Re: Wembley : Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:27 am  

nottinghamtiger wrote:

I'm not sure RL supporters are attending as neutrals anymore.
No atmposphere, high ticket prices and increased travelling costs have made it an expensive day unless your team are playing,

High ticket prices? I've never been to the cup final unfortunately as Wakefield are usually quite crap but everyone on here nevet stops whinging about tickets being too cheap.

Re: Wembley : Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:28 am  

GIANT DAZ wrote:

I disagree, where i was sat there were 4 Giants fans in front of me, a family of Wakey fans, one of Bradford fans, one lot of Saints fans, a group of Fax fans, i also saw Cas, Fev, Leigh, Dewsbury, London Broncos and Leeds shirts in the concourse near me as well as plenty of amateur shirts too.

I was lucky as i won tickets and got a lift so my entire day cost me less than £30 and as a neutral i thoroughly enjoyed it.

Simple question Daz, would you have gone without the free tickets and a lift as a neutral?
At one time all the supporters mentioned above would have gone down in coaches' for the weekend, not anymore because of the expense involved and the sad fact that RL is on the decline is why your talking about counting out individual supporters.

Re: Wembley : Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:29 am  

nottinghamtiger wrote:

I'm not sure RL supporters are attending as neutrals anymore.
No atmposphere, high ticket prices and increased travelling costs have made it an expensive day unless your team are playing,

I disagree that you don't see as many neutrals any more, but I would argue that you see fewer and fewer 'club trips' at Wembley.

The RFU has a big focus on marketing itself within the amateur clubs - it's often the only way you can actually buy tickets. I wonder if the RFL is reaching out to our amateur clubs in the same way. I'm sure that with the right incentive (a decent kick-back on ticket sales), most decent amateur clubs could fill a coach - they certainly used to do.

Or perhaps this already does go on, and the falling numbers is a symptom of falling participation?

Re: Wembley : Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:59 am  

My only issue with Wembley is that, because London is so huge, fans before and after are very spread out until they hit the stadium.

At Cardiff or Edinburgh, they all hit the town. They're all together. Makes it special.

Re: Wembley : Tue Aug 29, 2017 9:37 am  

Call Me God wrote:

I watched the game live on TV and enjoyed it immensely.

The Stadium being 40k, 50k, 60k 100k full didn't impact on my enjoyment, but as usual, RL fans love to blame the date, roadworks, engineering works and the dog eating their homework on the empathy that has crept into the game.
We have a great product but we're not selling it to a new audience, so therefore, as RL fans age and then die they aren't being replaced.

My clubs (London and NZ Warriors) are a perfect example of getting it wrong/right....at Mt Smart we see families, dads and Kids and sometimes 3 generations of the same families at games....at London we have a core of the same 300 or so fans with the majority (75%+) being at or close to pensionable age....when these fans are gone there's nobody there to replace them......

the RFL need to sell the CCF to a newer audience ot it'll end up being moved to a smaller venue and become even loss significant on the UK sporting landscape.

We went for a walk around the Wembley on Friday night and apart from some posters on the underpass as you come out of the tube station you would not have known the final was on. The stadium was shouting out England football and Tottenham v Burnley on Sunday with hardly a mention for the rugby.

Re: Wembley : Tue Aug 29, 2017 9:37 am  

little wayne69 wrote:

It would have been even better had those Hull fans what had to do their community hours at the weekend had been allowed to go.

Well aren't you a wit. Well half of one anyway.

Re: Wembley : Tue Aug 29, 2017 9:40 am  

little wayne69 wrote:

Simple question Daz, would you have gone without the free tickets and a lift as a neutral?
At one time all the supporters mentioned above would have gone down in coaches' for the weekend, not anymore because of the expense involved and the sad fact that RL is on the decline is why your talking about counting out individual supporters.

Probably not as i'm on a tight budget and don't have much disposable income, i've often wanted to go as a neutral but never had the chance or finances to allow it, and i wasn't on about individual neutrals most of the ones i saw were in families or large groups.

Re: Wembley : Tue Aug 29, 2017 11:07 am  

From as early as I can remember I went every year on the coach trip from my local working mens club no matter who was playing but by my reckoning it's about 12 year ago since they last did one. My group of friends (anywhere between about 10-20 of us) who've regularly attended RL events are mainly in our early to mid 30's now with families/kids so we prioritize the Grand Final now purely on the basis of when they are played.

Re: Wembley : Tue Aug 29, 2017 12:24 pm  

bramleyrhino wrote:

I disagree that you don't see as many neutrals any more, but I would argue that you see fewer and fewer 'club trips' at Wembley.

The RFU has a big focus on marketing itself within the amateur clubs - it's often the only way you can actually buy tickets. I wonder if the RFL is reaching out to our amateur clubs in the same way. I'm sure that with the right incentive (a decent kick-back on ticket sales), most decent amateur clubs could fill a coach - they certainly used to do.

Or perhaps this already does go on, and the falling numbers is a symptom of falling participation?

The RFL sent our club 6 free CC Final tickets, less than 2 weeks before the final.

Unfortunately, this didn't give us enough time to raffle/give as prizes at a club event, and many people who were offered the tickets had to turn down due to other commitments/travel issues etc.

Compare this to the Magic Weekend, where we sell two coach loads for the day. Tickets are cheaper so more people fancy it, there are incentives financially to the club by organising it, and there's plenty of time to plan it.

I know of no other clubs near us that ran trips to the CCF.

Re: Wembley : Tue Aug 29, 2017 12:27 pm  

The decline and closure of pubs and clubs obviously doesn't help, as does the lack of school trips. As a kid they were run every year and you were looking at decent numbers there. They can't happen so easily for a number of reasons beyond the most obvious one of it being in the middle of the summer holidays. I doubt the health & safety aspects and insurance costs of moving a group of 50-100 children are economically feasible. Anyway moving it back to May and binning (or moving) the Magic weekend would help. At present its too close to the Grand Final and at a time when many are away on hols.