Common sense from the youngster.

We're all different people with different commitments
time
location
outgoings
commitments
without trying to willy-measure against each other, about being a "true fan".
I don't consider myself any more a fan than someone who's only been watching us for a year or two, even though I've been watching since the late 70's and have literaly been there and bought the (replica) t-shirt.

The only breed of fan I consider myself "superior" to, is the one who turns up and has his/her back to the action for 80 mins, and has their eyes transfixed to a mobile phone (although the club are grateful for their cash). As a Tory MP might have said this week "Plebs".

I was baffled the attendance was SO low. I know about the finances argument and also that some people don't like the playoffs format. But I paid £26.50 + £5 for me and my son to go in the North Stand and watch the U20s beat Saints and then the 1st team get to within 1 win of our first trip to the SL final in our last home game of the season. I do agree the RFL need to look at engaging the fans and more ticket deals, but I thought we got a bargain!

That doesn't really make sense though. If you know you will attend 9 home games, then you'll pretty much be getting them for the same price, albeit you'll have paid up front. But then you'll be helping the club and getting all the ST perks you seem to begrudge not getting. So why not just get a ST?

I think it's absolutely fair enough that people didn't go. I ended up going myself but had real doubts whether I could justify it when potentially you're shelling out for tickets 4 weeks in a row (5 if you went to Widnes away). This coming after the Wembley trip and the general state of things and it's no suprise that people would give this one a miss (families especially, regardless of your £5 kids ticket offer) when, if we're being honest, we were strong favourites. It was always highly likely we'd win AND it was on the telly. I'm sure the 'armchair fans' would ideally have been there but ideally I'd be giving it to Megan Fox tonight.

I struggle with all this 'them and us' between the loyal, hard core true fans, and the bandwagon jumping glory hunters. If you consider yourself, by whatever arbitrary standards you apply, to be in the former camp, why would you hold anything against those in the latter? These success seeking Johnny come latelys are putting money into the club you adore, which can be no bad thing, at no hindrance to you. It's not like proper fans are missing out on tickets cos of corporate fat cats or fly by night fans now is it? And do these extra fans somehow drag down the atmosphere when they turn up?

If the 7,000 who went last night were the only ones who turned up every week or bought season tickets would they or the club be better off? And what's wrong with picking and choosing which games you want to go to?
I just don't get it.

The Extrodinary ad is superb but has anyone seen it on telly ? Has anyone seen any promotion of the playoffs on telly or anywhere else non rugby league people might become aware there re playoffs going on ? I rarely even see results on a sky News, the very organisation that pays for super league.
Marketing of our great sport is awful. Eddie calls it the best kept secret.
What an indictment !
It must change or we won't have a sport for my kids.

It was pretty obvious who was going to win (no disrespect to Hull) judging by the relative strength of the two squads and the fact that TS would have fired up the team after the Saints match, so people are saving their cash for next week and hopefully the GF. Fair play really.

We are such a strong side now that there is unlikely to be the same passion of bygone days; people know that we can just turn up to 80% of our games and win (like against Hull), whereas next week will be a challenging fixture, so those who may have stayed away this week will be clamouring for a ticket.

I said this last week.

Include 1/2 playoff games in your ST price. If your team doesn't make the cut or only plays one playoff game, you can then use it as discount in your club store off jerseys, next years ST, etc.
EDIT - Forgot to mention this would increase your ST price by £40 for example so the kitty which is split at the end of the playoffs is not affected financially.

This way we'd more or less have sellouts in each round with ST holders for both home and away support only having to pay for travel.

Interesting Topic. Apologies for the long post..

My situation

My name is Ian 77 Redux; and I didn't go the PlayOff game.

My wife works shifts and started work at 6am on the day. I looked after our little boy all day and she returned from work around 4pm. It didn't seem fair to ask her to take over baby duties at that time, particularly as that's the "busy" part of the day, so, on the basis that it was a) a bit harsh to shoot off the second she arrived b) essentially a Quarter Final and c) it was on TV, I didn't go.

For the avoidance of doubtCrap Crowds

As for the solution to crap crowds, it's a sympton of the way the sport is set up. Using us as an example, about 75% of our home games are ST holders (as am I). They pay their money up front and and then don't have to fork out for another season for home SL games. People aren't geared to paying for one off home matches, especially when they can catch the game on TV.

Not sure including the price of a PO game in ST would help really because, if memory serves, the competing PO teams split the revenue. You might get better crowds but it would cannibalise sales and clubs might get less money as a result. Dirty little secret is - our game is financially stretched, we need to do whatever breathes cash into clubs, even if, peversely, it puts less bums on seats come PO time.

Our club

Discounts and mega cheap tickets have been mentioned. Our club is ran well enough that, if this made any financial sense at all, we'd be doing it. If the club thought they could get the same £ with a 10,000 crowd paying less than a 7,000 they'd be doing it.

One suggestion that might work, and again, they know more about running a professional sports team than I do so they've probably thought it through and discarded it, but, having finished top 2, and with 2 guaranteed home PO games, I wonder if some sort of package along those lines would have helped? Then again, I suppose it's hard to do when you don't know which week you'll be playing.

I just couldn't be bothered going.

If that's true, then don't moan if one day there isn't a club to support.
No offence personally but that attitude will kill off our game and we'd be the much poorer for it.

Does this mean i dont get to wear a t-shirt saying number 1 supporter on it?

Wasn't it the discounting of tickets that put Bradford on a slippery slope ?

I don't know but if it was it was season tickets. We're essentially talking about discounting for a maximum of 2 games.

Tickets shouldn't be discounted in my opinion, it's meant to be the pinnacle of the season, and what all those cheap games that went beforehand have been leading up to.

I know it's hard for a lot of people financially, but are a lot of RL fans just inherently tight compared to those of other sports? And is there the same passion amongst most supporters compared to say football fans for instance?

I'm not sure about the answers to these questions, would be interested to see what others think.