The damage for this seasons crowds was done last season. The massive price hike on season tickets at a time when the team on the pitch was under performing big style means many didn't renew and few newbies came along. Now with money tight people are not likely to roll up regularly at £24 a game plus extras even though the team is generally playing well. If your a family with children over 12 years old, you are looking at parting with a sizeable chunk of money to attend. Perhaps if they aren't keen on reducing the walk up price they could do deals for multi buys, maybe buy one get one free etc...

Indeed so. £24 now to watch I think has put it out of reach of most walk ups. Its where the casuals will cut back first I'm afraid when times are hard.

If I'm honest though (no disrespect to Kens magnificent support of the club meant) last years 2nd half of the season has had the biggest effect of all. This season more than any other needed the marketing team working over time because of that (finances deepening obviously. I think its perhaps been a little naive of the club to think a lot of NEW supporters were going to renew after what happened. People lose enthusiasm for lots of reasons but the season promised so much but, delivered so little.

It was a kick in the guts for me (akin to the wooden spoon days in SL) and I've been coming for nearly 30 years and watched some right s@£t. But I will keep coming, from Manchester, to every home game. My folks only come because l still go and my dads been coming nigh on 50 years, so I won't stop. I am expecting a son in June too (I have ordered a scrum half) and he will get a season ticket when old enough too, whether he likes it or not.

Two things are at work here:
Firstly Frustration at times for the loyal fan whose knows this is the best side they've watched in the last 30yrs like me. and secondly Disillusionment for the those that only know more recent times, perhaps the last 5-6 yrs and expected so much.

It calls for a little patience, thats all. Nobody should feel disheartened, we've come a long way, there is not much further to go. Provided the effort remains from club and loyal supporters then the rewards will come very soon and whether its 10 or 10,000 there in the stands I will make damn sure I'm amongst them.

That is the key point and there is no getting away from it. Money is tight. I did not get a season ticket not because of the price but the petrol costs of getting there. I had to make cuts and the easiest way is the things that seem obvious. The fact that last season was so bad killed the fan base of people who were getting into the Giants but were not fully hooked. Last season wasted all the good work from the previous five years.

No, you can arrange a monthly direct debit over the preseason, as long as the ST is paid off prior to the start of the season but you get charged a 10% "admin" fee (£20 this time) for the privilege.

this is the first time in over 30 years that i havent got a season ticket again not the cost but what happened last year with a team turning up not giving a dam .£24 walk up it to high its a mentle thing £20 max. also its about time the marketing team started to earn there corn and start bringing high proflle sponsers with big pockets and to sort out the shop going to catalan wonting a couple of t shirts bugger all in the shop also after mondays game for god sake keep RHP of the mike

dont think winning anything will make a difference people just arent interested in rugby league in this football mad town/country

if we do win prices will go up still further and people will say they cant afford. we would be champions so the club would say higher season ticket price and turnstile price is justified to keep the trophies coming.

one thing i think we could improve on is marketing ourselves .. we just dont use crabtree enough, people who dont know much about rugby even know who he is!!! we missed a trick at the start of the season to get people interested in season tickets.

also use cudjoe/mcgillvary/brough and fielden more in marketing.

Every club is in the same boat pretty much at the moment as the recession is always going to hit the leisure sector the hardest. It's the same at the Bulls, since we had to start charging full whack we've lost about 2k of the attendances. We've got 6,400 season ticket holders against around 10k last year when they were half price.

I think as RL fans we've not to get too gloomy about it (difficult for RL fans!). At Hudders you've got a good side. I wouldn't read too much into the odd loss against the lesser sides this year, every team loses games it doesn't expect and wins ones it doesn't expect either. If you're not careful the glass half empty attitude can really bring the atmosphere down and put people off. Get some perspective.

It was always going to take time to build the club up. Before now your last period of real success was 60 years ago. It'll take time to build up to decent crowds, especially with the recession and the kind of competition for leisuretime that wasn't around back in the 50s.

Hopefully the decent weather is around the corner (we're due some!) and the economy can't carry on like this forever.

A fall in crowds this year is not necessarily as bad as it seems. I suspect there will be a few people like me who have not renewed their season ticket but are likely to go to a few games over the course of the season. I'm likely to go to a couple of games so the club will get nearly the same money from me as they did last season. So whilst crowds may be down revenue may be the same or even up.
Another factor is the world cup. Some people may choose to forego a club game in order to attend a world cup game. I've managed to get 5 people to buy tickets for a world cup game but none of them are likely to attend a club game. If the world cup can be seen to be a success this may help the profile of rugby league which may in turn increase club attendances in future seasons.

very good point... the world cup is massive for this country and rugby league for the future... needs to be supported and a success

If macbanana was a little less likely to select on reputation and where a player plays his club rugby and more likely to select on form and having players with skills that compliment each other it is more likely to be a success.