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#Post#: 88903--------------------------------------------------
Premiership games to be moved around country
DIR By: SiB
Date: April 20, 2022, 1:49 am
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How do they expect this to work, by the amount of advertising on
local radio the Spring big game hasn’t been over subscribed
Maybe Sale v Bristol in Birmingham?
HTML https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-10732811/Premiership-rugby-chiefs-draw-plans-matches-UK-bid-grow-leagues-popularity.html
#Post#: 88906--------------------------------------------------
Re: Premiership games to be moved around country
DIR By: J Scott
Date: April 20, 2022, 3:11 am
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Will only work if one of the teams was close enough to call it a
home game. But not all games would attract great crowds!
Sale v Newcastle at Old Trafford how full would stadium be?
Nothing against those teams but the have low crowd numbers to
most games.
#Post#: 88909--------------------------------------------------
Re: Premiership games to be moved around country
DIR By: Mayor West
Date: April 20, 2022, 3:40 am
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I can’t see this being acceptable to the fans. It’s bad enough
that we have to go 200 yards a couple of times a year but
travelling a distance to watch your team in another city knocks
off another possible game from your season ticket. Not to
mention the extra expense of travel. Putting more games on free
to air is the better way to go as you have commentary to explain
what’s going on for the novice. Look what’s happening to the
Womens game.
#Post#: 88910--------------------------------------------------
Re: Premiership games to be moved around country
DIR By: Fearless Fred
Date: April 20, 2022, 3:53 am
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Here's the current spread of Premiership Clubs:
HTML https://i.ibb.co/B428Q9j/image.png
There's a few large areas not currently covered. Cumbria, the
Yorkshire/Humberside area, Suffolk/Norfolk and South/South East
outside London. Cumbria and Yorkshire are League hotbeds,
particularly the M62 corridor. I'm not sure they'd get too many
converts there.
Are there enough people in the Suffolk/Norfolk area to take a
match there? Transport would be awful for most!
The South/SE region is a strange one. You'd think that it would
be ripe for a Union club, but aside from the Not Nots rattling
around in the Madjeski for 20 years and a couple of years of the
other Not Nots doing the same at the Kassam, there's been little
to say that a club game can attract big interest. Yes, the
international game (like the Brighton RWC games) can attract
crowds, but that is because Internationals are already big
events and the general public can easily recognise the players
from the 6Nations etc. They won't move those from TW as they
won't make so much money.
#Post#: 88916--------------------------------------------------
Re: Premiership games to be moved around country
DIR By: Bolly-Quin
Date: April 20, 2022, 4:53 am
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--- Quote from: Fearless Fred link ---
> There's a few large areas not currently covered. Cumbria, the
Yorkshire/Humberside area, Suffolk/Norfolk and South/South East
outside London. Cumbria and Yorkshire are League hotbeds,
particularly the M62 corridor. I'm not sure they'd get too many
converts there.
> Are there enough people in the Suffolk/Norfolk area to take a
match there? Transport would be awful for most!
>
> The South/SE region is a strange one. You'd think that it
would be ripe for a Union club, but aside from the Not Nots
rattling around in the Madjeski for 20 years and a couple of
years of the other Not Nots doing the same at the Kassam,
there's been little to say that a club game can attract big
interest. Yes, the international game (like the Brighton RWC
games) can attract crowds, but that is because Internationals
are already big events and the general public can easily
recognise the players from the 6Nations etc. They won't move
those from TW as they won't make so much money.
--- End Quote ---
With the exception of the three London clubs, all the other
Premiership clubs lie on rocks older than the Mid-late Jurassic
Oolite Group: this outcrop belt defines the broad
geomorphological division of England into "highland", NW of the
Oolite group and "Lowland", SE of the Oolite.
So the London clubs are lowlanders and the others highlanders...
[attach=1]
[attachment deleted by admin]
#Post#: 88922--------------------------------------------------
Re: Premiership games to be moved around country
DIR By: never sleep
Date: April 20, 2022, 5:27 am
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It is an interesting idea. But, there needs to be a lot of
consultation with existing season ticket holders to get their
buy-in.
E.g. I think that there are a lot of people opposed to us moving
the Glos game over the road.
But, what if that game had been moved to Brighton?
1. it would suit a lot of our fanbase that lives in
Surrey/Sussex.
2. it wouldn't be that difficult to catch a train to.
3. it would make a good weekend away.
Basically, in my view, it wouldn't be the worst idea ever.
I live a short walk away from the Stoop. I like going to the
Stoop. I sit in between a bunch of season-ticket holders and
enjoy meeting them from drinks at the brewery pre-match, etc.
- my preference is for the Stoop
But, then again - a nice weekend away at the seaside??
However, I would be resistant if the game was to be moved out of
our catchment area.
#Post#: 88926--------------------------------------------------
Re: Premiership games to be moved around country
DIR By: never sleep
Date: April 20, 2022, 7:20 am
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I have just been thinking a little bit more about this topic.
I think that one of the problems is that clubs have season
ticket holders.
At the beginning of the season, we basically pre-buy our seat
for the next 12 months. We get grumpy if there is a game where
we are not in regular seats for a game.
There is the other model at clubs where you buy a membership and
the membership doesn't actually include a seat.
E.g. at Richmond, you pay a membership fee.
This gives you a membership card with which you can buy
discounted drinks at the bar and discounted tickets for games.
In this case, I wouldn't be overly upset if a game was moved as
I could simply choose not to buy a ticket for the game.
Now, this probably works well when the weather is good as you
get lots of people happy to go and watch rugby which enjoying a
few beers in the sun.
But, works less well when it is chucking down with rain, etc.
Season tickets are probably better for the clubs as people go to
a game (like last Saturday) where it is sunny and the ground is
firm and you watch an entertaining match and then following the
feel-good factor, you but a season-ticket without realising that
you are going to be cold and wet for most of the rugby season.
There are calls to move the game towards playing over
Spring/Summer/Autumn.
If this were to happen, then I wouldn't buy a season ticket as I
spend around 2 months a year in France during the warmer months.
- but, I would probably still retail a membership at a club if
it meant that I was still able to buy cheap tickets and still be
part of the club.
I wonder whether some of these ideas around growing the game are
all somehow linked and I wonder whether we will start to see a
shift from buying a season ticket and sitting watching rugby on
a cold Saturday to more "pay-as-you-go" and watching games in
bigger stadiums on warm summer evenings.
#Post#: 88928--------------------------------------------------
Re: Premiership games to be moved around country
DIR By: The Absolute Quintet
Date: April 20, 2022, 7:49 am
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Increasing interest within a club's catchment makes sense for
some by occasionally using a bigger venue (critically at the
right time in the year and by doing this consistently), as Quins
have proved very effectively with Big Game.
Doing this outside of the catchment is more challenging to make
work and more challenging in the achieving the end goal of
bigger home attendances (Bath tried it I recall at HQ, perhaps
seeking to stretch their catchment to London, but not repeated).
But only a very few would want to hire HQ for this purpose.
Electing another venue at the edge of the catchment may well
work but again only for a few and where there is a clear dearth
of clubs. Brighton would work for Quins, as said, although it's
firmly Quins territory already so what real growth would come?
Would add another 15k capacity to the gate (less hire charge),
which might work financially, so maybe a first step. More risky
but a potentially better reward for growth could be Southampton
FC (also +15k capacity)?
Sarries to Norwich? Doubt that works, bad enough in Barnet.
Tigers to Elland Road (60k), I could see that, especially
against us actually, marketable with a decent travelling
support.
It's pretty irrelevant whether such a location would be close to
the opposition, in fact why help to grow interest in them, quite
the contrary would apply.
The Ealing problem is fundamentally connected to starting a fan
base. No fans, no ground - no ground, no fans. Has nothing to do
with bigger venues or stretching the catchment.
And, anyway, all something the clubs have been aware of for
years.
#Post#: 88929--------------------------------------------------
Re: Premiership games to be moved around country
DIR By: Bolly-Quin
Date: April 20, 2022, 8:27 am
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At the moment and for the next few years, I can't see clubs
wanting to lose any revenue from home games; if the A league was
reborn or pre-season friendlies were played at other venues -
like Brighton, or Guildford, for example, then perhaps. But
Quins, with the plan to have 2 games at Big Stoop, may not want
to go on the road too much or indeed far - I certainly can't see
a reply of the game in Dubai or trying to put on a game in the
US - but these days, who knows!
#Post#: 88931--------------------------------------------------
Re: Premiership games to be moved around country
DIR By: Monte
Date: April 20, 2022, 9:13 am
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Chris Munton and I were the only UK Quins supporters at the DXB
game - Chris because he had to (!) me because I was in the
travel industry and scrounged flights and a room from my
hoteliers. AUH Quins turned out in force - 200 of them the
Emeritus hotel erected a stand. Ieunan Evans was very chatty
with us after the match. Lol ignored us and was just rude not
even saying hello. From memory there were virtually 0 Wasps
supporters. We won but apart from that it was a bit like going
to a poor Championship match. Etihad were our sponsors then so
unless supporters wrap themselves like parcels and go DHL I
can’t see it being repeated. 2 games at the Big Stoop enough for
me. Leave the Amex stadium for another year.
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