Prem Attendances on the downward slope?

[curtbob7]

Cant be the only one who gets annoyed seeing swatches of empty seats in top flight games. Prem looks down on last year.

Tigers- 22.5K 20K -Two pretty big games that would usually have been close to selling out. Down on 16/17.
Wasps- 12K + 15K- down on last year.
Saints- 15K (local derby, big away following) + 12K- down on last year.
Warriors - 7k + 6K -must be down on last year? Still poor.
Quins- 12K- definitely down on last year.
Chiefs- 8k -new champions? You'd think not
Falcons -5K -not helped by moving a fixture to Philly but still poor.
Sale - garbage as ever -4K +5k -Relocation needed?

Bath + Gloucester have only had 1 fixture was the opening game against Sarries and a local derby.

Irish and Sarries figures cant really be looked at.

The turn up of around 2k for the States game was disgraceful.

Discuss...

 

[stus768]

I've been really shocked with Chiefs attendances. They've been looking at expanding their stadium as well. Maybe because uni hasn't started properly yet?

Billy V made the point regarding the American game that rugby hasn't broken England yet so why break America?

 

[curtbob7]

Billy V would be right. England games in Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle and Leeds would help to boost popularity.

 

[Which Tyler]

Isn't attendance always below average at thsi stage of the season? Plenty of people still away on holiday; students not yet back to their term-teime address etc

 

[curtbob7]

Isn't attendance always below average at thsi stage of the season? Plenty of people still away on holiday; students not yet back to their term-teime address etc

Partially maybe but overall its looking like a decrease from last year. At a quick glance we got over 24K this time last year.

 

[munstermuffin]

Not educated enough on Prem side but to be linked accurate - ticket costs and distance of away supporters are key components too.

 

[ncurd]

Gloucester have had a major price hike this year don't know about other clubs. Also to add to muffins comment time of year of contest and relative position on the table can have meaning.

 

[curtbob7]

Be interesting to see what Sarries get at Allianz this season. As it will be with Irish at The Mad Stad.

 

[goyaks]

Those of you mentioning price are on the money for me.

I can't take my family to regularly watch the game.

With so many other decent structures like coaches coming into the community and opportunities for junior players to be flag bearers there are many things the clubs are getting right.

Its just the matchday ticket price has to be at a certain level to be sustainable and that level is above many peoples reach.

 

[Big_Grumper]

Those of you mentioning price are on the money for me.

I can't take my family to regularly watch the game.

With so many other decent structures like coaches coming into the community and opportunities for junior players to be flag bearers there are many things the clubs are getting right.

Its just the matchday ticket price has to be at a certain level to be sustainable and that level is above many peoples reach.

I'll echo the point. I looked at tickets for this Friday's game against Worcs. Shed tickets are in excess of forty quid each; stand tickets are thirty-five plus. That's over a hundred quid for the three of us.

For that price I'm going up have to pick and choose my games.

 

[curtbob7]

Inflation and lack of pay rises really squeezing the lower middle class. Clubs should do more for younger people and families.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

With sale it's not so much price but accessibility.
Public transport is a shambles and even driving you have to contend with horrendous traffic and either an expensive car park or a 15min walk or a free shuttle bus....which then gets caught in traffic
Add all that into a reasonably small fan base to start with and competing from all the football and league in the area....

Just a really terrible spot for a stadium

 

[curtbob7]

With sale it's not so much price but accessibility.
Public transport is a shambles and even driving you have to contend with horrendous traffic and either an expensive car park or a 15min walk or a free shuttle bus....which then gets caught in traffic
Add all that into a reasonably small fan base to start with and competing from all the football and league in the area....

Just a really terrible spot for a stadium

Cant get my head around your owners wanting to buy the AJ Bell. Not only is it a bad location its also too big. Where would be best?

 

[ratsapprentice]

I'd be surprised if they don't maintain the average from last year, or improve on it.

Last year was quite a jump from the year before.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Cant get my head around your owners wanting to buy the AJ Bell. Not only is it a bad location its also too big. Where would be best?

No idea, it's so hard to build a stadium in a city with permissions and all that
They weren't even allowed to redevelop or rebuild edgeley park because of protected statuses or some nonsense
People on the fans forum have suggested a few ground shares that are further away from our traditional home or potential smaller grounds to be redeveloped but none are ideal.

I, too, have no idea why they want to buy the AJ Bell, unless they have plans on levelling it and selling it for houses and using the cash to develop elsewhere.

 

[curtbob7]

No idea, it's so hard to build a stadium in a city with permissions and all that
They weren't even allowed to redevelop or rebuild edgeley park because of protected statuses or some nonsense
People on the fans forum have suggested a few ground shares that are further away from our traditional home or potential smaller grounds to be redeveloped but none are ideal.

I, too, have no idea why they want to buy the AJ Bell, unless they have plans on levelling it and selling it for houses and using the cash to develop elsewhere.

No idea why they cant let you use Edgeley Park again. Was bang on for all parties and you were getting 7K-10K all the time.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Cant be the only one who gets annoyed seeing swatches of empty seats in top flight games. Prem looks down on last year.

Tigers- 22.5K 20K -Two pretty big games that would usually have been close to selling out. Down on 16/17.
Wasps- 12K + 15K- down on last year.
Saints- 15K (local derby, big away following) + 12K- down on last year.
Warriors - 7k + 6K -must be down on last year? Still poor.
Quins- 12K- definitely down on last year.
Chiefs- 8k -new champions? You'd think not
Falcons -5K -not helped by moving a fixture to Philly but still poor.
Sale - garbage as ever -4K +5k -Relocation needed?

Bath + Gloucester have only had 1 fixture was the opening game against Sarries and a local derby.

Irish and Sarries figures cant really be looked at.

The turn up of around 2k for the States game was disgraceful.

Discuss...

Are you comparing the first two fixtures from last year for each team or comparing the equivalent fixtures?

I don't know about other teams but Wasps pulled in 15,300 for quins on Sunday compared to 13,500 and 12,200 for the first two fixtures last year. Our Sale fixture pulled in just over 12,000 as you say, not great but comparable to the Bristol figure of 12,200 (2nd home game last year).
I don't see that there's enough evidence just yet to think that attendances are down.

Also both Bath and Gloucester (only other teams I've looked at) were up from their first home game last year,

 

[curtbob7]

Are you comparing the first two fixtures from last year for each team or comparing the equivalent fixtures?

I don't know about other teams but Wasps pulled in 15,300 for quins on Sunday compared to 13,500 and 12,200 for the first two fixtures last year. Our Sale fixture pulled in just over 12,000 as you say, not great but comparable to the Bristol figure of 12,200 (2nd home game last year).
I don't see that there's enough evidence just yet to think that attendances are down.

Also both Bath and Gloucester (only other teams I've looked at) were up from their first home game last year,

Yes Bath up because it was against Saracens after beating their biggest rivals.

Gloucester was a local affair against Exeter. Start of a new era etc.

Us, Quins, Chiefs and Saints are definitely down on last year.

 

[ncurd]

Also Bath first game was against Newcastle last year at home.....this year Saracens

On comparison of corresponding fixture's it was about 27 people on both Bath V Saracens games

This weekend is against Newcastle and you'll probably see a drop off to similar levels as before.

You need to compare corresponding fixtures from last year as who they playing probably matters way more than when.

Wasps V Sale: Last Year 12,329, This Year 12,018
Leicester V Bath: Last Year: Last Year 20,134, This year 22,582

So even by that evidence your up not down.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

No idea why they cant let you use Edgeley Park again. Was bang on for all parties and you were getting 7K-10K all the time.

EP wasn't fit for purpose, We were getting massively fined by the PRL, or whoever enforces the stadium requirements, every game but we weren't allowed to redevelop to bring it up to standards.