or whatever it was, OK friday night with a high profile SL clash, but this is worrying, and like I said in a post the other day, we won't add onto to that figure IMHO. We'll be lucky to match tonight's gate next week

It will probably be the highest attendance in the Northern rail cup this week.
Did Oldham bring a few? They brought more than i thought to the LSV in our friendly and all made them selves heard.

somewhere between 30 - 100 Oldham fans turned up.. Supported their team well

We'd be singing from the rooftops if we got those kind of attendances for that type of match. I don't understand your post at all.

We got 3.5k for a Wednesday night NRC game against Barrow(reserves) last year.

There has been significant debate at Widnes over the effect that;

a) Change of game day to Friday/Saturday,

b) Credit Crunch,

c) Franchising (and the resultant meaningless games),

is going to have on our crowds this season.

Initial indications (including a recent announcement that 30% of last years season ticket holders have not renewed) are suggesting that we are looking at a 25% decrease which, as the opening poster suggests, is worrying.

ps After last night I think we can add disappointing performances to the above list aswell

Yet suddenly many people can't make it for night matches.I appreciate it is difficult for some to travel and get back home at a reasonable time but I get the impression that a lot of people can quite easily get to the game if they wanted to but are using the switch to Friday nights as a convenient excuse not to go.

I cant remember but did your fans get a say whilst you switch games to a fri nite ? In SL i can understand the switch its down to 1 thing CORPRATE the people who have a meal/box its money sadley nothing to do with fans.

No,we didn't get a say in it.I am against Friday night games myself but that won't stop me from going along to support the team.Others,who live some distance away and/or have work commitments,cannot make it.Then there are the fickle fans who can easily make it but can't be arsed.
An evening KO didn't stop 3500 people turning up against Barrow last year.

Unfortunatley these days , any excuse will do

Attendances are the biggest problem at this level , there is a reason the RFL have 40 % of stadium capacity as a criteria , anything less and the lack of atmosphere is very apparent

The Championship clubs really do need to sit down together [ without an RFL presence ] to discuss what they can do collectively to improve attendances , income and profile of the competitions they contest

I understand that Widnes are the favourites to get the 2012 SL spot up for grabs but until all the clubs make a ' leap of faith ' on the issues outside of the 80 minutes on the pitch , no clubs will ever move forward

All the best

I agree that the attendances are a little disappointing, Im sure we budgetted for around 3000 home fans plus the small away following. And looking at the fixtures only Leigh and Fax will bring fairly decent numbers with them.

Re: Friday night games, we're actually playing more Saturday evening games (7 to 5 on a Friday), I did enjoy last night but given the choice, I like SL Friday and Saturday on TV and Widnes on a Sunday.