Re: attendances this year : Thu Aug 23, 2012 12:23 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

t's all true though, any part of it you can disagree with?

Which bits do I disagree with - see below

Saddened! wrote:

There is no chance of increasing the crowds whilst the board shows such little ambition and we're so willing to just exist and not compete for trophies.

So the only reason people come to Saints is to see a winning team? With the new stadium, Cladding, real ale, clean toilets, marketing ploys like the groupon one and the mini season ticket there are many other reasons for people to come to the games - the club seem to be making a good fist of doing these activities. The excuse was always given for attendances being low at KR was the state of the stadium - well that is no longer the case - so I dont see any reason why we cannot increase crowds.

Saddened! wrote:

That 14,200 ish average (We'll get 12,000 against London no doubt) will drop next season. A lot of those decent early crowds were supported by both home and away fans making the trip specifically to check the new ground out.

Only 2 games - one of which had a reduced attendance due to crowd issues at the safety certificate launch - these were not sell outs and could easily be negated by targeting specific games like Widnes, Warrington, Leeds to increase the gate on these to 16k +

Saddened! wrote:

But next season there will little optimism and no new stadium novelty factor either. It could get pretty grizzly at the start of next season really, Brown is a coach that has a set defensive and attacking structure. It's very different to the tactics we've been using and I've no doubt he'll ask the players to adapt to his tactics rather than just trying to use 'the Saints way'. That will no doubt cause friction and a transition period where the players adapt to both the structure and the new attitudes they'll be asked to have. I'm expecting a good few thrashings during that period, which won't be great for attendances.

If ever there was a paragraph that clearly showed the difference between a pessimist and an optimist this is it - you speculate and think that the world shares your views - I dont agree with your view on this situation. You clearly show that YOU dont have faith in Brown as a coach, nor any of the players to adapt or the fan base to not accept a transition period


On the plus side you didnt manage to mention how poor you think Wellens is

Re: attendances this year : Thu Aug 23, 2012 12:46 pm  

St. Etrigan wrote:

If ever there was a paragraph that clearly showed the difference between a pessimist and an optimist this is it - you speculate and think that the world shares your views - I dont agree with your view on this situation. You clearly show that YOU dont have faith in Brown as a coach, nor any of the players to adapt or the fan base to not accept a transition period

On the plus side you didnt manage to mention how poor you think Wellens is

I'm hoping it's Wellens that struggles the most

Re: attendances this year : Thu Aug 23, 2012 6:41 pm  

I reckon McManus would be happy with that current average, think we had a similar thread a while ago which resulted in a guessimate of 14000+

Next season I reckon we will have more stability on and off the field, can,t see the season ticket sales changes too much now that the East Stand is opened up for most home games. We,ve had a lot to contend with this season ground facilities getting up to speed, unsettled team transition, terrible Friday weather. Reckon that fans average is great under the mentioned circumstances.

Looking forward to next season with Soliola and Manu in the second row. The young ones have had another season under there belt and I,d rather be optimistic and say that Mr Brown will improve them, so attendance wise same again next season.

Question............is there anyone on here that will not be renewing there season ticket for next season.

Re: attendances this year : Thu Aug 23, 2012 7:24 pm  

Our attendances this season have been fantastic.

I dont think any of us in our wildest dreams could have predicted such crowd averages.

I seem to recall people including myself thinking that 8k season ticket holders would be great. A few more optimistic types opted for the potential for 9k.
In actual reality we have 10k season ticket holders, a figure i dont recall anyone predicting.

As for gates next season, who can tell how they will go.

I think its fair to say that next seasons Salford gate wont be as high, then again the Warrington and Widnes gates may be higher than this years.

Financial pressures brought about by the economic depression in the UK may bite further, but then again fans may use RL as a way of brightening up their depressing lives.

One thing we can say i think with certainty is that next years average gate will be higher than any in the last 40 years at Knowsley road, and we will have more season ticket holders that we ever had at Knowsley road.
The club will also be generating hospitality revenue at levels far in excess of those at Knowsley road.

Fingers crossed that we surpass this years season ticket total. Let us aim for 11k season tickets.

Re: attendances this year : Thu Aug 23, 2012 7:35 pm  

I think we should congratulate ourselves in achieving those figures, our support per town population must be the highest in super league.

Leeds, Bradford, Hull, Wigan, Warrington, Salford, Huddersfield have a much bigger populate than us...........well done us Saints Fans.

Re: attendances this year : Thu Aug 23, 2012 11:26 pm  

I see little evidence of the alleged fact that attendances are governed entirely by on-field performance. I'd go so far as to say it's a crock of utter veritable. Warrington's gates increased dramatically purely becuase of their new stadium and stayed there despite no noticeable improvement in the team for a few seasons afterwards. Wigan were setting attendance records when they were struggling to even make the top 8. Leeds cram them in every week despite the fact that the spectators get to see utter garbage every week until near the playoffs. Hull cram them in despite the speccies getting utter garbage every week including the playoffs. Huddersfield can't give tickets away despite Challenge Cup finals and top 4 finishes. On-field success has little bearing on attendance - I reckon Saints will comfortably get around the 14,000 mark a game again next season no matter what fare is being served up by the Brown revolution.

Re: attendances this year : Sat Aug 25, 2012 9:57 am  

Judder Man wrote:

I think we should congratulate ourselves in achieving those figures, our support per town population must be the highest in super league.

Leeds, Bradford, Hull, Wigan, Warrington, Salford, Huddersfield have a much bigger populate than us...........well done us Saints Fans.

I actually worked it out from population figures on the ultra-reliable wiki once (sad I know but hey) - I think only Cas, Wakefield and the Hull clubs came above us in fans per head of local population and that was while we were at KR. I reckon we maybe snick in ahead of the Hulls now as well based on the fantastic crowds we're getting at LP.

Re: attendances this year : Sat Aug 25, 2012 11:10 am  

Northampton_Saint wrote:

I actually worked it out from population figures on the ultra-reliable wiki once (sad I know but hey) - I think only Cas, Wakefield and the Hull clubs came above us in fans per head of local population and that was while we were at KR. I reckon we maybe snick in ahead of the Hulls now as well based on the fantastic crowds we're getting at LP.

Depends on what figures you're using because on Wikipedia the listing for Hull has its population as 250k when the surrounding area i.e. the larger urban zone has a population of nearly 600k. The figures for St Helens are 102k and 175k respectively. IIRC, Hull is supposed to be the seventh or eighth largest city in the UK. If you look at just the town populations Hull is smaller than the pies home town, which if you've been to Hull is plainly ridiculous.

Re: attendances this year : Sat Aug 25, 2012 8:51 pm  

I posted something very similar to the sad ones post in terms of our crowds next year. The novelty will have worn off next year, some first time season ticket holders might not renew, most fans will have seen the stadium and will be old news now, the fans that travelled just to see the "best rugby stadium" will not travel.

Unless we come up with some major signings then our attendance will drop year by year until we get the crowds we got at knowsley road.

The product has to be there on the field to get the g
Crowds in and the signings of laffranchci, lance and flanaghan to replace Moore, graham, eastmond and pryce just shows how our transfer policy is going.

I honesty think in 5 years time we will be back in the same old problems with debt. A new stadium doesn't just wipe away all our troubles but a new stadium, good product and the fieid certainly does.

Re: attendances this year : Sat Aug 25, 2012 9:03 pm  

I'm a new season ticket holder in that I became a season ticket holder for the first time for the season in Widnes, in order to secure a spot in the new stadium. I renewed my season ticket today but only because Nathan Brown is coming next season and I want to see what he can do with the team. I might not have renewed even so had the prices gone up but the ticket prices were frozen for three seasons starting with Widnes.

But I've been disappointed with this season for a number of reasons, not just the fact that the stadium experience - and note I say experience, rather than building - has been not as enjoyable as I'd hoped it would be.

As for the attendance figures this year, I think they are tremendous and surely way above the hopes of those who attended Knowsley Road from around the 1980s onwards (the 1980s being when our attendances had fallen to an average of 4000 ish).