The Play-Off Pinnacle

It is the 'business end' of the season, to borrow a cliche. In the first week of the Super League play offs we bore witness to the two higher-ranking home sides dumped out by lower-ranked opposition. Incredibly, neither home side scored a point.

But can an event truly be described as incredible if few were there to see it? Rugby league, as it always was, is competing for eyeballs. As it never was, there are increasingly wide-ranging and cheaper forms of entertainment to compete against. There is also the cloud of the Covid-19 pandemic hanging over us. Old habits have been broken and reforming those links has proven hard so far.

The result? For Wigan's match against Leeds, more than two thirds of the seats were empty. This week, Super League reported record television viewing figures and some questioned why, therefore, the value of our new broadcast deal from 2022 is reduced. The answer may lie in the sea of plastic. The soulless unoccupied seats. We sell the play offs as the pinnacle of our season, yet few turn out to attend? What must a casual viewer, tuning in under the belief that they are seeing a big game, think?

Money, Money, Money

Where this piece is not going is to point the finger of blame at the fans. Let's suppose you are a Leeds fan. If you were an adult season ticket holder, it would have cost £18 for a ticket to last week's play off win at Wigan (£23 for a non-season ticket holder). The prices are identical for this week's fixture at St Helens. Let's suppose Leeds win and reach the Grand Final. If you wanted to sit behind the posts at Old Trafford, a ticket would cost £41.

The cost of one adult fan following Leeds through the play offs would be £77 for a season ticket holder. Let's suppose this adult fan attended with a friend or partner. The cost would then be £154. Let's suppose a family of four attended. The cost increases to a minimum of £204. Relative to other sporting events, this is good value. Yet, paradoxically, it is also very expensive and many do not have disposable income of £204 to spend in just one month.

By comparison, if the same hypothetical family of four purchased season tickets for Leeds in the South Stand (13 matches in total x 4 people), it would have cost £620. Leeds also offer a discount of 15% for family season tickets, reducing the cost to £527.

So a family of four could watch a whole season (13 matches) for £527. We then ask the same family to pay £204 to watch three matches. The 'mystery' of absent fans suddenly becomes less of a mystery. They may feel ripped off. It's hard to argue that it represents good value, compared to the rest of the season.

A question of timing

Pricing isn't everything though. I'll provide an aged, yet still relevant example. Leeds' first and last home matches of the 2012 season were both against Wakefield. Leeds attracted a crowd of 9,062 for the 2011 Boxing Day friendly. For the play off match in 2012, a crowd of 9,044 attended.

Think about that. There were more fans willing to part with their cash to attend a meaningless Boxing Day friendly than what we deem to be the pinnacle of our season - a play off match. 

It seems to be universally accepted that the play offs are the best way to end the season (although I am not convinced). Yet fans are voting with their feet. Until the Grand Final comes, the crowd figures show that the appeal of the play offs to our existing fan base and the floating supporter is very low. Pricing is one issue but not the only one.

Season Ticket Culture

Play offs are not the only fixtures that suffer from low crowds. Challenge Cup fixtures do too. What do they have in common? They are not covered by a season ticket. We have a culture in British rugby league where fans either pay an initial outlay for a season ticket or arrange a direct debit to pay the cost over the course of the season.

There is a great reticence for a lot of fans, whether that be due to financial reasons or otherwise, to pay to attend fixtures beyond the initial outlay or direct debit.

We have three options. We could do nothing and allow this to persist. This is suboptimal to say the least. We could try to move away from a season ticket culture. Any attempt to do that would blow a hole in the finances of clubs. The final option is to embrace it. This seems the most sensible option.

Could we offer an option for money to be automatically withdrawn from fan's accounts for play off / Challenge Cup tickets, should they choose to opt-in (or even opt-out) at the start of a season? Could a separate play off / cup bundle be offered, with refunds / vouchers / season ticket discounts for the following year if such matches don't occur?

I'm no expert in the field but we must do something. We cannot grow our competition if our biggest games continue to have the lowest crowds. Equally, to focus just on season ticket culture is a folly. The play off appeal in its own right is low. Arguably, that is an even harder issue to address.