2025 Attendance Thread

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

The front few rows above the royal box are an absolute steal at £30, the view is good and you get to see everything that’s going on with the owners, the team lifting the cup etc. I’m amazed they’re cheaper than at the front in the corner of the lower tier. 

Yeah, they are, great value those 

[Worzel]

22 hours ago, Eddie said:

KR (look to be selling very well) https://mpv.tickets.com/?agency=RGLV_PL_MPV&orgid=57429&eventId=1022&salesGroupId=2520#/event/E1022/seatmap/?selectBuyers=false&minPrice=21&maxPrice=31&quantity=1&sort=price_desc&ada=false&seatSelection=true&onlyCoupon=true&onlyVoucher=false

 

Looks like less than 1,000 tickets left in those remaining Hull KR blocks now, and nothing else available on the RL Commercial site on that Eastern half of the stadium... going to be rocking at that end! Pretty good for 3 days of sales with over 3 weeks to go 

I say this every year and I'll say it again: The RFL need to be far more aggressive in their promotion of this match offline in London in the final month. There's a lot of online activity, but you can better reach the general sports audience in London with outdoor media to drive greater online traffic. People will come to Wembley for a "hot ticket" event, but you need to invest and promote it. If we sold an extra 10,000 tickets at £30/each that justifies an additional marketing spend of £300k (you only want to break even, the spare capacity exists anyway and it's about the later Lifetime Customer Value from this new audience)

If we don't use the big events to capture new customers, what do we use?

Edited May 14 by Worzel

[Worzel]

On 12/05/2025 at 17:26, turn it in said:

Yes it’s a year on year increase but an overall decline when you compare it to crowds over the last decade or the modern era of the past 20 years.

The years 2007 to 2016 had attendance figures inflated by 17,000 as we counted all of Club Wembley as sold, because they were debenture seats that came with that match in the package, even though hardly any of those seats were used. If you factor that out, we are where we have been for pretty much 20 years.

Only Cardiff truly bucked the trend, with 3 genuinely 70k plus attendances in a row.

 

[Worzel]

2 hours ago, Worzel said:

Looks like less than 1,000 tickets left in those remaining Hull KR blocks now, and nothing else available on the RL Commercial site on that Eastern half of the stadium... going to be rocking at that end! Pretty good for 3 days of sales with over 3 weeks to go 

I take it all back, the RFL have just put several hundred "new" seats on sale in 504, 507 and 508 that weren't previously on sale either via Rovers or via the RFL. So the above is b######, and whoever it was earlier that said the ticket sales strategy was confusing was right and my alternate view was naively optimistic nonsense. They're still all idiots after all 

Profuse apologies, I've no idea what I was thinking!

[JM2010]

2 hours ago, Worzel said:

Looks like less than 1,000 tickets left in those remaining Hull KR blocks now, and nothing else available on the RL Commercial site on that Eastern half of the stadium... going to be rocking at that end! Pretty good for 3 days of sales with over 3 weeks to go 

I say this every year and I'll say it again: The RFL need to be far more aggressive in their promotion of this match offline in London in the final month. There's a lot of online activity, but you can better reach the general sports audience in London with outdoor media to drive greater online traffic. People will come to Wembley for a "hot ticket" event, but you need to invest and promote it. If we sold an extra 10,000 tickets at £30/each that justifies an additional marketing spend of £300k (you only want to break even, the spare capacity exists anyway and it's about the later Lifetime Customer Value from this new audience)

If we don't use the big events to capture new customers, what do we use?

The Challenge Cup should be used to promote RL in the Capital. 
As well as promoting tickets sales in London they should be getting into schools and putting on events in the weeks leading up to the game. 
The week leading up to the game should be full of events and junior/schools RL tournaments 

[EssexRL]

39 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

The Challenge Cup should be used to promote RL in the Capital. 
As well as promoting tickets sales in London they should be getting into schools and putting on events in the weeks leading up to the game. 
The week leading up to the game should be full of events and junior/schools RL tournaments 

You are 100% right but in my memory what actually happens is SweetFA. I don't even recall seeing a poster any where advertising the game or a story on regional TV. I would be surprised if there is any thought to the wider implications of the match for the game down here. Frankly the very fact that there are clubs down here playing the game would probably be a news story!

[EggFace]

3 hours ago, Worzel said:

The years 2007 to 2016 had attendance figures inflated by 17,000 as we counted all of Club Wembley as sold, because they were debenture seats that came with that match in the package, even though hardly any of those seats were used. If you factor that out, we are where we have been for pretty much 20 years.

Only Cardiff truly bucked the trend, with 3 genuinely 70k plus attendances in a row.

 

Maybe thats the answer not Wembley but Cardiff.

[Eddie]

1 hour ago, EggFace said:

Maybe thats the answer not Wembley but Cardiff.

Why, it’s harder to get to than London for most of the country, and doesn’t even have a RL team.  Wembley is a good venue, even though you don’t like seeing empty seats when you’re watching on tv. I do recommend getting tickets and actually going though, see what you think. 

[Just Browny]

19 hours ago, Worzel said:

I take it all back, the RFL have just put several hundred "new" seats on sale in 504, 507 and 508 that weren't previously on sale either via Rovers or via the RFL. So the above is b######, and whoever it was earlier that said the ticket sales strategy was confusing was right and my alternate view was naively optimistic nonsense. They're still all idiots after all 

Profuse apologies, I've no idea what I was thinking!

They are definitely doing something weird with these tickets. I'm after a batch, but the ones on offer aren't really what I'd prefer and quite a few blocks that seemed to be showing as full yesterday now have quite a few tickets available today.

[Dave T]

I suppose they have tickets out with groups and partners, plus the women's teams and 1895 cup teams. It isn't just split three ways.

[Worzel]

2 hours ago, Dave T said:

I suppose they have tickets out with groups and partners, plus the women's teams and 1895 cup teams. It isn't just split three ways.

Fair point, yes probably have some community initiatives too etc.

[Dave T]

Just now, Worzel said:

Fair point, yes probably have some community initiatives too etc.

It is frustrating though. I do wish they'd think of us geeks who like to watch the ticketing site pressing refresh every five minutes

[Worzel]

Just now, Dave T said:

It is frustrating though. I do wish they'd think of us geeks who like to watch the ticketing site pressing refresh every five minutes

Yes, it's our interests that should come first! 

[Eddie]

20 hours ago, Dave T said:

It is frustrating though. I do wish they'd think of us geeks who like to watch the ticketing site pressing refresh every five minutes

On that note I am doing that (probably every half an hour rather than 5 minutes) and Wire’s tickets don’t seem to be shifting at all. 

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

On that note I am doing that (probably every half an hour rather than 5 minutes) and Wire’s tickets don’t seem to be shifting at all. 

Yeah, very slow now. The upper tier around halfway for example have plenty left. 

I suppose 7 finals in 17 years means Wembley just isn't the must attend event for Wire fans. I've made this point before, in those first couple of years from 2009 I went and had a group of 15 to 20 or so going. This year not a single one will attend.

[Eddie]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

Yeah, very slow now. The upper tier around halfway for example have plenty left. 

I suppose 7 finals in 17 years means Wembley just isn't the must attend event for Wire fans. I've made this point before, in those first couple of years from 2009 I went and had a group of 15 to 20 or so going. This year not a single one will attend.

That’s understandable but still a shame, I was hoping for a 65k crowd but it seems unlikely now. 

[Dave T]

6 minutes ago, Eddie said:

That’s understandable but still a shame, I was hoping for a 65k crowd but it seems unlikely now. 

I'd like to think that's still achievable. There will still be some who haven't been paid yet for example and there should still be efforts to sell tickets, but it obviously slows down a lot.

I think there are 70k on sale so it doesn't have to be 'sold out'  to get 65k, so fingers crossed. 

I'd go for 61k

[Rugbyleaguesupporter]

I'm presuming we haven't thought of doing an Ashes/ cup final bundle? 

[Dave T]

2 hours ago, Rugbyleaguesupporter said:

I'm presuming we haven't thought of doing an Ashes/ cup final bundle? 

Bundles are nice and all that, but in reality, the thing they offer are discounts, and I just don't think that pricing is a challenge here. 

The bigger piece is that you have a comms strategy that speaks to customers about both of these events (and others) appropriately. 

And the even bigger piece is that you go big, make the Challenge Cup Final such a great event that people want to rush back to Wembley - and for once they have the opportunity to do that for RL just a few months later. A challenge I find is that the actual RL events often underwhelm (apart from the sport usually) and the actual events should be one of the biggest marketing tools we have.

[Worzel]

27 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Bundles are nice and all that, but in reality, the thing they offer are discounts, and I just don't think that pricing is a challenge here. 

The bigger piece is that you have a comms strategy that speaks to customers about both of these events (and others) appropriately. 

And the even bigger piece is that you go big, make the Challenge Cup Final such a great event that people want to rush back to Wembley - and for once they have the opportunity to do that for RL just a few months later. A challenge I find is that the actual RL events often underwhelm (apart from the sport usually) and the actual events should be one of the biggest marketing tools we have.

I think the attendance gap is London ticket sales. With good marketing, we should be able to easily sell 20,000+ tickets to London residents who want to go to a high-end, elite sporting contest. We just don't do a good enough job of presenting it like that (beforehand, or on the day), and we certainly don't make enough effort to promote it to that audience. 

[Gooleboy]

6 minutes ago, Worzel said:

I think the attendance gap is London ticket sales. With good marketing, we should be able to easily sell 20,000+ tickets to London residents who want to go to a high-end, elite sporting contest. We just don't do a good enough job of presenting it like that (beforehand, or on the day), and we certainly don't make enough effort to promote it to that audience. 

I can't fault your optimism, but that would be some achievement to get 20k+ Londoners to a RL game.

[Dave T]

21 minutes ago, Gooleboy said:

I can't fault your optimism, but that would be some achievement to get 20k+ Londoners to a RL game.

We've easily done that before. Major London internationals always get a good local following, it really is noticeable how many different faces and voices we get at these events. When we got 67k in for that WC semi final, we easily had 20-30k Southerners I'd suggest conservatively. Probably more. 

[Worzel]

30 minutes ago, Gooleboy said:

I can't fault your optimism, but that would be some achievement to get 20k+ Londoners to a RL game.

Yes it would. But it’s been done before at internationals and it can be done for other prestigious games. But nothing ever happens unless you try. 

[Barley Mow]

4 hours ago, Dave T said:

I'd like to think that's still achievable. There will still be some who haven't been paid yet for example and there should still be efforts to sell tickets, but it obviously slows down a lot.

I think there are 70k on sale so it doesn't have to be 'sold out'  to get 65k, so fingers crossed. 

I'd go for 61k

The 1895 Cup finalists aren't known yet either - would 10k between those two clubs be too optimistic?

[Gooleboy]

12 minutes ago, Barley Mow said:

The 1895 Cup finalists aren't known yet either - would 10k between those two clubs be too optimistic?

Very optimistic.