Attendance thread

[roughyed8]

2 hours ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:

You're a bit out of date these days on that. Roosters used to be the running joke for crowds, I've sat in the SFS with 6,000 myself before, but this season they averaged 23k and have been building steadily up to that for a while

I stand corrected , I'm sure moving to the new stadium this season gave them a bump.

I'm looking forward to see him in the tri colours next year though.

[Archie Gordon]

34 minutes ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:

On the subject of attendances, we’re often told that one of the benefits of relegation is it creates excitement from uncertainty, which is good for attendances and viewing figures. Well how about this:

- Hull KR will get 9,000+ on Saturday against Salford, as they both aim for the playoffs

- The crowd for the 2016 Million Pound Game was under 7,000

That’s 28% better this season. Fans want a quality product, with teams aiming for either trophies or progression for the future. Relegation “excitement” brings little value commercially. The numbers don’t lie. 

Come on. 

The comparison with the MPG would have to be HKR and SRD in 11th and 12th with no relegation at stake. 

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

5 minutes ago, roughyed8 said:

I stand corrected , I'm sure moving to the new stadium this season gave them a bump.

I'm looking forward to see him in the tri colours next year though.

Yeah definitely better this year, but going well before that. They’ve really been pushing a monthly membership subscription model (Easts always had lots of fans, but they only went to the odd game), and it seems to have worked. 

It’s going to be great watching Dom Young play there. How inspiring can that be for kids in the North of England? Take up rugby league, work hard, and if you’re good enough in your early twenties you might be living in a beachside apartment in the best part of Sydney, playing in front of >20,000 people every week and being celebrated on national telly all the time 

Brilliant story 

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

6 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

Come on. 

The comparison with the MPG would have to be HKR and SRD in 11th and 12th with no relegation at stake. 

We’re always told how people engage with their club when their competition position is at risk. Everyone remembers that Wakey vs Cas game a few years back. But the reality is, even with clubs on the line in one single game, less people came to watch that than a mid-table match with 6th spot at stake 

Of course the crowd would be less if it was 11th versus 12th. But that MPG shows that it wouldn’t be any higher even with relegation on the line. 

[daz39]

10 hours ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:

It’ll be around 10,500, that’s the current capacity. Attendances seem up significantly this year, although as someone else said, we haven’t announced them yet

Why would a professional, top flight sports team not announce their attendances? it all seems very strange, if they are good then surely they'd want to shout about it?

Edited September 14, 2023 by daz39

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

2 hours ago, daz39 said:

Why would a professional, top flight sports team not announce their attendances? it all seems very strange, if they are good then surely they'd want to shout about it?

No idea, I can’t explain it, but it certainly isn’t to hide anything. Craven Park has been much busier all season, 2023 is an attendance success story 

[WakefieldCityLoyal]

2 hours ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:

We’re always told how people engage with their club when their competition position is at risk. Everyone remembers that Wakey vs Cas game a few years back. But the reality is, even with clubs on the line in one single game, less people came to watch that than a mid-table match with 6th spot at stake 

Of course the crowd would be less if it was 11th versus 12th. But that MPG shows that it wouldn’t be any higher even with relegation on the line. 

It was 11000 sell out, would have been more if capacity allowed.

[Leyther_Matt]

3 hours ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:

We’re always told how people engage with their club when their competition position is at risk. Everyone remembers that Wakey vs Cas game a few years back. But the reality is, even with clubs on the line in one single game, less people came to watch that than a mid-table match with 6th spot at stake 

Of course the crowd would be less if it was 11th versus 12th. But that MPG shows that it wouldn’t be any higher even with relegation on the line. 

In fairness it’s worth pointing out that the MPG was all-pay and the venue only confirmed at a week’s notice so a tougher sell compared to a season ticket game, even with the importance riding on it.

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

2 hours ago, WakefieldCityLoyal said:

It was 11000 sell out, would have been more if capacity allowed.

Yup. One game. Neither club has built their support since. What an ignominious milestone it was eh. 

[Sports Prophet]

A lot of empty seats in the upper tier at AAMI tonight unfortunately.

The crowd size is undoubtedly affected by the big Melbourne derby being played next door at The G with 90k-95k watching.

Edit note* The 19,534 there were rewarded with an absolutely stunning football match. Bravo.

Edited September 15, 2023 by Sports Prophet

[Dirkgee]

26 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

A lot of empty seats in the upper tier at AAMI tonight unfortunately.

The crowd size is undoubtedly affected by the big Melbourne derby being played next door at The G with 90k-95k watching.

NRL was caught between a rock and a hard place. Having the game tomorrow would have been way better for crowds as there would be no AFL on in Melbourne, but the Warriors wanted a 6 pm Saturday kick off, for their fans.

Given what they went through in Covid plus the fact the Warriors really do have huge support in NZ. It’s not surprising the NRL would favour them, especially when 95% of Melbourne couldn’t care less about the Storm.

Also the NRL doesn’t want to give up Friday night prime time as it rates by far the best on TV. Sundays are bad for ratings as well so it can’t be moved there either.

[daz39]

16 hours ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:

No idea, I can’t explain it, but it certainly isn’t to hide anything. Craven Park has been much busier all season, 2023 is an attendance success story 

So why aren't they making a fuss over it rather than hiding it, the more folk say their crowds are a success the more weird it gets really.

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

28 minutes ago, daz39 said:

So why aren't they making a fuss over it rather than hiding it, the more folk say their crowds are a success the more weird it gets really.

For whatever reason they've decided they don't want performance to be measured weekly, and so are publishing the figures a couple of times a season. I wouldn't bother with standing out from the crowd myself, but guess I can see why they want to do it (one week's figure in isolation is meaningless) and I certainly don't think they should worry about whether the usual swivel-eyed loons build their odd conspiracy theories around it. 

[Sports Prophet]

3 hours ago, Dirkgee said:

NRL was caught between a rock and a hard place. Having the game tomorrow would have been way better for crowds as there would be no AFL on in Melbourne, but the Warriors wanted a 6 pm Saturday kick off, for their fans.

Given what they went through in Covid plus the fact the Warriors really do have huge support in NZ. It’s not surprising the NRL would favour them, especially when 95% of Melbourne couldn’t care less about the Storm.

Also the NRL doesn’t want to give up Friday night prime time as it rates by far the best on TV. Sundays are bad for ratings as well so it can’t be moved there either.

Warriors wanting Saturday had nothing to do with it. It had everything to do with Storm playing on Friday and Warriors playing on Saturday the week before. 

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

 

Hull KR now at over 1,000 pre-sales already for Wakey next Friday... going to be rocking on that West Terrace! 

[overtheborder]

On 13/09/2023 at 22:58, Snowys Backside said:

Not this time, but all 593, 594,600and 658 buses have been cancelled so all 4500 of ya are gonna have to walk home

Most probably live in exile though!  

I think these were replaced with the 8,9,10,10A buses etc a couple of years ago to be fair - I'm trying really hard not to put in some sort of "Leigh being behind the times" joke here mate

[Damien]

Wigan taking over 3,000 to Leigh next week with others buying them directly from Leigh too:

 

[Snowys Backside]

4 hours ago, overtheborder said:

I think these were replaced with the 8,9,10,10A buses etc a couple of years ago to be fair - I'm trying really hard not to put in some sort of "Leigh being behind the times" joke here mate

I still have to visit my parents after 25 years so fair play

 

Bus stops have the same graffiti on them though

[bobbruce]

2 hours ago, Damien said:

Wigan taking over 3,000 to Leigh next week with others buying them directly from Leigh too:

 

Looks like Wigan fan’s confident of winning the league leaders at Leigh next week then. 

[JonNgog]

4 hours ago, Damien said:

Wigan taking over 3,000 to Leigh next week with others buying them directly from Leigh too:

 

It’s down the road and a trophy is up for grabs… can see it being a sellout

[Josef K]

Does anyone know what the official attendances at the Wakey & Fartown games last week. It looked as if Rovers took a good following to Fartown, and id imagine it would have been close to a sellout at Wakefield. 
I haven’t watched the Wire/Saints game yet but there looked a very good crowd on. 

[Sports Prophet]

26,083 at Mt Smart to farewell the Warriors for their last home match of the season. They were given a treat.

[Dave T]

19 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

26,083 at Mt Smart to farewell the Warriors for their last home match of the season. They were given a treat.

It's a real shame that playoffs just aren't appreciated in the same way in the UK. I really enjoy seeing the crowds in the NRL playoff games. 

Playoffs are always a bit of a damp squib in the UK, atmosphere-wise. 

[Sports Prophet]

15 minutes ago, Dave T said:

It's a real shame that playoffs just aren't appreciated in the same way in the UK. I really enjoy seeing the crowds in the NRL playoff games. 

Playoffs are always a bit of a damp squib in the UK, atmosphere-wise. 

Yeah. I don’t get it. I put it down to culture, but even then, I still don’t understand how a fan of a club cannot find value out of attending a preliminary final. Baffles me actually.

[Dave T]

2 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

Yeah. I don’t get it. I put it down to culture, but even then, I still don’t understand how a fan of a club cannot find value out of attending a preliminary final. Baffles me actually.

When you spend decades building up a fan base with certain behaviours (paying by season ticket for home games), it is foolish for us to keep ignoring that and just allowing crowds to be low. Fans just watch on TV. 

I do also think just copying and pasting playoffs from Aus has been foolish. Titles like Preliminary final etc means nothing to UK fans. I must admit, I have no idea what round the Warriors and Knights were playing in today. 

Culturally it's a challenging sell, and we have presented them poorly and logistically sold them terribly.