Possibly the season starting too early ?

Id been ill since Wed so decided not to go. The comfort of my living room, TV and the central heating played a big part. We have 4 seats in Extentia but i was surprised how empty that stand looked on TV.

Sods law, the wind and rain died down and temp wasnt too bad. Missed a right game.

You can dress it up anyway you want but 12k for Wire is a pretty big drop. That would usually be a 15k crowd plus easy.

It's all about the product on the pitch, the last few seasons bound to have an affect at some point.

A fair few clubs seem to be running with crowds 15-20% down on a few years ago and not only those whose W/L ratios have nosedived.

Extentia seating (thats where I sit) was very sp indeed.

Attendances seem well down from the licensing era at a lot of clubs, which is odd as one of the reasons for scrapping licensing and going to promotion/relegation was to increase attendances. Has promotion/relegation failed? If so should we go back to licensing?

Imo promotion and relegation in its current form should be scrapped. Its not worked. Needs a lot consultation to find the way forward but relegation has too many negatives.

I don’t think P&R is the reason for lower attendances. I think it has much more to do with the economy than P&R. I know I’ve cut back on the amount of away games I go to over recent years, mostly for costs reasons, partly for time. I’m sure other people are the same across the game.

There’s also the issue of how watchable the games are. I’ve always maintained that I don’t buy into this rose tinted nonsense that somehow the game was much higher quality 20 years ago, a simple look at how lackadaisical and soft defences were soon puts that argument to bed. However there’s no doubting it was better to watch in general.

So I think those 2 factors combined are a major issue for the sport and aren’t something easily fixed. Another issue however is the number of games and the number of times you play each opponent. It doesn’t make it special if you know you’re likely to play Wigan 3/4 times this season for instance. Especially when that’s year after year.
I think we need to cut the number of games which would then force clubs to market themselves and pack games out. It would also do us a world of good when it comes around to internationals and our players are knackered from being at clubs with much smaller squads and playing far more games than their Aussie/Kiwi counterparts.

Having said that I’d still scrap P&R. I think it’s massively destabilising to the sport as proved by how much the threat of it has set Leeds back by 5 years at a guess? Without the threat of P&R we could have been developing youngsters more and not making stop gap signings like Thompson, Donaldson, Evans etc

Good post. Agree with much of that. Duplicate fixtures are a major negative for me. As is the season starting in Jan. Thurs night games also are a no from me. Usually very poor turnout for them. Too many Friday night games as well is not good for press coverage.

Agreed on Thirs night fixtures, season starting too early and repeat fixtures.

I disagree on Friday fixtures, Fridays to me are the best for us and I feel Friday nights is SL night especially at home, corporate is also bery important and Fridays will always be the best night for corporate clients

We had 14 teams under licensing, it was so much better.
You can now face the same club 7 times. It’s an awful system.

1 Friendly
2 League home
3 League away
4 League duplicate
5 Cup
6 Play offs
7 Play offs again

3 weekends of consecutive storms may also have dampened enthusiasm for an outing to watch some Rugby. Agree that a well run licensing and franchise system coupled with a 14 team league and decent marketing would be a good way forward.

I’d like more of a mixture but know that doesn’t work for everyone.

We should definitely make better use of the new SouthStand facilities. I’d like to see a few Leeds Rhinos Festivals each year. Play Saturday afternoon or a Sunday afternoon with a bank holiday Monday. Have some bands playing after the game. Indoor stage and outdoor stage. The bar would take a load of money.
Events draw people in, that’s how Toronto built their following.

I expect Corona virus to have an effect on attendances this season .I've just heard the cobra meeting today to discuss a possible ban on mass gatherings which if that doesnt happen will still have an effect on attendances

I was thinking about this when I heard that gatherings of 5,000 or more would not be allowed, how many ST holders do we have?

Could they restrict it to ST holders only and you would have to register for the game beforehand and only the first 5,000 registered could attend? it would be better than playing it behind closed doors which they would have to do.