Bumper Crowds for the Holiday Season

This series of matches in both the Rabo12 and AP see a bumper set of crowds.

With a series of derbies in the Rabo the matches at PYS and RDS were/are sell outs. Munster were close to selling out Thomond Park and Blues achieved what I think is their highest crowd of the season. The Scottish derby should see a decent turnout.

In the AP Saints sold out on Christmas Eve, Gloucester is a sellout today as is the Warriors/Tigers match tomorrow. Quins are hoping for a sell-out at twickenham tomorrow to set a world record for attendance at a regular season club match - at Friday lunchtime 77,000 tickets had been sold.

All in all some good news.

If I'm not mistaken, they mentioned that Scarlet game entries were free to people below the age of 18?

IronMike wrote:If I'm not mistaken, they mentioned that Scarlet game entries were free to people below the age of 18?

Rupert Moon wasn't it?
Must have been a special Xmas offer as according to the Turk ticket price website page only primary school kids get in for free.

Back in the old Llanelli RFC days, every child playing rugby for their school in the Scarlets area could get free admission. Sports teachers used to arrange outings for the school teams at home matches. The children were accomodated behind the posts at the Town end.

I remember stories about Mark Perego, who after a physical 80 minutes of rugby, (every minute of rugby was physical with Perego) he would go back out on the field to play with the youngsters who had come to watch the game. He then used to run home!

Breeding the supporters of the future.

Seagultaf wrote:
Breeding the supporters of the future.

Which is what all clubs need to be doing. A large number of people will have gone to their first rugby match over these last few days - getting them in is a start, but doing things to make people keep coming back is key.

Gwent Dragons always used to be free to kids (and I think Newport RFC before), but not sure if they do anymore. Bad if they don't.

82000 tickets sold for Quins/Saracens, setting a world record in the process. Rounds of a fantastic series of crowds in this round of matches.

Excellent work by Sarries and Quins, well done. A bit worrying that one of the fans interviewed on sky sports said she was only there to see the x factor, but you can't argue with a crowd of 82,000. Great for the game.

Griff wrote:Excellent work by Sarries and Quins, well done. A bit worrying that one of the fans interviewed on sky sports said she was only there to see the x factor, but you can't argue with a crowd of 82,000. Great for the game.

I thought the Xfactor had finished?

There was a family of four Sky interviewed. The dad was a Sarries fan and brought his whole family along. A few X-Factor contestants were performing in a pre-game show and the daughter said that was the thing she was most excited about.

I think it's good that they put on the extra entertainment to make it a whole family event. It's not like 30,000 people came to watch the X-Factor contestants then walked out!

I see that LI had over 13,000 yesterday as well to round of a great set of attendances.

Griff wrote:Excellent work by Sarries and Quins, well done. A bit worrying that one of the fans interviewed on sky sports said she was only there to see the x factor, but you can't argue with a crowd of 82,000. Great for the game.

That must have been the girl singing at half time.

maestegmafia wrote:

Griff wrote:Excellent work by Sarries and Quins, well done. A bit worrying that one of the fans interviewed on sky sports said she was only there to see the x factor, but you can't argue with a crowd of 82,000. Great for the game.

That must have been the girl singing at half time.

And someone before too I believe. I think the aim was to offer something for all of the family, with the hope that the match part of the package would inspire some future support. Good idea.

LondonTiger wrote:82000 tickets sold for Quins/Saracens, setting a world record in the process. Rounds of a fantastic series of crowds in this round of matches.

The World Record still belongs to Leinster vs Munster at Croke Park by about 200.

Griff wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

Griff wrote:Excellent work by Sarries and Quins, well done. A bit worrying that one of the fans interviewed on sky sports said she was only there to see the x factor, but you can't argue with a crowd of 82,000. Great for the game.

That must have been the girl singing at half time.

And someone before too I believe. I think the aim was to offer something for all of the family, with the hope that the match part of the package would inspire some future support. Good idea.

I missed the first few minutes of the game, arrived just as Farrell consumed the next five minutes setting up his kicking tee, positioning the ball, taking several different angled run ups and finally kicking the ball between the posts...

I miss the days when players took the kicks quickly and got on with it. When Neil Jenkins first came on the scene I think they introduced a time limit of a minute or so otherwise his kicking would eat up the game time.

I remember Barry John telling a story of playing for Cardiff in the late Sixties when your club supplied one touch judge and your opposition the other. Cardiff had a rather rotund man in a blazer far too tight for him as theirs. If Cardiff were offered a penalty near the half way line, John would appear indecisive in whether he thought he could or could not manage the kick, then at the last minute, say he would make an attempt at goal and try to set up the ball and clear the posts before the touch judge had had the time to run from the half way line to behind the posts.

maestegmafia wrote:

LondonTiger wrote:82000 tickets sold for Quins/Saracens, setting a world record in the process. Rounds of a fantastic series of crowds in this round of matches.

The World Record still belongs to Leinster vs Munster at Croke Park by about 200.

The Leinster v Munster game was Heinken Cup though, not regular season league. Quins v Sarries beat the previous Stade Francais v Clermont record.

Quins seemed to believe that the record for "a regular season club match" was held by Stade Francais at just under 80k.

Was the Munster/Leinster game a final or a play-off?

LondonTiger wrote:Quins seemed to believe that the record for "a regular season club match" was held by Stade Francais at just under 80k.

Was the Munster/Leinster game a final or a play-off?

Heineken cup. The Sarries game also beat the 2009 playoff final record.

Its pretty impressive however you look at it. Personally I wouldve stayed away because of the x factor folk

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Personally I wouldve stayed away because of the x factor folk

Apparently maestegmafia was singing his little heart out in the stands. He might not have posted about it and there may not be any concrete evidence but it definitely happened.

Cyril the Stalker strikes again...!

LondonTiger wrote:Quins seemed to believe that the record for "a regular season club match" was held by Stade Francais at just under 80k.

Was the Munster/Leinster game a final or a play-off?

Sorry LT I didn't realise there were sub categories for Club World Record Attendances at a Rugby Match.

They have to fill the Guiness Book of Records somehow I guess.