Sheffield vs Wigan RFL Ticketing Policy

[RB]

Sheffield play Wigan at Bramhall Lane in the Cup.
But due to the RFL Ticketing Policy Super League Season Ticket Holders will get in for free.
Sheffield fans will have to pay ( as will non season ticket Wigan Fans ) then the gate has to be split 50 / 50 with Wigan.
Shefield say they will make very little money out of he game which they say they are excited about none the less.

I just do not see the point of this ticketing policy.
We all want the glory of a home draw against one of the games big guns in the cup but smaller clubs also want naturally to make a bit of money out of their good fortune.
This ticketing policy will not increase season ticket sales becuase it has not been marketed. ( Has anyone heard anything about it) all it will do is deprive money from Sheffield.
I don't like to moan but this is another example of the RFL not thinking through their actions and not governing for the good of the game as a whole but governing for the good of Super League only.

[widneswraiths]

i think we have a case of 1 rule for 1 and 1 rule for another.

[King Viking]

The RFL are trying to increase the gates at Challenge Cup games, and so offer free entry to all season ticket holders. This problem is a consequence of the Super League teams entering at a different round. There's nothing that can really be done to counter this, except perhaps only make it valid for home season ticket holders. However, this would mean you can't guarantee having one Challenge Cup match in season ticket packages.

As far as I'm aware RB, it only counts for games that your season ticket team is involved with.

You could argue it the other way too, and say that Thatto Heath were denied money in the previous round, because all Sheffield season ticket holders were allowed in free.

[RB]

The RFL are trying to increase the gates at Challenge Cup games, and so offer free entry to all season ticket holders. This problem is a consequence of the Super League teams entering at a different round. There's nothing that can really be done to counter this, except perhaps only make it valid for home season ticket holders. However, this would mean you can't guarantee having one Challenge Cup match in season ticket packages.

As far as I'm aware RB, it only counts for games that your season ticket team is involved with.

You could argue it the other way too, and say that Thatto Heath were denied money in the previous round, because all Sheffield season ticket holders were allowed in free.

As I said it's ill thought out.
They can't exactly argue that they didn't know that Super League Teams entered the competition in a differerent round to everybody else.
Thatto Heath deserve their pay day for the match against Sheffield, just as Sheffield their pay day against Wigan.
Everything is conspiring against smaller clubs in the sport.
The RFL appear to be actively conspiring against the smaller clubs in the sport or at least not thinking through how the decisions they make will affect the smaller clubs in the sport.
A good Challange Cup Draw has always been a way that a smaller club can raise some money if the big boys come to town.
Smaller Clubs have always struggled and not only in rugby league one by one the pillars on which these smaller survived league matches against the big boys, promotion, transfer fees, challange cup pay days , tv revenue are being knocked away.

[RB]

As far as I'm aware RB, it only counts for games that your season ticket team is involved with.

I think you are right.
I'll delete that bit.

[King Viking]

As I said it's ill thought out.
They can't exactly argue that they didn't know that Super League Teams entered the competition in a differerent round to everybody else.
Thatto Heath deserve their pay day for the match against Sheffield, just as Sheffield their pay day against Wigan.
Everything is conspiring against smaller clubs in the sport.
The RFL appear to be actively conspiring against the smaller clubs in the sport or at least not thinking through how the decisions they make will affect the smaller clubs in the sport.
A good Challange Cup Draw has always been a way that a smaller club can raise some money if the big boys come to town.
Smaller Clubs have always struggled and not only in rugby league one by one the pillars on which these smaller survived league matches against the big boys, promotion, transfer fees, challange cup pay days , tv revenue are being knocked away.

As I say, I think the problem was that they looked at Challenge Cup gates and they were poor, so they looked at ways they could get more people in, without considering the impact it has on gate receipts etc. With it being free, perhaps more fans from Wigan will travel thus increasing the spend inside the ground? I'm not sure.

[vikinggriff]

your all forgetting that the prize money was increased for the early rounds to make up for this.

lower division teams pick up more guanteed income in exchange for less chance for a big payday and the SL teams don't gain because there season ticket holders get in free.

didn't hull draw leeds? that could be a sell out without anyone actually paying

[RB]

As I say, I think the problem was that they looked at Challenge Cup gates and they were poor, so they looked at ways they could get more people in, without considering the impact it has on gate receipts etc. With it being free, perhaps more fans from Wigan will travel thus increasing the spend inside the ground? I'm not sure.

As Sheffield say themselves it needs reviewing and doesn't help a club like them.
Like oursleves Sheffield don't own the ground and most probably don't benefit from spend inside the ground.
I would be surprised if the RFL could not forsee a draw like this or a draw like Thatto Heath against Sheffield or Widnes against St Judes.
I would draw a conclusion that they don't care but agree I could be over estimating their competency.

[RB]

your all forgetting that the prize money was increased for the early rounds to make up for this.

lower division teams pick up more guanteed income in exchange for less chance for a big payday and the SL teams don't gain because there season ticket holders get in free.

didn't hull draw leeds? that could be a sell out without anyone actually paying

I have no idea how much the prize money has been increased ?

[SLViking]

The problem is that fans of teams like Widnes, Sheffield etc begrudge paying full price to watch them play amateur teams and Leeds etc probably feel the same about us and Sheffield. So they gave the ticket away to season ticket buyers. Its not one rule for on, as the biggest losers will be the teams in the four all Super League clashes, which could have gates of over 10,000 coming in free.
They just got the wrong solution. All they had to do was charge half price, or a fiver less for the likes of us v St Judes (benefitting their fans too) and the likes of Sheffield v Wigan.

[RB]

They just got the wrong solution.

Deja Vue

[widnes kev]

At least Salford fans can get in for free in France...

[neilw]

I know you are all saying it is free to season ticket holders. But is this actually the case, surely each club quotes a price for a season ticket each year knowing how many games it potentially let the holder in to. So for instance Wigan sold an Adult ticket for the season for £240 which gets them into 13 league games plus the first challenge cup game they are in. This would work out at £17.14 per game, so if 1000 people who paid this price turn up at Sheffield then £17,140.00 should be put into the gate receipt pot for that game. Add to this the people then paying on the day gives you the total income of gate money. Sheffield deduct their costs and then split the remaining amount with Wigan.

I thought that this would have been the case for us against St Judes too. Taking it one step further I would suggest that all season tickets sold are taken into account with this too. So if Wigan sold 8,000 season tickets and the average price across all of these for the free entry to CC game is say £12 per ticket then 8,000 x £12 = £96,000 then I think this should go into the pot to be split.

So in the case of the Hull v Leeds game they would have a big pot to split plus cash payers on the day.