Sell out

Loads of posts on here always love slating the regions attendance figures but it's nice to see the Scarlets v Ospreys has sold out, but no mention of it yet on 606v2!
So are all the doom mongers just going to ignore this one and focus on the negative?

I mentioned it on another thread beomoaning attendances view but no one took much notice

I think it's fantastic it's a sell out, first ever sell out at Y Parc, should be excellent!

Got to make sure I get there early though so I can blag myself a spot in the Barn pre-match

Good stuff, let's hope there are a few more during the season.

Yep it is fantastic,
I live in North Wales and asked three friends if they fancy going down to watch it " share petrol money" i went online to book yesterday and its sold out!! so it's beers at mine to watch it instead.
Disappointed to miss out on tickets but very pleased its sold out.

Yeah I think it sold out last week actually, really really pleased about it. Hope the Scarlets can back it up with a better performance then we've seen us produce in the last couple of week too, will be great for us to finish the year on a high.

Great news. I'll be there, hopefully the monkey will be well and truly off the back by the evening.

Can the Scarlets beat the O's for the first time since Oct 2007? I think so. I know both teams lost thier HC games but the turks played better. However, it is a derby and they're always close (apart from last years butt kicking

viewtothegym wrote:Loads of posts on here always love slating the regions attendance figures but it's nice to see the Scarlets v Ospreys has sold out, but no mention of it yet on 606v2!
So are all the doom mongers just going to ignore this one and focus on the negative?

So there was no previous article about it and there was an opportunity to be the first to write about it, and more importantly as you say, in a positive way. And yet you still managed to make it a moan.

Well done. Carry on.

I can see the Western Mail headline now.

Nearly 15,000 Welsh People in "Watching Their National Game Together" Shocker!!!

viewtothegym wrote:Loads of posts on here always love slating the regions attendance figures but it's nice to see the Scarlets v Ospreys has sold out, but no mention of it yet on 606v2!
So are all the doom mongers just going to ignore this one and focus on the negative?

Dude, no.
Frankly, I never noticed the sell out until you raised it here. This is terrific, glad you shared it.

Didn't see anyone - including the papers mention that we had over 13k against Munster - which is our highest. Fair enough it's nothing compared to Saracens, Munster and Leinster but when people were moaning about the Ospreys and Blues only getting 6/7,000 then it shows there's some positives.

There must of been a lot of free tickets given away for this one

how so Jimmy? we had about 13K for this fixture last year in October, would make sense on boxing day to sell even more.

If you hear somebody shouting RD just give me a wave back

ha will do Cymro!

Think there maybe quite a few people shouting at the stadium Cymroglan!

Going to be a cracker, cant wait

Smirnoffpriest wrote:Didn't see anyone - including the papers mention that we had over 13k against Munster - which is our highest. Fair enough it's nothing compared to Saracens, Munster and Leinster but when people were moaning about the Ospreys and Blues only getting 6/7,000 then it shows there's some positives.

Are you sure you meant Saracens? I think their average this year has been around the 5,500 mark.

They had a big crowd for their Heineken match agains the O's though didn't they MT? Think that's what Priest is referring to.

Saracens got over 40,000 for their crunch home game against the Ospreys.

The thing that suprises me is that the team I support, the Worcester warriors has an average gate this year of 10,000. Thats 3 to 4 thousand on average more than any of the Welsh regions! However the population of Worcester is pretty low at around 80,000. Surely Cardiff Blues shiuld be getting way more support than the worcester warriros, as should the Ospreys and the rest of the welsh regions. The population that each region serves is much much higher than that of Worcester. Also just like the regions the Worcester Warriors are a fairly new entity. Yes we have had a club for generations but its only in the last 7 or 8 years AFTEr we got promoted into the top flight that we started to get the crowds.

I'm not sure Llanelli has a population of 80,000 (will need to check that). A lot of the Scarlets fans travel very far to go to home games, and we don't benefit much form walk up crowds like the Dragons and Blues should (O's not so much due to stadium location).

Worcester are clearly doing something right though, so well done to them.

I just hope the Scarlets' attendances keep increasing. The crowd against Munster and this sell out now should really boost our attendances, as well as hopefully getting large crowds for the Saints and Blues games next year. Fingers crossed anyway!

wrfc1980 wrote:Saracens got over 40,000 for their crunch home game against the Ospreys.

The thing that suprises me is that the team I support, the Worcester warriors has an average gate this year of 10,000. Thats 3 to 4 thousand on average more than any of the Welsh regions! However the population of Worcester is pretty low at around 80,000. Surely Cardiff Blues shiuld be getting way more support than the worcester warriros, as should the Ospreys and the rest of the welsh regions. The population that each region serves is much much higher than that of Worcester. Also just like the regions the Worcester Warriors are a fairly new entity. Yes we have had a club for generations but its only in the last 7 or 8 years AFTEr we got promoted into the top flight that we started to get the crowds.

The population of Llanelli is 45,000. The average Scarlets home crowd this year is 8,200.

Scarlets crowds were up 21% last year.

They are up 7% already this year.

The majority of the Welsh "rugby" public are only Wales fans. Lots of those feel regional rugby doesn't represent them and theyrbefuse to pay to watch the dross of the Pro 12 when there are 17 international tests to go and watch.

It's really not rocket science to see why crowds are low.

To be fair to the Welsh, with football now being the number 1 and national sport of Wales and with Swansea and Cardiff football teams doing well it's not surprising that gates are poor.

It's about being realistic and accepting where rugby now features in the Welsh landscape as new generations come in and interests change.

SafeAsMilk wrote:To be fair to the Welsh, with football now being the number 1 and national sport of Wales and with Swansea and Cardiff football teams doing well it's not surprising that gates are poor.

It's about being realistic and accepting where rugby now features in the Welsh landscape as new generations come in and interests change.

Exactly, Rugby is incorrectly seen as the number 1 sport in Wales for some reason.

Its only a 14k stadium

Chunky Norwich wrote:

SafeAsMilk wrote:To be fair to the Welsh, with football now being the number 1 and national sport of Wales and with Swansea and Cardiff football teams doing well it's not surprising that gates are poor.

It's about being realistic and accepting where rugby now features in the Welsh landscape as new generations come in and interests change.

Exactly, Rugby is incorrectly seen as the number 1 sport in Wales for some reason.

WUM alert!

Eclipse wrote:

WUM alert!

WTF?

Chunky Norwich wrote: The population of Llanelli is 45,000. The average Scarlets home crowd this year is 8,200.

.

Last time I looked Scarlets represented a region not a town.

Limerick isn't very big either (56,779 at the last census) - doesn't stop Munster getting good crowds.

geoff, did you not read my post about the Scarlets not benefiting from a large footfall from Llanelli then as a lot of our fans travel far to make home games?

Chunky Norwich wrote:

Eclipse wrote:

WUM alert!

WTF?

I apologise if I was mistaken but it appeared you were on the wind up. In reply to your post, in some ways you're right. The number of people watching regional rugby compared to football is very poor. I think it's down to the fact that the majority of the games are on TV. At International level you can't compare the 2 sports though.

geoff998rugby wrote:

Chunky Norwich wrote: The population of Llanelli is 45,000. The average Scarlets home crowd this year is 8,200.

.

Last time I looked Scarlets represented a region not a town.

Limerick isn't very big either (56,779 at the last census) - doesn't stop Munster getting good crowds.

True enough. Just comparing town sizes as it was raised.

If you want to compare Munster and Scarlets as regards regions / provinces:

Munster province population : 1.3 million
Scarlets region Pupolaution: 373,000

Therefore, as average crowds go, the Scarlets are doing far, far better in terms of population ratios than Munster.

rugbydreamer wrote:geoff, did you not read my post about the Scarlets not benefiting from a large footfall from Llanelli then as a lot of our fans travel far to make home games?

Understand that - just 2 observations:

1 - A number of Munster fans have to travel a fair way too - Cork to Limerick for example

2 - In truth my response was a bit of a wind up of Chunky Norwich. He seems to have no end of reasons as to why Welsh rugby cannot emulate Irish rugby at the regional level.
I just don't buy into that.

I see he is at it again above

I think we can emulate Irish rugby - in both attendance sizes, profitability and success on the pitch - but it will just take time. And as has been shown Scarlets attendances are growing and they (and the Dragons) are both beginning to forge their own identity. The Ospreys attendances were growing year on year and they did have quite a strong regional identity, but they are changing that and their attendances are dropping this year. The Dragons are showing they are much more than a developmental side and have a passionate crowd which is gradually growing - hopefully the more stars and promising youngsters coming through the ranks will increase this.
The Blues are a bit hamstrung because no matter how much their crowd grows it still looks like nobodies turned up in that stadium, while if they have a disappointing crowd it really shows. It will get better for them as I imagine they'll have a clear out next season and bring in some exciting players

geoff998rugby wrote:

I see he is at it again above

Rather than seeing it as "me being at it", perhaps take on board what I'm saying and then perhaps realise why the Welsh regions are at a potential disadvantage?

I might be being optimistic there mind.

The Scarlets would have got a bigger crowd for the Munster game if their pricing strategy was better.

3 friends and I tried to get tickets a few days before the game, we were quoted £25 per ticket for behind the posts! So we watched the game in the rugby club instead.

That is a shame seagulf - I've always thought that for tickets in the corners (obviously not at PyS but CCS and Liberty) and for behind the posts they should just do £10 tickets - so anyone put off by the price in the main stands can still attend and it may increase the walk up crowd as well.

Still 13,000+ isn't bad

seriously £25 for there? tis only £20 in the main stands! that sounds a bit odd to me (but then again tis the Scarlets, we always seem to mess up somehow!)

Never let facts get in the way of a good bemoaning.

thebandwagonsociety wrote:Never let facts get in the way of a good bemoaning.

the story of being a welsh rugby supporter my friend

Seagultaf wrote:The Scarlets would have got a bigger crowd for the Munster game if their pricing strategy was better.

3 friends and I tried to get tickets a few days before the game, we were quoted £25 per ticket for behind the posts! So we watched the game in the rugby club instead.

I bought tickets for the South Stand (I understand thats the posh curvey one). I had a seat around inbetween the 22m and the halfway line and it cost me £21. Theres no way behind the posts was more expensive.

I can only assume someone in the ticket office got it badly wrong. I've never known a ticket to cost more then about £21 at Y parc, unless you're in the really plush seats in the south stand. I would have thought they'd have been the same as the normal tickets you get in the north and south. Bit if a shame the wrong price has been told to people wanting to buy

Dreamer I'm assuming:

1 - He is simply telling lies

2 - He tried to buy from an unofficial source in which case the tickets are more expensive similar to how many tour operators work. The fact he said he was "quoted" suggests there was some type of negotiation.

well, who knows. Will keep an eye out next time we've got a big match coming up and see what price options there are for the West Stand with the online ticket system on the Scarlets' website.

wrfc1980 wrote:Saracens got over 40,000 for their crunch home game against the Ospreys.

The thing that suprises me is that the team I support, the Worcester warriors has an average gate this year of 10,000. Thats 3 to 4 thousand on average more than any of the Welsh regions! However the population of Worcester is pretty low at around 80,000. Surely Cardiff Blues shiuld be getting way more support than the worcester warriros, as should the Ospreys and the rest of the welsh regions. The population that each region serves is much much higher than that of Worcester. Also just like the regions the Worcester Warriors are a fairly new entity. Yes we have had a club for generations but its only in the last 7 or 8 years AFTEr we got promoted into the top flight that we started to get the crowds.

They might adverage 10,000 but could they beat the Blues? I think not!

The way the Blues are playing I wouldn't be that confident! LOL

Wales v All-blacks at he Millennium would sell out 4 times over even thou we know we are going to lose,
as mentioned earlier everyone is Wales supports the national squad and they do it with real pride but of course the concept of regional rugby isn't even 10 years old yet so hardly a big surprise that they struggle for identity.

Leinster only had 500 season ticket holders in the first full season at the RDS!
Two European cups later they have 9000 season ticket holders!

So as the yanks would say "do the math"

At their worst, still good enough to beat that sorry basement team.

viewtothegym wrote:Wales v All-blacks at he Millennium would sell out 4 times over even thou we know we are going to lose,
as mentioned earlier everyone is Wales supports the national squad and they do it with real pride but of course the concept of regional rugby isn't even 10 years old yet so hardly a big surprise that they struggle for identity.

Leinster only had 500 season ticket holders in the first full season at the RDS!
Two European cups later they have 9000 season ticket holders!

So as the yanks would say "do the math"

http://www.cardiffblues.com/rugby/fixtures_and_results.php?includeref=3792&season=2006-2007

my $0.02

young regions/identity - having no affiliation to a region I started going to Os and blues games during the start of Regionalism I gave it a chance. Stopped going to Os as it was a pain to get to, stopped going to the blues since they moved to CCS and quiet frankly it was dull. Still attended some HC games at all regions. (Since Os have bought in the tongans there's even less chance of me going to watch them. What on earth is going on down there?) - my point being the stadia and fayre on offer left me cold.

Football national sport - I know that's a WUM, but it makes me smile when on a Sunday morning the 7/8/9 year olds who leave football training early to go and play rugby. There's a rugby culture in Wales, not a football one - that's the difference.

I live slap bang between CCS and Liberty - but will probably find myself driving further to the Scarletts/ Dragons in the new year as they seem to be playing the best rugby and basically have better match day stadium- just a shame they haven't got a sprinkling of props to give them a better platform.

Teams announced -

Scarlets: Liam Williams; George North; Scott Williams, Jon Davies; Sean Lamont; Rhys Priestland, Gareth Davies; Rhodri Jones, Matthew Rees (c), Rhys Thomas, Lou Reed, Dominic Day, Aaron Shingler, Rob McCusker, Ben Morgan. Replacements: Ken Owens, Phil John, Deacon Manu, Sione Timani, Johnathan Edwards, Rhodri Williams, Stephen Jones, Iongi Viliame.

Ospreys: Barry Davies; Tommy Bowe; Andrew Bishop, Ashley Beck; Shane Williams; Dan Biggar, Kahn Fotuali'i; Paul James, Richard Hibbard, Adam Jones, James King, Jonathan Thomas, Ryan Jones, Justin Tipuric (c), Joe Bearman. Replacements: Mefin Davies, Ryan Bevington, Aaron Jarvis, Tom Smith, George Stowers, Rhys Webb, Matthew Morgan, Hanno Dirksen

Referee: Nigel Owens (Welsh Rugby Union)

Assistant Referees: Neil Hennessy, Jon Mason

Citing Commissioner: Richard Gwynn

TMO: Derek Bevan