The figure of 5,242 was announced inside the ground during the game. So quite where Sky's apparent 4k figure you mention came from is beyond me.

That shouldn't detract from the fact that it's still 3,000 short of what we should have been pulling in at the bare minimum.

I am disappointed with the attendance, and disheartened because people at the club must have put a lot of effort into organising everything for last night, and getting the match on in the first place, given the weather. It's just typical that the snow had to come on the day of our first game.

The weather would have been a big deciding factor for a lot of the fringe fans looking to pay on the day, and the attendance has clearly been skewed by the snow. How many people were put off by the snow? Had the attendance been an extra 800 or so to 6000, would it have been so bad? Still disapointing for the first game, but I'd be happy with a 6k average crowd for the season. The next home game will give a better indication of how well we're doing in terms of crowd.

Had it been at the Willows, same weather conditions, still on Sky etc, I think the crowd would have been significantly less than what it was. So at least there was some improvement, although not as much as anyone hoped.

No disrespect to Cas, but traditionally, they would have been one of your lower attendances of the year anyway?

Couple this point with the rotten weather and you still have grounds for optimisim that your crowd numbers will improve.

The visits of Saints/Wigan/Wire/Leeds will surely entice a few more of your casual fans to pay a visit, plus those type of sides will fetch big numbers of their own fans too.....I would imagine for those 4 games, you must be aiming for the 10,000 mark if your marketing team does its job properly.

last years game against cas in the middle of June attracted 3587 fans, so despite the weather and the game being on Sky we got 5242, an increase of 46% any marketing team on earth would be singing from the rafters about such a massive increase.

Anyone who doesn't see that the weather had a massive impact on the attendance is living cloud cuckoo land.
I'd bet that there was a few a people who had bought tickets didn't attend never mind casual/curious fans, that was the coldest I've been stood watching a game and in that I include the midweek Batley game years ago.
Still say that the attempted pre match entertainment last night will be a winner in the summer, the stadium people should be more realistic at this time of year as to what they can achieve.

Agree entirely.....I'm one of the neutrals who isn't totally convinced by the location of your ground, but to judge its potential on last night's showing is a little harsh.

One of your biggest problems is people expecting an immediate 'Warrington' effect to your club....To be fair, we had a decent season in the run-up to our move, leading to a pleasant expectation that things were heading the right way on the pitch. There was also the Simon Moran influence at the club, which also was adding to the general excitement of things.

As I mentioned, I think one of your disadvantages, in comparison to the Halliwell Jones, is the location of your ground. Ours is very central and gives a general feeling of being part of a community....Yours is very much isolated and will require good marketing to get people to feel a 'part' of it.

Personally, I feel its going to be a long road for you, both on and off the pitch, but to be so negative after just 1 game seems a little odd.

Hang on a bit...I take it you never attended any games at Watersheddings in the winter rugby era.?
I was at the Trafford Centre last night picking my son up from work whilst you lot were actually playing and the outside temp was 0.50 centigrade, cold yes but hardly finger numbing as demonstrated by the players on both sides who I thought were a credit to the game of rugby league.
Fact is despite what you want to believe it is a tall ask to increase your crowds up to *k or more just because you are renting a new stadium, it's the product on the pitch which brings the fans in and a constant winning team would help you achieve that.Sadly from your fans point of view you ain't got one.

The "tickets sold but people didn't show up" excuse doesn't wash with me. Any sold tickets have to be declared on the attendance for the purposes of HMRC. That's why you can see football grounds with shedloads of empty seats have a sell-out attendance declared.

We may have gone against the grain, like, and declared an actual attendance as well as giving the full number of tickets sold to HMRC. But it would be highly unusual.

Sorry if this has been said in the thread already but on BBC Manchester Matty Smith said 8000 had been sold by Thursday. When I was picking up my season ticket just before kick off I could see at least 100 season tickets not picked up. If you were coming from further afield than Salford (like my dad) it made sense to watch on sky rather than get on the M60. So maybe they announced the people in the stadium not tickets sold. It took me 2 ½ hours to do a 40 min journey, so well done to the people that did turn up especially those coming over the Pennines.

This is a good point. I've been squashed like a sardine in the midst of huge attendances during the era of winter rugby (Wigan, Saints, Widnes etc.). Barring an impenetrable blizzard or very high winds the weather was never an issue (I refuse to believe the conditions were worse than what you regularly encountered at grounds such as Watersheddings, Thrum Hall and even Cougar Park).

I accept that a few fans were probably put off. But to be thousands down for the opening game at a new stadium suggests the people charged with running the club dropped the ball.

don't forget we are going back 15 years or more a lot of people who watch rugby league might not have been going in the winter and are summer fans. I know how cold it used to be playing up in Oldham in the late 70's and early 80's but we also had caning in the past as well, our new breed of fan will want the comforts of home and snow and cold don't make it a nice experience.

I know the attendance given at the game wasn't the true figure for a fact! I phoned the club shop today about my season ticket having the wrong seat number on it and apparently hundreds of season ticket holders seats were double sold, the guy in the shop said when they sold seats to season ticket to be holders they marked off the seat numbers so they could not be asked for again, they thought it was all under control until countless people had to be moved into spare seating as the stadium ticket office didn't take any notice of the marked off seat numbers sold to season ticket holders.
Makes you wonder what the actual attendance was?

Your turnstiles will be electronically counted, so any ' double ' sales wouldnt make any difference , 4,000 odd with probably your corporate sales all hiding in the bar

15 years is not THAT long of a time. I accept that many new fans will have replaced some of the older ones since then. But a good proportion of those "veterans" will still be around. In any case - I'm not entirely convinced by the idea that supporters gathered over the past decade are somehow soft. Why should a match that was appealing, say, ten years ago be any less appealing today? And let's be honest - the opening match to a new season in a brand new stadium is about as appealing as it gets.

15 years is 3X5 : as a rule of thumb, society changes by a great deal every 5 years. Therefore it is a long time. Think of what were common activities 10 years ago: remember videos, pubs, going to sports (outside football). Not Sky+, supermarker beer at home, and wall - to - wall sports on demand in the home.
Disagree: basing any marketing for a fringe sport, such as Rugby League, on what would have been acceptable 5/10/15 years ago is doomed.