like for like fixtures, other than the very first game against Salford which is perfectly understandable. There was a huge amount of anticipation, a very well known and popular band booked, the tease of the pyrotechnics/fire display and about a months worth of marketing including adverts on major radio stations etc.

Since then it's back to around 1-2 weeks of lead time to market the games and the numbers have been up and down based on the benchmark of 2017, Saints was 1200 down on 2017 in rd2 but still a respectable 7.7k, Wigan over 2k up in rd3. Hull this week was about 300 down, but Warrington last week was 1100 up on 2017.

The average is going to fall away over the next 4 home games as we have KR, Huddersfield, Wakefield and Catalans to come but then it'll jump up with what should be a big crowd for the final game of the season against Wigan. Our annual pitch relay is coming next month so it'll be about 6 weeks or so between the KR game at the end of this month and Cats on the 19th August so the club has plenty time to market those games and make sure there are as many home fans in as possible for the final run in. 

 

 

Year	2017	2023
Salford	7002	8589
Saints	9012	7734
Wigan	7080	9189
Salford (Loop)	N/A	6002
Leeds	6692	6686
Castleford	5905	5423
Warrington	7011	8120
Hull FC	6296	6010
Hull KR	N/A
Catalans	5612
Huddersfield	6001
Wakefield	4938
Wigan (Loop)	N/A
Widnes	6195	N/A
Average	6522.181818	7219.125

That's really helpful.

[Snowys Backside]

45 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

So you don't believe me again, go to Rugby League Project put in year 81/82 and as if by magic the figures will be there in front of your eyes.

H,

 

I believe you because it is true. Leeds, Wigan, Warrington, St Helens could barely muster crowds of 5000 back then and little old Leigh would have averaged far more than that if they had not decided to call the game on against Widnes when only 2k attended with 8 inch of snow on the pitch !!!

Hull and HKR were the pinnacle of RL support and came to Leigh in their 1000's. Wigan drew 10k to Hilton Park, Warrington drew 10k and Castleford 12k for a Challenge Cup game. 1000's of Hull KR fans were in the pubs first thing in the morning !! Happy days !

Can Leigh grow ?  Course they can. They have a brand to sell. If they average 6500 of full paying supporters, its far better than 10000 fans paying half !!

Step by step. Don't be too surprised to see a couple of games next year on the road !!

Salford, Hudds and Wakefield can all do similar yet their attendances are poorer and they have been in SL Longer. Do they have a bigger issue than Leigh ??  If they don't do something different, they might get left behind. Who is to say little Leigh can take some of the Saints, Warrington and Wigan support base back to the LSV ?  We all need competition !

[OriginalMrC]

15 hours ago, EggFace said:

Unions League 1 is better then Rugby Leagues League 1.

Clearly you've not been to many RU league 1 games. Apart from a few exceptions most clubs wouldn't meet the RL minimum standards and crowds are awful. 

[BladeHearts]

1 hour ago, LeytherRob said:

The attendances haven't even necessarily dropped off from the start of the season when compared with like for like fixtures, other than the very first game against Salford which is perfectly understandable. There was a huge amount of anticipation, a very well known and popular band booked, the tease of the pyrotechnics/fire display and about a months worth of marketing including adverts on major radio stations etc.

Since then it's back to around 1-2 weeks of lead time to market the games and the numbers have been up and down based on the benchmark of 2017, Saints was 1200 down on 2017 in rd2 but still a respectable 7.7k, Wigan over 2k up in rd3. Hull this week was about 300 down, but Warrington last week was 1100 up on 2017.

The average is going to fall away over the next 4 home games as we have KR, Huddersfield, Wakefield and Catalans to come but then it'll jump up with what should be a big crowd for the final game of the season against Wigan. Our annual pitch relay is coming next month so it'll be about 6 weeks or so between the KR game at the end of this month and Cats on the 19th August so the club has plenty time to market those games and make sure there are as many home fans in as possible for the final run in. 

 

 

Year	2017	2023
Salford	7002	8589
Saints	9012	7734
Wigan	7080	9189
Salford (Loop)	N/A	6002
Leeds	6692	6686
Castleford	5905	5423
Warrington	7011	8120
Hull FC	6296	6010
Hull KR	N/A
Catalans	5612
Huddersfield	6001
Wakefield	4938
Wigan (Loop)	N/A
Widnes	6195	N/A
Average	6522.181818	7219.125

Looking at this list is a good advertisement for a bigger top flight, if you take the 12 teams here and add Bradford, Toulouse, Sheffield and London, that would be a fantastic top 16 with a 30 game league season and no loop fixtures.