Falling Attendances

So the WRU are worried about falling attendances at Rugby matches. It should come as no surprise to them because no thought has been given to the person who braves the elements and actually wants to watch a game in the flesh.

At the international level, admission prices have soared and the average rugby fan does not think it is a bargain to have to travel on overcrowded trains or pay exorbitant car parking fees to mix with the drunken hordes that gather in Cardiff. As a debenture holder, I still attend every home match but, rugby apart, the enjoyment is waning. It is evident to me that the people who actually watch rugby at club level and have attempted to understand the ever more complicated laws of the game are in the minority. This is evidenced by the shouting and bawling of absurd comments often using foul language. On top of this a large proportion of the match is taken up either letting people pass with trays of drink or inevitably making a trip to empty overflowing bladders. The WRU would argue that they still manage to fill the ground for most matches so why worry.

            At the regional level, attendances are generally low and the majority of games take place in cavernous stadia with little atmosphere. It is a wonder that the TV companies do not feel the need to dub on canned crowd noise. We have ended up with four regional franchises that are divided into two pairs with stadia that are only separated by about ten miles. The games are played on an ever-changing mixture of days and kick off times to suit the TV and of course virtually all are televised live. Most fans I talk to would prefer to plan their lives around attending a rugby match on a Saturday afternoon. The concentrated nature of the locations of the regional teams and their reluctance to travel to play in other parts of their region means that the regional teams are restricting their fan-base. With games televised, high admission prices, rising fuel costs and limited parking it is no wonder that fans are quite content to watch at home or in the local pub. If this was not bad enough, two of the regions are based in soccer dominated cities where they will always come a poor second in terms of attendances. One of the joys of attending rugby matches was the chance to mingle with opposition fans but away attendance has also dwindled with the RaboDirect Pro League.

            There is still Premiership rugby in the regions you will say. Unfortunately this too is gravitating towards the South leaving large swathes of our rugby hinterland unrepresented even at this level. The recent WRU plan to reduce the Premiership to ten clubs from fourteen with four of these teams based in the same place as the regional team and two actually playing on the same ground (with another likely to move in the same direction) actively encouraged this. It was pleasing to see that they back-tracked on this ill-conceived plan and allowed Carmarthen Quins and Bridgend (incidentally two of the more southerly based clubs) to remain in the league. This still leaves, for example, the whole of Gwent east of Newport unrepresented including the Eastern and Western Valleys that have long been a breeding ground for Welsh rugby talent. Think of Pontypool, Ebbw Vale, Newbridge and Abertillery and you think of tough forwards like Graham Price, Clive Burgess, Clive Davies and Alun Pask. There was a plan to include North Wales too but this seems to have been ditched somewhere along the way. It is barmy to go forward on this basis. It is even more barmy when you consider that the WRU are still dithering about what to do with the game at regional level

            If these sides are good enough they will rise to the top in our league structure you might argue. The plan is to ring fence the Premiership for the foreseeable future so no hope of that happening. The WRU in its wisdom decided to reduce the number of clubs to improve the standard by concentrating the better players. Take this to its logical conclusion and we could end up with just a league of regional second teams. The basis on which the original ten (and now twelve) was chosen was a complicated mixture of the quality of facilities, playing record and a host of other factors. The standard of facilities required was overblown and the position that a side achieves in the Premiership would seem to be determined by how deep their sponsors’ pockets are and how many regional players are released to play for them. It does not seem that the heart and soul of the cub, the number of members and supporters, has been taken into account as some of the clubs that have been selected could never be described as well supported. The upshot of the reduction to twelve clubs will probably be even less people watching rugby and a decline in interest and participation in previously highly productive parts of Wales. The Premiership has been badly organised from the outset with no one quite sure what was going to happen at the end of the season even halfway though it. The current situation with half of the league playing Anglo-Irish cup matches and the other half playing league matches is a good example of poor planning. What is the bottom half of the league going to do while the top half are catching up on league matches? Then we have the play-offs at the end of the season again for the top clubs. The lower half of the league is just not playing enough rugby and this is unsatisfactory for both the players and the spectators. I believe that too many promising young players are spending their time in the gym, on the practice ground and sat on the bench rather than getting match-hardened - maybe this would even reduce the number of injuries.

            Would it not be a better approach to give more young players the opportunity to play at this level and rub shoulders with professionals and expand the league to sixteen and ditch the unpopular Anglo-Irish Cup - incidentally the size of the Western Mail Championship in the glory days of Welsh rugby? We should think carefully about spreading these clubs geographically about the regions to try and correct the current unbalanced situation even if it needs a re-evaluation of the way the WRU’s money is distributed. You will say we cannot turn back time and things have moved on. They may have moved on but is it at the cost of damaging the roots of Welsh Rugby and perpetuating a downward spiral? We should be taking advantage of the positivity from the recent performances of the national team in New Zealand and in the 6 Nations Championship and trying to grow the game not shrink it.