Although a new ground would certainly help it's the on field product you have to sell first and foremost, there's a classic example not 5 mile NE of Bellevue, when they were in the doldrums under Millward and their crowds dropped, they didn't return under the promise of a new stadium they've flooded back with the team and it's brand of rugby.

I know quite a few people who no longer go down to Bellevue for various reasons' none of which has anything to do with the state of the old ground or any apathy to the club, and I doubt any Wakefield Trinity fan whose ever called himself that, would ever dream of going to watch Cas or Leeds or Bradford, hopefully the club is now going down the right path with a bit of success on the field, but that's just the start, I could go on but you know yourself the problems we face and what hard work lies ahead to be a success but even if we overcome all that personally I'm not sure if there is enough interest in RL out there, just as a matter of interest, apart from our cousins and maybe KR how many other club has kept their attendances level never mind increased them.

We've never had particularly good support in recent (ish) history, from the 70's onwards, if my memory serves me correctly even the season we got to Wembley our average was only 6 and a 1/2 thousand.

I agree totally about "true" fans but, all those new faces at Cas have to come from somewhere and they will be a mixture of lapsed fans, some new faces who go along out of curiosity and a substantial number of "glory" supporters, attracted by their newfound success.

One of our group lives in Normanton and in years gone by, there was a fairly even mix of Cas and Trinity "fans" milling around on match day but, now, it's nearly all turned orange so, while I take your point that true supporters would never swap allegiance, there are still plenty that seem happy to do so.

You can tell how fickle people are when you see Man City and Chelsea "fans" in Wakefield.
Pretending that they are lifelong fans when a bit of success comes along



In the height of Bullmania, there were scores of people in Wakefield driving to Odsal with their cars all dressed up, strangely, you dont see that anymore.

There must be quite a few others, like myself, who also watch football and are season ticket holders as well, with Barnsley, Huddersfield even Leeds, its not a cheap hobby to watch both.

I don't know how it works now for season ticket holders as I haven't had one at Barnsley since 2007, but after they won promotion at the end of 2015, back into the championship, they started with that Cat. a,b,c, mullarky, which we'd never had before, which all adds up and makes it quite expensive for non ST holders, hope it never creeps into our game.

I'm a season ticket at both BelleVue and Oakwell and have been for years, hence my alias on this forum. I still think that with a bit of work there are potential Trinity supporters in the Barnsley area to be attracted. My alternative choice of temporary home would be Oakwell but it appears that the club don't want us there.

Category a,b,c, matches were on the go at Oakwell long before the 2015 play off final chissitt

My concession season ticket at Oakwell works out at £8.26/mtach which, surprisingly, is a lot less than Belle Vue.

Ah! didn't know that, as I said my last season was the 2007/8 and was a ST till then so I wouldn't really have known, lost all interest in the game and apart from the odd reds game on telly never watch football at all now, our young un went last week against Sunderland and it was £27 as a non ST holder.

Yes, following more than one sport can be costly, especially if it is the whole family that follow it like we do. I too am a Barnsley fan, but have had to curb my finances, so as RL is my number one sport, I have a Trinity season ticket, and watch Barnsley every so often.

Consistent success and a new stadium would increase the crowds steadily, as that is human nature, but dont think the increase would be huge.

I have said before, and will say again, a lot of it is about marketing the club and giving the fans incentives on memberships, to increase crowd numbers.

Thursday and Friday games causing people to miss and costs of season tickets put fans off. Mini season tickets could remedy this. Other SL clubs do it successfully.

Another is a packages to incorporate replica shirts. I know some on here will moan that I am constantly bigging up.my wifes team, but they have done this, and have an average crowd this year, of around 7000. Not bad for a relegated club. They also, like us have a big rivalry with a bigger neighbouring club. There is also in Hull a professional football team.

One bit of marketing that could be done, is taking down members post codes, to see if there are any areas in the district that seem to be staying away and any that are, do some marketing in that area with extra incentives.

Fortunately at Huddersfield this season it's all season tickets for obvious reasons, mine cost £94 . Works out at roughly £4.50 a game so I'm fortunate to have the luxury of both season tickets, again like someone posted earlier, success goes a long way to encourage bums on seats, oh , not forgetting the £200,000,000 bonus which helps. Here's hoping our success will encourage a few more to BV.

Cas tried the "membership scheme" and scrapped it after 1 season. Basically where you could either get a full session ticket, half, or two games. It's really risky. Hence it being scrapped

Yes, you do get folk buying the 2 game one who might have stayed away.

But on the other hand you get fans who have committed to season tickets for years then starting to pick and choose games. Well within their rights but it does cost the club.

Not only that, the few who buy the "2 game" one would probably have gone to those two games and paid full price anyway.

I stopped getting a cas season ticket 3 years ago, as I can't make half the games.... but I still go to 5/6 games at home every year when I can, and I would do that regardless of the introduction of a "half season" ticket.

For me, I'd look at really chopping the "pay on the gate" price for kids.

Growing up I never got bought a season ticket cause my dad doesn't go much any more so I wouldn't have anyone to take me. He treated me to games even less when you're looking at the casual fan, as I was as a kid, having to pay about 50 quid to get a parent and two kids into a rugby game.

Families will just take their kids bowling or to the cinema instead.

It's the spontaneous "kids, you fancy going to watch the rugby" scenario that I think clubs could do more for.