Saints Fall from last year was entirely predictable.

2nd year syndrome. Was always going to be a big drop off. If we can hold at around 12k for 2 or 3 years then we will start to pick up again.

Obviously on field helps. Having a season of better away performances, does not encourage the home support.

In the end each club has to make it's own fan's turn up.

[uAssumption: £30 loss of revenue per lost fan compared to last season (by club)[/u
Leeds = £42,510 gain
Widnes = £16,530 loss
Wakefield = £28,890 loss
Hull = £71,700 loss
Catalan = £109,770 loss
Castleford = £137,340 loss
Hull KR = £138,180 loss
London = £195,600 loss
Warrington = £226,650 loss
Wigan = £430,500 loss
Huddersfield = £539,040 loss
Salford = £775,200 loss
St Helens = £939,000 loss
Bradford = £989,700 loss
------------------------------------------------
Revenue Loss Subtotal = £4,555,590
Magic Weekend Loss = £50,220
Revenue Loss Total = £4,605,810
------------------------------------------------

Even Sky are exasperated and mystified by the lack of support. I'll say it again - we might think we understand why people do or don't go to games but we don't really know. What we desperately need is for clubs to commission proper research. This is more complex than just putting out a survey - it requires lots of skill to get right, because survey results can be totally misleading. An important part of research is to 'catch people in the act' of non-attendance and find out there and then *exactly* why they didn't go. You'll find the 'live' reasons are often more mundane ( "kids are tired and kick off too late", "buses aren't on", etc) but more honest than if you just send out a survey and give people time to think up a reply (when you're more likely to get an analysis of the club or sport, but frankly, not the truth as to what's keeping them away). Obviously there's going to be a ton of factors. Playoffs, P&R, etc may well come up as important - if they do, then the clubs are armed with data with which to lobby the RFL for changes ( or not ).

Or you can hire a marketing bloke from Manchester city who likes cartoons

Lol, good point. "Not enough cartoons" has been the biggest whinge I've heard ever since Superleague started. Seriously though - that's exactly the point - marketing looks completely random to me. Maybe it's not, maybe 'cartoons' was identified as The Thing To Do, but I'd be more inclined to think it was just "somefink wot I thought up over the weekend"

Your not taking into account season ticket deductions v increased on the gate takings.

For example my clubs season ticket sales are down 1000 this year but crowd avg is only down 500. This means there are on avg 500 people paying on the gate prices who previously paid discounted season ticket prices. Meaning losses not as bad as may seem.

Giants have probably had more income this season than last fwiw

-20% attendance
+100% cost of season tickets...

Indeed, Wakefield ST's went up by 25% on last season and we have only seen a 10% drop in attendances.

Ditto for Bradford

Out of interest, what is the £30 per fan assumption comprised of?

Bad guesswork! Avg ticket price is probably close to 15-20 pound when you take into account Jnr's, students, concessions, cheapest stands, season ticket discounts and offers during the season.

Yeah but that would be realistic and not the worst case scenario that Mr Eve likes to paint.