Saw some stats earlier today on crowds, which were quite pertinent especially with season tickets on sale this week.
https://widnesrugby.com/blogs/crowds-for-concern/
Big challenge for club and fans alike to ensure Widnes can be a big club at Championship level, in terms of fanbase, performance, attracting players and more.
For what it's worth, I'll be renewing my season ticket tomorrow.
It doesn’t bother me too much, but the ‘match day experience’ is non existent as is the atmosphere.
Last year there was no incentive to buy a ticket to watch us, the rugby was rubbish as was the general match day once inside the ground.
All needs to be improved.
Saw some stats earlier today on crowds, which were quite pertinent especially with season tickets on sale this week.
https://widnesrugby.com/blogs/crowds-for-concern/
Big challenge for club and fans alike to ensure Widnes can be a big club at Championship level, in terms of fanbase, performance, attracting players and more.
I'm not surprised in the slightest. Attendances looked and sounded dire.
- I think our fanbase is historically fickle.
- We had good ourleague figures from what is suggested. The moans on here and social media suggested that maybe many our fans took the service for granted and found it difficult to transition.
- Our abysmal and unconvincing start to the season had a massive impact. Our failure to get consistency going thereafter didn't help either.
- A lot of people couldnt/wouldn't get to grips with a very straightforward seat booking system (it wasn't hard but I get that it could've been more convenient but it was probably out of the clubs hands).
- Requesting people turn up at specific times definitely wasn't a good thing.
- The limited concourse access seemed to be a factor in some people refusing to attend although I'm not sure how much of that was just a few people making loud noises.
- The whole matchday experience was a bit dire. Modern day fans want to have more than 80 minutes of entertainment for their £20.
- There was quite a bit of apathy due to a lack of good news or news of any kind coming from the club mid-season.
A poisonous cocktail of the above will result in a disaster of a season of the biggest kind even without one of the ingredients. The club simply have to do better on every front. Announcing retentions of the better players and the signings of players most of us don't know much about will not put bums on seats. Working WITH fans and not against them, giving them a little bit more and having a bigger presence in the community will help.
It's worrying,Widnes have lost a big chunk of their die hard support through a combination of covid and lousy performances.Will they return ? People easily get out of the habit of going along to a game and also notice a saving in the pocket. We will do well to get 2000 home fans per home game.
There are people in their 30's for whom the highlight of their whole supporter experience following Widnes is acceptance into superleague and a day at Wembley in a micky mouse cup that hardly anyone entered that the club had the temerity to equate to a challenge cup final appearance
When you continually serve up dross and it becomes the norm people will stop paying for it and no new fans will be attracted, the crowd figures will eventually match the ambition or lack of it that the club shows
It all tallies in with what we said at the time.
We had no chance of the Play-Offs, so on a nice summer afternoon people wouldn't bother beyond the real diehards.
The getting there 2 hours before kick off was an absolute joke. Also, the no getting drinks/food at HT.
Wrong or otherwise, the perception of non-match goers or people who go occasionally was that it was one of the worst Widnes sides ever; I heard that said numerous times.
£22 is far too much to watch an average second division side when all the other leisure attractions are available post lockdown.
If you look back to the late 90s when the ground was being redeveloped and we were playing in the new ground, we had relatively low attendances, which built back up to the 3000 mark when we got a decent team again under Colin Whitfield. We need a good season to at least get up towards the 2500 mark again IMO.
The club needs to change the perception of itself to those who don't follow it week in week out, there is a general lack of belief in the coach and CEO. I have regularly heard people calling the set up amateur.
The club (and the sport) also lacks interaction with the fans.
Other than sending out a load of bland social media posts the club does nothing to interact with the fans.
And to be honest, it’s the same as it was under the old regime in that regard.
When was the last time we heard from anyone running the club through official club channels?
£22 is far too much to watch an average second division side when all the other leisure attractions are available post lockdown.
Absolutely this.
This is where Rugby League is caught up in a Catch 22 situation.
Teams have to charge so much at the moment because they're all effectively skint after lockdown, but it's pricing fans out of the game.
And Widnes are run on a shoestring budget anyway, so you know the pricing won't change, and as a result of that, the club will struggle to get any decent attendances through the gates.
As it stands the old diehard fans numbers will drop and leave the lively youngsters to keep it going. The matchday, for me, is to watch the game, and I go early so that I can choose my seat, simples.
Regarding matchday experience I wonder if we have explored the possibility of having an amateur game on at the stadium before home games?
Don't know how the amateurs would respond but they have several teams from school age upwards and it would give their lads (or lasses?) a chance to play on a big stage.
It would be another way of getting the most out of our pitch at least
We are a community club and need to involve and support as many people as possible in thus great game.
Thank you sandgroper for repeating a common sense and obvious suggestion. If schools or amateur sides play here before a game they’ll bring some supporters, and not only will teams benefit from playing in a great stadium but interest in our club will increase.
Lower crowds than Batley ? Is that correct ?
As it stands the old diehard fans numbers will drop and leave the lively youngsters to keep it going. The matchday, for me, is to watch the game, and I go early so that I can choose my seat, simples.
Regarding matchday experience I wonder if we have explored the possibility of having an amateur game on at the stadium before home games?
Don't know how the amateurs would respond but they have several teams from school age upwards and it would give their lads (or lasses?) a chance to play on a big stage.
It would be another way of getting the most out of our pitch at least
I don't really see the correlation between having an amateur/schools game and the matchday experience - people are saying watching 80 minutes of (semi) professional rugby isn't enough; so why is putting another game on beforehand going to change anything?
@jdgsport Just getting more for your buck as a spectator and furthering the community involvement.
Of course if just watching a game doesn't turn you on then its a waste of time.
Question is what do the public want as the 'gameday experience'? If it's not rugby what else?? Chances are there are as many options as there are customers as most find when community events.
What do you get at other venues that sets the crown alight?
In what way does this 'game day experience' differ at the clubs with better gates than ours ? Are they all doing something that we are not ? Besides winning games I mean.