I agree on this. Away support is a massive part of gameday, the saints and wire games at home are our best games because we get good away support, this makes the atmosphere better and more people go the game.

It would also be great if clubs would look at their own home support and actually do something about their shocking figures. The Wigan marketing team are working their socks off and are seeing real results. Every other club should do the same.

I'd be very interested to see a combined 'league table' of all three divisions clubs. Is there one about.

Why oh why do people still harp on about away following ?

The majority of games now appear to be played on a Friday night. Friday nights are not going to attract vast numbers following their teams away from home. Even within counties as roads are simply clogged. The M62 is a mare over Friday tea time.

Quins fans are hardly likely to travel in big numbers on a Friday. It can take 2 - 3 hours just to get out of London let alone travel up the M1 / M6 / A1.
I am sure every one of us would love to say we watch our teams home and away every match but its not going to happen. Anyone with a job and a family is going to struggle to give up that much time week in week out.

It is though up to clubs to promote their teams in order to attract local support. Wigan as has been mentioned seem to do well. Hull FC have maade massive strides since 2002 in attracting more support. Wire the same. What have they in common? Decent stadiums. Its no coincidence.

I am sure Saints and Salford will attract more when their stadiums are built. Its the only way. Hull have done it with very expensive ticket prices, but they have had to work hard. Its not as if the product on the field has been that good.

I do now believe though that its time to reward clubs who are going the extra mile and posting profits and developing the game, even those in the heartlands.

Thats great news for Oldham.
The Wakey - Leigh love in continues!

The Wigan marketing team probably have a bigger budget to work from. The other smaller clubs don't.

The whole idea of marketing is to MAXIMISE PROFITS. Extra efforts in marketing would hopefully make MORE money.

Cheaper tickets for certain games
Leaflets
Posters
Announcements in the ground
Advertisements on the website
Packages sent to season ticket holders

Do they really cost that much money?

The Wigan marketing team have used these to great effect.
I agree our marketing team has more money, we will be bringing out an advert for the big one on granada on the 2nd of July, other clubs can't do that, but they can do the basics.
I see little effort from most other clubs in super league, that includes shockingly some of the big teams and also the teams who need people through the gate the most.

Our marketing team also held a rugby festival last week which resulted in 14k home fans and also the enjoyment and development of young rugby players accross Wigan.

They marketed the Quins game as the St Georges day game and offered group discounts. 18k home fans.

Last year the big one against Leeds had tickets for £5 and £10. 18k home fans.

The same thing will be done this year for the wire game. It will be a sell-out.

Other than paying for an advert on granada which will cost alot, please tell me what really costs so much more so that other clubs cannot do it? Also, there are other clubs who make more money than Wigan at the moment... Leeds, Wire and Hull, why are they not helping lead the way for the rest of rugby league?

Ian Lenegan hopes to have a 20k average in the next 5 years. Other clubs seem happy getting below 10k on a regular basis.

To conclude, marketing should be a massive part of the game but sadly at the moment it is not, it has been proved time and time again, the grand final and challenge cup final did not even sell-out last year and the attendances for internationals are shocking. Untill we start taking marketing seriously in this sport like RU do, we will also be a small game who the majority don't care about.

Are we doing away teams a favour though? Their was quite a good crowd of KR fans at Warrington on Friday, but were asking people to go the length of the M62 on a Friday night and be at a ground for circa 7.30. That means setting of at around 5.30. It clashes with people's work commitments.

I understand that we're dancing to Sky's tune but a sunday 3pm game would always be my preference

Could be worse, they could have faced the same sort of issues as Leeds fans who found that having booked their train tickets to Quins on Sunday the kick-off was moved back two hours at Sky's request.

No there wasnt! I counted them for the other thread! About 140 there were

I think 140 is a bit harsh! More 500.

Still 500 isn't a great following but considering all circumatance's, holiday season, world cup on TV, game on Sky etc i wasn't all that dissapointed by KR's turn out

Never in a million years, I seriously counted them due to the thread debate I was having with Roofs on here. There was so little of them that I did it in about 40 seconds. It was 140 give or take, there could have been a few dotted elsewhere and I saw a couple in the south stand
You're forgetting Warrington fans stand in that end but were stood a bit separate from the KR lot

Is this the same Dico that insists it is impossible to count away fans?



I think we should be told!

touche.
It would be unfair to count in this way as I 'could' have made an error, especially over a couple of thousand. As it stands I didn't, maybe the RFL could pay me to implement the idea. I'd be like the Rainman

Im fairly sure all clubs do look at their figures for crowds and do their best to maximise them. Wigan are helped by the fact there top of the league and have only lost two games.

I bet they got an even worse surprise when they found the game had been played the previous evening

What about 2008 and 2009 we were rubbish.

Wigan's average crowd fell in each of those years

From 2007 which was a great year for crowds due to playing saints at home twice and wire in the first game.

Wigans marketing helps them no end but because of the salary cap and the fact they have massive crowds they have a lot more disposable income than most teams.

Wigan are in a great situation really

Quite possibly. Lenagan has stated on a number of occasions that the rental agreement with we have with the Stadium Company is mind blowing such is the low amount. He mentioned (at the fans forum after the playoff saga) that despite all our thoughts re: Dave Whelan, he would not allow him to be bad mouthed such was generosity of the deal.

That kind of blew away the supporters suggestions of a separate stadium right away. It must be pretty good then.

HaHaHa........and you wonder why Quins never bring any away fans except the 30 or so hardy travellers

5.30 to get to a Friday night game means that your average 9 to 5 worker is fine......try taking half days every second week to get to a Friday game, booking hotel rooms at the same time as the trains stop early up north...or driving back and getting to bed at some ungodly hour having not had a beer........5.30 departures are a luxury to London fans.....

This is my point. We're not giving the 'distance' teams a fighting chance. Sky dictates our sport.... end of! It's come to a point where the tail is wagging the dog. We need bums on seats to promote our game, especially for Crusaders and Harlequins, as developing teams

They really should arrange the fixtures so that we always get the best possible games to promote the sport. Common sense would say that when Crusaders play on a friday night they should play Saints, Wigan and Warrington. Same for teams like Hull, give them a fighting chance of pulling in a crowd and give away fans a chance to get there.

Isn't that a bit unfair?

Crusaders cant even beat a side like Harlequins so how are they going to manage playing 3 of the better teams at the same time on a Friday night?