Hockley Bronco wrote:I didn't hear an announcement on the number attending. I'd guess about 2000? I sat in front of a couple of union fans first half who said they had acquired free tickets. Oddly for Easter Sunday all my transport options were working..i guess we will witness quite a few more results and performances like that. I can see crowds like yesterday being the norm as we move into summer and people have more options of things to do at the weekend.
All things told and with weekend traffic etc I thought a pretty decent turnout although obviously down on previous weeks. If they are handing out free tickets, and I think they are, I’d avoid doing so for the upcoming Wigan , Saints and Wire games as it is self defeating to do so as they’ll not return off the back of embarrassingly heavy defeats.
Joined: Mar 09 2002 Posts: 5128 Location: Twickenham
Deadcowboys1 wrote:Unless I've missed it, I'm surprised none of the journos have asked why the squad is so poor. Doubt they'd get much of an answer though.
That's a question for Hughes really. Suspect he just can't afford it these days.
jbuzza wrote:That's a question for Hughes really. Suspect he just can't afford it these days.
Well, he holds the purse strings but coaches in all sports are asked about the quality of their squads so it's something that should be put to him. If he says speak to Hughes, then they should do that & if Hughes refuses to engage in any meaningful way, then report that. None of that, you would think, might come under the heading of sensitive business information.
Unlike Football & Union, where owners tend to stay in the background & let their Coach/Manager do the talking, RL owners like to have their say, so come on, Hughes address the concerns we all have.
Firstly....another depressing watch where the lacklustre performance of the opposition made us look far better than we were. Not sure where a win will come from but I suspect Castleford will see us as their saviours this year. Secondly, the reason we are so short of quality is mainly down to 2 things. Our logistical attractiveness to players (ie...too far from mums cooking) and IMG basically saying we could win SL, The Challenge Cup, The NRL and State of Origin and we'd still be relegated, so why spend any of the £1.8 million or so central funding on anything as pointless as quality players. Lastly. Giving away tickets to curious locals and union fans would have been far better done year one at plough lane. Widnes or Warrington, Batley or Huddersfield......even Wigan or Whitehaven....to most of these newbies, the northern town we played would make little difference, but Monkey and Lobster sold Plough Lane to Hughes as a new dawn and by the time monkey was off and lobster was doubling down on gold lounge offers, the chance was gone. Getting spanked by any northern side EVERY WEEK is going to kill us as an option for entertainment spends pretty quickly. Sad to say I saw this coming and even sadder that I was shouted down by a great many, but here we are. Adrift and heading to a championship that I fear we will never escape unless it is further downwards
The reasons for the 1,000 hemorrhaging per match. I'm scratching my head.
Any guesses what the tell us for the Salford match?
I had an itch by the way, wasn't scratching my head trying to find a reason.
I think, but don’t know, that there are still people coming on free/reduced tickets. This week it felt like there were still some families coming in but less sports club type discounted attendees. I fully support the handing out of discounted tickets but it’s usefulness is reduced if they don’t come back and big losses make that outcome more likely. Possibly larger crowds good for concessions/AFC which helps the relationship there and may well be beneficial to sponsors. On the whole better to have sub 2000 than sub 1000 but I think we all know where this leads if we dont do something about on field results sharpish.
I can't help but smile when I see this. It's not the first time and until Hughes is gone, it won't be the last either. Post COVID there was a HUGE opportunity to reboot and place ourselves as a viable option for family entertainment expenditure. We have the premier ladies team in our sport in the south of the nation and a viable pathway for youngsters looking at becoming pro athletes, but instead of going large, we announce KO times and hope for the best.....until we host Wigan instead of whitehaven and look to rinse lapsed fans and expats whilst hosting 50% freebies, in the inane belief that 1 game will have them hooked. Hughes is 100% responsible for this and I get no pleasure out of saying he deserves to feel less comfortable in his gold lounge with each decreasing number AGAIN proving that he hasn't a clue what he's doing and the knowledge that only his wealth and narcissism has kept London alive this long where as he could have made the club self sufficient in the same period if he'd not been such an arrogant idiot. Remember. We had very close to a 5k average when he took over, yet some still applaud him....it's like the orange gimp stateside. Fools will follow what they want to until it's not there and then bemoan "outside" influences, but IMG, the RFL, SL sides or anyone else aren't to blame for this mess....
Joined: Mar 09 2002 Posts: 5128 Location: Twickenham
orangeman wrote:I can't help but smile when I see this. It's not the first time and until Hughes is gone, it won't be the last either. Post COVID there was a HUGE opportunity to reboot and place ourselves as a viable option for family entertainment expenditure. We have the premier ladies team in our sport in the south of the nation and a viable pathway for youngsters looking at becoming pro athletes, but instead of going large, we announce KO times and hope for the best.....until we host Wigan instead of whitehaven and look to rinse lapsed fans and expats whilst hosting 50% freebies, in the inane belief that 1 game will have them hooked. Hughes is 100% responsible for this and I get no pleasure out of saying he deserves to feel less comfortable in his gold lounge with each decreasing number AGAIN proving that he hasn't a clue what he's doing and the knowledge that only his wealth and narcissism has kept London alive this long where as he could have made the club self sufficient in the same period if he'd not been such an arrogant idiot. Remember. We had very close to a 5k average when he took over, yet some still applaud him....it's like the orange gimp stateside. Fools will follow what they want to until it's not there and then bemoan "outside" influences, but IMG, the RFL, SL sides or anyone else aren't to blame for this mess....
Clearly more effort has been put into getting people through the doors this season which is good but without a competitive team it is a hard sell. Hughes actually voted for the IMG proposals so should have seen what was coming with the ratings. If not, he is even more stupid than I thought.
Let's hope at least some of the newcomers will stick it out and next season we have both a competitive championship side and effort put into growing the crowds (like we should have done at Cherry Red from day 1).
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