Can't be bothered replying to messages right now but I have recieved a reply from the club, our esteemed GM will be releasing a statement with regards to this. Look forward to seeing it.

In fact the e-mail I have recieved in "reply" to my message is pathetic and has addressed nothing that I queried. Perhaps they have their hands tied and are unable to express any thoughts on the matter, which is even worse because I suppose the Union lot have effectively told them to shut up. If any other club did this there would be uproar, alas some people on here are STILL thinking it is acceptable. I'm starting to shift more towards the views of rupe1 right now, as Harlequins Rugby United or whatever it is called is the most one sided, embarrassing, and disrespectful thing I have experienced supporting RL in the South. If anyone wants to go to the RU game and whistle at their goal kicks, inform their players at their lack of skill and relay our feelings towards their fanbase, then PM me.

<edited by Homer>

Listy...I appreciate that this has really got to you...it did me as well when it was announced, but for different reasons. I sympathise with the Saints fans as well as those Quins fans who go to occoasional games and now have to fork out an extra £10...BUT.......naming names of staff who are in no way responsible for this decision is not on. Believe me, I have incurred the wrath of the club, the rfl and the mods on this board over the years, but naming names is a "no no", especially when it is an innocent that incurs your wrath.
The fact is that everything you take for granted on match day, the bars, the bands, the lunches in the jesters, the players being available to chat to...none of this would happen without the efforts of one person. This person works very hard to make things happen and in no way deserves to take flack for this. I have seen this person close to tears with the stress of getting things done. The Xmas event in 2008 was a fiasco, with the bars not cleaned, hundreds of empty kegs just left on the walkway in front of the East Stand and this person mustered troops and got things done.......and at the end of the day the look of stress but relief was quite disturbing. The support from the rest of the "club" was minimal in my opinion and may explain why this event didn't happen this year.
Paul Blanchard on the other hand is the General Manager of the club and it is him that should catch any flack if you feel strongly about this, but be warned, we exist only because of David Hughes, the RFL expansionist plans, possibly SKY TV and the patience of Harlequins Rugby Union.
I hope that you see sense and remove the name from this post..........they really doesn't deserve it.

See my PM for reasoning.

And I'm sorry but I'm not buying into that sob story. I am sure that as one of the more senior members of the club, she is very well paid, and the job title, like I said, comes with a certain level of accountability. If this is completely PB's doing and this is completley out of PW's hands, then fair shout, but the e-mail I recieved was pretty shoddy for a so called OM. I'm not going to share it, you'll have to take my word for it. But the phrase "cop out" springs to mind.

In fact, I see your point GF, but I'm just tee'd off with the reply I got. In fact, I am now pretty sure who is responsbile for this decision, but I didn't think PB would ever bother replying.

What am I even talking about? I bet even PB had no input into this "decision".

Last message. The day I edit out a club employee's name on the basis that their feelings are hurt is the day I stop posting on these forums.

I recall attending an Open Day at The Stoop in September 2005 and the West Stand wasn't quite complete, so presumably no union STs were sold for that stand that season. (The double header would have been Spring 2006 I think.) furthermore the union team were outisde the top division that season so presumably their crowds weren't quite at the same level as now.

I was under the impression the union team comes close to a sell out for most games so I would have thought it a tight squeeze to accommodate our crowd too (especially for a fixture with a larger than average travelling support) without selling some of the same seats separately for the two games.

As for the £25 ticket price for Saints fans including a game of no interest to them - as a matter of principle I think this is wrong. The closest equivalent I can think of would be if our game at Leeds was preceded by a Leeds Tykes match kicking off three and a half hours before our game, with a gap of almost two hours between matches, and we were charged an extra tenner on top of the regular price. It wouldn't stop me from attending if I was going to travel in the first place, but the union game would be of no interest to me whatsoever and I wouldn't be impressed. The earlier suggestion on this thread that different coloured "league only" tickets could have been sold to only admit the bearer after the union game is over sounds logical, but there could be a stewarding/safety issue in directing them to vacant seats as no one would know which union fans intended returning to watch the "free" second game, having paid their usual £25 for their own game.

Other than putting a spin on our average attendance for the purposes of our next licence application I'm beginning to think this whole double header has fewer plusses than minuses and that the union team should ahve arranged their match for the Friday evening or Sunday afternoon instead.

Now all it needs is a double-header programme at a double-header price, double-header car parking charges since the space will be occupied for longer....the list could be endless.

I know a few who wouldn't mind 2 pints for £5

The whole thing is another monumental own goal by the club as far as I'm concerned. For supporters of St. Helens, I have to say on your behalf I am outraged that you are being charged £10 more than every other visiting supporter this season. This season seems to be getting worse and worse on all fronts.

Plus if Saints fans travel by car there is no parking available to them at the Stoop or next door.
I sort of get the impression that the Quins don''t actually want Saints fans... they seem to be putting as many obstacles as they can in the way of watching a good RL match.

This is a valid point - As a Season ticket holder i got a free ticket to watch the union game - this was an allocated seat in the north stand as my usual seat was being used by the union season ticket holder - I'll take up my usual seat before our game.

This did not cost me a penny more than i have already paid which means that i am getting into the double header for a lot less than non season ticket holders and Saints fans.


when i collected my tickets at the salford game i was told that the number of RL season ticket holders who had taken up this offer was very good. which means that there is a demand to see both games from the RL supporters'"

This is the general feeling we are getting amongst some of our fans up here. We are wondering if Harlequins Union are making a statement of "we are in charge". The League fixture was a scheduled one where the Union I believe was a re-arranged one, so we would at least hope that the league fixture would be the first match, but no, the league match has been shoved back to the end of the day.
We were also concerned about the state of the pitch after the union game if the weather is bad with all the line outs, scrums, rucks and mauls.
Other comments was that they would have preferred playing Sunday rather than this invention of a double header. I hope the Union admin have taken on board most of the concerns and show some respect to another mans professional sport.