What’s missing from this is any mention of the on field performance of the team.morley pie eater wrote:What makes a game (in any sport) interesting?
I'd say number one is that you're interested! Sounds obvious, but if you live in Limerick, chances are you'd be interested in Gaelic football.
What creates your interest, and makes you go to a match? For many (EW apart!), it's being brought up with a sport: parents, school-mates, folk at work,talking about it during the week...the build-up which is manufactured for a boxing match, but natural in community sports like ours
Then what maintains it at the game? The play, sure, but also the crowd, the atmosphere. This is where football wins, and RL is in decline, especially at Wigan.
I'm convinced that the apparent downward spiral in attendances is a result of, rather than a cause of, the fans' attitude (a generalisation - not all fans, but enough.)
The result is lack of atmosphere, sitting in a half-dead (as opposed to half-empty) stadium next to someone who complains endlessly about players, coach, ref, rule-makers, and throw in the cost of pies or pints or whatever. I've been there and bought the t-shirt.
Does it make you desperate to come back? Personally I prefer away matches, which are more convenient for me anyway, and the complaints of, for example, Cas fans, I see more as of part of entertainment as it's loudest when we're winning!
Analysing what's wrong with the game as though it exists in isolation from the fans, and we don't play a part in raising and lowering the entertainment value, is missing maybe the most crucial part of the picture...imo.
We have put up with some down right boring RL not for a few matches but for literally years.
The fact the crowds have been the size they have given the rubbish served up is what’s surprising.
We don’t even have to be winning. The best atmosphere I have ever experienced at the DW was in 2006, the relegation fight.
A close second but when things were going well was the two years Madge was here. It was a joy to watch after Noble’s team had been as dour as any recent ones. The atmosphere was far better then and in 2006 than now.
How people are supposed to generate an atmosphere after every attack in the 20m zone fails and the team looks clueless I have no idea.
When there is something to cheer the crowd does. They are desperate for something to support so if a bit of individual play such as Marshal going the length of the field happens everyone is on their feet.
The trouble is that is few and far between. As to moaners they have always been there. Some bloke who used to sit near me never shut up about how bad Andy Farrell was. So what? There is probably some fan at Man City who thinks Kevin De Bruyne is rubbish.