Attendance : Wed Apr 24, 2019 10:37 pm  

Just lifted this from the rugby league site.

2019 average attendances so far

Barrow 1,367 Batley 1,114 Bradford 4,481 Dewsbury 972 Featherstone 1,841 Halifax 1,817 Leigh 3,103 Rochdale 954 Sheffield 1,089 Swinton 1,269 Toronto 1,483 Toulouse 2,728 Widnes 5,133 York 1,940

Re: Attendance : Thu Apr 25, 2019 11:37 am  

Not sure how they work out Toronto, who haven't actually been at home yet, and their nominal 3 home fixtures were around 1800, 1400 plus over 7000 for a double-header. Will be interesting to see their first home crowd at Lamport this weekend. Then, of course, it's us, so obviously that will be a sellout.

That said, the attendances of the bulk of teams are depressing reading. That's roughly only 30K speccies home average the whole division. Makes it all the more creditable how comparatively high the standard of rugby produced in the Championship sometimes is, given the severe financial constraints these figures, and the lack of any real RFL funding, must impose.

[Bullseye]

Re: Attendance : Thu Apr 25, 2019 12:20 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

That said, the attendances of the bulk of teams are depressing reading. That's roughly only 30K speccies home average the whole division. Makes it all the more creditable how comparatively high the standard of rugby produced in the Championship sometimes is, given the severe financial constraints these figures, and the lack of any real RFL funding, must impose.

Agreed.

With more resources and marketing know-how I'm sure these figures could be increased a lot. I've enjoyed this season enormously so far. It's a shame so many are missing out.

Re: Attendance : Sun Apr 28, 2019 7:31 am  

According to loverugbyleague.com.

"Attendances in the Championship are up 52% across the board, helped in part by Widnes’ relegation and Bradford’s promotion to the division, as well as Toulouse’s game against Toronto that was held at Stade Toulousain.
The cumulative attendance is up 69% at this stage of the season, and comes before Toronto have held any of their home games in Canada"

Re: Attendance : Sun Apr 28, 2019 8:51 am  

With the right marketing the Championship could easily become the equivalent of the EFL Championship and become a really vibrant and successful competition - that may well become a reality when Super League pull up the drawbridge!

Re: Attendance : Mon Apr 29, 2019 8:22 am  

Frank Whitcombe wrote:

With the right marketing the Championship could easily become the equivalent of the EFL Championship and become a really vibrant and successful competition - that may well become a reality when Super League pull up the drawbridge!

Judging by the Elstone article MG tweeted the drawbridge is up...caps on overseas teams and the caveat 'must be up to standard' is being muttered more and more.

Toronto - too Canadian
Toulouse - too French
Sheffield - too poor a ground
Bradford - too 'Odsally'

So i guess they are already playing the 'London or ......' game. If it becomes 'Huddersfield/Leeds or ....' I think we'll see that promotion is suddenly removed from the table with any number of cobblers excuses being made.

Re: Attendance : Mon Apr 29, 2019 12:27 pm  

Scarey71 wrote:

Judging by the Elstone article MG tweeted the drawbridge is up...caps on overseas teams and the caveat 'must be up to standard' is being muttered more and more.

Toronto - too Canadian
Toulouse - too French
Sheffield - too poor a ground
Bradford - too 'Odsally'

So i guess they are already playing the 'London or ......' game. If it becomes 'Huddersfield/Leeds or ....' I think we'll see that promotion is suddenly removed from the table with any number of cobblers excuses being made.

What about Catalan - are they not too French?

Re: Attendance : Mon Apr 29, 2019 12:45 pm  

DrFeelgood wrote:

What about Catalan - are they not too French?

Yes... hence the early season, ridiculous demand for a bond for the CC....(yes, I know it was the RFL but they are the SL's poodle at the minute)

Now you do raise a good point though...what if they ever have to play the 'Catalans or one of the unfashionable M62 clubs' game

Re: Attendance : Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:18 pm  

With the SL sponsorship up for renewal next year with Sky, and the way SL want ALL the money. I believe the Championship should look elsewhere for their own sponsorship and TV rights, its not that impossible. if Sky want the Championship rights as well then we should get more of the pot or draw away.

Re: Attendance : Tue Apr 30, 2019 9:35 am  

As has been mentioned above I'm not sure how the figures have been calculated given that the Fev average above is lower than our lowest gate in the championship.

Not that it changes the thrust of this thread the attendances in the championship are poor compared to the quality of Rugby on display.

Figures taken from the Fev website gives:
BATLEY BULLDOGS (H) ..................2,145
HALIFAX RLFC (H) .......................... 2,534
SHEFFIELD (H) ............................... 1,891
DEWSBURY RAMS (H) ................... 1,923
YORK CITY KNIGHTS (H) ............... 2,216
TORONTO WOLFPACK (H) ............. 2,101
Total: ............................................... 12,810
Average: ........................................... 2,135