Utter nonsense. This may be true for so-called fair-weather fans, but the trick to getting bodies in is to make the day out an event that is judged worth being at. So we used to get thousands of little kiddies in (with parents) who came for the stuff which attracted them, and may not have been much bothered at all who won or lost.

If you build an attractive enough event, at a reasonable enough price, they will come. Watching a particular competitor win is really not the main criterion.

Your remark is only true for the very narrow category of
* fair weather rugby league followers; and
* who have no other aim but to follow a winning team; and
*who would not attend on matchday, absent a 'winning team', [iwhatever[/i else might be on offer.
In fact, that is such a narrow category that it probably amounts to nobody. Unless you found someone who would never come on matchday, under any circumstances, but for a winning team. Not if Bruce Springsteen was the half time show? Not if each attendee got a £50 ASDA voucher? Not if everyone got 4 free pints?

It's not "whether" you could attract these people - of course you could. It's whether the marketing spend is cost effective for the extra it brings in, and that of course is a completely different question. It can and has been done, and you should know, as we had the master, Peter Deakin. Just that very few have those skills to the extent he did.

I've been in that camp for a while but it's going to be tough next year. I would bring my 2 lads (aged 7 & 5) and it would cost £25 to sit down. Next year the same thing will cost £41.

Literally.

Think 500 sold after two weeks is fairly respectable. Wakefield were upto 599 a few days ago and theirs have been on sales for a few weeks longer. Think there will a surge at months end but also think sales will continue pretty steadily uptil start of season. With no early bird deadline to worry about people will purchase when it best fits within their budget between now and February. Think 3k is easily attainable and 4k is a very realistic target. Much more so than 10k khan and co targeted.

But that is on the basis if you only pick and choose games. If you intend to go to all games then surely you'd get season tickets, which would - based on 14 games - work out at £21 a game?

It will be £8 for a junior per game in the stand, so if they plan to go to any more than 3 games, paying on the day makes no sense.

It clearly said 4K memberships this morning. I am certain they were talking 4K gates average up to this morning. There is a big difference. This year we averaged over 6K gates with I believe about 2.5K season tickets in that. That means in the worst season for decades we had about 3-4K walk-ups paying full price. If they need 4K average gates then that will be easy in my opinion. We will win most games and I firmly believe we will get 7-8K gates at quite a few games. Yes there is a team in Cumbria but we had London and Catalan who brought their supporters in a taxi but still managed a respectable average.
People will wait later with no early bird offers. I am going up next week and paying with Visa so it won't need paying till this time in October - one month interest free. If we get 3K STs + 3K walk-ups I assume that will be fine for the club. My mate and his lad are also buying a ticket with me next week and they haven't had one for 3 years so some people are feeling more confident. I bet we beat last years average gate.

To be honest the Cumbrian teams usually travel in numbers, Workington certainly used to when they were in the top flight so I don't think that will be an issue tbh. Doncaster and Sheffield are likely to bring less. Gonna be getting mine after xmas as there's no rush without early bird offer. Hopefully staggered sales right through, rather than one lump sum in November will be better financially for the club.

I think the 'staggered' income will be, to some extent, sorted with the 'pay over six months' deals.

It's a difficult call for the club to be fair. We've recruited a very solid squad, particularly for championship rugby and hopefully for the middle eights, and they deserve support, but Bradford isn't the most financially vibrant spot in the UK and many fans are going to find it hard to come by the extra money. I guess whether they've got the sums right or not depends on a large number of individual's financial position and their determination to stay involved.

There's no doubt for me though, that we need to perform strongly, as this is the one thing which gives the sort of 'good vibes' around the place and keeps folks happier. Stronger performances on the field might well have kept the income coming in, in a few relatively recent seasons. If you're sending people home happy it's a fair bet they'll come back.

Obviously if I intended to go to all games, I'd buy a season ticket. Living 75 miles away means I can't do that so I have to see on the day if we can make it. I have no way of knowing in advance whether we'll get to 1 game or 8 next season so I can't risk buying season tickets for the boys. I just don't understand why when we have a massive stadium that we won't fill, they've decided now is the time to fleece families.

The trouble with cheap tickets is just that; they're cheap. We've seen the mistakes the club has made by trying to get the fans back with discount tickets. It didn't work and nearly killed us. 4k is what I'd consider our core support as that seems to be the numbers of season tickets we usually shift. So why shouldn't the club use that as their jumping off point for working out the budgets for next year?

It's achievable, but I'd expect there to be a slow tick on the numbers sold as fans don't have to rush to buy their tickets before the early bird deadline.

But as with anything like this, it's a two way street. The club needs the money from the fans buying tickets and the fans need to see that their money is being wisely used. So far, I think the club have more than held up their end of the contract by giving us a coach with strong ties to the club and fans as well as an impressive team for next year, at least on paper.

Think thats very harsh on the current board, looking at the squad and the way the clubs being run they have been realistic, conisdering theres more games than last season the difference in price to this seasons tickets are not that bad especially once the early bird offer finished. Im the boat of one income for a young family so not sure if ill get one myself but im one of the ones who hasnt been for a while and will definitely try get as many games as possible under my belt next season

im sure your club isnt relying to much on away support ,at least i hope not.away spport from leeds alone will out number the total away support you get next season.
fax fev and leigh might give you 500 + each but the others might give you 1500 between them

I think the fact we've gone bust twice in short order may indicate the pricing model of recent years hasn't been right, though, so you can't disagree something had to change.

So far as juniors are concerned, obviously "free" to "something to pay" is a change but I wouldn't agree that a £3 admission price is "fleecing" families.

You obviously make the choice to use the seats in the stand, as they are more value to you than being on the open terraces. I think that would be a more legitimate complaint tbh, namely that juniors pay the same £5 extra to transfer as do adults, if it wasn't for the fact that for £25 they can sit in the stand all season for free, (There is no extra charge for a junior stand pass as opposed to just a terracing pass) and so at £1.67 per game admission and free stand entry, I don't think it's fair to accuse the club of "fleecing".

I understand entirely your dilemma if you can't say whether you'll attend 1 game or 8 but with respect that's your circumstances, the result will be you pay more or less per game on average, depending on the risk you take (season pass or no pass) and how it pans out, but the club can hardly be blamed for that, can it?

If I were you I'd certainly buy season passes for the boys, since at absolute worst you will (if you end up only attending one game) be £17 x2 out of pocket, that's the worst case scenario, and after 3 games you're in front. that's not fleecing.

Fleecing is harsh - i redact that but I find it odd that when we are trying to rebuild the club have made it more expensive to bring kids in. From costing £0 to costing £16 is a bit of a hike when the adult price has remained the same. It's really not practical to have them on the terrace with me as a) They can't see and b) They can wander off too easily while I'm berating the ref! (OK, that's not the club's fault!)

If it was £3 for admission to sit down, I'd think that was fair as in order to transfer there would be at least one adult paying the extra £5, and let's face it we're not going to be short of seats.

Yes, I was half wondering whether in any games there might be a plan to open the ground as "stand only". I understand the savings of doing that but hate the concept. Obviously though if you do that, you have to let "terrace only" punters into the stand for no extra charge and suddenly all the kids who were in for free are potentially taking up valuable real estate.

If the terraces are open then I can't see any game where the stand is likely to be even half full, and I'd agree that on a one-off basis (which is what most away fans face) charging a 7 year old the same as an adult (even though they occupy the same amount of real estate) is a bit much.