: Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:39 pm  

gutterfax wrote:

nah......it's just coz northeners have small c0cks
HTH

steady on fella

i'll see yours and raise you 5

: Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:02 pm  

Kelvin's Ferret wrote:

But the big question remains; does anybody from the parochial tendency seriously believe that RL can survive as a modern fully professional sport by pursuing a “back to the heartlands, local sport for local people” strategy?

For me, not at all, and I broadly agree with your sentiments. (However the bigger embarrasment to me is nigh on 15 years Sky funding has still not produced an British half back/full back/centre/hooker/loose forward that would walk into any Aussie side but thats another story).

Anyway, do you think Quins can survive in SL on regular gates of 2-3000 should the likes of Ian Lenegan finally reliquish his/their involvment and what happens to the game as a whole if you can't?

Perhaps that is some of the concern that people have.

There is a lot riding on the 'expansion' clubs, whether folk wanted them or not or agree with the prinicples established is now irrelevant; they are here and they need to stay otherwise the game ends up with egg on its face.

: Fri Apr 17, 2009 8:22 pm  

I'd be interested to know who many of the fall in Quins attendances is accredited to away supporters choosing to have weekends away elsewhere.

I mean with Catalans coming in, the Magic Weekend being introduced and a return of the Cup Final to Wembley since they moved back to The Stoop a trip to Quins as well is perhaps a finiancal weekend too far.

None of those help Harlequins cause. I mean if you had the choice of a weekend in Perpignan or a weekend in London? It's no contest really. Hot sun every time! Now they have Celtic to contend with for weekends away as well. Tough for them.

: Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:53 am  

Bilko wrote:

I'd be interested to know who many of the fall in Quins attendances is accredited to away supporters choosing to have weekends away elsewhere.

I mean with Catalans coming in, the Magic Weekend being introduced and a return of the Cup Final to Wembley since they moved back to The Stoop a trip to Quins as well is perhaps a finiancal weekend too far.

None of those help Harlequins cause. I mean if you had the choice of a weekend in Perpignan or a weekend in London? It's no contest really. Hot sun every time! Now they have Celtic to contend with for weekends away as well. Tough for them.

I think you have a very good point, the novelty of a weekend in London has been declining for a few years. The other aspect is that we rely on a certain number of games under certain conditions i.e. we need to play the likes of Saints, Leeds and Wigan on a Saturday afternoon, not on Sky and preferably without any major sporting events clashing. If we get that it drags up our average, if we don't it drags it down. We can reasonably expect 3.5k for all other games excluding other expansion clubs.

It's also worth pointing out here that it's not simply a matter of getting visiting fans in for those key games, it's as much about getting casual fans based in the South East in. We'll get casual fans in for a game against a team like Saints that we wouldn't get in for a game against 10 or so other clubs.

: Mon Apr 20, 2009 12:17 pm  

Bilko wrote:

I'd be interested to know who many of the fall in Quins attendances is accredited to away supporters choosing to have weekends away elsewhere.

I got that bored yesterday I started counting the HKR fans in the north stand. There were approximately 550...with another 100 scattered in the East.
This figure is well down on last year. This could be the Credit Crunch or the Catalan Crusader Crunch or a combination of both, but the bottom line is that we shouldn't EVER have to rely on away fans to boost our gates.

I have just posted on the Quins Board that we are £32k+ down on ticket revenues compared to 2005 over just 3 games (Wigan/FC/Wire).......and no business can afford to lose cash like that.
All I will say is that we are very lucky that points for attendance figures are not that important in the franchise/licence applications, because we are heading for an average of about 3,000 a game this year...which even I will find hard to defend.

[Mild Rover]

: Mon Apr 20, 2009 1:16 pm  

Kelvin's Ferret wrote:

Does anybody else think the faux-concern bordering obsession of RL’s parochial tendency with attendances in London is what’s most embarrassing to RL? It creates the impression of RL as a petty, parochial sport. I’m not aware of Arsenal fans winding themselves up into a mock frenzy because attendances at Portsmouth, Wigan or Blackburn are a third of those at the Emirates. Nor am I aware of RU fans getting so obsessed about other clubs crowds, although perhaps these other sports are more self-confident and less inhibited by small time parochial concerns?

As has already been pointed out by the smarter contributors to this thread, an obsession with headline attendances carries limited information about revenue streams and the cost base. Everyone knows that Quins RL need better attendances, those who pay attention, or have been following the club for some time will be aware of many barriers in the way, just pointing out the bleedingly obvious goes nowhere.

But the big question remains; does anybody from the parochial tendency seriously believe that RL can survive as a modern fully professional sport by pursuing a “back to the heartlands, local sport for local people” strategy?

I agree, but to an extent I think Quins benefit from the 'Northern sport's' lack of self-confidence in its northerness. There is a perception that we need London to succeed. I want it, but I'm not sure we need it. Fans of Quins RU, Saracens, London Irish and Wasps don't think much about the lack of a Yorkshire club in the GP, every second season, I bet.

Maybe it was just because the sun was shining and we won, but I couldn't find much to fault in the matchday experience yesterday. £15 to get in, good view of the action and a nice atmosphere. Maybe franchizing (and being northern ) has made us too ready to focus on the negatives - especially fans of C-grade clubs, nervous about renewal.

What do Quins fans think, roughly, they need to be getting through the gate to remain financially viable? Realistically, what sort of numbers do you think are achievable in the short-medium term.

: Mon Apr 20, 2009 1:25 pm  

Mild Rover wrote:

What do Quins fans think, roughly, they need to be getting through the gate to remain financially viable? Realistically, what sort of numbers do you think are achievable in the short-medium term.

5000 should be the target....once we get that we will find it easier to add extras. impossible to predict when we will get there as we have no marketing department or budget