Is the so called "sociality" of watching sport so unique to RL? Absolutely not. Try asking the fans of lower league football teams about the sociality of their sport.



Saints 6000 fans can't outsing a dozen or so interlopers? Not our problem. So Saints fans don't want to win when they come to the Stoop in September? What utter tosh. Surely everybody wants to win every game no matter where the opponents are based or what crowds they get?



Along with the rest of "The Northern Union". But we do and you'll have to suck it up along with the defeats to date.



But we can't undo what's been done and we have to deal with the here and now. The long forgotten fact of expansion of the professional game down south was it was not at the behest of the RFL, but it came from Fulham FC. After the RFL's success at expansion of the game at the community level primarily through summer based The Rugby League Conference (RLC), much to the annoyance of some district league officers and northern based community game RL pundits, the RFL now plan to expand the semi professional level of the game by inviting some of the ambitious "southern based" RLC sides such as St Albans, Nottingham and Coventry to join a revamped semi professional game from 2012. This gives a pathway to prospective players outside the heartlands to both levels of the professional ranks and from that perhaps more "southern based" SL candidates in time. Yes it is perhaps a bit of a backward way of doing it but the new regime had to deal with the mess bequethed them by the ancien regime of Maurice Lindsay and Co, so called "proper RL" people.

As The RFL's Ralph Rimmer stated recently staying a geographical based sport would be death by a 1000 cuts. And I am sure there are some RL fans who would be more than happy to have it that way.

Keep the faith.

That's not true though is it?

For example last time Widnes were in Super League Warrington got more for the game against Harlequins than they did for the game against Widnes.

Its up to the home club to market the game to get more fans through the gates. Look at Wigan's attendance last season against Harlequins: 18,605. Wigan's third highest of the season (Harlequins was also Warrington's third highest attendance for the season).

Lots of hand-wringing going on by Saints fans blaming everything on playing at Widnes. To me the Saints club itself has compounded the situation was their lassiez-faire attitude. Are there any offers for Widnes fans to entice them to attend?

1) You need to look up the dictionary definition of the word squatter.

2) We are not at the Halton stadium this season because the club focused on the holy grail of Superleague success, at least not in the way that you mean, we are there largely because of complications in the application and construction processes involved in getting into the new stadium. Unfortunately with such large construction project delays are inevitable, Saints were largely proactive in finding an alternative venue to play at under the circumstances.

The undeniable fact is that the Halton involves more travel to get to than Knowsley Road and therefore makes it even more difficult for some fans to attend every friday night. Through consultation with the community the club has known that this has been an ongoing issue for large numbers of fans wanting to attend games for years.

3) We were far from ignoring the need for modern stadia, we've been trying for many many years to get out of Knowsley Road and into a new ground (our OWN, dedicated RUGBY stadium which suits our own needs and offers facilities for the community as well being a more welcoming place for home and away fans to visit) with several past attempts blighted by lack of funds, poor board level management & planning amongst a few of the reasons we failed. The current board deserves praise for finally getting the move underway despite the additional difficulties that arose with the economy and in the face of opposition from some other parties. Arrogance has played no part in us not moving until now.

People are reading a little too much into this attendance, not that there isn't anything that can be done about it. It just feels like a lot with agendas and vendettas are getting their say in with no real justification.

First off, the pricing is awful. It's extortionate. In the current climate people cannot afford to throw money away every week.

Secondly, it's a little further than most fans are used to and they will take time to adjust. Like Max says, there is usually a large amount who walk to games for nearly all clubs, this will be effectively zero to saints fans this year. None drivers will be put out, and drivers will have to spend more to get to games. It's going to put off many people no matter what the club.

The economic climate will mean that many fans will have to pick and choose which games to attend and with the greatest respect to quins, they're not the draw a local rival is.

Thirdly, Saints have started very poorly by their standards, there isnt the buzz about the team that there usually is. Not a great excuse to be honest, but always going to be a factor.

Bottom line is, everyone knew this season attendances would suffer for one reason or another. It doesn't prove saints fans are fickle or lightweight, it just reflects on the choices the club have made and the current climate. I suspect when the new ground is finally built you will see the crowds back in even greater numbers than before, although to be fair, the costing needs to be looked at because we're all suffering at the moment and asking for so much money when they're already making an effort to get there is unfair. For the good of the sport let's hope it's sorted soon.

What he said,with knobs on.
Would only be worried if it carries on into next season (it wont,my guess is that saints will post their highest ever average next season) my guess would be 12k+,playing saturday/sunday may have helped with the lack of walk ups/far less kids in attendance,(fwiw i am informed that saints have budgeted for an average of around 7k for this season).alll in all no great drama.....except on the field,early day yet though

The pricing is a little worrying. If they are charging that for Widnes, how much will it be at a brand new stadium??

This is true but hey, lets be fair Saints have had it very good for over ten years and there is a lot of light hearted paybacks beings let loose.

Time for the annual post i suppose......

Whilst a choice few fans from other teams are doing their best to massage their own egos and the collective ego of "their fans", which is usually fun, its turned into one of the most bitty and boring threads possible.

The genuinely agreeable and entertaining fans from other teams have sloped off due to the horrendous degradation of the thread.

Feed the trolls, encourage them back, for this thread has been terrible.

I thank you!

Anytime , always willing to help

Interesting views on the attendances for both this season and next in the new stadium. Does anyone else think that, after getting a full house for the first home game in the new gaff the attendances will gradually decrease again once the novelty wears off? The worrying thing for this season is the lack of revenue coming in through the turnstiles.