Irish Province Attendances This Season

First topic message reminder :

We're about to see two Irish teams contest the European Cup final and the PRO12 final will be played in Dublin. So I thought I'd look at the attendance figures for the provinces.

Munster

League Average = 15,421
- Musgrave Average = 7,896
- Thomond Average = 19,722

Heineken Cup Average = 26,375


Ulster

League Average = 8,349

Heineken Cup Average = 18,481
- Ravenhill Average = 9,593
- AVIVA 1 game = 45,147


Connacht

League Average = 4,653

Heineken Cup Average = 6,552


Leinster

League Average = 18,644
- RDS Average = 17,903
- AVIVA 1 game = 48,365

Heineken Cup Average = 33,282
- RDS Average = 18,212
- AVIVA Average = 48,632

Not surprisingly, Leinster are close to filling the RDS every week and nearly fill the AVIVA stadium for their annual home match with Munster as well as at least three HC games. Their only problem is that they don't own either ground. They're renting, so have to hand over a wad of attendance cash to the owners. Does anyone know if there's any possibility of Leinster building a new stadium? Or acquiring ownership of the RDS?

So Leinster have the biggest numbers. But if Munster played all their league games in Thomond they'd probably be slightly higher. And they pretty much completely sell out Thomond for every Heineken Cup game, despite the dip in their fortunes recently. That's a good sign. We couldn't have been sure the army of fans they won over the last ten years would stay if Munster declined on the field. But it looks like they still enjoy huge support.

I was actually surprised by how low Ulsters attendances were. They're not terrible. But I thought they'd be higher, given that Ulster have improved so much in the last two years. Why hasn't there been a corresponding growth in attendances? As it is they're just a little bit above the Welsh regions. Aren't they expanding Ravenhill to 18k? How will they double their support? Because that's what they'll have to do if they want to avoid large empty Welsh style spaces in the crowd. But they pulled a huge crowd to the HC semi in Dublin, which suggests the potential for bigger attendance figures is there.

Connachts attendances are very low. It's traditionally the province with the least interest in rugby. But I think they were actually lower in previous years, so at least they are growing. Attendances grew as the season went on too. And they seem to have about 3000 or so hardcore fans who'll turn up in any weather to watch Connacht take on any team. So they have something to keep building on. I think Elwood will build Connacht into a better side over the coming years and they'll keep a gradual improvement in attendance figures.

I think Ulster and Connacht could get much higher numbers. Munster and Leinster seem to be in grounds that are just the right size for them.

Mickado wrote:Sold out or not, it doesn't make much differnce to the season average.

Indeed.

Mickado wrote:Sold out or not, it doesn't make much differnce to the season average.

You sure about that?

Yeah for the one game that was in question I had it at 10k attendance, increasing the attendance to 11900 increased the season average by 173.

173 ≠ much difference

The more season tickets you sell, the harder it is to predict attendances.

We have 13500 this year. Therefore when you see a message on the Leinster website that says 15000 tickets sold for Saturday's game against xxx. It actually means 1500 (extra) tickets sold.

If the game happens to be v Aironi during the 6N then the actual attendance could be 7 or 8 thousand.

Saying a game is "sold out" is different to having every seat full on the day.

Jenifer McLadyboy wrote:The more season tickets you sell, the harder it is to predict attendances.

We have 13500 this year. Therefore when you see a message on the Leinster website that says 15000 tickets sold for Saturday's game against xxx. It actually means 1500 (extra) tickets sold.

If the game happens to be v Aironi during the 6N then the actual attendance could be 7 or 8 thousand.

Saying a game is "sold out" is different to having every seat full on the day.

But do Leinster report the attendances of people who turn up or just add the ticket sales to the season ticket holders and give that?

Personally I don't see the point in not going to lower profile games if you've payed for your season ticket anyway!

If it does equate to an increase of 173 over the entire season then yes i think that is quite a difference myself
At the end of the day its great to see Ulster getting decent attendances

Notch wrote:

Jenifer McLadyboy wrote:The more season tickets you sell, the harder it is to predict attendances.

We have 13500 this year. Therefore when you see a message on the Leinster website that says 15000 tickets sold for Saturday's game against xxx. It actually means 1500 (extra) tickets sold.

If the game happens to be v Aironi during the 6N then the actual attendance could be 7 or 8 thousand.

Saying a game is "sold out" is different to having every seat full on the day.

But do Leinster report the attendances of people who turn up or just add the ticket sales to the season ticket holders and give that?

Personally I don't see the point in not going to lower profile games if you've payed for your season ticket anyway!

On point one. No one is sure.

On point 2 neither do I, but there are a lot of people with more money than us who buy season tickets and only show up when they feel like it.

Also people who live far away from the ground and have a problem making Friday night games for example.

I know several people who have Leinster season tickets but live in England. It is easier for them to get to Welsh away games than home games.

That Scarlets average attendance is spot on, that last home match finally pushed us over the 9K mark which is superb as I think we only average 7,500 or something last season. So that's a big increase for us, especially when you consider that we still haven't won anything or really gotten to the really important knock out stages in a competition again.

I'm surprised Ulsters' attendance is so low compared to how they are performing on the pitch mind, will be interesting to see if there'll be a change next season with Ulster getting bigger crowds, and Munster perhaps losing some more(I think their average is down on last season).

Our average for the last 6 games was 9,500 so I am pleased that we are moving in the right direction.

Maybe we should check what our average would be if we counted all our home games.

The Scarlets attendances look good. An average of 9k. It was about 7k the year before.

Wikipedia says that the capacity of Parc y scarlets is 14,870. If they can continue that growth soon they could be getting close to filling it and generating a great atmosphere. It's crucial that they hold onto their best players though. Do they have enough cash to do this?

We've already managed to hold on to John Davies Feckless, he re-signed this season and I think all the others have at least 2 years left on their contracts.

Scarlets biggest problem now is to sign the forwards to help us compete. We've let 8 go, and haven't signed anyone new yet! Tis a bit worrying