Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Tue Apr 02, 2013 4:11 pm  

RLBandit wrote:

1. Why? The 'new ground' effect? Really? I would have thought that a new ground was a platform to keep building on.

They are a platform to keep building. Saints and Salford are still building from where they were. That’s fine.

2. It's not.

It is

3. Guaranteed?

Yes. When we add in the attendances for the games not played in rounds already played our average is guaranteed to go up.

4. When will it be big enough? It's a 'sample'. The results at the end of season won't be a sample, they'll be the results. Samples are extremely useful, especially 10 weeks' worth.

That’s a very strange concept. That you would have both ‘results’ and a ‘sample size’.

Do you know what a sample size is?

5. That's nice. You're deluded, but happy.

Fair enough, we can put our money where our mouths are cant we. £100 for St Gemma’s hospice in Leeds if I win, £100 for the charity of your choice if you do. At the end of this season, the cumulative attendance of Super League will be within 5% of being the 2nd highest total of people to have watched our game in its history (currently 2011). As i said, higher or very close to it.

6. You should try stand up comedy.

Its a big career change. Ill get on with making a list about it. Like an adult

7. The RFL are responsible for a lot of the framework in which clubs operate, just as they are responsible for a lot of the process by which teams are chosen to be in SL. You can't credit them with good results if you're going to excuse them for bad ones.

That being the case. Perhaps you could give us a list of reasons why the framework of the game is responsible. Maybe a list of reasons the changes in the framework of the game between the framework which brought us record attendances last year and the wrist slitting levels of this year

8. Really, stand up would suit you. A ventriloquist act with Nigel maybe.

That wasnt a joke.

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Tue Apr 02, 2013 4:19 pm  

SmokeyTA wrote:

Fair enough, we can put our money where our mouths are cant we. £100 for St Gemma’s hospice in Leeds if I win, £100 for the charity of your choice if you do. At the end of this season, the cumulative attendance of Super League will be within 5% of being the 2nd highest total of people to have watched our game in its history (currently 2011). As i said, higher or very close to it.

Deal. (Though not sure what your last sentence means. 5% exactly. No excuses and no not counting games you don't like because it rained or something)

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Tue Apr 02, 2013 4:23 pm  

RLBandit wrote:

Deal. (Though not sure what your last sentence means. 5% exactly. No excuses and no not counting games you don't like because it rained or something)

It means it can be 5% lower but not any more. It can be less than 5% it could even be up on 2011. But down no more than 5%. All regular season games count.

So just to be clear, i make the total attendance in 2011 1,706,379 which means that 5% below that would be 1,621,060. So if the cumulative attendance for 27 regular season rounds is above 1,621,060 you pay £100 to st gemma's hospice Leeds. If it is below i will pay £100 to whichever charity you wish.

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Tue Apr 02, 2013 4:35 pm  

SmokeyTA wrote:

It means it can be 5% lower but not any more. It can be less than 5% it could even be up on 2011. But down no more than 5%. All regular season games count.

Why don't you have the guts to stand by your original assertion and conviction that SL attendances this year are on course to being the 2nd highest attendances in history instead of shifting the goalposts with all this "within 5% lower v 2011" bullshit?

I'll take the £100 bet on the basis of your original assertion instead.

Deal?

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Tue Apr 02, 2013 4:42 pm  

William Eve wrote:

Why don't you have the guts to stand by your original assertion and conviction that SL attendances this year are on course to being the 2nd highest attendances in history instead of shifting the goalposts with all this "within 5% lower v 2011" bullshit?

I'll take the £100 bet on the basis of your original assertion instead.

Deal?

Why would I want to talk myself in to a bet with worse odds than the one I already have?

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Wed Apr 03, 2013 5:47 am  

SmokeyTA wrote:

It means it can be 5% lower but not any more. It can be less than 5% it could even be up on 2011. But down no more than 5%. All regular season games count.

So just to be clear, i make the total attendance in 2011 1,706,379 which means that 5% below that would be 1,621,060. So if the cumulative attendance for 27 regular season rounds is above 1,621,060 you pay £100 to st gemma's hospice Leeds. If it is below i will pay £100 to whichever charity you wish.

Deal, but only because I'm being generous to you and don't mind losing a 50/50 ish bet. W.Eve. is right, we're miles away from the assertions you've made.

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Wed Apr 03, 2013 7:56 am  

We aren’t really. The current attendance difference between 2011 and 2013 is only36k and that doesn’t include Wakefield v Leeds game which was postponed or Leeds v Widnes which was rescheduled as per the WCC in 2013.. Those two games will get between 22k and 26k. Making up 10k in cumulative attendance over 2/3rds of the season is barely an issue. We are talking about adding less than a hundred a game, plus the magic weekend had already happened in 2011 but not yet in 2013 and that’s a traditionally well attended round, probably more so in Manchester in the middle of May than Cardiff in February.

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Wed Apr 03, 2013 8:28 am  

RLBandit wrote:

1. Why? The 'new ground' effect? Really? I would have thought that a new ground was a platform to keep building on.

Being a fan of a team with a new ground, last season at Saints was curiosity season for a lot of people, mostly the partners and children of those already owning season tickets. Those people haven't all stuck around for longer than the curiosity season but our gate it still up on the last season at Knowsley Road. We had almost 11,000 attend on Easter Monday for a game against the team resting bottom of the league. I'd say that was pretty good, especially on a freezing cold day and if the product on the field improves plus certain improvements are made to the stadium, who knows where we could be in a few years' time? Either way, an increase in attendance on our gate at Knowsley Road is definitely a sign of a platform being built upon.

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Wed Apr 03, 2013 8:54 am  

SaintsFan wrote:

Being a fan of a team with a new ground, last season at Saints was curiosity season for a lot of people, mostly the partners and children of those already owning season tickets. Those people haven't all stuck around for longer than the curiosity season but our gate it still up on the last season at Knowsley Road. We had almost 11,000 attend on Easter Monday for a game against the team resting bottom of the league. I'd say that was pretty good, especially on a freezing cold day and if the product on the field improves plus certain improvements are made to the stadium, who knows where we could be in a few years' time? Either way, an increase in attendance on our gate at Knowsley Road is definitely a sign of a platform being built upon.

Glad to hear. It should be. Smokey is using your having a new ground last year as a reason for an across the board fall in attendances this year. I find that a bit lame. Of course, the first game or two at a new ground is bound to attract the merely curious, but the curious don't stick around for a whole season to keep admiring the architecture, then get bored for the next one.

Re: Opening SL weekend sees attendances tumbling by 12.66% : Wed Apr 03, 2013 10:52 am  

SmokeyTA wrote:

We aren’t really. The current attendance difference between 2011 and 2013 is only36k and that doesn’t include Wakefield v Leeds game which was postponed or Leeds v Widnes which was rescheduled as per the WCC in 2013.. Those two games will get between 22k and 26k. Making up 10k in cumulative attendance over 2/3rds of the season is barely an issue. We are talking about adding less than a hundred a game, plus the magic weekend had already happened in 2011 but not yet in 2013 and that’s a traditionally well attended round, probably more so in Manchester in the middle of May than Cardiff in February.

Really? any stats to back this up, because I was always under the impression that it is a pretty averagely attended round. seems from a quick look that this statement is untrue! but happy to be proved wrong if you can.