Re: They are coming with Force? : Wed Apr 16, 2014 10:27 am  

Michael_Ward wrote:

Of course, any reasonable person understands that Fev's catchment area is not limited to Fev itself.

However, given the proximity to Cas, Wakefield and even Leeds, I'd have to suggest that Fev are not the only team drawing support from the areas mentioned.

As a comparison, here is a list the population totals for the areas you mentioned:

Featherstone - 15,244
Pontefract - 28,250
Knottingley - 13,503
Ackworth - 6,493
Total : 63,490

Here are the figures that represent Leigh and the smaller towns and villages bordering the town and strongly associated with Leigh:

Leigh - 46,000
Tyldesley - 34,022
Atherton - 22,000
Lowton - 11,012 
Total: 102,022

Clearly, there are more places that could be included in either total.

What stands out to me is the % numbers of people in each catchment area that live in the place the team represents. These people are the most likely to have affinity with the club and become loyal, longterm fans. At Leigh, 45% of the catchment area is in the town. For Featherstone, it is 24% of a smaller total.

However, I don't think the town sizes and catchment areas are a particular problem for either club at the moment. It isn't necessary to attract 25,000+ to establish a team as a decent Super League team, given that most RL clubs are poorly run and are underachieving.

Featherstone and Pontefract are virtually 1 and the same, if you live in Pont you support Rovers, the only people that support Cas are the non drinking social outcasts, you go to any of the Ponte amateur teams and they will have the token 1 or 2 Cas fans, they are probably more passionate about Rovers than Fev folk believe it or not in my experiences, you dont hear of hardly any Wakey fans at all this side of Fev. This is the reason Rovers have drawn a dozen crowds above there population a feat not many sporting clubs in the world can get near to matching. There are a lot of Cas fans in Knottingley as well as Fev but iv never known coaches go from Knottingley to Cas games but they do to most Rovers games. Rovers have a big area to pull from we are a big club that just happens to be in a small town

Re: They are coming with Force? : Wed Apr 16, 2014 10:55 am  

gingdong wrote:

we are a big club that just happens to be in a small town

I won't dispute that Fev are attracting more fans than they probably should - but please define 'big club', because to my mind you've strayed in to nonsense.

P.S. In terms of population, Featherstone + pontefract < Leigh

Re: They are coming with Force? : Wed Apr 16, 2014 11:14 am  

Michael_Ward wrote:

I won't dispute that Fev are attracting more fans than they probably should - but please define 'big club', because to my mind you've strayed in to nonsense.

P.S. In terms of population, Featherstone + pontefract < Leigh

Depends how you define a big club, you may think its nonsense but the words i used are the exact words the Rovers board use for destination super league propaganda purposes. I define a big club through history (we have that) facilities and future prospects. We own 18 acres of land near the ground, land that will be changing from green belt as hundreds of houses are to be built very near there, this gives us superb future prospects if managed right. We can certainly compete for crowds if in the top flight as have done before, we also have a very wealthy shareholder. Put it another way i would rather be in our position than some so called big clubs currently in super league

Re: They are coming with Force? : Wed Apr 16, 2014 11:15 am  

It doesn’t matter where they're from, just get them down to the game, hopefully they’ll enjoy it and turn up again the following weeks and years. And that applies to either/all clubs.

Michael_Ward wrote:

Here are the figures that represent Leigh and the smaller towns and villages bordering the town and strongly associated with Leigh:

Leigh - 46,000
Tyldesley - 34,022
Atherton - 22,000
Lowton - 11,012 
Total: 102,022

.

So we are currently getting under 2% of our catchment area, you wouldn't think 10% would be too great of an ask, but at 2% it shows how far we have to go.

[Dick Jones]

Re: They are coming with Force? : Wed Apr 16, 2014 12:17 pm  

So what is the answer ?

Re: They are coming with Force? : Wed Apr 16, 2014 12:41 pm  

gingdong wrote:

Depends how you define a big club

It does, which why I asked you to define it.

the words i used are the exact words the Rovers board use for destination super league propaganda purposes.

Come on, we can't just repeat the stuff our clubs tell us. Experience suggests that we'd all be looking massively foolish on a regular basis.

I define a big club through history (we have that)

Fev as a club have existed for a while? I can think of many other clubs that have history. Hell, even the Fuldon Bronquins have history.

facilities and future prospects.

Your facilities are currently adequate but improving, and quite frankly 'future prospects' can be put in the same folder as Cas, Wakey & Bradford stadium proposals. Show me the reality. Wikipedia suggests you've had stadium proposals on the table, in one form or another, since 2008.

We own 18 acres of land near the ground, land that will be changing from green belt as hundreds of houses are to be built very near there, this gives us superb future prospects if managed right.

If it happens, if it is 'managed right'. If's...

When it happens, I'd be keen to accept your argument and Fev

We can certainly compete for crowds if in the top flight as have done before

Past performance is not an indicator of future performance, plus your last top flight season was 19 years. That's a long time.

we also have a very wealthy shareholder.

We had one of those. Doesn't last...

If this is the probiz guy you're talking about (not sure) then you've got to ask if it's the land and development opportunities attracting him - there's money to be made from that development. I hope it all goes in to the Fev coffers, but I'm not 100% sure it will.

Put it another way i would rather be in our position than some so called big clubs currently in super league

I think any ambitious club, run well, can achieve better than probably half of SL because they're run poorly. It's endemic in this sport.

Fev are doing things right, but right now the 'big club' tag is bluster.

Re: They are coming with Force? : Wed Apr 16, 2014 2:22 pm  

Dick Jones wrote:

So what is the answer ?

I wish I knew

Re: They are coming with Force? : Wed Apr 16, 2014 2:32 pm  

I think the answer is 42.

Re: They are coming with Force? : Wed Apr 16, 2014 2:36 pm  

salfordlad wrote:

I think the answer is 42.

Only a Hitchhiker would know that

Re: They are coming with Force? : Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:22 pm  

Dick Jones wrote:

So what is the answer ?

what was the question