Re: Selling the game! : Mon Sep 11, 2017 10:26 am  

Redscat wrote:

I, and others, on this forum have said many times before that the public of Wakefield are apathetic towards all spectator sports, not just rugby league. I agree that the ground issue is a big factor. Wakefield RU, Wakefield AFC and Wakefield CC all had reasonable ground accommodation but disappeared within a short time of each other, and Wakefiekd Trinity would have gone the same way if not for the shear doggedness (and money) of Michael Carter and Chris Brereton. We just can't get the Wakefield citizens off their arses. Castleford could give us a good lesson on this subject.

Hmmm, it would appear that way but I always hesitate to categorise a huge group of people. In theory, I cannot see any reason why the public of Wakefield would be any different to the public of any other town or city.
My feelings on attendances are as follows:
1. We look like we have a hard core of 4000 - 4500 judging by Thurs night attendances and the Catalans game when we are the only ones there. This is probably up on say 3 or 4 years ago but not by as much as it ought to be considering the past 2 seasons.
2. We are still in the middle of an economic black period; this we can do nothing about other than offers on ticket prices and we have been down this line before and the problems that cheap/ free tickets can create, though I do think we should do more to get young kids in. Our core support looks like it is ageing when I look around! We need to address this
3. The ground is the main issue. If you are not an aficionado of the sport but are looking for something to take up following or even an occasional visit, I am sad to say Belle Vue will put you off us. Bad weather I am sure knocks hundreds, if not thousands sometimes, off some games.
4. Marketing. I am not sure what the club does if I am honest as I live in Beverley so I might be missing local initiatives. But I see nothing in my Dad's letter pile in Horbury. Whilst I am sure cost is an issue, maybe we do need to target key groups. Maybe a bit of local market research if it hasn't been done already, is in order.

Just my thoughts. I don't think Wakefield folk are any more or less apathetic re sport than anyone else, personally

Re: Selling the game! : Mon Sep 11, 2017 10:49 am  

The people of Wakefield aren't apathetic to sport, but to most, they are happy to travel further afield to watch it as that's what they're used to doing for other top class sports. If they want to watch football then they travel to Leeds, Huddersfield or Barnsley etc. If they want to watch cricket then off they trot to headingley to watch the T20 or test matches, if they want to watch RU then it's off to Carnegie they head.

I think a major hit to Wakefield happened in the late 90s when Bradford Bulls were on the ascendancy, and they ran huge marketing campaigns in Wakefield etc to bring in fans from far and wide. It worked and often on match day you'd see fans travelling over to Bradford instead of to a local club. I always suspected that these weren't old trinity fans, but were new fans to the sport, then as times became harder both financially and for the Bradford club, these new people stepped away from the sport again.

As to what I think Wakefield could do to improve things; a weekly club email which gets sent to all fans who sign up for it, a thank you letter at around this time of year which thanks season ticket holders for their support and reminds them of any offers etc that can be used with the season ticket (meal discounts etc). Try to drum up local business support, have posters made which can be displayed in shop windows and banners made highlighting the next game (Leeds Rhinos are excellent at this). Get the players doing something which will get them on calender news or look North (for a good reason), something that's not necessarily related to rugby so will be in the main news segment.

Wakefield has a new university campus, it's nothing spectacular, but it's rife with students who may not be afford a ticket, doing a decent student discount as well as some savvy marketting might entice them to come along

Re: Selling the game! : Mon Sep 11, 2017 10:56 am  

Egg Banjo wrote:

The people of Wakefield aren't apathetic to sport, but to most, they are happy to travel further afield to watch it as that's what they're used to doing for other top class sports. If they want to watch football then they travel to Leeds, Huddersfield or Barnsley etc. If they want to watch cricket then off they trot to headingley to watch the T20 or test matches, if they want to watch RU then it's off to Carnegie they head.

I think a major hit to Wakefield happened in the late 90s when Bradford Bulls were on the ascendancy, and they ran huge marketing campaigns in Wakefield etc to bring in fans from far and wide. It worked and often on match day you'd see fans travelling over to Bradford instead of to a local club. I always suspected that these weren't old trinity fans, but were new fans to the sport, then as times became harder both financially and for the Bradford club, these new people stepped away from the sport again.

As to what I think Wakefield could do to improve things; a weekly club email which gets sent to all fans who sign up for it, a thank you letter at around this time of year which thanks season ticket holders for their support and reminds them of any offers etc that can be used with the season ticket (meal discounts etc). Try to drum up local business support, have posters made which can be displayed in shop windows and banners made highlighting the next game (Leeds Rhinos are excellent at this). Get the players doing something which will get them on calender news or look North (for a good reason), something that's not necessarily related to rugby so will be in the main news segment.

Wakefield has a new university campus, it's nothing spectacular, but it's rife with students who may not be afford a ticket, doing a decent student discount as well as some savvy marketting might entice them to come along

Excellent ideas imo

Re: Selling the game! : Mon Sep 11, 2017 11:03 am  

The ultimate best way to sell the game though is by winning games and making the home ground a fortress. Fans want to come and see a competitive game and their team win, we can all pretend to be happy in defeat, but the reality is that we want to feel the elation of watching your team win. While this year has been brilliant on the whole, the home form has been rather hit miss, which is a big drag. For the casual fan to spend £20+ each to maybe watch their team win it's a big ask, ask anyone in Castleford the same though and they're much less likely to see it as an issue now that WR is a fortress for them.

This isn't a knock at the team though, I know they've been fantastic and 100% committed in every game

Re: Selling the game! : Mon Sep 11, 2017 11:57 am  

wrencat1873 wrote:

For those saying that the only way to hear about Trinity is the Wakefield Express or Sky, where do you expect to hear about them ?

Maybe we should be trying to get some local pubs to show re-runs of games and perhaps they can advertise more but, in reality, it's down to the fans to talk the club up a little more and get our friends interested in coming to a game.

There isn't a magic wand here, although, some on field success would certainly help.

I don't know, see Keighly Cougers / Bradford Bulls circa 1995 perhaps. Plenty of ideas there.

Re: Selling the game! : Mon Sep 11, 2017 4:29 pm  

charlie63wildcat wrote:

Hmmm, it would appear that way but I always hesitate to categorise a huge group of people. In theory, I cannot see any reason why the public of Wakefield would be any different to the public of any other town or city.
My feelings on attendances are as follows:
1. We look like we have a hard core of 4000 - 4500 judging by Thurs night attendances and the Catalans game when we are the only ones there. This is probably up on say 3 or 4 years ago but not by as much as it ought to be considering the past 2 seasons.
2. We are still in the middle of an economic black period; this we can do nothing about other than offers on ticket prices and we have been down this line before and the problems that cheap/ free tickets can create, though I do think we should do more to get young kids in. Our core support looks like it is ageing when I look around! We need to address this
3. The ground is the main issue. If you are not an aficionado of the sport but are looking for something to take up following or even an occasional visit, I am sad to say Belle Vue will put you off us. Bad weather I am sure knocks hundreds, if not thousands sometimes, off some games.
4. Marketing. I am not sure what the club does if I am honest as I live in Beverley so I might be missing local initiatives. But I see nothing in my Dad's letter pile in Horbury. Whilst I am sure cost is an issue, maybe we do need to target key groups. Maybe a bit of local market research if it hasn't been done already, is in order.

Just my thoughts. I don't think Wakefield folk are any more or less apathetic re sport than anyone else,
personally

I refer to Item 3 in your list, charlie. Salford in new ground, large city. pathetic couple of thousand spectators: Castleford in crappy stadium, small town, large attendances of 8 or 9 thousand. Wakefield in crappy stadium, city of 80,000, attendances of 4500 ish, playing good rugby: Reason - APATHY

Wakefield Trinity want to send players into the junior and comprehensive schools around dishing out free tickets of which a few hundred would want their dads or big brothers and sisters to go with them.

Re: Selling the game! : Mon Sep 11, 2017 6:38 pm  

I tend to disagree with the decision not to give discounted rates to students. I think its better to have a couple of hundred students in the ground paying reduced ticket price, than none at all.

Re: Selling the game! : Mon Sep 11, 2017 8:09 pm  

I wonder if it has been worth it overall, don't suppose you can accurately work it out, I believe the school's is the way to go, get them young at all costs, personally think u13 should be free at all games, this should be RL wide.

Re: Selling the game! : Mon Sep 11, 2017 8:56 pm  

The game itself might be the beginning and end of everything for the die-hards but its not enough for everyone, it has to offer other attractions.
Sure, the game itself is the central event but it can't be the only reason to be there, Match day needs to be exactly that, a day of entertainment for everyone.
At the moment, we only cater for die-hards, the recent upturn in success on the field is a help but I think its a bit of a blinkered ideal to think that that's all you need to grow an attendance.
Can't wait to get the hell out of there tbh......and I'm a die-hard Est1980

Re: Selling the game! : Mon Sep 11, 2017 9:28 pm  

Good point that Inside Man about Under 13s being free, though not sure how viable it is.

I would maybe target that to Under 11s.

On top of the abovein getting kids in.

I do remember that there used to be a kidzone/fanzone around where the matchday ticket booth is now