It seems the offers the club have had on tickets are paying off but - especially when you see the overall average - it is good to see us bucking the trend so much, I expected a slight increase but not something so dramatic.

The free kids season tickets when a shirt was bought probably helped.

A very good idea IMO, although some who had already bought their season tickets would probably disagree.
My youngest granddaughter wasn't going to bother but she took up the offer of a free ticket with the shirt.

Don't forget that average will be reduced by the poor crowds at Salford and Celtic.

One of the reasons for our increased attendances will no doubt be the number of free junioe season tickets that were issued.

You'll still have to go some to offset the losses being experienced elsewhere (not that they are St Helens problems) but long may the numbers continue to rise. The club deserves it with the quality they have on show. Good news all round with a new stadium to fill come 2010?

2011

Strange this year.

Wigan got a higher attendance for the Celtic game than they did v Huddersfield or Castleford, and only marginally less than against Bradford.

Maybe it was due to being a Sunday game, is that the way to go?

OK. Thanks.

Still good to see the numbers increasing (even on the back of a marketing freebie) if the short term give away can result in long term growth.

I like sunday games, but 5 yrs ago i had to work every sunday and i didnt Friday games are all well and good at this time of year, but in Febuary its bloody cold!

Maybe it was due to the Wigan fans thinking they may have actually had a chance of winning against Celtic

Increasing gates in a recession, impressive indeed saints. The free junior ticket thing must have been a boost to bums on seats surley. The new "half season ticket" is due out also, maybe this can help further? Nice to see a rise anyways.

Also, I took me little un into the club shop after the Hull game, willign to buy home and away shirts and shorts and socks, my mate took his little un in to, to buy him sumert, not sure what, anyways we all left empty handed as the shop was paked, and i mean packed, the queue was huge for the tills. They will get my money still of course, but great to see the shop so rammed and tills making a "kerching" noise... 9 they didnt really make a noise, they were electronic japanese things, so very silent and efficient like a japanese samurai ninja geisha girl )

Nice work saints

Possibly, but then we have higher crowds for Fridays than we did for Sundays over recent seasons.

Although the marketing efforts will no doubt have had an effect, unless I'm imagining it there has been a new buzz among the fans this season, what with a new coach, just one signing (who we have dropped very lucky with) and a bunch of young guys coming out to play for the first time. Although a number of fans I stand with at home games were somewhat nervous and skeptical about the young guns, those same fans now are itching to see who is playing this game and how well they are doing. Likewise, there was natural caution as well as curiosity about the new coach but we're seeing changes in the team that have been refreshing (with the exception of our discipline, which is disappointing but with Slick Mick - a name I quite like for him! - it was somewhat predictable given the Dragons' record). On top of that, of course, there is tangible progress with regard to the new stadium (the site has been pretty much flattened and no doubt will soon be enjoying a clean up, if the Saints website update is anything to go by).

All in all, the club has had some new life breathed into it this season and I'm sure that has helped, along with the promotional stuff.

However, as others have said, how well we will maintain the numbers seen so far is anyone's guess given that we have yet to have Quins, the Dragons and the Crusaders visit (of course we have Catalans twice with the CC next round, though not sure we count the CC in the overall attendance figures?).

The young players coming through have made it more exciting and with more local lads playing there is even more local interest. Its all good.

I wouldn't be looking to include CC attendances in the mix as it's a competition pretty much removed (attendance wise) before the semi final these days. The Headingley 4th round attendance probably wouldn't have hit 10K but for the season ticket concession.

Perhaps losing successive Grand Finals has fuelled some of the fans hunger as well. Just think what it could be like next season if the Saints stuff up a third.