As I stood in the South with my golfing friend at the fag end of last season I asked my usual question; "so how many do you think are here today ?". He is a glass half full man, I'm a glass half empty. So he looks around and says 15,000. I make a suck through my teeth noise, similar to when you ask a plumber to give you a quote for a repair, and say "nah, more like 2,500". Since some of the crowd were playing terrace football with plastic beer cups during the less spectacular phases of play, (which to be fair was probably 80 minutes of the game), I reckoned the huge gaps on the South probably made my guess the closest. In the event, the crowd was announced as 7,800 ish which I thought was very good considering our dire season. What I had forgotten of course, was the fact that they add in the season ticket holders regardless of whether they turn up or not. In reality I suspect there were only around 5,500 in the stadium, but it does go to show how important ST sales are for the club and why they like the money up front before the season starts.

Anyway, by my maths, 2015 was the third year in a row that attendances have dropped at the HJ. 2013 to 2015 have recorded falls of 7.2%, 7.0% and 2.9%. In order to get the numbers for 2015 I added the 11 regular season games to the 3 home S8 games and then divided the total attendance by 14 to give the average of 9,602. In 2014 the average attendance was 9,889, hence the fall is 2.9%. I hope I got that right, now that I am pushing 85 yrs old my mental arithmetic is sometimes a bit iffy. Our best attendance was against Salford 11,864 (surprisingly) and our worst Wakefield 8,036.

So with our first home game just around the corner it will be interesting to see how many we get. Certainly it will be squeaky bum time for Mr Draper after all the hard work he has put in. Not to mention the few quid SM has laid out for new players.

Well I'm guessing it will be fairly high on Sunday, one because of the result last week and two because it is a Sunday game.

The club seems to have put in a great effort to whip up enthusiasm and we have had a very very good week after the Leeds game. We must spend a fortune. The efforts deserve a big response from the public. Let's hope eh!

They may be falling but go back further than 6 years and they're still positive numbers. 2011-13 was our high point attendance-wise (I think?) due to onfield success, but despite the two dire seasons since then the attendance is still averaging around 9k.

I reckon we'll go up to 10.5k average this year if we stay up there..

I expected a bigger drop than that for last season to be honest... our season was basically over after the Semi final defeat...
The split will make it difficult to compare season to season, as the teams in the split may be different, as may the number of games.
Hopefully the Super 8s will be more than a dead rubber for us this season.

I'm making the trip up from Hatfield, my first home game, so that's more more they have attracted. Like most sports it's a results business, if the team plays well usually the attendance will be higher. Where is best place to park?

I'm with vespid in expecting an overall increase this season and would be disappointed if attendances continued to fall as would the club, worrying as the attendance decline has been it was no real surprise hopefully that has been addressed with the new players and new commitment shown by the club.

That's the spirit Hatfield have a good trip.

I hope that you have a great trip up 'Hatty'.

I drive, but, only from Manchester and park near St Benedict's Church off Orford Lane. I don't know how well you know Warrington, but, it's a 5 minute walk back to HJ and generally not a bad route back to the M62 through Birchwood (road works atm)....just don't pinch my spot.

Regarding attendances I think we as a town should be doing better to support the club and SM. The great turn out at Leeds is testament to the fact that there is interest and passion here, I hope that with good performances we might get back on an upward trend

I hope the Warrington public respond and start to fill the stadium. I went into the new club shop today and got a Hardwired membership (the one with the three ticket package which is a great option at £54 tbh) and it is impressive the improvements that have been made off the pitch.

Seems we are setting a new standard for the game as a whole and fingers crossed the team can back up last weeks desire and enthusiasm going forward in the next set of fixtures.

I'm bringing my two kids up for their very 1st game this weekend..can't wait. Its a long journey for us..but happy to do it!

On the field success + a really good match day experience = increasing average attendances

...its not rocket science!

Yes ...its a long walk!

Marketing overall within rugby league is shambolic and light years behind other sports.
Wire as a club have made some positive changes of late but improving on this recent progress consistently Year on year is required. Direct input from fans should support this agenda

Could a major point be that with so many large employers in town on varying shift systems that quite a lot of fans are at work when the matches are being played.