Does Sheffield deserve us? : Sun Sep 11, 2011 8:43 am  

We are arguably the most successful football club in Sheffield yet we still cannot get decent crowds on match days, The club is doing all it can to boost the profile of the game, as indeed are the supporters but to very little effect. Our average gates this season, discounting the Mount St. Mary game, is no higher, possibly even lower than last season. Even the non-Sheffield club that plays at DVS gets bigger crowds. What can we do because if this is how it is to be then forget Superleague.

Re: Does Sheffield deserve us? : Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:45 am  

Our average crowd is roughly half what it was 20 seasons ago when we were in Div 2.

Playing on Friday night obviously doesn't help. You immediately forfeit most of the away support on which we rely far too much. But 564 against Widnes was shocking. We got 1800+ for the league game in March.

Re: Does Sheffield deserve us? : Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:01 am  

well that was when Widnes still had a full(ish) squad of capable looking players - as opposed to the uninterested half cocked set up they finished the season with. Their fans expectations of a SL licence and optimism for the season would have been entirely different.

Then of course there's the "home team advantage" of what is declared as the 'shared' gate!

Re: Does Sheffield deserve us? : Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:58 am  

1. We shouldn't be relying on away supporters.

2. Looking at the crowd, I could only count 547, which means that there must have been 17 in the toilets or summat. To be fair, they did keep moving around.

3. If it was double 564, it's still cr@p.

Re: Does Sheffield deserve us? : Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:23 pm  

griff1998 wrote:

564 against Widnes was shocking. We got 1800+ for the league game in March.

There was only 564 there on Friday? Looked like more than that but obviously you had a better look than me.

If 564 was the attendance, why did we announce 1,029 or whatever it was..?

Re: Does Sheffield deserve us? : Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:29 pm  

I didn't hear us announce an attendance but was surprised when I read the figure in the paper this morning. Definitely seemed to be more than that there.

Re: Does Sheffield deserve us? : Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:36 pm  

On the RFL website it says just over 1,000, which based on other games this season sounds about right..

Re: Does Sheffield deserve us? : Tue Sep 13, 2011 11:22 am  

Well, whatever the attendance was, there were 20+ seats each.

I've said for a long time that this play-off format doesn't suit this division. Attendances are poor because the games are largely played midweek and at short notice, you can't sell the sponsorships if you don't know you're at home (or even if you'll be playing) and top six out of eleven is rewarding mediocrity. On top of that, your season can finish in mid August if you're the odd team out of the 11 (OK - that won't be a problem in future) or it can run till October.

If I recall correctly, the top six play-off was introduced to standardise the play-offs across the divisions. Ten minutes later, $uperleague have an eight team play-off. (It may be a bit more than ten minutes, but it doesn't seem like it.)

I'd have a two week play-off system ...

Week 1 1v4 2v3 Losers out

Week 2 Grand Final

Re: Does Sheffield deserve us? : Tue Sep 13, 2011 11:34 am  

If I had my way, whoever wins the league would be promoted.

Week 1: 5th vs 6th.
Week 2: 4th vs winner of week 1.
Week 3: 3rd vs winner of week 2.
Week 4 (final): 2nd vs winner of week 3.

Winner of the final goes up with whoever wins the league.

Bottom two of SL relegated.

Re: Does Sheffield deserve us? : Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:08 pm  

Its the same in Super League, I went to Leeds Hull KR a couple of seasons ago and there was a crowd of 8,000 there, half what they would normally get