The crowd today was pathetic for a side in 4th spot that could have gone 2nd. Whats the problem - the Ground certainly is not inviting, particularly for families with young children and a new stadium will undoubtably help - but what do we need to do now to increase attendances.

I get the impression that we think the fans will just come along and that they should but we are in the entertainment business, we have to attract them to come down in the first place. How do we do that ? I don't have the answer as I'm not a marketeer but we must go out and market the club.

A while back I recall Castleford gates were not brilliant and they brought in I believe a married couple from Cronulla, they may have been called McDonald and they shook up the way the club was marketed and improved attendances dramatically. Peter Deakin (now sadly departed) shook up Bradford, Warrington and a rugby union club, it may have been Saracens. OK Huddersfield's announcement regarding season tickets was OTT but the principle was spot on and they are averaging over 9,000 from gates that were no better than ours.

As I have said I'm not a marketing man but it can be done. Come on Trinity look at what can be done, incentives, entertainment, giving free tickets to schools. We appear to have an improving team but falling gates, you have to speculate to accumulate, please get it sorted.

I cant believe there was only 5500 today - i mean i actually dont believe it... Putting it like this, was there half the crowd there was for the relegation battle between Castleford a couple of seasons back ?? I dont think so - you cant tell me that we could have doubled the crowd today ?? - there looked to me more than against Bradford the week before... Are we just counting the turnstyle paying tickets and not advanced tickets ?? A lot of ppl go throught the bar area now with there matchday ticket bought in advance plus there is the matchday and junior teams who come along also... I just think the announced attendances are embarrising when clearly there is more... Ive been to that ground years and you get a good feel of the crowd attendance - the numbers dont add up apart from the figures to the tax man !!

As I have stated before, at the Doncaster Road entrance the 'security' open then large gate to admit people and I assume that these are not included in the ' figures. I also feel that this is open to abuse.

Im no acountant,but i thought you only paid tax if you make a profit.

Therefore unless we are making profits - which i doubt - therefore would be little to gain from fiddling the gates.

Plenty of gaps along the sides today...

Gaps - Some of barmy army did not turn up today! So atmosphere not as good as normaly but was still ok ish.

Thought it looked ok from pic though. Any of the other side?

I went to the 1st game of last season, i think it was Bradford and you couldnt move inside we had to stand on the stairs near the burger bar as it was that crammed. Then they annouced the crowd as something like 7000.

Also last season against Oldham in the challenge cup it announced the attendance as somewhere about 5000 then there was an annoucement saying it was a mistake and there eas only something like 2000

Hate to think this but have we lost any potential fans to Huddersfield they had a fantastic season ticket offer and their gates are well up

Our offer was very poor it did not give much incentive to any new season ticket holders

I always had the feeling that £18 into Belle Vue would bite us on the backside and looking at our gates this season it could be one of the main reasons for the drop off

You should know SBR never makes anything up he's a man of Science!

Marketing ! Price !

I see these usual suspects are being mentioned again as the reason for the poor attendance.

Listening to Ridings on saturday the game was advertised and got plenty of air time and as far as price was concerend the 2 games for £25 made it a very good offer.

I am not saying we can't do things better but the game did have it a bit going for it yesterday and who knows without the offer it could have been 4500

15% VAT maybe? Say 1,000 knocked off the official gate, so I reckon thick end of £3k saved, thats if you do pay VAT on it, which I assume you do. Extrapulated over the season I suppose you could pay for a fairly tasty player for the year.

My take on the attendance.

I can’t concur with the chapster who said the ground looked empty. It wasn’t brimming but their certainly appeared to be more there then the pre 2007 5.5K attendances. My estimation was at least 6.5k.

However, reasons for this escape me as I too see no advantage of Wakefield undercooking the attendance, especially in this period of franchise points. I know a 10k average is a million miles away but improving attendances could be looked upon favourably when deciding a close call between two C clubs which at this rate is what the club will remain to be.

I’m of the impression that this season the advanced tickets are not factored into the attendance for what ever reason. Of course I have no proof of this and I have no idea why this tactic would be employed because all that it will do is damage peoples’ perception of the Wakefield club. We all know that mud sticks and with more attendances like this we will be seen as a poor club who can not generate interest while 7 miles up the road our main rivals pull in an 8K average.

£18 is a problem. It is quite clearly far too expensive for a casual supporter at the best of times never mind when people are tightening up the belts. The ground is poor but it’s the same ground as 2007 where we saw a steep increase in home support. I would like to see some sort of bring a friend season ticket scheme for all of the home games but I fear all that would happen is that season ticket holders would bring someone who would attend regularly anyway.

Presence in the City Centre in the run up to the match could help. A mobile van on the precinct through the week before a home match with games and prizes plus ticket sales would put the club under peoples’ noses.

Use partners like Subway. Have tickets for sale at a discounted rate when you buy a Sub meal (or something similar).

Invite all junior clubs with the district to feature as pre-match entertainment.

Small measures may make a difference. I'm sure things like this will have already been looked at but something needs to be done.

Undercooking by 1000 per match would net the club approx 30k over the year.
Cant really imagine they would risk the wrath of HM custom for that gain.

However i do agree that there seemed to be more in than 5500.