ATTENDANCE FIGURES:LEINSTER OFFICIALS admit that their official "attendances" at home matches in both the RDS and the Aviva Stadium include their 13,500 season ticket holders, whether they turn up or not.
The ERC yesterday made much of the supposed attendance for Saturday’s game against Bath, though to the naked eye the claims that over 46,000 fans were in attendance looked highly spurious.
In accordance with the official figure, the ERC maintained that “46,365 fans went through the Aviva Stadium turnstiles to see them beat Bath Rugby 52-27 in a 10-try feast in Round 4.”
This, the tournament organisers, added, took Saturday’s “crowd at the Aviva” into “a clear second place overall in the 17th season of Europe’s elite club rugby tournament” behind the 76,569 who were at Stade de France for the Stade Français Paris clash with Harlequins three seasons ago, thereby supposedly eclipsing the 45,892 at the SaracensLeinster game in Wembley last season, among others.
A Leinster official also maintained that Saturday’s figure was based on “tickets sold”, and pointed out that those on premium level can move inside to watch the game, while admitting that there were three chunks of the stadium where sales were slow.
However, given the capacity is 50,000, there were clearly considerably more than 4,000 or so empty seats in the stadium throughout the game, and the spokesperson admitted that, a la Rabo Direct Pro 12 games at the RDS, the “attendance” incorporates season ticket holders.
This currently numbers 13,500, each of whom was entitled to a seat/terrace ticket apiece comparable to their RDS season ticket at Saturday’s game, and were included in the overall figure whether they physically attendance the Bath game or not.
Season ticket holders who do not attend matches are encouraged to pass their tickets on to others, but obviously don’t always do so. Furthermore, it is also conceivable that the first few thousand which were bought from €10 in the so-called “hour of power” can be bought at bulk but may not all be availed of.
Maintaining this policy, Leinster announced yesterday that less than 1,000 tickets of the RDS’s 18,500 capacity are still available for Monday’s St Stephen’s day meeting with Ulster, but this too includes the province’s 13,500 season ticket holders, as well as those bought by travelling Ulster fans.
This is a growing trend, and Leinster are by no means unique, and similar “attendances” are swelled by non-attending season ticket holders at all Rabo Direct Pro 12 games, such as Munster’s game against Connacht at Thomond Park on Sunday.
Coach Tony McGahan has confirmed that the intention is to involve John Hayes, who made his Munster debut in August 1997, in a playing capacity for what has been earmarked as the Bull’s 212th and final game for Munster before retirement.
Asked if this would be Hayes’ swansong, McGahan said: “That’s certainly what we’re looking to do, to include John in the next home game at least.”
Indeed, the intention is for the Munster squad to train in Hayes’ home-town club, Bruff RFC, on Thursday morning as a prelude to their squad and/or team announcement for next Monday’s game.
