Re: massive crowd at crusaders v salford : Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:55 pm  

Rochdale - Fax Fan wrote:

The point is that we aren’t playing in SL, and in order for us to have any chance of doing so, we have to convince the RFL that we are worthy of it. In terms of an attendance, in our last home game we achieved less than a 2000 home gate.

With figures like that are the RFL, really going to take us seriously! From their point of view, Crusaders and Fax, average the same sort of home crowd. Which is more beneficial to the modern game...a development club?....or a club still congratulating itself on getting to the Challenge cup Final in 1987!

Fax4Life, you say that Crusaders are giving away free tickets, then fair play to them!! It’s the attendance figures that the RFL are looking for, as oppose to the revenue. I’m sure that the Skircoat Stand could be filled had the correct marketing gone towards it, would it be too difficult to give every primary school in Calderdale a handful of free tickets in an attempt to bulk the attendance up, I think not.

With Fax being in a 10 mile range of the Bulls and Hudds, who both average 5000+, it is naive of Fax fans to think that they will be given a look in by the RFL. In terms of attendance figures then the M62 corridor is at saturation point, Wrexham, London, S. France will always be more appealing to the RFL, if the people of Halifax don’t do their bit and come and support their local team then that is the way it’ll always be.

This is an old chestnut, basically there are two sides to this, the ones who are in bed with the RFL and anything that is 'expansion' and SL is okay with them. The expansion clubs have a blank sheet to do whatever they want, if they only got 1k these people would still say its okay they are outside the heartlands its not their fault its better than having a team in places like Halifax and Leigh, what an insult to these towns who have RL in their blood!
Then there are the rest of us who prefer to stick to the facts and care about the WHOLE game of RL and see this for what it is, a PR disaster.
Do you think the crowds you see published are the actual spectators at the game anyway? Look at the crowd for the Toulouse game tonight 2300, really???
No - you can put whatever figure you want as long as it includes tickets issued it don't matter.
Yet some people just don't get it do they? They think its us 'negative flat capper' types.

Re: massive crowd at crusaders v salford : Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:09 pm  

At the end of the day, if those figures are true or false what will really matter is how many people are willing to pay full whack to watch a team. It's all well and good clubs issuing false figures or selling dirt cheap season tickets. What will matter in the end is whether there's enough money coming in to pay for quality players and nowhere is this more evident than at Bradford. They've got the squad that they can afford and it shows. Apart from Shad - they're ordinary. So, it's all well and good issuing knock-down tickets but a squad has still got to be paid for and unless you've got a Davey or an O'Connor chucking money at the thing it really is essential that you get folk coming through the turnstiles - and actually handing over proper cash.

Re: massive crowd at crusaders v salford : Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:15 pm  

ATEOTD , the simple answer to this type of thing is we ( Championship clubs ) need to increase our crowds , one way or another that is the simple answer , if Fax were to be able to draw 4,000 + crowds then they like any other club could not be refused

It can be done , it just needs a bit of vision , some common sense , a smallish amount of money and the will to make it work

Re: massive crowd at crusaders v salford : Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:19 pm  

littlerich wrote:

At the end of the day, if those figures are true or false what will really matter is how many people are willing to pay full whack to watch a team. It's all well and good clubs issuing false figures or selling dirt cheap season tickets. What will matter in the end is whether there's enough money coming in to pay for quality players and nowhere is this more evident than at Bradford. They've got the squad that they can afford and it shows. Apart from Shad - they're ordinary. So, it's all well and good issuing knock-down tickets but a squad has still got to be paid for and unless you've got a Davey or an O'Connor chucking money at the thing it really is essential that you get folk coming through the turnstiles - and actually handing over proper cash.

Ultimatley yes we want/need paying speccys , but to get those people , you first have to ask why don't they come ? , why do you go ? , why do they go to other matches played by other clubs , and how can you replicate whatever it is they have that you don't ?

Re: massive crowd at crusaders v salford : Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:21 pm  

Sounds easy Starbug. It's hard enough drumming up support from steady fans to the lottery let alone persuading people who don't usually have anything to do with RL to go to matches.

Re: massive crowd at crusaders v salford : Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:30 pm  

littlerich wrote:

Sounds easy Starbug. It's hard enough drumming up support from steady fans to the lottery let alone persuading people who don't usually have anything to do with RL to go to matches.

Nothing worth doing is ever ' easy ' , but it's like this , I am currently sat in front of the TV watching Coldplay at Glastonbury , so why do all these lunnies spend a fortune to go and stand in a swamp to listen and watch musicians that they could hear and see for free on the very TV channel I am watching ?

That is always your starting point , answer that question and then you start on the journey to getting where you want to be

Re: massive crowd at crusaders v salford : Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:40 pm  

Starbug wrote:

Nothing worth doing is ever ' easy ' , but it's like this , I am currently sat in front of the TV watching Coldplay at Glastonbury , so why do all these lunnies spend a fortune to go and stand in a swamp to listen and watch musicians that they could hear and see for free on the very TV channel I am watching ?

That is always your starting point , answer that question and then you start on the journey to getting where you want to be

They go to watch famous people do their stuff - and to be part of a crowd that also wants to do the same thing. That's why I started watching RL in 1984 - because some mad man brought 11 Australians over to "do their thing" and the craze caught on. People around the town heard about a new brand of Rugby being played and the rest is history. A unique set of circumstances got me watching. A spark of genius. A new hope. Something extraordinary.

Now then, where do we find that down here in The Championships?

Re: massive crowd at crusaders v salford : Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:47 pm  

Starbug wrote:

ATEOTD , the simple answer to this type of thing is we ( Championship clubs ) need to increase our crowds , one way or another that is the simple answer , if Fax were to be able to draw 4,000 + crowds then they like any other club could not be refused

It can be done , it just needs a bit of vision , some common sense , a smallish amount of money and the will to make it work

But that is where there is a total contradiction SL clubs in the 'development areas' can have crowds of whatever yet us lot in the league with not many fans (especially away fans) and no Promotion to SL to create some enthusiam have to get bigger crowds than those special cases just to get into SL.
Only RL would have ushc a daft process, even RU let 'expansion' clubs get relegated take Leeds Carnegie, yet the RFl have protected species - but as others have said they are not sustainable on such low crowds, even with the 'alleged' financial help from the RFl it cannot carry on.
Crusaders wil go bust I will bet you on that.

Re: massive crowd at crusaders v salford : Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:58 pm  

littlerich wrote:

They go to watch famous people do their stuff - and to be part of a crowd that also wants to do the same thing. That's why I started watching RL in 1984 - because some mad man brought 11 Australians over to "do their thing" and the craze caught on. People around the town heard about a new brand of Rugby being played and the rest is history. A unique set of circumstances got me watching. A spark of genius. A new hope. Something extraordinary.

Now then, where do we find that down here in The Championships?

The brand of Rugby you've been playing the last couple of years has been as exciting as anything that you had in 84 , but now things are different , so you have to take a slightly different approach

' to be part of the crowd ' , ie to experience an event , to experience an atmosphere that you cannot replicate at home despite the quality of sight and sound being much superior

So you pick on the most impressionable people you can and give them an ' experience ' let them feel an atmosphere they haven't felt before , they will then associate that ' feeling ' with your club , and even if the atmosphere changes they will still associate the feeling they first felt with the place and club that provided it , and all of a sudden you have

A Halifax fan

There is no logical reason why clubs such as ours cannot draw just as big crowds as SL clubs , the only thing holding us back from doing something about it is our attitude

Re: massive crowd at crusaders v salford : Sat Jun 25, 2011 10:08 pm  

Fax4Life wrote:

But that is where there is a total contradiction SL clubs in the 'development areas' can have crowds of whatever yet us lot in the league with not many fans (especially away fans) and no Promotion to SL to create some enthusiam have to get bigger crowds than those special cases just to get into SL.
Only RL would have ushc a daft process, even RU let 'expansion' clubs get relegated take Leeds Carnegie, yet the RFl have protected species - but as others have said they are not sustainable on such low crowds, even with the 'alleged' financial help from the RFl it cannot carry on.
Crusaders wil go bust I will bet you on that.

Let it go

Who cares how many they get , it will be their funeral in the end , we can only influence our own , a few years ago I went to a speed awareness course to avoid getting another three points on my drivers licence , one of the other ' students ' stated that she tended to drive faster because of other cars driving close up behind her car , the instructors reply was , ignore them , you cannot influence what happens behind you , only worry about what you can control , and that is what is in front of you , his words are very relevant to our predicament

Let's only worry about ourselves , let's them drive off the edge of a cliff if that's what they want to do

I only want Leigh to get into SL when we can get in and genuinely compete , not bounce along in the bottom 3/4 for years on end like say Salford or Cas/Wakey have done , let alone the expansion crew , they can gave it , with a bit of ' new ' thinking we could double the attendances of all the Championship clubs , do that and we would be on the way to a optimistic future , and quite possibly a future where the RFL will be asking us to join them , not the other way round