Don't know if anyone saw this but apparently Man U don't quite tell the truth about their attendances. They regularly announce 75,000+ but according to police figures the attendance is never more than 65,000+. This means that every week at least 10,000 people buy tickets and don't bother to attend. For premier league matches £30-£52 is the range of United tickets.

Simply put price is not a factor. If people are willing to pay at least £30 to not see Man Utd play Soccer (no jokes please) then they are buying them simply to have "Manchester United tickets". The problem is with perception and desire. RL has no profile on a national scale. It's not a sport to be seen at. It's not a sport that has celebrities or the Prime Minister claiming to have been a lifelong fan of X club and turning misty eyed in reminiscence at watching a player who retired before they were born.

Until the profile of the sport as a whole improves then the club is fighting a uphill struggle. Particularly as we have 4 professional and 8 semi professional clubs within spitting distance all fighting for the same fanbase.

ATEOTD it is down to the people and the fans to show they want a Superleague club. £24 is not a lot to watch the premier RL competition in the Northern Hemisphere. If the people of Huddersfield can't afford that then KD should pull his money out and sod off cos there is no way the club can function charging any less. You don't need to look at the books to tell that, it's simple maths. £1.85 million to pay the players wages. That's 5929 people paying £24 every week. 7489 paying £19 every week. Or 9626 people buying a season ticket at £199. The club isn't a charity it doesn't exist to provide cheap, affordable RL to people, it exists to try and not lose as much money as possible (making money would be better but few sporting organisations do that). I know it sounds harsh but if you can't afford then you are no use to the club. Filling seats isn't a priority, raising cash is. Look at Bradford yeah get 10,000 to buy cheap season tickets, have 15,000 season ticket holders, doesn't help you when someone calls in your debt and you've no cash to pay it. Ken Davy has been urinating money against the wall for nigh on 15 years for this club and he wasn't even born anywhere near here. I think it isn't too much for him to ask the fans and people of Huddersfield to shoulder a little of this burden themselves.

There has to come a time in every businesses life when yo have to ask "Are we connecting with our customer base and can we continue to function in our current form?" I don't think that time has quite come but if things don't improve in the next year or so then we may no longer have a Superleague team to want.

All fair points

But surely the first question is "why aren't we?"
As I said in my last post there is close to zero advertising in the town centre, even if your a fan of the game you have to go and look for details on the next home game

It should be common knowledge but it isn't

agree

£99 for a season ticket this year behind the posts...not even £8 a game it works out at. so people moaning about the £24 pay on gate (or £21 pre purchase) should of thought about the £99 offer if they really wanted to watch the giants but do they?

ok money is tight for everyone but its the same for all clubs.

Again, not if no one knows about it

Every man and his dog knows when Man U are playing (and town for that matter) but not the Giants

Price IS an issue, no matter what you say though.

Where could they advertise in Town though?

Genuine question. When I go to town I tend to go for one reason. I go in, get what i want and drive off. I couldn't tell you what half the shops where anymore and I couldn't really say where you could advertise.

There used to be small posters in newsagents in town. Some of the hairdressers used to have posters up. I think there's one at Sainsburys in Shorehead but that may be my fevered imagination. I call there every morning as well but I can't remember if it's there or not. Advertisers dream I am, I notice absolutely nothing of my immediate surroundings. There also used to be posters on buses I seem to remember before buses became too expensive and I had to buy a car.

Little fliers in shops are a start - even if its just the shop staff that know that's something

Plenty of Greggs & other food places in town now to advertise in

5600 at today's game... this is appalling

Yes it was, I was genuinely surprised at that gate, thought there'd be nearer 7k at least

A few hundred less rovers fans this year than last though didn't help

Making people aware there is a game on would be a start

maybe its just rugby league in general that doesnt get exposure, football is king, was the semi final on tv today so bet some stayaways watched that instead

Pathetic Crowd = Huddersfield obviously doesn't want a successful Super League Team. Mr Davy deserves massive credit for what he has done and I feel so sorry that he gets let down by the frankly apathetic Huddersfield public.

Probably true Brierly

I understand that attendances across ALL sports including soccer are well down this season

We are 4 years into an economic depression that's not going to get better soon, and it's really starting to bite now it seems. I hope Ken realises its not they don't want Super League rugby, just that people need to make a choice with their money in these tough times

There are probably a score of other reasons going on too - like last seasons dismal end and people waiting for the wheels to fall off, end of the soccer season and its overwhelming coverage, people generally cutting back on spending, shocking weather so far, chopping and changing of kick off times by Sky etc etc

What can be done?
Lots of things that take money (publicity, promos etc)
The team to grab headlines in a good cup run & a big seasons end (which helps more next season)

I don't know, there is interest in the town, harnessing it is the problem

marketing of the club,advertising games etc is absolutely non existant.
if more people knew about us and therefore knew we were 2nd in the league then more might turn up?rather than the diehards who would be there anyway.

they used to advertise games on the pulse radio has this stopped now.. not cheap though.

FWIW in the time i was at the turnstiles today, approaching them, talking to a friend, going through, talking to another friend -7-8 minutes maybe, i watched and not one person actually paid any money to get in .....whether that is saying something i dunno but if people arent payin cash to get in then it seems that they aren't willing to part with £24 for a game, granted they could have pre-bought but in the past there has always been people paying cash when i've gone through.

As for advertising i agree about there being very little if none in and around the town. The amount of time i have been stopped by people asking have the Giants played today ? suggests there is interest but no one seems to know about us ...this is something that needs addressing, maybe people with time on their hands could hand flyers out or something in town - i know i would do something like this.

Bradford only had 4200 crowd more than us and they were playing Wigan, who take 4 times more supporters to away games than HKR brought.
When Bradford have less than 10000 and they are 3rd in the league, and have had a lot of success in the not too distant past, we are not doing so bad.
Compared to other clubs, Wigan, Leeds, Hull are all down in crowds this season so we are not on our own, it is the state of supporters finances that is the main problem and all clubs will just have to ride the storm whilst things improve.