2024 attendance thread

[dkw]

What clubs could do is subsidise prices for ST holders, maybe 50% off or something, or buy 1 get 1 free.

[Dave T]

13 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

It is the number 1 factor without doubt.

I know from attending LUFC cup matches and having mates at other football clubs where league stadium capacity is well below demand, the cheap tickets for cup games thing works to an extent but even then they have to try hard and aren't guaranteed attendances as good as league games (often relying on larger away followings than usual too). And that is for clubs where demand outstrips supply!

A lot of our club's whole attitude to the cup has the feel of pre-season friendly, and crowds reflect that too alongside the Season ticket point. Leeds vs Saints last night was in Leeds' regular well attended match slot, against a big side who we (according to some) only just lost to last week, and in a knockout comp a decent few rounds into the season but not so much you could argue for over saturation. It couldn't have been better really from a marketing POV.

It's really poor that these games aren't getting good attendances. It really would not surprise me to see the solution being something that packages Cup games into Season Tickets, and perhaps in a way that guarantees a certain number of matches too. 

They used to give kid members free admission, and adults free for the first round the club entered. They used to get good crowds and then they scrapped it. I'm not sure how the current system which sees clubs get 30-50% of a regular crowd is better. 

I think it damages the brand and the sport. 

[N2022]

42 minutes ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

I think if you were creating a new sporting calendar from scratch and had a complete blank sheet of paper, nobody would come up with a straight knockout tournament anymore - there's just too much uncertainty around the fixtures. There's a reason that existing comps like the Champions League and RU European Cup, plus relatively new competitions like the IPL and The Hundred have gone done the group format route prior to knockouts. The only future I can see for the Challenge Cup is a group fixture format where it's included in the season tickets. It would definitely lose a lot of the romance, but it would seem to be a more pragmatic solution.

The 100 would be just 7 games as a pure knockout. Nobody with that few teams would think a professional comp should be a knockout rather than groups first. Champions League has evolved to its current size to milk format for revenue and provide relative security and certainty for the bigger clubs. Challenge Cup is not similar to those though, it's a national knockout existing alongside league structure, so more like FA Cup. Some clubs may not like the uncertain returns but they could perhaps work out that giving one home round free to Season Ticket holders would get more in and the atmosphere and bar revenues might justify it.

[Tommygilf]

47 minutes ago, Dave T said:

They used to give kid members free admission, and adults free for the first round the club entered. They used to get good crowds and then they scrapped it. I'm not sure how the current system which sees clubs get 30-50% of a regular crowd is better. 

I think it damages the brand and the sport. 

Totally agree, the situation is really poor atm and it looks naff.

[JonNgog]

just seen a video of the Huddersfield crowd and… yikes.

https://x.com/giantsrl/status/1771548805055361109

[RugbyLeagueGeek]

1 hour ago, N2022 said:

The 100 would be just 7 games as a pure knockout. Nobody with that few teams would think a professional comp should be a knockout rather than groups first.

The Hundred was devised from a blank sheet of paper, and they decided to come up with a regional, group format competition. They could have chosen to do a straight knockout with the existing counties and minor counties, but they didn't. Cricket's cup comps used to be straight knockouts like this, but they ditched those formats years ago.

I love the Challenge Cup in its current format - I've thoroughly enjoyed watching all the rounds from the amateur teams at the beginning, and have just watched a great tie between Leigh and Fev. But I just don't think any sport starting a comp from scratch would ever decide to go with a straight knockout comp anymore due to the uncertainty involved around the fixture list.

[ATLANTISMAN]

1 hour ago, JonNgog said:

just seen a video of the Huddersfield crowd and… yikes.

https://x.com/giantsrl/status/1771548805055361109

No one is hardly interested until the final where 40000 max (Announced as 65000) will attend

[N2022]

Would anyone want to see the SL clubs brought in a round earlier?

Edited March 23 by N2022
Had just reissued old message by accident

[Ovenden Grunt]

1 hour ago, JonNgog said:

just seen a video of the Huddersfield crowd and… yikes.

https://x.com/giantsrl/status/1771548805055361109

Crikey️

[langpark]

Cornwall saying their match vs Crusaders tomorrow is a sellout.

Also saying it has been moved to a venue called Truro College and the capacity is 'severely restricted'.  Not sure what to make of that.  Maybe 200 is the capacity?

[Anita Bath]

6 hours ago, Dave T said:

I'm stunned whenever anyone tries to deny that point, although it is so obvious now that does seem to have calmed down. 

I don't know what crowd Wire expect tonight, very few I expect, but an example of how little effort they've put in is in their comms. I've checked a few of their releases about this match, and they don't mention the prices. They simply give a link for tickets and say there are discounts for members. They did summarise the pricing 11 days ago just after the draw, but other than that no mention. 

Yet they have actually reduced the prices - all adult tickets are £20 for anywhere in the ground, even main stand seats, or £15 for members. They should be shouting about the pricing, but it really feels like this game is an inconvenience tbh. 

Yes, with Footy being on international break and England game in the evening it was a great opportunity to have a big push on marketing the cup games. Opportunity missed?

[daz39]

6 hours ago, JonNgog said:

just seen a video of the Huddersfield crowd and… yikes.

https://x.com/giantsrl/status/1771548805055361109

There was only the main stand opened plus around 300 FC fans, just short of 2,000 but with the morale of the 2 teams fan bases it was hardly be going to be a crowd puller.

[Tommygilf]

5 hours ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

The Hundred was devised from a blank sheet of paper, and they decided to come up with a regional, group format competition. They could have chosen to do a straight knockout with the existing counties and minor counties, but they didn't. Cricket's cup comps used to be straight knockouts like this, but they ditched those formats years ago.

I love the Challenge Cup in its current format - I've thoroughly enjoyed watching all the rounds from the amateur teams at the beginning, and have just watched a great tie between Leigh and Fev. But I just don't think any sport starting a comp from scratch would ever decide to go with a straight knockout comp anymore due to the uncertainty involved around the fixture list.

In the late 19th century and 20th century, Knockout Cup competitions were the money spinners; its why we ended up with so many of them in loads of sports.

Things are different now it seems.

[Leyther_Matt]

Missed the attendance being announced at Leigh game but certainly 4,000+ with c200 Fev fans. Absolutely unheard of in the modern era tbh. Particularly when it was £20 for season tickets and £25 general sale so arguably not a reduced price compared to what we were paying in the Championship.

On the field, I think Fev, Batley and Sheffield have shown that there should be a much greater exposure of Super League v Non-SL ties

[Toby Chopra]

What was the Batley-Cas attendance? These are the sort of ties there would be more of if the SL teams were put in a round earlier, so it would be interesting to see how much interest it generated.

[LeytherRob]

20 minutes ago, Leyther_Matt said:

Missed the attendance being announced at Leigh game but certainly 4,000+ with c200 Fev fans. Absolutely unheard of in the modern era tbh. Particularly when it was £20 for season tickets and £25 general sale so arguably not a reduced price compared to what we were paying in the Championship.

On the field, I think Fev, Batley and Sheffield have shown that there should be a much greater exposure of Super League v Non-SL ties

 

[Leyther_Matt]

1 minute ago, LeytherRob said:

 

Cheers Rob, knew it had been announced but couldn’t remember what it was. Would fairly safely predict that it’s Leigh’s biggest gate at an equivalent stage for donkey’s years. Presumably Craig Hall is eaglerly awaiting Fev’s share. 

[phiggins]

6 hours ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

No one is hardly interested until the final where 40000 max (Announced as 65000) will attend

You don’t like the competition, we get it. But this theory about the attendance at the final is nonsense 

[LeytherRob]

2 hours ago, Leyther_Matt said:

Cheers Rob, knew it had been announced but couldn’t remember what it was. Would fairly safely predict that it’s Leigh’s biggest gate at an equivalent stage for donkey’s years. Presumably Craig Hall is eaglerly awaiting Fev’s share. 

Yes I would think so, certainly can't think of any bigger crowds in recent years at this stage. I find it very encouraging to see the numbers in the east stand steadily growing too, seems to be quite a few building habits and becoming regulars in a stand that has probably been used less than 10 times prior to last season for Leigh games. Makes the ground seem a lot fuller when we have all 4 sides populated.

[Hopie]

You could get more in with free and cheap tickets, but would that mean more income? Ticket prices have certainly crept up over the last 25 years even if the prize money posted earlier in the thread isn't going up, so that must be the justification for doing things this way.

For a one off game 5000 all paid is better than 10000 where 8000 get in for nowt. 

[going for the corner]

20,354 at parramatta.

surprisingly low for me but anything north of 20k is still a good crowd.

[Archie Gordon]

8 hours ago, phiggins said:

You don’t like the competition, we get it. But this theory about the attendance at the final is nonsense 

I'm going to stick up for Paul here. The Catalan final when they announced 50k was just impossible - the bits of the ground which were open only held ~50k and they were perhaps 80% full.

[Just Browny]

11 hours ago, daz39 said:

There was only the main stand opened plus around 300 FC fans, just short of 2,000 but with the morale of the 2 teams fan bases it was hardly be going to be a crowd puller.

Why is the morale of the Giants fan base low? If you ask about them on here you are usually told they are going to be 'there or thereabouts' this year.

[Tommygilf]

Still nothing announced from Leeds vs Saints.

[Archie Gordon]

Depressingly, ticket sales look like <1k for London's Easter Sunday game.