I'll give you a clue Rich, it's not Archduke Franz Ferdinand whose assassination triggered WW1, although I'm willing to stand corrected.

Thanks for that mutantman

In our years of crisis and ongoing Shay debacle plus moving from Thrum Hall and Summer rugby did not go down well with a big proportion of Fax fans.
Add to that we stopped 'fiddling' the gates in 2002 like most SL clubs do (counting all season ticket holders and free tickets given out as attending).

I also think its too easy to get hung up on numbers, look at Widnes last season you got over 6K for that game you let everybody in for free.
Yer well done but not a paying crowd was it???

That's your coach

I have no problem with this at all - attendance wise. Our attendances are abysmal - they have been for a long time. This is why i constantly say we're not ready for SL and deep down the club know it. Things can change though, with the right marketing spend (by the RFL too*) people can be enticed - even if it costs a few pennies in promo deals as has happened at Huddersfield.


* [size(see Starbug's rant on many threads about this)[/size

I think the earlier post that talked about a 6K 'free entry' crowd was aimed at the Widnes v Gateshead match, played a couple of weeks after the mighty Raiders had put the cleaners through them at the Stobart.

The crowd that day was actually 5,236.

Widnes were well ahead in the attendance stakes this season, but I was pleasantly surprised at the almost 70% increase in Barrow's attendances. And that was from a position of best supported team in NL2 in 2008 (by about 400).

I was also very surprised at the amount of fans we took to Blackpool, but particularly Warrington, where we comfortably out-numbered the Halifax fans.

The RFL have hade it clear to the club that they have been mightily impressed with the Raiders both on and off the field. Just need to get the stadium up to scratch.

Watch this space

To be honest i didn't get that impression - i thought it was the other way round but there you go.

Me neither and most were all but silent til the last 20 as well.

(And I tried [iso[/i hard to stay out of what's descended in to bickering )

I think if you watch the Sky footage, it's clear that there are far more seated fans from Barrow (almost 3 full blocks to the right of the tunnel, compared with just over 2 for Fax to the left of the tunnel). Also, the Fax 'end' was far from full once the Cougars fans had gone home. The ends of the HJ holds just under 3K, so take away the Cougar fans and there was about 2,200 from Fax in that end I would think.

Of course, we'll never know the exact figures, but I'd have said several hundred more from Barrow.

Regarding 'silent' Barrow fans, that really is a silly statement. You were obviously stood amongst Fax fans so you can't really comment. From a Barrow point of view, you seemed to go very quiet after 30 mins

Barrow Raiders


The new Hull KR of the Championship!!

Yeh, you go for it!!

Can't see it happening though!