In case anyone missed it, we are just six days away from our Challenge Cup tie against the french SL side at The Shay. The lack of publicity for the match is shocking. Unless you're on Facebook you probably wouldn't know there was a game on at all. Even the billboards at the ground are advertising the next home as against Barrow on February 23rd. The club really need to address this as we are going backwards in so many aspects and just hoping people turn up isn't going to succeed. Here's hoping!

Full price as well and with the game on YouTube its not really encouraging people to get through the turnstyles. Just have to hope we don't pick up any injuries in this one and hopefully with the pitch now destroyed it might bring Catalans down to our level a bit.

The pitch to be fair didnt look that bad against Thatto but i am guessing football will have been played on it since. I think we lost 40-4 to them last year so i would hope we could be a bit more competitive this time but it is hard to see anything other than a big win for them. We really just need a bit of luck to come through it unscaved.

Am not expecting anything less than a 60 point beating

The Panthers Facebook post “ CALLING ALL RUGBY LEAGUE FANS - WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!” sounds more like another plea for help rather than just trying to get more through the gate to me.

The build up to this game has been shocking and like faxcar says, it feels like panic stations at this point. Sponsorship packages not sold, presuming pre match sales are abysmal with no discount, do people even know there is a game on? What are the club doing to get people through the gates apart from this begging post?

I attend all home games but I have considered not going. £25 to watch us lose to SL team who will bring no support, we won’t have many supporters. No atmosphere. I struggle to see what the attraction of this game is. Also SL have killed off the excitement on the Challenge Cup. It just an ‘also have to play’ competition as they all focus on the grand final as the most important thing to win.

I can certainly empathise - seems you lot are now where we were a few years back. That cup draw is a stinker. If I were Eastmond I'd be worried about risking my threadbare squad in such a game. It's hardly the sort of match to get people enthused is it?

Not getting a match day sponsor sums up the whole sorry state of affairs. We're skint before the season starts ...... I'm guessing season ticket sales were poor? I've said before that the club should have gone into administration and dropped down to League 1, otherwise they'll forever be chasing debt repayments. The Championship will be a basket case anyway this season with nothing to play for on the pitch because everything is decided off it, and the irony of being in League 1 is that there's promotion to play for!

[quote="Tony Fax":2mnq1fvx]Not getting a match day sponsor sums up the whole sorry state of affairs. We're skint before the season starts ...... I'm guessing season ticket sales were poor? I've said before that the club should have gone into administration and dropped down to League 1, otherwise they'll forever be chasing debt repayments. The Championship will be a basket case anyway this season with nothing to play for on the pitch because everything is decided off it, and the irony of being in League 1 is that there's promotion to play for![/quote:2mnq1fvx] We have something to for. Avoid relegation!

Exactly !!

[quote="Bullseye":2gixe5ws]I can certainly empathise - seems you lot are now where we were a few years back. That cup draw is a stinker. If I were Eastmond I'd be worried about risking my threadbare squad in such a game. It's hardly the sort of match to get people enthused is it?[/quote:2gixe5ws] I honestly can't think of a worse draw we could have had but if you listen to people on TotalRL its a great draw that should attract a huge crowd.

The whole idea of having Super League clubs come in at an earlier stage and make them play away was to give the lower opposition the home tie and give them a chance of getting some much needed funds in. Unfortunately they forgot about Catalans having low away support and even more unfortunately we got them when it’s freezing in winter.

[quote="faxcar":38vkoj41]The whole idea of having Super League clubs come in at an earlier stage and make them play away was to give the lower opposition the home tie and give them a chance of getting some much needed funds in. Unfortunately they forgot about Catalans having low away support and even more unfortunately we got them when it’s freezing in winter.[/quote:38vkoj41] That is sheer bad luck. That said, the club have done next to nowt to promote the game. Not good enough!

[quote="Hudd-Shay":wf1y0iur]That is sheer bad luck. That said, the club have done next to nowt to promote the game. Not good enough![/quote:wf1y0iur] Promote the game to who? Much of the games on it’s booty, no ones interested including the vast majority of people in Halifax and Calderdale, as an indicator there’s as many on here who won’t be going as will be and were long time die hard supporters so what does that tell us about the rest?

I would agree with both, the promotion of the game has been really, really bad but also interest from die hard fans looks to be really low as well. The problem is that the club has to find a way to bring new fans in, people who have either no, or little, interest in the game and to try and get them hooked. Pushing the club to the same people will always have the same results. This is a game where kids should be in for free but instead the cheapest child ticket is £5 and its only this week freebies went out to community clubs but its only free entry if the person has a season ticket. Adult tickets were also sent out at £14 which I think is about right for this game anyway. The young adult pricing is ridiculous full stop and I think we have discussed it on here. Expecting 16-18 year olds to pay £16 to watch a game is totally unrealistic and its why the kids going to games will rarely turn in to adults that go to games.

I've argued all along that the attendance charge is way too high and the sport as a whole needs to address the issue.

[quote="faxcar":35ktdp6t]Promote the game to who? Much of the games on it’s booty, no ones interested including the vast majority of people in Halifax and Calderdale, as an indicator there’s as many on here who won’t be going as will be and were long time die hard supporters so what does that tell us about the rest?[/quote:35ktdp6t] Totally agree, not sure what more the club can do. those that are interested in RL know this game is on, either come to watch or don't. Lower the price - but to what, you still need get the numbers right to make sure it will generate at least the same income, get it wrong and a bigger loss! You've got to feel for the club, last year we had 4 home games in the cup and I bet all were loss making. For getting a SL team, Catalan is the worse draw and we get them 2 years running. Had we got a Wigan, Leeds or HKR where you know there will be a fair amount of away support and atmosphere, that would encourage more fax fans to go - just as happened with Saints coming a few years ago when we got 4.7K there for the game.

[quote="Faxlore":2s6emjje]We have something to for. Avoid relegation![/quote:2s6emjje] WOW!

[quote="gizempo":v4o22nt7]Totally agree, not sure what more the club can do. those that are interested in RL know this game is on, either come to watch or don't. Lower the price - but to what, you still need get the numbers right to make sure it will generate at least the same income, get it wrong and a bigger loss! You've got to feel for the club, last year we had 4 home games in the cup and I bet all were loss making. For getting a SL team, Catalan is the worse draw and we get them 2 years running. Had we got a Wigan, Leeds or HKR where you know there will be a fair amount of away support and atmosphere, that would encourage more fax fans to go - just as happened with Saints coming a few years ago when we got 4.7K there for the game.[/quote:v4o22nt7] What more can the club do? For starters how about advertising the game on the advertising boards at The Shay, a novel idea i know. Posters in pubs/clubs/shops. Hire the electric board on Market Street. Where there's a will there's a way.

Young people should have free entry to every game. On exposure Social media seems to be the modern way to reach people other than the same old few who happen to drive the same old route past the Shay or by chance walk past a shop window. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the Forums have been featuring the game for a few weeks since the draw and when your skint you have to balance costs vs return on advertising. At a time when the club is fighting for survival it’s a bit rich to be saying the club could do more when at the same time you’re deciding to stay away and do nothing apart from complain don’t you think?

I agree the club is very limited as to how they can promote the game. I just think all the chickens are starting to come home to roost this season after cracks appearing for the past few seasons, and that's for all clubs, not just Fax. As I've said (many times!) the championship clubs need to multilaterally half the players' contracts (when they come up for renewal of course) and half the entrance fee to a tenner ........ I find it impossible to get former fans to come to even the big matches when it's 20 quid, and I'm even embarrassed to admit I pay such money to watch. It's OK saying it won't happen because the likes of Bradford won't play ball, but if they don't they won't have anyone to play against in a few years time. Even SL is struggling, they have to give coverage away to the BBC and I think they'll be in for a nasty shock when SKY renews in a couple of years time. Sorry to be all doom and gloom, but it doesn't take a big reduction in crowds for the proverbial to hit the fan. I've seen away followings fall to non existent levels, only Bradford brought a decent number last season, with the prospect of further falls with existing fans dying off or losing interest and not being replaced by new fans.

Many folk on here talk about the club putting poser up, advertising boards ect. All good osier but everything costs money wand we don’t have money.

Someone started early today.. prep for tomorrow ?

York v HKR are also on The Spotsman kick off 7.30 tonight.