Odsal attendances this year : Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:00 pm  

Two seasons ago, Huddersfield Town sold around 16,200 (most priced at £100) season tickets, in a scheme similar to the one being operated at Valley Parade. At that time, most football clubs were still calculating attendances based on ‘bums on seats’, as opposed to tickets sold, and the majority of Town’s home games that season averaged around 11/12,000.

Prices were so cheap, 4/5000 ticket holders (and possibly more if, as expected, 2/3,000 non-ticket holders paid on the gate) were absent from most games. Town’s home gates that season (with the addition of those paying on the gate) should have been around 18/19,000, but in reality, only 11/12,000 turned up- except for the big games against Leeds etc, or when the away team brought a big following.

I heard the Radio Leeds commentator scream ‘never’ when yesterday’s crowd was announced, and if true, wonder if a similar situation to Huddersfield is occurring, with many ticket holders deciding to cherry pick which games they attended? On one hand, you would expect most to cherry pick an attractive first home game of the season, on the other, weather and personal commitments may be a factor. Was it really Lee Crooks commentating on the game? I was not paying attention.

If, as suggested somewhere else, Wigan brought 2/3,000, about 12,000 Bulls fans must have attended. Last season’s opener v Saints pulled in 10,165, and in 2009, Bulls first game v Hull KR attracted 12,141, with the KR contingent similar to Wigan’s. On both occasions, it seems Bulls supporters made up around 9,000 of the gate.

I read somewhere Bulls have never sold over 5,000 season tickets before, or maybe it was a long time ago if they have, and another poor season on the field could highlight a farcical situation. All football clubs now calculated attendances based on season ticket sales, plus those paying on the gate- including away fans; no matter if, fewer actually turn up. I presume Bulls are following suit. The bigger the crowds, the more attractive you are as a business proposition.

If, God forbid, Bulls fail to deliver on the field, will the club still be quoting crowds of circa 11,000- plus those paying on the gate, when only 6,000 are actually in the ground? It could be embarrassing.

Re: Odsal attendances this year : Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:02 pm  

The ground was more full than I have seen it for a long time.

I don't think the reported attendance was far wrong. Even if maybe that did not suit the agenda of the Radio Leeds commentator.

Re: Odsal attendances this year : Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:18 pm  

Teddy Melling wrote:

I heard the Radio Leeds commentator scream ‘never’ when yesterday’s crowd was announced, and if true, wonder if a similar situation to Huddersfield is occurring, with many ticket holders deciding to cherry pick which games they attended? On one hand, you would expect most to cherry pick an attractive first home game of the season, on the other, weather and personal commitments may be a factor.

Well from my family/group of close friends who bought season tickets there were 3 of us out of a possible 6 who didn't go. None of it was due to cherry picking games due to the teams we were playing.

2 of them were working and 1 of them is not likely to go until the temperature improves a bit due to their age and less commitment to rugby than the rest of us.

When those factors (work and cold) are not there though they will be attending every game as they aren't bothered who we are playing, they just want to watch the Bulls.

If our group can fluctuate so much from week to week due to circumstances beyond our control then I'm sure the same can be said for many other families/groups of friends who bought season tickets.

If we don't have a successful season we will still be going as after 3 to 4 matches we essentially have a free pass to go watch rugby and who wouldn't want to take advantage of that?

Re: Odsal attendances this year : Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:19 pm  

Adeybull wrote:

The ground was more full than I have seen it for a long time.

I don't think the reported attendance was far wrong. Even if maybe that did not suit the agenda of the Radio Leeds commentator.

That Radio Leeds commentator was Terry Crook.

Only my personal opinion but I thought it was more than the 15,000 figure because the Popular side was full, the Rooley Lane end was about 60% full and you have to ask yourself where could you fit another 11,000 supporters into the ground yesterday?

Re: Odsal attendances this year : Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:27 pm  

I don't think I've seen Odsal that full for about 4 years. Hopefully we can keep up those attendances, even if it means it's harder to get to the bar.

Re: Odsal attendances this year : Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:37 pm  

You could tell it was a good crowd because of how busy it was outside, not taken me that long to get away from ground for years

Re: Odsal attendances this year : Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:15 pm  

Never ceases to amaze me how the (presumably) totally mad management at the Bulls over-declare the attendance at some games, yet under-declare it at others.

But I know they do, because people on here vehemently tell me they do. And so it must be true.

I've been attending Odsal for some decades and can tell you within about 5% what the attendance is, just from experience. On Sunday, the popular side was a busy as it's been for a while, and the main stand was unusually and noticeably well attended. Wigan also brought a fair few, with the result that Rooley Lane end, whilst not packed, was busy. Looked like 15,000 to me, and so it was.

Can't for the life of me think why Terry Crooks would be so taken aback by the announcement that he seemingly actually made some disbelieving comment. We have 11,000+ season ticket holders, there's those that come on the day, and there was a healthy following from Wigan, so why TF wouldn't it be 15K?

Conspiracy numpties on forums is one thing, but I'd have thought responsible broadcasters ought to be a bit more circumspect than casting aspersions about a club's honesty in declaring an attendance.

Re: Odsal attendances this year : Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:38 pm  

It doesn't really matter, your club has sold over 10k season tickets and have all of the money from them. Who cares if only 8k of them turn up for quins at home, you can be sure that it will be 20k for the Leeds game and happy days at Odsal.

I have been to Odsal many times before and the seating was a lot more full than it usually is and the popular side looking a lot more packed than usual plus there was a good few thousand around the corner and a load of Wiganers. It looked like 15k to me so whats to moan about really?

Praise the club and your fans rather than finding something to moan about.

Re: Odsal attendances this year : Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:52 pm  

indeed, i've not seen the pop stand that full for quite a few years. deffo a 15k attendance.

Re: Odsal attendances this year : Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:00 pm  

Just two things to say about the size of the crowd on Sunday:

1 - Bloody

2 - Marvellous!