Good post , the home club say pay half towards the cost of the away fans coach travel, would hopefully increase away support who pay into the away ground as spent money both inside the ground and locally in the pubs n eateries etc

Early on in the season you were not only bragging about your attendances, you were trolling about them. Now you're being a bit more realistic.

But let me remind you, you might be competing with Barrow FC. We're competing with Liverpool, Everton, and Manchester United.

And now Celtic Crusaders

And the Runcorn Linnets

They pay up to half of the cost of an adult entrance ticket bought in advance but marketed 3/4 weeks before the game

Put the razor blades away now have we?

What and we dont

your very naive if you dont think loads of folk leave furness to go to see teams like this, we even have folk going to Leeds, Wigan & Bradfut RL sides, as I'm sure you also have.

I never trolled about our attendances just pointed out several times that are are still rising, if you regard that as trolling thats your problem.

Top chart = 2009
Bottom chart = 2010 so far




2010 so far for Champ 1

I don't think you realise just how bad the 'away' attendances are for us as well. Don't forget if Leigh would have been relegated we wouldn't have had any local games this year. The Yorkshire clubs are the ones who benefit from travelling support as they have so many Yorkshire derbies. This is our 5th season in this division and every year most home games for us see about 50 away fans, with the total number of times an away side has brought a decent following is about 5 or 6 - and thats over the 5 years. We haven't really seen a side bring a good following to our stadium for 2 or 3 years now. Even the recent games agianst Leigh have been televised on a Thursday plus Leigh's crowds have also dropped. Far cry from 2006 when in one year we had Hull KR, Leigh and a cup game against Castleford who probably all brought 1,000 or so fans.

Crap really, when you consider we take anywhere between 500-1,000 for weekend games every time.

Remember boxing day 2000

medication

20% drop and the mighty Fax have already invaded the Stobart!

fax invaded and still brought sod all, one day the away end will be opened up

To be completely honest my interest has waned recently...
I have a season ticket and haven't missed a home match yet. I think I have only missed the Salford Friendly and the Sheffield away games this year and had decent reasons for that..
I will, without question, be getting a season ticket next year but I am in no way as excited about this season as I was in previous years.
Even though we have nicked games in the last few minutes, lost games in the last few minutes and have played some genuinely good rugby I still feel a little flat.

I can't quite put my finger on it but I can only think that there isn't really any particular goal for us this year. In seasons gone by it was vital to finish in the top two if not top of the league and then the real excitement would peak going into the play-offs. Each game was about accruing those all important league points and seeing what teams around us had done that weekend.
This year I genuinely think from a performance point of view a top four finish (maybe top 6) would be good enough for what we want to achieve.

Personally speaking I think most of the focus will be on a decision made next year. Following that I think there will either be a carnival atmosphere around the club or it will be just terrible.
If I am feeling this way at the moment then I think it will be quite a struggle to attract some of the stay-aways or new fans.
SOC said when he first arrived.. there are a lot of plans to attract new fans from surrounding areas but it is vital to bringing people in and retaining them that we are in SL.
This competition just isn't that attractive to new fans and we are losing a few people as a result of being in here.

This is the very reason why as Starbug says the championship clubs need to get together and make the Championship a competition in its own right or RL outside of Super Dooper league will wither and die.

25th July

We weren't knocked back because of our ground, we had planning permission to develop it.

We were knocked back because the RFL, under pressure from Sky, wanted London Broncos in Super League.

Maurice Lindsay with the backing of Br*dford, who were fearful of what Keighley and the rise of Cougarmania was doing to their own attendances, changed their rules 4 weeks from the end of the season.

We were sh@ on, and with respect to some of the things that have happened to Widnes over the years, it was the most disgraceful thing to happen in the history of our game. We lost our major sponsor on the back of not going up and the ensuing financial meltdown destoyed our club.

To this day every Keighlian despises everything and anything to do with Br*dford because of what happened.

Don't blame you mate. We all understand the feeling around here. People are constantly being taken advantage of in this sport. And look at Bradford now. They've had their fifteen minutes. Think what could've been for Keighley and where they went afterwards. I remember you lot being strong in this division. You were a pain in the . I hope one day you recover to what you once were.

Extract from the telegraph when Widnes came to Leigh later that season.


"The current Premiership record was set in the reverse fixture at the Auto Quest Stadium on Boxing Day 2000 when 6,644 fans turned out to see Leigh's 25-20 victory. "

We failed to beat to 6644 attendance, but 5670 was good enough for a 'non SL time' Leigh won that one too !

Them were the days when Leigh and Widnes really did pull the fans. Look what non-promotion league has done since ! Lower SL clubs can only dream of those attendances !

I seem to remember a large attendance at Boundary park later that season as well

I recall huge play off gates v Widnes, Oldham at HP.

That semi final v Leigh at HP was delayed for 10 minutes due to crowd congestion. We took over 3,000 to leigh that day and had the away end rocking.

Hey no offence to our fellow Yorkshire sides but we only get 20 to 50 fans maximum from clubs like Batley, Keighley, Dewsbury and Sheffield and that is on the top side sadly, some only bring 10 or 20 which is very sad, what has RL done to itself? So that is not a bonus to us tbh.
The only clubs who have good support outside SL are us (we could do better with a Cup/GF winning team so this year has been a disaster for us so far), Leigh, Fev (when they are on the up like now but too small a place to ever get big crowds) and Widnes.
The Cumbrian teams have too far to travel so don't bring that many even with a winning team.

You are forgetting Leigh and Widnes are by far the best supported away sides in this league. Re last season when we played at Barrow we took a lot more than 100. When you get beat 74-6 most tend to keep their mouths shut.

Bring back promotion and relegation and crowds would go up. Starbugs idea of cheap travel for away supporters is also a very good idea.

You werent there then the other year when Barrow brought around 500 to the Shay ?