WRU move to kill off Ospreys

Cookiemunster

troyzer wrote: »

Do they? There were 7 Pro14 games over the weekend with a combined attendance of 40,760. Which is 5,822 per game.

There were 6 Premiership games with a combined attendance of 80,819 which is 13,469 per game.

Yeah, we don't compare favourably at all.

Just for the sake of completion:

Top14 had 88,269 for 12,609 per game.

I couldn't get three of the attendances for the Super Rugby games but the rest of them alone were over 50,000.

Try doing it over the season rather than one weekend. The figures have been posted on here previously. There isn't that much of a difference.

Eod100

troyzer wrote: »

Do they? There were 7 Pro14 games over the weekend with a combined attendance of 40,760. Which is 5,822 per game.

There were 6 Premiership games with a combined attendance of 80,819 which is 13,469 per game.

Yeah, we don't compare favourably at all.

Just for the sake of completion:

Top14 had 88,269 for 12,609 per game.

I couldn't get three of the attendances for the Super Rugby games but the rest of them alone were over 50,000.

Skewed a bit by Zebre and Benneton being at home. That said Connacht, Dragons and Blues attendance for weekend just gone wasn't much better.

Guess comparison with Premiership is different because of population differences and also all teams being in one country and having decent transport links for away fans. Would imagine there was fairly sizeable Gloucester support at Bristol say.

Bar Newcastle and Sale and Exeter to an extent, teams are fairly concentrated together.

OldRio

troyzer wrote: »

Do they? There were 7 Pro14 games over the weekend with a combined attendance of 40,760. Which is 5,822 per game.

There were 6 Premiership games with a combined attendance of 80,819 which is 13,469 per game.

Yeah, we don't compare favourably at all.

Just for the sake of completion:

Top14 had 88,269 for 12,609 per game.

I couldn't get three of the attendances for the Super Rugby games but the rest of them alone were over 50,000.

Ah now, one weekend?

Blut2

Cherrypicking one weekend doesn't hold up. It can be done either way easily. The weekend of October 6th had 7 Pro14 games with a total attendance of 96,546. Neither it or last weekends 40,760 are representative of anything as a whole given the way fixtures fluctuate, the overall season average is far more important.

daddy pig

The average attendance for the current seasons to give a decent indicator are below.
Aviva Premiership : 13,512
Pro 14 : 7,474
Top 14 : 13,566

The average attendance per Pro 14 country is below.
Ireland : 12,508
Scotland : 7,001
Wales : 6,753
South Africa : 3,776
Italy : 3,016

Leinster have the 4th highest average attendance in Europe - 17,881
Ulster have the 17th highest average attendance in Europe - 13,233
Munster have the 18th highest average attendance in Europe - 12,831

troyzer

I picked the most recent weekend as a good example of core attendance for games in an international window with little or no prospect of seeing the best players. Over the season, the comparison is a bit more favourable.

But the numbers suggest that they still go to games in France and England even in international windows. And the reason why they do that is because these games still matter when it comes to relegation.

AdamD

troyzer wrote: »

I picked the most recent weekend as a good example of core attendance for games in an international window with little or no prospect of seeing the best players. Over the season, the comparison is a bit more favourable.

But the numbers suggest that they still go to games in France and England even in international windows. And the reason why they do that is because these games still matter when it comes to relegation.

Or, because their internationals are spread between 12-14 teams therefore your average team will be missing a couple of players. Whereas in the Pro 14 the internationals are spread between 2,2 and 4 teams therefore significantly more players are missing during the international window.

It appears years of the English talking ****e about relegation has finally convinced people. Also worth noting this season is a massive outlier in terms of the number of teams who were involved in the relegation fight. Normally its 1 team who get relegated by miles with 1 other team only remotely threatened.

Thrashssacre

This argument is pointless some clubs in England and France have a similar popular catchment to the entire populations of Ireland, wales and Scotland, the fact we pull about half the crowd size roughly speaking means were actually engaging a larger percentage of the population

AdamD

http://www.ospreysrugby.com/News/Article/54265

This is an absolute **** show and bad for the pro 14 but by God is it amusing.

irishbucsfan

I’ve tried to explain this before but relegation DOES have a valuable effect on the competitiveness of teams and in maintaining interest in the bottom half of the Premiership table however the Pro 14 doesn’t need that because the carrot of European qualification has traditionally been a direct replacement. The move away from guaranteeing the top places Italian team a place in the Heineken Cup has actually changed that somewhat but it’s still there.

The Pro 14 is just as good a league as the Premiership or Top 14 these days and it’s well followed. It just doesn’t have the marketing team because the unions (our own in particular) are only starting to loosen the reins in the last couple of seasons.

tototoe

troyzer wrote: »

It is a problem but it's not necessarily a problem with the league. As in, there's not much they can do to improve it.

Not sure I'd agree. Their potential market is max European attendances plus those who couldn't get a ticket or couldn't go, and they're not anywhere near those currently. Attract some of those and you have an improvement.

troyzer

tototoe wrote: »

troyzer wrote: »

It is a problem but it's not necessarily a problem with the league. As in, there's not much they can do to improve it.

Not sure I'd agree. Their potential market is max European attendances plus those who couldn't get a ticket or couldn't go, and they're not anywhere near those currently. Attract some of those and you have an improvement.

But they're not going to be able to attract them. No league in the world can attract the casuals to run of the mill games.

I don't relegation is a good idea by the way to everyone else, but there is a trade off when you don't have it. It means that teams like Zebre basically have nothing to play for by Christmas.

whatawaster

irishbucsfan wrote: »

The Pro 14 is just as good a league as the Premiership or Top 14 these days

This is conveniently overlooked by a lot of people.

All 3 leagues imo have a similar mix of top teams, mid-tier teams, and absolute dross.

Eod100

troyzer wrote: »

But they're not going to be able to attract them. No league in the world can attract the casuals to run of the mill games.

I don't relegation is a good idea by the way to everyone else, but there is a trade off when you don't have it. It means that teams like Zebre basically have nothing to play for by Christmas.

Guess lack of relegation in Pro14 is a bit of a moot point when there's no lower league to promote from and relegate to. I think that changing criteria for Europe has helped Benneton improve say so think it's a good compromise.

tototoe

troyzer wrote: »

But they're not going to be able to attract them. No league in the world can attract the casuals to run of the mill games.

I don't relegation is a good idea by the way to everyone else, but there is a trade off when you don't have it. It means that teams like Zebre basically have nothing to play for by Christmas.

The difference between pro14 crowds and European is sizeable at times. Not sure they can all be casual supporters, maybe not willing to spend money on the lower games but that can be addressed imo.

thomond2006

AdamD wrote: »

http://www.ospreysrugby.com/News/Article/54265

This is an absolute **** show and bad for the pro 14 but by God is it amusing.

A soap is going to recycle this storyline at some stage.

Blut2

thomond2006 wrote: »

A soap is going to recycle this storyline at some stage.

Gavin Henson to star in Dream Team 2019 - Welsh rugby edition. Now just to decide on who plays Lynda Block.

Neil3030

If there's a sniff of UK govt money to back this (the NW team), the WRU will make it happen. It's understandable that in the interim we'll see a lot of posturing and face saving from various suits looking after their reputation.

Cookiemunster

All 4 current teams to continue next season. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47640256?ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=wales&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_wales_sport

thomond2006

Cookiemunster wrote: »

All 4 current teams to continue next season. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47640256?ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=wales&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_wales_sport

It was heading that way after the story went quiet.

The Scarlets and Cardiff are pulling their weight. It's the Ospreys and Dragons that need to improve.