Championship attendances prove rugby still has a long way to go

Leinster celebrated being the best supported team in the Magners League for the second season running, but as gate numbers in lower league English football proved, rugby is still the poor cousin of the round ball game.

The people passing through the turnstiles of rugby stadia across Europe does indicate that interest is burgeoning, and thankfully, shows no signs of slowing down. Every year the European Rugby Cup LTD produces stats of average gates, TV audiences, and sponsorship details. The general message is: rugby is blossoming.

When Brive won the European Cup in 1997, it was announced that people in 88 country’s worldwide tuned in for the games showpiece club event. The figure today is likely to be over 150, and average club gates are hitting the 10,000 mark. Sides like Toulouse, Leinster (when Lansdowne Road is available), Wasps and Stade Francais have moved to bigger grounds to facilitate the huge demand. Unfortunately, the game needs more teams to follow suit, but that’s for another day.

In 2005 Leinster limped out of the Heineken Cup quarter finals at the hands of Leicester Tigers in Dublin. However, standing in the South Terrace, were three young men all speaking Spanish and decked out in the Argentinian flag. As the game approached it’s depressing conclusion, I asked the men where they had come from. In broken English I was informed they had flown from Buenos Aires to Dublin via Madrid. The reason? To see Felipe Contepomi play in the Heineken Cup.

In the Magners League, Leinster celebrated not only the title, but also being proclaimed the best supported team again in the competition. Average gates of 14,500 are up 14% on last season, a remarkable achievement considering they had an extra fixture, and had full use of Lansdowne Road whenever required (32,000 v Munster; 48,000 v Ulster).

The nagging feeling is that Leinster should be attracting a whole lot more. A capital club in a rugby city with one of the finest sides in Europe. At the same time though, professionalism is still in its infancy, and success breeds growth. League champions tag has sparked big interest in season tickets, which have already surpassed last seasons total.

The English Championship, one of the best supported “second tier” leagues in the world, which also has the richest game in football (play-off final) attracted average crowds of 16,240 throughout the entire season. QPR, London-based, and formerly of the Premiership, had average crowds similar to Leinster, which was 14th out of 22 in the Championship.

Four sides in leagues below the Championship (Leeds, Nottingham Forest and, surprisingly, Bradford City) had crowds surpassing Leinster, but these clubs have a connection with their fans that no rugby club can match just yet.

Edinburgh, despite a successful season, had average crowds of 3,700, which places them in lower echelons of League 2 football. The other 8 Magners sides aren’t much better.

Comparing rugby to football is an exercise in futility, but it does highlight the ground still needed to be made by the union clubs. The game is improving, and the crowds represent this, but with the lowest Premiership average attendance of 19,000 (Wigan Athletic), rugby is still no more than the poorer (if more entertaining) cousin to football.