Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Sun Aug 04, 2013 7:31 pm  

Kevs Head wrote:

He's a very sad man.

Imagine for a moment the figures were the opposite - showing corresponding increases. Would people be asking what the point of posting those figures would be? If you think that would also be sad and pointless, fine, at least you're consistent in your hatred of numbers. No problem. But, if its just the bad news you don't like then you ought to ask yourself why that is, and why there's any benefit in deluding ourselves by ignoring it.

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Sun Aug 04, 2013 8:56 pm  

Wildmoose wrote:

Easily explained by the economic climate. By way of comparison do you have similar data for domestic football, rugby union, cricket etc? What about other leisure industries?

2011-12 v 2012-13
Premiership soccer +3.7%
Championship soccer -1.4%
League 1 Soccer -16% (Sheffield Wednesday went up!)
League 2 Soccer +0.5%
Aviva Premiership Rugby -3.9% (Saracens Wembley attendance halved)
Rabo Pro 12 Rugby +6%
Heineken Cup Rugby -10% (final venue 40% smaller)
Amlin Challenge Cup Rugby +3.2%

Compare these to the 11.5% drop in SL and 15.5% drop in Challenge cup and there is a need for slight concern at the RFL. The (excuses) in brackets for the drops in League 1 and the Heineken can be accepted in the short term, but if they aren't adjusted in the coming season then alarm bells should be ringing.

All of the non RL comps I have posted have promotion and relegation, so there has to be some allowances for the different make up of each years comps whilst the SL is a static competition. The Challenge Cup has a very similar make up this year as to 2012 too....the real problem is the engagement of fans.
Bottom line is that close to 200,000 people have made the conscious decision NOT to attend a SL or Challenge cup game this year that did so last year....at an average spend of £20 for ticket and residuals, that's £4,000,000 lost to the clubs....I suspect the figure is nearer £6,000,000......that's 33% of the SKY Funding lost to the game

SL Licencing was supposed to free up cash that would have otherwise been wasted on journeymen in the hope of staying up, to spend on developing players and building a sustainable business model....all I have seen in the way of planning for a future proof business model at most clubs is cheap season tickets

The RFL need to run a series of centrally funded courses for EVERY CLUB in the top 2 divisions to educate them on how to generate interest, attract fans, keep them and turn them into ST holders....currently, most clubs seem to make it up as they go along.

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Sun Aug 04, 2013 9:45 pm  

[quote="gutterfax"

The RFL need to run a series of centrally funded courses for EVERY CLUB in the top 2 divisions to educate them on how to generate interest, attract fans, keep them and turn them into ST holders....currently, most clubs seem to make it up as they go along.[/quote]

But do the RFL know what to tell the clubs ?

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Sun Aug 04, 2013 9:57 pm  

Starbug wrote:

But do the RFL know what to tell the clubs ?

If not, then they need to engage a sports marketing firm together with a CRM expert who understands the benefit of managing and USING customer data.

I start on a $50,000 retainer per annum and that gets you about 5 hours a week of my time with additional hours billed at $350 each

The commute might be a bit of a pain though

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Sun Aug 04, 2013 10:24 pm  

gutterfax wrote:

If not, then they need to engage a sports marketing firm together with a CRM expert who understands the benefit of managing and USING customer data.

I start on a $50,000 retainer per annum and that gets you about 5 hours a week of my time with additional hours billed at $350 each

The commute might be a bit of a pain though

How much for zero hours of your time?

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Sun Aug 04, 2013 11:46 pm  

GansonTheClown wrote:

How much for zero hours of your time?

Insightful post

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Mon Aug 05, 2013 2:10 am  

Get on the phone to S15, they could do with your genius lol.

Some mitigating factors also for sl's drop
Top spot is wasted on hudds. Normally sitting top of the league would see a significant crowd boost for most clubs
Hull have been poor for couple of years and crowds have responded, hopefully the wembley trip will boost interest in them for next season
Hull KR have had a decreased capacity with the building of the north stand
Salford and Bradford nearly ceased trading and the bad stench from financial failure will have put plenty off
All comps can come up with reasons for drops in the last couple of years.

SL does need to find some new ways to reinvigorate the comp and I guess thy ate trying with the revamped future format.

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Mon Aug 05, 2013 4:14 am  

JB Down Under wrote:

Hull KR have had a decreased capacity with the building of the north stand

They haven't come close to selling out the available seats this season have they? I thought the capacity while work was carried out was 9,000....Leeds is their biggest gate so far this year at 8,122 and they are averaging about 7,300 this year, so the building of a stand behind one set of posts isn't the reason for a slight drop in attendances at Hull KR, it's more about performances on the park for them.
Still, after missing finals footie last year, I reckon they will be playing at least one extra game at the end of the season this year...they were robbed against the Pies, but should get 2 more wins to cement finals footie.

As for Marketing Super Rugby? They are beyond help and I prefer to help so called smaller sports who pay as well, but don't come with the inflated ego and blinkered opinions that Rugby Unions seem to have. 10,850 was the Hurricanes average this year...down from 14,318 last year and down from 23,200 in 2006! Try telling them that they've got a problem and they just won't listen!

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Mon Aug 05, 2013 6:10 am  

Yes but that capacity includes the sth stand of around 1200 which is a major turn off factor in going for most fans. It's been mentioned by many on the rovers forum that they haven't taken the wife and kids this year due to the north stand not being available. RM stand is pretty much season ticket sold out and the lack of a seating option for pay at the gate puts many off going.

When you take off the sth stand you can see we are pretty much selling out the remaining decent viewing areas. The north stand will make a 500+ avg difference at least, encourage more away fans to visit and hopefully encourage more families.

Agreed though our improved performances and next years decent signings should also help.

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Mon Aug 05, 2013 7:10 am  

The state of the economy is the main factor affecting attendances. People keep banging on about Huddersfield's crowds and how poor marketing is but at the end of the day they have tried to increase support by offering heavily discounted tickets for a number of seasons. This year season ticket prices have doubled and on the day prices have also increased and yet attendance has only fallen by 20%. Regardless of position in the league do you seriously expect more people to buy a product that has doubled in price?