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.
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