With the whole question of overpriced tickets for Premier League football, should the RFL and RL clubs start making more noise on the affordability of RL as a spectator sport?

We have a fast, exciting product and the fat cats running Football in the UK are ing off and pricing out their fans. Surely the smartest thing to do is to leap on those disillusioned fans and try and bring them into the fold? Especially for teams like Saints, Wigan, Wire, etc who are in the area of clubs like Liverpool. Maybe put out feelers to season ticket holders to Premier League clubs and offer them a deal like a £5 first ticket along with a DVD with some top highlights and a basics of the game intro

Would like it to happen but a lot of RL fans are also starting to complain that the prices are crreping up so the same will happen in this sport soon too.

I can remember being devastated when prices hit 75p....the costs now seem ridiculous. Football clubs introducing new shirts each year was bad enough but Hull KR have now settled on three new shirts a year. It is starting to feel like we are walking wallets to be emptied as quickly as possible.

I can remember being devastated when prices hit 75p....the costs now seem ridiculous. Football clubs introducing new shirts each year was bad enough but Hull KR have now settled on three new shirts a year. It is starting to feel like we are walking wallets to be emptied as quickly as possible.

No ones forcing you to buy any kits you know. I tend to get one a season and then if i like the other one as well, pick it up when prices reduced.

Their just offering an alternative choice.

With regards to entry fee, I think £20 is about right for 2 hours SL game and entertainment.

Do you buy every product Hull KR's club shop sells? Is anyone forcing you to do that?

The costs/ticket prices for RL clubs aren't ridiculous. The ticket prices for football are getting toward being so.

Don't even third-tier football teams have higher prices than most SL clubs? Whatever failings our sport may have, I don't think poor value for money is one of them.

rlBBC's Price of Football Surveyrl

You'll see from there that League 2 football is just slightly above the usual SL average matchday price.

There is a market there for tapping. Doing something like my original idea in Newcastle every weekend for the month prior to this year's Magic Weekend but giving a £5 off the price rather than the ticket, might drum up some interest in the sport in what could be a very profitable area for RL to expand to.

Same again for Blackpool and the Championship Summer Bash.

It's posts like this that annoy me.

It's a bloody business. You don't have to buy everything Hull KR to be a "super fan". You're not forced to spend a penny. Someone who hadn't liked the home or away shirt may have been tempted by the charity shirt. It's money in the coffers of financially struggling clubs (and a charity at that). It's choice. More choice.

Tell you what, let's close the merchandise side because some people can't afford to buy everything. You can only buy home and away shirts.

I remember a few years back Huddersfield Giants and Huddersfield town did recipricoal deals in each others season tickets where you could go to any game of the other for £5, unfortunately it didn't work out as planned as most of the town football fans generally supported the opposition rather than the giants

agree with this, we bring 2 new shirts out a year and they cost £50, (although with discounts on a season ticket it's around £43) but i haven't bought a replica shirt now for 8 years and very unlikely too either.
i usually buy a nice t-shirt or a fleece if i like them but rarely buy replica shirts.
it's like people who complain about how much it costs to go to games, and they say stuff like, £4 for a pint, £3 for a programme, £3.50 for a pie etc etc.. but that's your choice to buy those , no one is forced to use the in-ground catering, i usually eat and drink before the game, so i don't need to spend £10-15 on crap food in the ground.

Spot on. The merchandising is vital to clubs these days. It's this additional spend that really helps clubs incomes. At Leeds, IIRC, merchandising revenues are over £2m a year.

If you don't want to buy 3 shirts then don't buy them. I didn't buy any shirts last season, my one from the previous year was fine, it doesn't mean I object to the club bringing a new shirt out each year.

Following RL is not expensive, far from it, however Nottingham Rover is atypical of the tight fisted moaning RL fan that wants tickets for the cost of twopints of beer ootherwise they won't bother. This is typically shown at internationals especially if it's not on their doorstep.A decent wedge of Northern based fans whinge and moan at ticket prices and thus are reluctant to attend unless there is a discount on offer. Its why using two club stadiums and one larger venue is still the best option because we can only just sell out the club stadia never mind places like wembley or the olympic stadium.

It's still going to be a difficult job drawing soccer fans away, its ingrained, similarly to how RL is for most of us. Soccer fans are more likely to watch a local lower league team inbetween going to their preferred top tier club than adopt a long term affiliation to a RL club. That's not to say they wouldnt attend one off games and that clubs shpuldnt try to expand their support but I just can't see any significant swing from soccer circles.

It's a question of selling the game to a new fan base. You have to make the product come alive for them. The point of the Magic Weekend was to promote the game in areas less traditionally associated with RL, but the RFL think that word of mouth is sufficient to market the game. You can't have an event like this and just turn up on the day and say "Hey, we're here, come along" because no one will, most likely because they've already made other plans. The RFL needs people in place in the city for at least a month before the event. You have to make people aware this is coming and what it's all about.

Whilst I agree with people who are saying it's a choice to buy shirts,any one with kids knows that they want the latest everything. It wasn't that long ago that football clubs were being castigated for the constant turnover of new kits, we are heading the same way. I travel to every game I can, currently a 200 mile round trip, am certainly not "tight fisted" having spent god knows how much following rovers for the last 45 years but still feel that fans in general are being pushed to spend more and more. I agree £20 a ticket is good value and said as much in " the big listen", the walk up price is now £25 just on the edge of good value. I don't care about the entertainment of cheerleaders or music( and I have never heard anyone saying that it makes a difference in attendance) I want good rugby and the feeling that as a fan I am valued.