Rugby Premiership average crowds

SmallTown said:
. No wonder teams struggle financially. I know newcastle aren't doing well but it really isn't a northern game is it?
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I doubt running costs of an RU club is comparable to a football club though. We've all become so used to footballers earning 10s of thousands a week, but other professional sportsmen get nowhere close to that.

Boro used to get by on gates of 13-14k and I used to see Paul Kerr around Martin in his sponsored Ford Fiesta. Other sports salaries are comparable to that era, plus inflation.

Rugby obviously has larger teams, and therefore squads, so that must be a drain though
 
Frozen Horse said:
I doubt running costs of an RU club is comparable to a football club though. We've all become so used to footballers earning 10s of thousands a week, but other professional sportsmen get nowhere close to that.

Boro used to get by on gates of 13-14k and I used to see Paul Kerr around Martin in his sponsored Ford Fiesta. Other sports salaries are comparable to that era, plus inflation.

Rugby obviously has larger teams, and therefore squads, so that must be a drain though
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This is true. The wage cap SHOULD be helping rugby teams stay afloat but every single one of them has made a loss this season, and to my knowledge Exeter are the only team that have had a profitable season in the last 6 years. I know crowds are low, but something not right there surely? I used to think owning a ground (as exeter do with Sandy Park) is the key to financial success but Worcester and Wasps owned their own stadiums. Obviously the WAY they owned their own stadium killed wasps but Worcester should have been OK. It's an odd thing rugby in that the England national side is massive, tickets for their matches easily seel for upwards of £100 yet the clubs that exclusively feed it are all broke
 
SmallTown said:
This is true. The wage cap SHOULD be helping rugby teams stay afloat but every single one of them has made a loss this season, and to my knowledge Exeter are the only team that have had a profitable season in the last 6 years. I know crowds are low, but something not right there surely? I used to think owning a ground (as exeter do with Sandy Park) is the key to financial success but Worcester and Wasps owned their own stadiums. Obviously the WAY they owned their own stadium killed wasps but Worcester should have been OK. It's an odd thing rugby in that the England national side is massive, tickets for their matches easily seel for upwards of £100 yet the clubs that exclusively feed it are all broke
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What I think is strange is that RL clubs generally survive on lower crowds, and probably get lower sponsorship and exposure due to playing a nasty northern sport, but don't seem to have the financial problems of RU teams. I can't simply be that they have 2 less players to pay.

I don't think RL is awash with cash either.
I suspect the issue for RU is immediate competition: they have French club rugby, which pays higher wages, on the doorstep, and there is a need to compete with that to retain the best players. Many can't afford to do that. RL doesn't have a competitor on this side of the world
 
I have a half-serious belief that very few people English people actually like rugby. They're just brainwormed by Guinness each Six Nations to get out to the pub and pretend to care about the game. People shouting and cheering throughout the game, but then as soon as its finished they're perfectly ambivalent.

Newcastle Falcons must be the only professional side in a 100-mile radius but get 6000 fans? Probably equates to around 1 in 300+ people in their immediate catchment areas attending games.
 
Frozen Horse said:
What I think is strange is that RL clubs generally survive on lower crowds, and probably get lower sponsorship and exposure due to playing a nasty northern sport, but don't seem to have the financial problems of RU teams. I can't simply be that they have 2 less players to pay.

I don't think RL is awash with cash either.
I suspect the issue for RU is immediate competition: they have French club rugby, which pays higher wages, on the doorstep, and there is a need to compete with that to retain the best players. Many can't afford to do that. RL doesn't have a competitor on this side of the world
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RL also has more practice. They have ben pros for decades. Relatively speaking professional rugby unions is quite new. Good point about the competitors, to such an extent that Frances only pro team has to actually play in England!
 
35to39 said:
I have a half-serious belief that very few people English people actually like rugby. They're just brainwormed by Guinness each Six Nations to get out to the pub and pretend to care about the game. People shouting and cheering throughout the game, but then as soon as its finished they're perfectly ambivalent.

Newcastle Falcons must be the only professional side in a 100-mile radius but get 6000 fans? Probably equates to around 1 in 300+ people in their immediate catchment areas attending games.
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I would say that's a Northern centric view. It's definitely a niche sport, no doubt. But near me, where football is still the king, there are tonnes and tonnes of rugby clubs and if you go to the south west it's pretty big. (Exeter chiefs have a stadium almost as big as Exeter city and Plymouth argyle combined for example. No denying at all it's a niche and small sport at club level but the figures from the North are skewed a bit, as the North west has Rugby league and the North East is so focused on Football alone.

Funny enough we rugby fans notice the difference during the six nations too. You get lots of people talking about the sport for two months and then nothing whereas we live it all year round.
 
I find rugby a particularly uninteresting sport. I hardly ever watch even the 6 nations. A couple of mates are bigly into it and I get dragged out to matches a couple of times a year. I enjoy the day out and a beer watching (very civilised) but frankly I find it difficult to follow with any sustained interest as 15(?) blokes disappear in a mound and then all emerge wearing the same uniform layer of mud. How they tell each other apart is beyond me. Rules seem very arbitrary.
 
SmallTown said:
I would say that's a Northern centric view. It's definitely a niche sport, no doubt. But near me, where football is still the king, there are tonnes and tonnes of rugby clubs and if you go to the south west it's pretty big. (Exeter chiefs have a stadium almost as big as Exeter city and Plymouth argyle combined for example. No denying at all it's a niche and small sport at club level but the figures from the North are skewed a bit, as the North west has Rugby league and the North East is so focused on Football alone.

Funny enough we rugby fans notice the difference during the six nations too. You get lots of people talking about the sport for two months and then nothing whereas we live it all year round.
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I guess its the same feeling I get everytime there's a home Ashes series; people who haven't watched the sport in 3-4 years chipping in with poor takes. See the recent Jimmy Anderson retirement thread for a bunch of them.
 
One of by best mates lives in Leicester, and when we're heading in to town, it always seems strange to me to pass a substantial stadium that's only used for RU.

OK, Leicester is a bit of an exception looking at the attendances; but it does feel like a sporting world that I'm not part of. East midlands, South West and London, there are definitely strong pockets of support for it.

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Up until i moved to the North West I hated the sport. It was all football for me. played locally with some great lads and decent teams. My son played both but to get to a decent level he had to choose. Since 16 he has never looked back and now although i still enjoy watching and getting back when i can its all Rugby. The training these players put in and the hits they take are off the scale. I don't understand all the tactics but anyone who hates it just don't understand it. And that's fair enough. I asked a prop what it was like and he said its like running in to a bag of concrete 20 times a game.
 
Muttley said:
I find rugby a particularly uninteresting sport. I hardly ever watch even the 6 nations. A couple of mates are bigly into it and I get dragged out to matches a couple of times a year. I enjoy the day out and a beer watching (very civilised) but frankly I find it difficult to follow with any sustained interest as 15(?) blokes disappear in a mound and then all emerge wearing the same uniform layer of mud. How they tell each other apart is beyond me. Rules seem very arbitrary.
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Like all sports I think it helps if you have played it in the past. Helps comprehension. Rugby has many rules, but once you watch for a while it's quite simple. except these days when they change the rules every season. The good things is the refs clearly explain every decision both verbally and with hand signals.
 
Frozen Horse said:
One of by best mates lives in Leicester, and when we're heading in to town, it always seems strange to me to pass a substantial stadium that's only used for RU.

OK, Leicester is a bit of an exception looking at the attendances; but it does feel like a sporting world that I'm not part of. East midlands, South West and London, there are definitely strong pockets of support for it.

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Yeah it's a good point. When I was younger I remember driving down the the A316 during a trip down south and driving between Twickenham and the Stoop and thinking, WOW one big and one average sized stadium and they only play rugby here.
Nowadays I'm a 10 min walk from them and barely batted an eyelid when I went to my gym and it was in an 83000 capacity rugby stadium! If I see rugby posts when I'm back home in the North East I'll think "that's rare" but down here, I was shocked when they redeveloped a park near the Stoop, took out the rugby posts and put in a 4g footie pitch. Seemed wrong.
 
Corcaigh_the_Cat said:
Talking to one of the Billingham rugby lads last week he said they pulled in over 1,000 for the last match of the season. That's way more than the football club would get for a league game, though the town's football team did manage over 1300 for a play off game the season before.
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I was at that game, great atmosphere - Billingham got the points they needed to stay up - and Rotherham brought three coachloads of fans
 
Not sure what I dislike more the game itself, the americanised names with fluffy animals and pantomime characters. or the whole middle class vibe around it. I tried watching it when I was in my 20s, I tried to get excited about england winning the world cup, but I just can't feel anything watching it.

Looking at those figures, unless harlequinns are playing at twickenham, it must be rare for more than 100,000 people to watch live professional rugby union over a weekend, more people watch League One don't they?
 
BebingtonFox said:
Up until i moved to the North West I hated the sport. It was all football for me. played locally with some great lads and decent teams. My son played both but to get to a decent level he had to choose. Since 16 he has never looked back and now although i still enjoy watching and getting back when i can its all Rugby. The training these players put in and the hits they take are off the scale. I don't understand all the tactics but anyone who hates it just don't understand it. And that's fair enough. I asked a prop what it was like and he said its like running in to a bag of concrete 20 times a game.
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No wonder they are dying young.

I got invited to Twickenham to watch England play the All Blacks and was quite low down near the pitch. I was shocked how much punishment the players take, you have to see it live to appreciate it, you can almost feel the hits.

Puts the namby pamby footballers environment into perspective, they wouldn’t last two minutes…
 
BoroMart said:
Not sure what I dislike more the game itself, the americanised names with fluffy animals and pantomime characters. or the whole middle class vibe around it. I tried watching it when I was in my 20s, I tried to get excited about england winning the world cup, but I just can't feel anything watching it.

Looking at those figures, unless harlequinns are playing at twickenham, it must be rare for more than 100,000 people to watch live professional rugby union over a weekend, more people watch League One don't they?
Click to expand...
I’m not really a rugby fan but some of the international games particularly when they are close can be superb sporting contests.
 
SmallTown said:
Yeah it's a good point. When I was younger I remember driving down the the A316 during a trip down south and driving between Twickenham and the Stoop and thinking, WOW one big and one average sized stadium and they only play rugby here.
Nowadays I'm a 10 min walk from them and barely batted an eyelid when I went to my gym and it was in an 83000 capacity rugby stadium! If I see rugby posts when I'm back home in the North East I'll think "that's rare" but down here, I was shocked when they redeveloped a park near the Stoop, took out the rugby posts and put in a 4g footie pitch. Seemed wrong.
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It doesn't surprise me when the national stadium is huge, but a big ground in a provincial city did.

If don't much care for union, but I can enjoy a bit of league. One big difference is in RU the ball is in play for about 35-38 minutes. In RL you're looking at 50 minutes. Still, I enjoy NFL and you only get about 11 minutes in that.
 
BoroMart said:
Not sure what I dislike more the game itself, the americanised names with fluffy animals and pantomime characters. or the whole middle class vibe around it. I tried watching it when I was in my 20s, I tried to get excited about england winning the world cup, but I just can't feel anything watching it.

Looking at those figures, unless harlequinns are playing at twickenham, it must be rare for more than 100,000 people to watch live professional rugby union over a weekend, more people watch League One don't they?
Click to expand...
More people watch non league football.
 
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