Attendance thread

[Eddie]

I’ve just read a letter in League Express, from Keighley’s ground safety officer, saying that match reports including attendances have to be submitted after every game. So the current epidemic of not announcing them can’t be because they don’t know. It’s very strange.  

[Leyther_Matt]

2 hours ago, Eddie said:

I’ve just read a letter in League Express, from Keighley’s ground safety officer, saying that match reports including attendances have to be submitted after every game. So the current epidemic of not announcing them can’t be because they don’t know. It’s very strange.  

Those would be the ‘real’ figures, too. And yet the office that receives these figures at the RFL doesn’t talk to the office that dishes out attendance-weighted central funding. 

[meast]

Surely if the clubs have the attendance figures they could easily publish on their social media channels.

Likewise the RFL could easily do the same?

Surely it's in the public interest and to avoid being seen as unscrupulous now the clubs are being graded?

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

11 hours ago, Leyther_Matt said:

Those would be the ‘real’ figures, too. And yet the office that receives these figures at the RFL doesn’t talk to the office that dishes out attendance-weighted central funding. 

Why doesn't the RFL just have a web page with each week's gates on it? Oh, sorry, it's the RFL we're talking about!

[Spidey]

42 minutes ago, Chronicler of Chiswick said:

Why doesn't the RFL just have a web page with each week's gates on it? Oh, sorry, it's the RFL we're talking about!

They do if clubs provide it

[Eddie]

2 hours ago, Spidey said:

They do if clubs provide it

Evidently the clubs do provide it though. 

[Spidey]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

Evidently the clubs do provide it though. 

There’s two channels to provide the information.  
 

Through match reporting which some do and some don’t send the crowd (when they confirm scorers etc)
 

The other will be through the grading process which will be a one off exercise which I guess will be compulsory?

[Eddie]

39 minutes ago, Spidey said:

There’s two channels to provide the information.  
 

Through match reporting which some do and some don’t send the crowd (when they confirm scorers etc)
 

The other will be through the grading process which will be a one off exercise which I guess will be compulsory?

According to Keighley’s ground safety officer, match reports have to include the attendance. I can’t confirm if that’s true or not but I’ve got no reason to think he’s lying, in which case the I formation is available but not made available to the public. I find that strange, like more and more clubs have something to hide. 

[Dave T]

Announcing crowds at sport events is a bit weird isn't it, when you think about it? 

I've never heard crowd announcements at the theatre or gigs, why do we do it? 

[Tommygilf]

27 minutes ago, Eddie said:

According to Keighley’s ground safety officer, match reports have to include the attendance. I can’t confirm if that’s true or not but I’ve got no reason to think he’s lying, in which case the I formation is available but not made available to the public. I find that strange, like more and more clubs have something to hide. 

It wouldn't surprise me if there is a difference between "attendance - tickets paid for" and "attendance - people at the venue". For example, the latter may include staffing and emergency service personnel etc., whereas the former will include all ticket holders whether present or not.

[Eddie]

10 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Announcing crowds at sport events is a bit weird isn't it, when you think about it? 

I've never heard crowd announcements at the theatre or gigs, why do we do it? 

No idea, but it’s important to a lot of people. 

[EssexRL]

44 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Announcing crowds at sport events is a bit weird isn't it, when you think about it? 

I've never heard crowd announcements at the theatre or gigs, why do we do it? 

We love RL. We can't understand why such a great sport isn't the Number 1 game in the UK (like it is in Australia). We hope that the number of people watching our game (live and on TV) is growing. We fear though it might be falling and that is why we want to know the stats.

Skolars print the attendance in their programme each game, do other clubs do the same?

[Jughead]

53 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Announcing crowds at sport events is a bit weird isn't it, when you think about it? 

I've never heard crowd announcements at the theatre or gigs, why do we do it? 

How many sports actually do it? I’ve watched domestic cricket, been to Darts and boxing and it’s never announced. Football, RL and the NFL in London it usually is, mind. 

42 minutes ago, Eddie said:

No idea, but it’s important to a lot of people. 

Is it really? “A lot” is quite the stretch, I’d suggest. 

[The Masked Poster]

54 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Announcing crowds at sport events is a bit weird isn't it, when you think about it? 

I've never heard crowd announcements at the theatre or gigs, why do we do it? 

I don't know who or why it started but it's not a new thing to mention the crowd, whether that be their behaviour or number of them. You can find examples of this before professionalism in sport and certainly before the RL split. It's just a thing. 

And when someone has a good run at the theatre or sells out a series of gigs, the figures are often mentioned. 

[Tommygilf]

2 minutes ago, Jughead said:

Is it really? “A lot” is quite the stretch, I’d suggest. 

A lot of people like to feel like they are part of a big event, it is an attractive part of any event. Its part of the reason why so many still go on about 37k at Central Park for Wigan vs Manly.

Likewise, as with any stat, it can confirm or allay what people are already thinking - which is another thing lots of people like.

[Spidey]

4 hours ago, Eddie said:

According to Keighley’s ground safety officer, match reports have to include the attendance. I can’t confirm if that’s true or not but I’ve got no reason to think he’s lying, in which case the I formation is available but not made available to the public. I find that strange, like more and more clubs have something to hide. 

It’s two different processes I guess. The match reporting is the mechanism that clubs get their crowds into the public domain. For whatever reasons some clubs are not choosing to publish them.

I expect the other method has other information attached that doesn’t belong in the public domain

[Eddie]

4 hours ago, Jughead said:

 

Is it really? “A lot” is quite the stretch, I’d suggest. 

I wouldn’t, loads of people are interested in attendances, it’s why newspapers publish them. 

[south yorkshire]

A few years ago I did the Hull fc v Hull kr and then that evening Bradford v Leeds a great day of rugby league.     

[gingerjon]

16 hours ago, Jughead said:

Is it really? “A lot” is quite the stretch, I’d suggest. 

Does someone need to count how many people are interested?

[Jughead]

12 hours ago, Eddie said:

I wouldn’t, loads of people are interested in attendances, it’s why newspapers publish them. 

Do people read newspapers? I’d suggest that probably sums up a lot of the demographic that is bothered. 

[Eddie]

20 minutes ago, Jughead said:

Do people read newspapers? I’d suggest that probably sums up a lot of the demographic that is bothered. 

Newspapers can be online, stop trying to be clever. 

[Jughead]

34 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Newspapers can be online, stop trying to be clever. 

I meant physical papers, obviously. Though I have no idea if online copies even shows the traditional physical copy way of 

Tranmere Rovers 2-1 Stockport County 

Scorers (4), (18), (87)

Attendance: 4,100

As I say, I think the demographic that are more interested in attendances is made up more of those who will be still reading physical copies of newspapers. 

[Mr Frisky]

51 minutes ago, Jughead said:

I meant physical papers, obviously. Though I have no idea if online copies even shows the traditional physical copy way of 

Tranmere Rovers 2-1 Stockport County 

Scorers (4), (18), (87)

Attendance: 4,100

As I say, I think the demographic that are more interested in attendances is made up more of those who will be still reading physical copies of newspapers. 

And people who come on this thread......

[Eddie]

3 minutes ago, Mr Frisky said:

And people who come on this thread......

And loads of other people, which is why there are countless websites, forum threads etc devoted to attendances, they are openly published alongside match reports in many publications, and the crowd reacts when it’s announced at a match. 

[Leyther_Matt]

On 06/07/2023 at 15:23, Eddie said:

According to Keighley’s ground safety officer, match reports have to include the attendance. I can’t confirm if that’s true or not but I’ve got no reason to think he’s lying, in which case the I formation is available but not made available to the public. I find that strange, like more and more clubs have something to hide. 

Correct. Submitted to the Sports Grounds Safety Authority central portal and the RFL. 

On 06/07/2023 at 15:52, Tommygilf said:

It wouldn't surprise me if there is a difference between "attendance - tickets paid for" and "attendance - people at the venue". For example, the latter may include staffing and emergency service personnel etc., whereas the former will include all ticket holders whether present or not.

Staffing isn’t counted in any attendance figures (apart from maybe programme sellers and the like who may view from general seating areas so likely to have comp tickets), but they will be considered in the overall event plan.

In effect there are actually three different figures which, starting with the smallest, are the actual, physical, bums on seats attendance; the ‘sales’ figure, which includes all ticket sales regardless of whether they turn up, be they unused comps, non attending season tickets etc; the third is the ‘announced attendance’ which in increasing regularity at clubs and RFL events can just be a random number plucked from the air in all honesty.