Attendances : Wed Jun 08, 2016 11:05 am  

I know that our attendances have been slipping with all the things that have been happening at Odsal recently, but I noticed the Salford and Wigan game this week had a lower attendance than our game against Dewsbury. I realise this was a night game and during the week but you would think with all the cash the Doctor has been forking out and the fact that they are playing quite well coupled with the fact that Wigan are arguably the biggest club in the game and had not too far to travel the attendance was very poor.

Re: Attendances : Wed Jun 08, 2016 11:15 am  

To be fair, it's more than twice what they pulled against Huddersfield about this time last year.

Re: Attendances : Wed Jun 08, 2016 11:41 am  

You're right but that was Huddersfield who are notoriously poor attendees, we are talking about Wigan here.

[Bulliac]

Re: Attendances : Wed Jun 08, 2016 11:42 am  

vbfg wrote:

To be fair, it's more than twice what they pulled against Huddersfield about this time last year.

Which, as a mitigating factor, I guess is fair comment, but it is still pretty poor, to be honest - I mean, we're talking, 'super-duper' league here.

Re: Attendances : Wed Jun 08, 2016 11:44 am  

Attendances in SL are pretty pathetic at the moment (and not just the easy targets like Hudds)

Salford got 3k against Wakey, Widnes got 4.5k the other week against Hudds and Cas got 5.5k against Wigan. Cas was the most worrying for me as that was a stand out fixture.

If the Giants got any of those attendances for those fixtures, social media and the forums would go in the meltdown.

Re: Attendances : Wed Jun 08, 2016 12:15 pm  

Bulliac wrote:

Which, as a mitigating factor, I guess is fair comment, but it is still pretty poor, to be honest - I mean, we're talking, 'super-duper' league here.

That's kinda my point. Pointing out a crowd half the size isn't an attempt to excuse them.

Warrington and Saints at Salford also attracted sub 4.5k crowds this year.

Warrington plus Wigan plus Saints. All just down the road, all top of the table or at least matches of interest. Their combined attendance is about that of a Leeds home game against Catalan. Less, if anything.

Re: Attendances : Wed Jun 08, 2016 12:36 pm  

The fault lies entirely with the clubs. End of story.

Anyone who recognises the name of Peter Deakin knows that it is perfectly possible to build up extremely healthy attendances in rugby league.

However, despite his shining lead, you still get the majority of numpty club officials who put out those cringeworthy appeals to the conscience or whatever, and fail to spend the money to create the demand, and then bleat and whinge at people who didn't turn up. It is as if the proof Deakin provided, had never happened.

The mistake many clubs make is to rely on / appeal to some sense of duty or obligation. Those days are long gone, if they ever existed. People will come and spend their money if what you put on is judged by them the best value for their dollar that day, and if they don't see the value, then they won't.

If the board of a club can't see why thousands more aren't coming, then really, STFU - and hire somebody who can.

Re: Attendances : Wed Jun 08, 2016 12:40 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

The fault lies entirely with the clubs. End of story.

Anyone who recognises the name of Peter Deakin knows that it is perfectly possible to build up extremely healthy attendances in rugby league.

However, despite his shining lead, you still get the majority of numpty club officials who put out those cringeworthy appeals to the conscience or whatever, and fail to spend the money to create the demand, and then bleat and whinge at people who didn't turn up. It is as if the proof Deakin provided, had never happened.

The mistake many clubs make is to rely on / appeal to some sense of duty or obligation. Those days are long gone, if they ever existed. People will come and spend their money if what you put on is judged by them the best value for their dollar that day, and if they don't see the value, then they won't.

If the board of a club can't see why thousands more aren't coming, then really, STFU - and hire somebody who can.

Speaking of which, isn't Ferres about due another of those statements soon? It's been a few months.

Re: Attendances : Wed Jun 08, 2016 12:47 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

The fault lies entirely with the clubs. End of story.

Anyone who recognises the name of Peter Deakin knows that it is perfectly possible to build up extremely healthy attendances in rugby league.

However, despite his shining lead, you still get the majority of numpty club officials who put out those cringeworthy appeals to the conscience or whatever, and fail to spend the money to create the demand, and then bleat and whinge at people who didn't turn up. It is as if the proof Deakin provided, had never happened.

The mistake many clubs make is to rely on / appeal to some sense of duty or obligation. Those days are long gone, if they ever existed. People will come and spend their money if what you put on is judged by them the best value for their dollar that day, and if they don't see the value, then they won't.

If the board of a club can't see why thousands more aren't coming, then really, STFU - and hire somebody who can.

Agreed. I know Rob Parker worked tirelessly in the community to advertise the Bradford/Leigh game last year. We got just short of 10k. Would like something similar to be done this year for the Bradford/Fax game on our armed forces day. Get in the schools, advertise the game as a fun army day + a game of rugby.

Re: Attendances : Wed Jun 08, 2016 12:51 pm  

Absolutely. But there are two aspects, that one is bigging up a particular crowd by bigging up a one-off occasion. The second is to devise and then fund and stick with a long-term plan to addict target audiences.