United v Rhinos

jdbythesea · Post by **jdbythesea** » Sat 18 Feb, 2012 9:27 pm

Having watched Leeds comprehensively outplay Manly in last night's match I turned my attention to United's game against Doncaster today.I hope that Neil Warnock is given the opportunity to develop and build a Championship challenging team. On the evidence of today's performance he's going to need all the help he can get. Brian McDermott at Headingley, on the other hand, can feel his job has never been safer.However, what caught my eye was the official attendances at both games. They were within about a hundred of one another. At Headingley last night there were 21,062 whilst at Elland Road today there were 21,181. Without me poring over records and statistical data I wonder if anyone in the SL community can come up with anything similar relating to the two clubs.JD

iansmithofotley · Post by **iansmithofotley** » Sat 18 Feb, 2012 9:48 pm

Hi jdbythe sea,I wonder if the attendance for the Leeds Rhinos game would have been much bigger, if the match had been played at Elland Road or elsewhere. I think that the figure that you quoted for Headingley is slightly over the maximum, which is 21,000 according to Wikipedia. I realise that Leeds United were playing at home today and I wondered if that is why the rugby match was played at Headingley, for fear of the Elland Road pitch being carved up.As an aside, I was amazed at the very poor playing surface at Headingley, years ago it was one of the best playing surfaces in the country and one of the first, in any sport, to have undersoil heating (which I understand is no longer there as it was damaged when the pitch was once re-turfed).Ian

Chiron · Post by **Chiron** » Sat 18 Feb, 2012 10:47 pm

iansmithofotley wrote: Hi jdbythe sea,I wonder if the attendance for the Leeds Rhinos game would have been much bigger, if the match had been played at Elland Road or elsewhere. I think that the figure that you quoted for Headingley is slightly over the maximum, which is 21,000 according to Wikipedia. I realise that Leeds United were playing at home today and I wondered if that is why the rugby match was played at Headingley, for fear of the Elland Road pitch being carved up.As an aside, I was amazed at the very poor playing surface at Headingley, years ago it was one of the best playing surfaces in the country and one of the first, in any sport, to have undersoil heating (which I understand is no longer there as it was damaged when the pitch was once re-turfed).Ian I think it is the RU boys that have caused the pitch problems. I worked for Huddersfield Giants and when we played the Rhinos the season after RU was first played on Headingley the pitch was in a terrible state. There was even a moat around it! Having said that the pitch does recover very quickly and by the end of May I am sure it will be in excellent condition. Regarding the undersoil heating I heard that the problems with it were caused by cars being parked on the pitch for cricket test matches. The pitch became compacted and so the undersoil heating was removed as using it would have caused more damage.

grumpytramp · Post by **grumpytramp** » Sun 11 Mar, 2012 9:15 pm

jdbythesea wrote: Without me poring over records and statistical data I wonder if anyone in the SL community can come up with anything similar relating to the two clubs.JD One lunchtime at work this week I was reading the biographies of the Rhinos squad and there was one thing that stood out about the squad was the sheer number of Leeds born players in the side.In the seventeen man squad for the Manley game, NINE of the players were Leeds born:Ben Jones BishopRyan HallDanny McGuireJamie PeacockJamie Jones BuchananCarl AblettPaul McShaneRyan BaileyChris ClarksonZak Hardaker and Rob Burrow almost qualify being from Pontefract. By contrast I believe (and I stand to be corrected) that there is only one Leeds United player actually from the city, Aidan WhiteObviously the nature of Rugby League is that the majority of players are drawn from a tight geographical pot (Yorkshire, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria plus of course France, Australia, the Pacific Island, PNG & New Zealand) but it must tie a city closer to it's sporting club when so many of its own sons are on the pitch?

majorhoundii · Post by **majorhoundii** » Sun 11 Mar, 2012 9:42 pm

grumpytramp wrote: Zak Hardaker and Rob Burrow almost qualify being from Pontefract. I wouldn't say that within earshot of many Fev fans (me) (Burrow played his junior rugby with Fev Lions)I do think Leeds's development of local talent is to be praised though and welcome change to taking the line of least resistance and bringing in a superannuated Aussie like many other SL sides seem to.This policy has paid dividends on the pitch and on the terraces, in the recent past they have always played second fiddle to United, but after United's recent sojourn in the lower depths the Rhinos have put on spectators and hopefully will keep them.

somme1916 · Post by **somme1916** » Sun 11 Mar, 2012 11:24 pm

I remember standing at Fev years ago watching Leeds take on fev when they were in the old first divn.Sorry to see them languishing a bit nowadays.It's a lovely ground for league-you're so close to the action you catch everything that's going on both inside and outside the ground.One such v.amusing incident was when a husband/wife argument developed in the row of nearby terrace houses one sunday afternoon.....it went on for a few minutes with the usual expletives,before the wife walked calmly outside with a dinner plate and scraped all the sunday dinner into an old metal dustbin.....then slamming the lid back on.The part of the crowd who could see all this forgot the rugby and were in hysterics for ages before cheering the wife back into the house. Happy days.........

majorhoundii · Post by **majorhoundii** » Mon 12 Mar, 2012 12:39 am

somme1916 wrote: I remember standing at Fev years ago watching Leeds take on fev when they were in the old first divn.Sorry to see them languishing a bit nowadays.It's a lovely ground for league-you're so close to the action you catch everything that's going on both inside and outside the ground.One such v.amusing incident was when a husband/wife argument developed in the row of nearby terrace houses one sunday afternoon.....it went on for a few minutes with the usual expletives,before the wife walked calmly outside with a dinner plate and scraped all the sunday dinner into an old metal dustbin.....then slamming the lid back on.The part of the crowd who could see all this forgot the rugby and were in hysterics for ages before cheering the wife back into the house. Happy days......... Yes you can even tallk to the players. The great Clive Sullivan would often have a chat waiting for kick off at the top end of P O Road

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Mon 12 Mar, 2012 8:26 pm

One thing to bear in mind when comparing attendances is that Leeds RL (I refuse to call them Rhinos...) are very much at the top of their game, current champions of the world(!) and have a pricing structure that ensures that they near enough fill Headingley Stadium whenever they are playing.I'm aware that Gary Hetherington isn't everyones cup of tea, but unlike Ken Bates he hasn't gone out of his way to alienate large swathes of the clubs fanbase.Leeds United are showing some promise at the moment, but are still very much stuck in the second tier of professional football. They also have a pricing structure that actively prohibits many fans from attending games, with a chairman who for reasons best known to himself keeps attendances artificially low by a combination of Premiership prices (higher than several Premiership clubs in fact) and keeping a large section of the ground closed.With a different pricing structure Elland Road would be full every week. I can't answer why the club choose to play to much smaller crowds, especially when everyone through the turnstile is likely to want to spend more on things like pies, pints and programmes.As a result, Leeds United are risking losing the next generation of fans who can't afford to go to games and who seldom see the club on the telly.

somme1916 · Post by **somme1916** » Mon 12 Mar, 2012 9:49 pm

raveydavey wrote: Leeds United are showing some promise at the moment, but are still very much stuck in the second tier of professional football. They also have a pricing structure that actively prohibits many fans from attending games, with a chairman who for reasons best known to himself keeps attendances artificially low by a combination of Premiership prices (higher than several Premiership clubs in fact) and keeping a large section of the ground closed.With a different pricing structure Elland Road would be full every week. I can't answer why the club choose to play to much smaller crowds, especially when everyone through the turnstile is likely to want to spend more on things like pies, pints and programmes.As a result, Leeds United are risking losing the next generation of fans who can't afford to go to games and who seldom see the club on the telly. Sadly......how very true.The legacy of the magic teams of the 60/70's is fast disappearing and a club like Leeds should have a bigger fan base to help maintain it's proud traditions.As they say round here "There's nowt so queer as folk"......

uncle mick · Post by **uncle mick** » Mon 12 Mar, 2012 11:56 pm

Sadly......how very true.The legacy of the magic teams of the 60/70's is fast disappearing and a club like Leeds should have a bigger fan base to help maintain it's proud traditions.As they say round here "There's nowt so queer as folk"......Quote Somme Leeds United have one of the biggest fan bases in the country. People do not attend for various reasons