Tigers' Attendances

[Jacko27]

The official attendance for Sunday's ECC Quarter final game against the French champions (albeit out of form champions) was a relatively modest 20,806. Wasps claimed an attendance of 23,806 for their QF this weekend. We have had only one sell out match this season and my guess is that the average gate is slightly down on last season. I know that week in week out we are still the best supported Premier League club both numerically and in terms of rugby knowledge. Thankfully the Tigers' crowd don't have to be screamed at to cheer by a hysterical voice over the loudspeaker system and are able to recognise technically good but unspectacular play when it occurs. But despite all this should we be concerned about attendances and if they are in decline what are the reasons?

I'll suggest three and number one is BT Sport as well over half of Tigers matches are now televised in full. Also could some of our "west Leicestershire" support have been lured to the Ricoh and thirdly I wonder if the Foxes fantastic season has lured some floating supporters back to the round ball game. What do you think?

[MJSRacer]

It didn't seem that empty from my spot on the terraces!

I think some of the attendance figures are inflated a little bit as it says "tickets sold" instead of actual "bums on seats"

Sunday was also probably affected by LCFC being on tv at the same time.

[mol2]

If it wasn't for the clash with the City match and their current situation I would have expected a sell out. Given the silly schedule that resulted in Tigers and City both playing at the same time on Sunday the gaps were not so surprising.

I think a few may well have been unsold corporate blocks too.

[MrPartridge]

was a relatively modest 20,806.

Agree with MJSRacer... felt more than that to me. I'd have guessed 23-24K.

But all rather odd that we can't sell out our first home QF for a long time. Not like our capacity is 30K. Certainly not over-priced at £18 a terrace ticket.

Makes you wonder on the SF attendance given they start at £35, will need travel on top and clash with arguably an even bigger LCFC game. I's be surprised if the SF is a sell out...

[LittleBigG]

If that figure is indeed correct then that is a huge disappointment. I agree that it didn't look that empty from the Terrace - maybe people "upgraded" and there were more gaps than normal in the Holland & Barrett?

The terrace tickets were certainly reasonably priced and I was hoping for at least more than the 24,000 capacity we had last year to make building the new stand "worthwhile". Tigers marketing department need to take a long hard look at themselves if they cannot sell out the first home European Cup game in ages!

Unfortunately I will not be attending the semi final as I will be down in London because She Who Must Be Obeyed is doing the marathon. Some more great scheduling there - let's put a really significant sporting event on straight after a MASSIVE event that lots of sporty people are likely to take part in.

At least we will not be disadvantaged (should we get to the final) with being the 2nd game (again!) as Sarries and Wasps both only have 2 men and a dog - who pay - go to games

Unless they fill it with corporate we'll be lucky to get 20,000 and I'm pretty sure that this will be in no small part down to the pricing of the tickets; a lot of occasional supporters who would normally have gone will probably be watching City (£40+ minimum for one person, or go down the pub for a couple of pints and watch a potentially historic event happen).

[BeeJay]

Makes you wonder on the SF attendance given they start at £35, will need travel on top and clash with arguably an even bigger LCFC game. I's be surprised if the SF is a sell out...

I guess it depends where your loyalties lie. To quote the Immortal Bard:

Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.

Henry V Act IV Scene iii

[ellis9]

There were definitely more people for the Stade game than the Gloucester game. Gloucester attendance was 22,223. Someone is telling porkies. I'd say 24-25000 were there on Sunday.

[tigercaspian]

There were definitely more people for the Stade game than the Gloucester game. Gloucester attendance was 22,223. Someone is telling porkies. I'd say 24-25000 were there on Sunday.

Agreed. I gave myself my normal 2 hours travelling time from Aylesbury, got badly stick coming up Narborough Road (much worse than Saturdays, 1st gear all the way from Fosse Park to Sturgess Jaguar), couldn't get in to my normal car park at the garage on the corner of Jarrom & Havelock Streets as completely full, and then couldn't buy a programme inside or outside the ground - all sold out.
Apart from the 8 Caterpillar reserved seats to my right in the Goldsmiths top back row which were empty, I couldn't see many other obvious gaps and the new stand looked pretty much 100% sold out.

I certainly saw more empties for the Glaws game.

I quite accept that the 'attendance figures' given have to be tickets sold and not actual bums on seats but I wonder in this case if the club gets any compensation from TV if a televised match has an attendance below a certain level ????

[L Smith]

As this game wasn't included in the season ticket, I think the attendance was ok.
Unusually, tickets sold are actually net gains to the business, above and beyond the season ticket sales.
Could have been worse and the atmosphere certainly did not suffer.

All in all, the club have done well and I thought the reduced price was a nice touch from the club.

Still: you can't please everyone, can you?

[Soggypitch]

I agree with everyone else, from the CT the ground looked pretty full, very few gaps. I just don't believe that attendance figure.
I watched most of the Wasps game and the Ricoh looked half empty, so neither do I believe their attendance!

I agree with Mr P reckon the SF may not sell out, but hope I'm wrong.
I will be getting tickets on Wednesday, very excited. Was there for the semi when Stimo kicked that penalty, don't think my blood pressure could take that again!!

[Jacko27]

I started this post because I was astonished by both the attendances claimed for the Wasps and the Tigers matches. First of all a confession - I wasn't there. As a lifelong Tigers supporter - Loughborough born but London based I couldn't make it and so watched both games on BT Sport. The Ricoh on Saturday seemed to have great swathes of empty seats and one end looked deserted and yet they claimed a 23+ thousand attendance. At WR on the Sunday all the spots that can be bare when the ground isn't full ie the corners of Met-Rx, the bit behind the posts in the Goldsmiths and the ends of the new stand, all of those looked pretty full to me watching on TV. I thought we might be claiming a full house and was gobsmacked when they said it was only 20 thousand. It would be interesting to hear from a Club insider.

[DickyP]

I am also confused as before the game there were reports that the game was 'sold-out'.

[wormus]

I started this post because I was astonished by both the attendances claimed for the Wasps and the Tigers matches. First of all a confession - I wasn't there. As a lifelong Tigers supporter - Loughborough born but London based I couldn't make it and so watched both games on BT Sport. The Ricoh on Saturday seemed to have great swathes of empty seats and one end looked deserted and yet they claimed a 23+ thousand attendance. At WR on the Sunday all the spots that can be bare when the ground isn't full ie the corners of Met-Rx, the bit behind the posts in the Goldsmiths and the ends of the new stand, all of those looked pretty full to me watching on TV. I thought we might be claiming a full house and was gobsmacked when they said it was only 20 thousand. It would be interesting to hear from a Club insider.

I too remarked on the day that the Met-Rx looked nearly full, the terrace well packed and a few gaps in the Goldsmiths & CAT extremes but the official figure of 20866 did look about 2k light, perhaps it's a tax dodge, and even then they ran out of beer but not Tigers Spirit!

[kingol22]

Who sets the ticket prices for the semi finals? is it erc or tigers?

With City playing an hour after our kick off with the potential that they could all but seal the title id be a bit concerned with the attendance seeing as tickets start at £35.

[dunks43]

The attendance figure may seem low but SF Would have bought less than 500 fans with them so hardly surprising.

The look of an empty or full stadium is down to the colour.... Green seats against green clothing, empty seats are hard to spot, wasps shirts against sky blue seats, and every seat would have been noticable