Re: Sporting Village : Fri Feb 17, 2023 6:57 am  

pmarrow wrote:

It always baffles me when people think we would average 15k+ if we were successful. On what grounds can they even base that on ? The derby rarely scrapes past 20k and that is with 4/5k from the East. Even in our most successful period recentley we didnt average those numbers.

Infact they is no evidence to suggest in RL that success would bring such growth on a regular basis.

It's not about averaging 15k it's about the ambition of getting such gates for higher profile games.

For Sunday we've used an offer to get an attendance over 13k. In 2019 we got 20k for the Good Friday derby. In 2020 before the pandemic kicked in we got 19.5k for the derby and over 12k for Saints and Catalans. For a home play off semi we would potentially be looking at 16k+ as seen in the past.

St Helens' stadium holds 18k but aside from derbies they often get around 11k attendances.

Re: Sporting Village : Fri Feb 17, 2023 8:03 am  

ComeOnYouUll wrote:

It's not about averaging 15k it's about the ambition of getting such gates for higher profile games.

For Sunday we've used an offer to get an attendance over 13k. In 2019 we got 20k for the Good Friday derby. In 2020 before the pandemic kicked in we got 19.5k for the derby and over 12k for Saints and Catalans. For a home play off semi we would potentially be looking at 16k+ as seen in the past.

St Helens' stadium holds 18k but aside from derbies they often get around 11k attendances.

Exactly.

Nobody has mentioned averaging 15k.

It’s about having the ability to accommodate 15k for the big games. Personally I don’t like the idea of playing in a 12k stadium most weeks and then bang a big game comes along and we play in a different stadium. I think it negates our home advantage somewhat and would affect the atmosphere.

Part of the appeal of the Boulevard was that you saw the same faces every week. You became friends and this helped build the atmosphere.

Would love to get back to something like that and being realistic a 15k stadium is the best option.

[Chris71]

Re: Sporting Village : Fri Feb 17, 2023 9:04 am  

pmarrow wrote:

It always baffles me when people think we would average 15k+ if we were successful. On what grounds can they even base that on ? The derby rarely scrapes past 20k and that is with 4/5k from the East. Even in our most successful period recentley we didnt average those numbers.

Infact they is no evidence to suggest in RL that success would bring such growth on a regular basis.

There's nothing to baffle you really as no one as far as I have read has said we would have a 15K average.

What has been said is that its quite conceivable that with a better brand of rugby played consistently and being more successful on the pitch in terms of performances the clubs average attendance could reach 10-11K over the next coupe of years. Then possibly 3-4 years from now throw in a cup win or a strong playoff push and its not beyond the realms of possibility the club could push an average of around 12K.
This has been achieved before so those sort of numbers are evidence that the club has the possibility to increase its fans base and average attendances with a better end product.

With an increased average of say 10K in 2 years (which is only a small increase) with the team doing well and say the member numbers go up by 2K from this seasons 7.5K, that would equate to only having a 2.5K tickets to accommodate walk ups and away fans. Granted not all teams bring many but it still significantly reduces the clubs potential to push over the 12K mark on a regular basis and continue to market & increase numbers further. I would say that the club have more than just a hope of raising attendances when you look at the number of memberships for this season after the dire rugby the past few seasons and general apathy felt by many, myself included. Yet many have renewed and no doubt some returned due to the appointment of a proven Head Coach in Smith. Yes there is still a lot of work to be done but so far what has been displayed is proof that the changes needed and wanted by fans for so long have now happened and continue to do so.

So that's why I think if a stadium was to be built with the idea of us playing out of it it would need to be a minimum 15K capacity to begin with as by the time any supposed stadium is completed we could quite conceivably have out grown a 12K before even getting to play in it. So staying at the MKM should be the priority if any development comes to fruition and have a smaller 6-8K ground for both footbal and rugby reserve/youth teams as well as the community.

Me personally I wouldn't be a fan of moving between stadiums during a season either.

Re: Sporting Village : Fri Feb 17, 2023 9:39 am  

pmarrow wrote:

It always baffles me when people think we would average 15k+ if we were successful. On what grounds can they even base that on ? The derby rarely scrapes past 20k and that is with 4/5k from the East. Even in our most successful period recentley we didnt average those numbers.

Infact they is no evidence to suggest in RL that success would bring such growth on a regular basis.

Spot on our fan base is limited to 14k of our own

And not as big as some of our fans think

Wigan saints nearly always get 24/25k

Us and rovers very rarely hits 20k like you say

Re: Sporting Village : Fri Feb 17, 2023 9:41 am  

davey41 wrote:

Exactly.

Nobody has mentioned averaging 15k.

It’s about having the ability to accommodate 15k for the big games. Personally I don’t like the idea of playing in a 12k stadium most weeks and then bang a big game comes along and we play in a different stadium. I think it negates our home advantage somewhat and would affect the atmosphere.

Part of the appeal of the Boulevard was that you saw the same faces every week. You became friends and this helped build the atmosphere.

Would love to get back to something like that and being realistic a 15k stadium is the best option.

But even Leeds games only get around 13k and that's with a few thousand from Leeds

Used to get 17k against Leeds 2004/2005 time

[Chris71]

Re: Sporting Village : Fri Feb 17, 2023 9:59 am  

Thetalentboy wrote:

davey41 wrote:

Exactly.

Nobody has mentioned averaging 15k.

It’s about having the ability to accommodate 15k for the big games. Personally I don’t like the idea of playing in a 12k stadium most weeks and then bang a big game comes along and we play in a different stadium. I think it negates our home advantage somewhat and would affect the atmosphere.

Part of the appeal of the Boulevard was that you saw the same faces every week. You became friends and this helped build the atmosphere.

Would love to get back to something like that and being realistic a 15k stadium is the best option.

But even Leeds games only get around 13k and that's with a few thousand from Leeds

Used to get 17k against Leeds 2004/2005 time

That's the whole point as to why a 12K stadium would be too small if it were to home us as there is no possibility for growth at a stadium capped at 12K as even with your figure it means the club would loose out on 1K paying for tickets. The club has reported its sold over 13K tickets for the opening game and granted there's been an offer on tickets thats still a very good start after the way the last 2 seasons alone have finished.
If the team put in a decent performance on Sunday and win then there is a very good chance a good number of those attending due to the offer would attend more games if they get entertained and enjoy it. Unlike previous seasons when the team tended to turn out their worst performances on these games.

So the evidence is there that reaching an average of 10-11K in the next couple of years if the product on the pitch is right is not an insurmountable target.

Re: Sporting Village : Fri Feb 17, 2023 10:03 am  

mwindass wrote:

A 12/15k stadium on the grounds would be ideal for us.

I think talk of increasing the capacity of the stadium to 30k a bit premature though. City don't even sell it out now

AP being part of the discussion is great to hear. I'd imagine he'd be all for it too, he wanted the surrounding area renovating when the stadium was built.

Sounds like we're very much in the plans/though process which can only be a good thing

The "premier league wore off after the first 2 seasons" the next few seasons in it city didn't sell out majority of the lesser games

Re: Sporting Village : Fri Feb 17, 2023 10:06 am  

pmarrow wrote:

It always baffles me when people think we would average 15k+ if we were successful. On what grounds can they even base that on ? The derby rarely scrapes past 20k and that is with 4/5k from the East. Even in our most successful period recentley we didnt average those numbers.

Infact they is no evidence to suggest in RL that success would bring such growth on a regular basis.

In the heady days of the early 80’s, our best average gate was 13,500. I can’t see the need for 15,000 stadium to have thousands of empty seats every week. Some of the 7,500 gates last season were atrocious, I know we were poor but that many fans in the KC, meh, you could almost hear the echo.

Re: Sporting Village : Fri Feb 17, 2023 10:08 am  

Chris71 wrote:

That's the whole point as to why a 12K stadium would be too small if it were to home us as there is no possibility for growth at a stadium capped at 12K as even with your figure it means the club would loose out on 1K paying for tickets. The club has reported its sold over 13K tickets for the opening game and granted there's been an offer on tickets thats still a very good start after the way the last 2 seasons alone have finished.
If the team put in a decent performance on Sunday and win then there is a very good chance a good number of those attending due to the offer would attend more games if they get entertained and enjoy it. Unlike previous seasons when the team tended to turn out their worst performances on these games.

So the evidence is there that reaching an average of 10-11K in the next couple of years if the product on the pitch is right is not an insurmountable target.

We should be getting higher crowds due to our city size and catchment area

Hull 250k then likes of beverley Cottingham Hornsea all the way to south/cave added hull and rovers catchment area is huge

Even in 2016 and 2017 our average crowd were only 11k which imo is poor

Our crowds have definitely declined last decade even with 2016 and 2017 success

Re: Sporting Village : Fri Feb 17, 2023 10:27 am  

Thetalentboy wrote:

We should be getting higher crowds due to our city size and catchment area

Hull 250k then likes of beverley Cottingham Hornsea all the way to south/cave added hull and rovers catchment area is huge

Even in 2016 and 2017 our average crowd were only 11k which imo is poor

Our crowds have definitely declined last decade even with 2016 and 2017 success

It’s a perennial debate as to why the three club’s supporter base is so limited. Rovers highest average gate is from the 80’s and was around 11,000 again ours was 13,500 from the same era, not sure what city’s is but guess around 20,000 from the early premiership years. Thats it tops. Most of my football following mates support teams out of the City, Notts. Forest, Leeds, Arsenal of course Man. U, I’m a long standing Everton fan and take in a couple of games a year. I went to all City v Everton games, Everton won them all. It is what it is and the trend won’t change, people stating building FC’s attendance to anything more than 13,500 is pie in the sky, the attendance average is inflated by 2 home derbies in a season. Leeds, Wigan and Saints don’t ring many supporters any more, in fact I would say our best gate for away support is Cas. Rovers excepted.