Magners League Attendances 2009/2010 Season

durkadurka

Magners League Attendances so far, from magnersleague.com

Munster get about 23,000 whenever they play in thomond, about 8500 in Musgrave, which gives the average below.
Leinster usually get 15000 as a 'base' support and 17000 - 18000 when there's a half decent game on, apart from the mid 6nations games where attendances were a bit sparcer.

Connacht's base is about 1450 from what I can see, and this only rises when Irish provinces come to town.

Scottish attendances are truly shocking, particularly given the fact that their teams are doing quite well this year and they will have at least one team in the semis. This is truly an example of shocking marketing and mismanagement. The teams are doing ok on the field but noone can be persuaded to go and see them.

The Welsh, well half hearted is all I can say.


Munster17,948Leinster15,387Cardiff10,635Ulster9,002Ospreys8,683Scarlets7,938Dragons5,967Edinburgh4,343Glasgow3,780Connacht2,010

Podge_irl

The Scottish attendances are poor, but still a fairly good improvement from two years ago.

LeeroyJones

Does anybody know why Edinburgh play in Murrayfield and not either in Easter Road or Tynecastle?

Their matches look ridiculous in Murrayfield. Surely the matches would generate far better atmospheres in the either Eater Road or Tynecastle.

castie

Also the stand thats open for the games in murrayfield means your very far from the pich due to the running track.

profitius

durkadurka wrote: »

Munster17,948
Leinster15,387
Cardiff10,635
Ulster9,002
Ospreys8,683
Scarlets7,938
Dragons5,967
Edinburgh4,343
Glasgow3,780
Connacht2,010

Good to see Munster leading the attendances.

One thing thats always puzzled me is how Ospreys can afford to have a massive squad of star players and a new stadium with their attendances.

LeeroyJones

profitius wrote: »

Good to see Munster leading the attendances.

One thing thats always puzzled me is how Ospreys can afford to have a massive squad of star players and a new stadium with their attendances.

Can't shed much light on the players but regarding the stadium; it's shared by Swansea City FC who, recently anyway, have been getting 15,000 in give or take in each homegame and even more now that they're pushing for Premiership promotion.

profitius

LeeroyJones wrote: »

Can't shed much light on the players but regarding the stadium; it's shared by Swansea City FC who, recently anyway, have been getting 15,000 in give or take in each homegame and even more now that they're pushing for Premiership promotion.

So much for rugby being number one sport in Wales. Considering they've only rugby and soccer as the main sport its disappointing for them.

sleepyman

profitius wrote: »

So much for rugby being number one sport in Wales. Considering they've only rugby and soccer as the main sport its disappointing for them.

At lot of that has to do with the regionalisation of professional rugby in 2003-I think they're were about 12 teams -Brigend, Lllanelli, Neath, Cardiff, etc.The Welsh rugby union decided they would be able to manage their resources more efficiently ( and compete in the Heineken & magners better) if they had 5 regional teams.
A lot of welsh rugby fans were annoyed the way the likes of Neath & Awansea for example were just lumped together to form the ospreys-there's a lot of apathy.
To be honest thought, I think they're alot more competitive since they adopted this system.The Ospreys have qualified for the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup three years in a row,Cardiff got to the quarters last year.The Scarlets had a great run in 2007 getting all the way to the semis(beating Munster along the way).
I think Lllanelli in their old form made it to the semis of the Heineken Cup in 2002 losing to Leicester I think.
Hopefully the welsh fans will acccept that regional rugby is likely to be here to stay.It's not ideal perhaps for the diehards who support their own clubs but it has brought them to a higher level.

PhatPiggins

sleepyman wrote: »

At lot of that has to do with the regionalisation of professional rugby in 2003-I think they're were about 12 teams -Brigend, Lllanelli, Neath, Cardiff, etc.The Welsh rugby union decided they would be able to manage their resources more efficiently ( and compete in the Heineken & magners better) if they had 5 regional teams.
A lot of welsh rugby fans were annoyed the way the likes of Neath & Awansea for example were just lumped together to form the ospreys-there's a lot of apathy.
To be honest thought, I think they're alot more competitive since they adopted this system.The Ospreys have qualified for the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup three years in a row,Cardiff got to the quarters last year.The Scarlets had a great run in 2007 getting all the way to the semis(beating Munster along the way).
I think Lllanelli in their old form made it to the semis of the Heineken Cup in 2002 losing to Leicester I think.
Hopefully the welsh fans will acccept that regional rugby is likely to be here to stay.It's not ideal perhaps for the diehards who support their own clubs but it has brought them to a higher level.

I dont think there's been any improvement in the Welsh teams HC performances since regionalisation to be honest. The Ospreys are no barometer for the state of Welsh rugby as they have 80% of the National team in their ranks as well as a number of highly paid imports. The Scarlets qualify for the knockouts as frequently and Cardiff had a better record before regionalisation.

I'd love to see the Ospreys accounts as they cant be running at a profit with their attendances and salaries.

Rugby in Wales is so tribal that lumping traditional rivals like Swansea and Bridgend together was asking for trouble. The regions are going to have to be self sufficient at some stage and to the best of my knowledge the Dragons are the only team close to being so.

thomond2006

Cardiff and Scarlets' recent stadium moves have been disasters.

As ye say, I'd love to know where Ospreys get all the money for their galacticos.

ALH-06

PhatPiggins wrote: »

The regions are going to have to be self sufficient at some stage and to the best of my knowledge the Dragons are the only team close to being so.

I'm genuinely worried for professional rugby in Wales and Scotland. If teams like Cardiff, Edinburgh and Ospreys can't operate on a profit or at least break even, then ultimately they're unsustainable. And where will that leave us?

profitius

ALH-06 wrote: »

I'm genuinely worried for professional rugby in Wales and Scotland. If teams like Cardiff, Edinburgh and Ospreys can't operate on a profit or at least break even, then ultimately they're unsustainable. And where will that leave us?

The Scots are doing OK now. They don't have much money to bring in star names etc but they're paying off the massive debt they find themselves in.

In the last few years the ML attendances have gone up but those attendances are rising slowest in Scotland but at least they're rising.

dromdrom

profitius wrote: »

So much for rugby being number one sport in Wales. Considering they've only rugby and soccer as the main sport its disappointing for them.

But if you look at the international level they always sell out test matches but get shockingly bad attendances for the welsh euro and world cup qualifier games (35000 -40000 for the Germany match if I remember correctly). Also the welsh premier league gets a lot higher attendances than our AIL gets here and a lot of the old school fans of the likes of Neath and Bridgend will attend these games before the region games.

toomevara

ALH-06 wrote: »

I'm genuinely worried for professional rugby in Wales and Scotland. If teams like Cardiff, Edinburgh and Ospreys can't operate on a profit or at least break even, then ultimately they're unsustainable. And where will that leave us?

I wouldn't worry about rugby in Wales as its got such a central position in the fabric of the nations culture, but Scotland is a different story...To say rugby is a minority pursuit is putting it mildly with only 2 maybe 3 six nations games really capturing the imagination....The loss of borders rugby was an absolute catastrophe and the game in Scotland has never recovered from it, and the fact that the SRU has penurised itself to construct Murrayfield, a stadium which they struggle to fill on even rugby's largest occasions doesn't help.

There is definitely an argument that professional rugby will become economically unsustainable in Scotland before long.

buck65

ALH-06 wrote: »

I'm genuinely worried for professional rugby in Wales and Scotland. If teams like Cardiff, Edinburgh and Ospreys can't operate on a profit or at least break even, then ultimately they're unsustainable. And where will that leave us?

Top of the league with the other provinces!!

Seriously though it is an issue but the playoffs this season will definitely increase the coverage on the league in Scotland and Wales. Glasgow Edinburgh and the Ospreys are all fighting for the playoffs and the Dragons have really upped their game too.
A Scottish or Welsh win this year would only be a good thing for the league.

PhatPiggins

buck65 wrote: »

Top of the league with the other provinces!!

Seriously though it is an issue but the playoffs this season will definitely increase the coverage on the league in Scotland and Wales. Glasgow Edinburgh and the Ospreys are all fighting for the playoffs and the Dragons have really upped their game too.
A Scottish or Welsh win this year would only be a good thing for the league.

I think you missing the point of the problem in Wales its not more rugby or increased exposure of the ML that they need, both are at satuaration point anyway, its that they are seemingly unable to sell regionalisation to the fans. Can you imagine if the IRFU told Galwegian and Buccs fans that they now had to support Munster or Con supporters that they were now Leinster fans?

I agree that the Scots need all the help they can get btw.

buck65

True, but the Dragons have shown the way with support building every year and Ospreys, Cardiff and Scarlets aren't as bad as Glasgow, Edinburgh or Connacht for attendances at all.
I think the best thing to incentivise fans to support a region, province or club is often success or competitiveness.
Wales need the Ospreys to win something fast I feel.

PhatPiggins

buck65 wrote: »

True, but the Dragons have shown the way with support building every year and Ospreys, Cardiff and Scarlets aren't as bad as Glasgow, Edinburgh or Connacht for attendances at all.
I think the best thing to incentivise fans to support a region, province or club is often success or competitiveness.
Wales need the Ospreys to win something fast I feel.

The Dragons are the last profeesional club left in Wales, adding Gwent to their banner didn't affect them negatively as they would have all supported Newport anyway. Paul Turner is surely the next Welsh coach in waiting.