Anyone see the opening game of the super duper league last night at the KC ? fc v les catalan. Official attendance given as 10,170. I would say it was more like 6,000. No-one at all in the North Stand and West Upper was closed. No atmosphere at all, and I mean none. Music after points scored and even music whilst everyone looks at the big screens to see if someone has scored. No individual talent shown by either team and at times you'd have thought the ball was a bar of soap. It ended up like a basketball game scorewise and I'm sure both teams were taking it in turns to score. The pitch was getting a clobbering with huge divots all over it from the first tackle to the last. Thought it was odd that the football markings on the pitch had not been 'greened' over. It was my first and last visit to a rugby league game (free ticket and a lift) for a very long time. IMO the sport is pumped up beyond belief to be something fabulous to watch when it is like watching paint drying and is a very, very poor relation to rugby union and nowhere as near as exciting or skilful as the worst football match you would ever see in your life. They couldn't even kick the ball between the posts and there wasn't even a goalkeeper to stop them. I've heard so much about the superior atmosphere at fc matches. On last nights showing it is bollocks. From the East Stand you could hear someone sneezing in the West Stand. Both sets of players looked knackered after 20 minutes and every move by both teams is identical. Five tackles then kick the ball down field and hope for a lucky bounce. Dreadful 'entertainment'. No wonder the game is on it's knees financially.
I'm not a fan of either code of rugby but from what little I've seen, League always strikes me as being something I could enjoy mroe than Union. Union seems like an American interpretation of a stereotypically 'British' sport, everyone sort of trotting around and calling each other sir. They might as well wear bowler hats. They also don't like look athletes which League players do, from what I've seen. There were some right fat bastards in that France-Italy game that was on last weekend. Anyway back on topic, the pitch has struggled to cope with two teams playing on it in February/March time, year after year. Hopefully we won't have top endure a debate about whether football, rugby, or neither is more to blame for the wear on the pitch (who really cares?). The fact is the pitch is alright until both teams play on it. Hopefully the investment in the cannabis lamps will make a difference this time around.
I sometimes go to FC matches, after initially not being interested at all, but after my Grand-dad died when I was a kid, he left loads of FC scarves, shirts, mugs etc. And so I decided to follow them from then on. The atmosphere hasn't ever been as good or enjoyable as football atmosphere (IMO) after all the times I've been. Was gonna go last night, but being Valentines Day and all that...
I'm not a Hull FC, but that was a good match last night. Don't give all that pish about kicking. RU is all about kicking, either for penalties or field position. And the in the latter they don't even attempt to run with it. England won the WC in 2002 by relying on Johnny Wilkinson converting penalties and his kicks. In fact, when they got in a position to score a try, who scored? An ex RL player. I've seen a RU match where the only score was by penalties. And, if that happened in RL, both teams would be booed. The professionalism of RU is bad as well. Oh we'll collapse the scrum deliberately, and fall on top of each other.
The investment in the new lighting was made by Hull City. Fc didn't contribute a penny. I just cannot see how they cam make rl pay at the KC. There was never over 10,000 there last night and how many were on freebies like me ? And the game itself is awful no matter how hard they try to make it sound exciting, and they milk everything for all it's worth. The way they attempt to make every try seem like a life or death decision is pitiful and cringworthy. The HDM and RH are gloating about a 'sell-out' at Rovers tomorrow. Which means a record crowd of over 10,000. They are playing Leeds for christsakes in the first game of a new season and they have given 2,000 tickets away to school kids (which I agree with) You'd be more surprised if it wasnt' a 'sell-out' Last nights game must have lost money. I saw little kids at last nights match playing with ipods when the game was on. An old bloke near me was actually asleep! When they announced the crowd I thought someone was having a laugh because there were so few there you could have actually counted them. Then I read on the HDM fc forum about the game that the fans thought it was a great match. Honestly is was dreadful.
Virtually all of that op is bollocks. Both the east and South stands were fairly full and the West was about standard for fc. I can't imagine there would have been a better atmosphere at City with a grand total of 6 away fans. As for the game itself, if you want goal kicking go and watch union or nfl because rl is about scoring tries. I suppose if you don't see much rl then it looks samey but so would every sport. The level of planning and skill to execute Yeamans second try was absolute top drawer.
Most of that happens at City as well. We give away tickets when we want to boost the home crowd. I remember the Cardiff match last season and these kids behind me were on Gameboys rather than watch one of the tensest matches I've seen at home. We have pricks who go watch the opposition rather than City. Some even wear other teams' colours and flaunt it in your face, even if we aren't playing them. Sometimes you wonder if our attendances are correct, because of all the empty spaces (championship a few years a go I mean). The City page on the HDM is as bad. It's full of Allam enthusiasts kissing his arse non stop.
I know City paid for it, but we should shouldn't we? We're the ones that need a smooth pitch. The RL lot could play on sand it'd make no difference. Why would they pay for lamps to improve the playing surface when they only use it for running on? I agree that they milk everything in RL, it's an Americanised sport. That's the way some people want football to go sadly. The HDM and RH are OTT with their RL love, but that's simply because there's loads of RL 'fans' in Hull who don't actually attend games but have their arguments about 'girlie birds' and 'dobins' (razor sharp they are) and go on about it being a man's game, football is for fairies etc. These people are as important to the media as those who attend games. So even though City are fare better supported in the stands, I bet there's more RL 'fans' in Hull.
It is a personal opinion on which code is better. Personally I prefer the scrums in RU because in RL they are a complete waste of time, I don't see the point, why not just hand the ball to the opposing team ? RU might be lower scoring games but in RL I'm convinced someone somewhere has decided that because a game is high scoring then it must be entertaining so they let everything go. And when did they start allowing forward passes ? The proof in the pudding is that RU attracts bigger crowds and is played nationally whilst RL still struggles to be accepted along the M62 corridor. Anyhow that passed away twenty minutes whilst waiting for a proper game to come on the box. FA Cup knock-out football!
More RL fans in Hull ? Is that why the biggest ever FC crowd is mid 20's and Rovers is one at 16k ? Don't talk like a tart.
More RL fans in Hull? Compare the apathy during the rugby league world cup with what happens during a football world cup. Or the amount of people in pubs for football internationals compared to rugby league ones. How many people are in pubs for a match between two rugby league clubs from elsewhere, Leeds v Saints, Wigan v Warrington for example compared to Man Utd v Liverpool etc? The two lowest crowds in the RL world cup were for games in Hull. Any World Cup game for football in Hull would require a larger stadium than the KC.
I'm not talking about proper fans who attend games. I'm on about the fat women on buses who've never been to a game in their life but are qualified to tell you that football is for fairies.
I haven't done extensive research and I'd love to be proven wrong. But I just get the feeling there's loads of people in this City who have this anti-football, anti-City attitude and who prefer RL, even if they aren't proper fans as such.
I have. The ten biggest crowds this city has ever seen were all at Boothferry Park to watch football and involved Hull City. A club that up to 2008 had never won anything and never played at the top level. Imagine the crowds if we had when we could squeeze 50,000 into Boothferry Park ? We had over 40,000 for the old Third Division. The biggest ever crowd at the boulevard to watch a club that had been at the top of their particular sport and appeared at Wembley was one crowd of 24,000. Likewise the old Craven Park for a similar sized club who had reached the very top of their particular sport, one crowd of 16,000. Yet the local media, and probably people like yourself, quickly and without any foundation trot out this myth that RL is huge in Hull. It has a following, yes, and we have two clubs, who between have won less then Featherstone Rovers. The anti-City feeling is strong in this city probably because the club sunk so low and were so dire for a couple of generations when RL locally was enjoying a honeymoon period. There is also a pool of thought that a successful Hull City is bad for rugby league in Hull simply because of economics. There is only so much cash to go around and that means supporters and sponsors money. Which could also account for the anti-city/football feeling from the fat ladies on the bus. I suggest you read Nick Turners excellent 'Now Tigers' book because he has done the extensive research and everything points to the hard facts that Hull FC did everything possible and some arguably illegally to stop the progression of Hull City and professional football in this city when we were first formed in 1904. I believe some of that feeling is still prevalent today.
Which doesn't alter the fact that more people are football fans than rugby ones. City, FC and Rovers don't come into it. We are talking rugby and football as sports. All the inadequates who support Liverpool, Man U etc are football fans. And look at all those pathetic rugby fans who have an adopted football club. You don't see City fans going around with Saints, Rhinos or Wigan shirts on or stickers in their car next to the City one. A few years ago they announced that the club with the largest number of fans in the England travel club was West Ham. Guess which club was second?
We are definitely seeing support for eggchasing shrink in Hull. Despite media attempts to flog a dead horse and Adam Pearson's best efforts the interest is no longer there, people are sick of the years of underachievement and Wembley failures. It will continue as a minority sport with decent grassroots locally but it had its day a long time ago.
My opinion on this - and therefore FACT - is that anyone who seriously believes there are more rugby fans in Hull than football is a twerp. There is not a single factor you could consider that would show rugby is more popular.
