The last full season of attendance figures goes back to 2019 so that is the year that will be referenced against 2022. So how did they fare?
Expected: Most clubs weren't that far off 2019 figures as expected. The game has loyal fans who are consistent but it's hard to attract newbies along as the sport does tend to fly below the radar.
Warrington imploded on the field so a 20% fall was no surprise. Wakefield is refurbishing its ground but I'm not sure that had much impact on its 14% drop in attendees. The Catalan Dragons had a bumper crowd in Barcelona in 2019 and that wasn't repeated. Fewer fans traveled down from England too due to Covid and cost. Some UK fans decided to go to Toulouse instead.
Unexpected: Salford was exceeding a 5,000 average not so long back but it's been going down recently. 2019 was a low point so a sudden upswing of 30% was a welcome improvement.
No one really knew what Toulouse would have as an average crowd as this was its only season ever in SL. I thought it may have been higher than the 5,000 it did finally achieve. Maybe the games being played in summer and some locals heading for the coast wasn't in their favour.
4 comments:
The attendances always look a bit bizarre when the loop fixtures are included instead of just the regular 11 home games.
It all comes down to money. Playing as many rounds as possible with as few teams as possible.
What would be the average attendance if they just had the 11 home games with no loop fixtures included ?.
I have never carried out that exercise. I assume the total average wouldn't change much if at all but for some clubs it would, depending on which teams they played more often.
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