Thursday Nights - by Mark

I've written about Thursday night games before - you can read that from 2016 here - but they're still around and still a hot-button topic for lots of fans.

Regular followers of SLP will know that I'm a fan of Thursday night games, personally. In summary of my atypical view, I like having the game to watch on TV that night and if my team play if frees up the whole weekend to do things with my non-sports-fan wife. I also don't think it's that hard to get to most of the games if you really want to and the attendances, whilst lower than Friday games, aren't "killing the sport".

This is not to say I don't understand that they don't work best for all fans. People who take their young children to the game, or have a long working commute, or live well outside the game's heartlands all have genuine struggle attending their side's Thursday games.

Indeed, when we polled rugby league fans this year, over 5% had the one change they would make to the sport related to Thursday night games, either getting rid or restricting the travel distances - read the results of our fan survey here.

In the follow-up polls that we're still running, two-thirds of voters so far would approve of restricting the distance sides have to travel to 50 miles (from away team's ground to home team's ground). No voter has Thursday as their best day to attend games. (no-one has a best day that isn't Friday, Saturday or Sunday.) Over a third of voters have it as their worst day to attend games - although, lets be honest people, it isn't actually worse for these voters than Tuesdays or Wednesdays, other than you actually get games on Thursdays. Add your weight to these numbers by voting here.

Anyway, that wasn't really what this post is about. This post is more about giving some facts on who has played most on Thursday nights, since they became a regular part of our Super League scheduling in Round 27 of the 2013 season.

The facts
The table below shows who has played the most Thursday nights games, each sides average Thursday home attendance and average overall home attendances, since Round 27 2013 to time of writing (during 2019 playoffs).

During the six-year run of regular Thursday night action, Castleford Tigers have had the most weeknight matches to contend with, 41 in total. This was brought on by a frankly ridiculous 2019 season of 11 Thursday games, 8 of which were away, including the final three games of their season. One of them was Maundy Thursday, so not quite the same with a bank holiday Friday the day after, but still!

Depending on the season and the structure, it's varied between 28 and 30 Thursday games per season from 2014 to 2019. Obviously, some of these were playoff games. Back in the 14-team days of 2014, sides should have averaged 4 games each on a Thursday. In 2019, it would have been 4.67 each if the 12-sides played the same amount of times. If games were spread out evenly, you would expect the 10 Super League ever-presents over the last six years to have each played roughly 30 Thursday games. You can see that hasn't fully happened. To redress the balance, Salford and Wakefield fans should be sent out on the road for a few more midweek trips over the next two years!

Castleford and Wigan have played roughly 2 of every 9 games on a Thursday night over the last six years. Castleford and St Helens fans have had to do the most travelling, whilst Wigan fans have had their home games most impacted. 

Castleford's 11 in 2019 is the most in one season for any side. Four times before, sides had 8 in a season. Although, only once has a team had more than 4 of their home games in a season on a Thursday night - Huddersfield had 5 in 2018. Not all of these were moved for TV..

10 of the 176 Thursday games weren't televised. These were either Maundy Thursday games or fixtures moved due to stadium access issues. Huddersfield have three of the non-televised games, with London having two and a number of others having one each. 

The thoughts

Outside of Wigan games, Thursday nights don't seem to be hitting crowd figures as hard as some make out. Although, there's clearly a perception that needs addressing if we're still to be used by our broadcasters to fill that otherwise vacant Thursday night team sport spot. 

The first thing needs to be a more even distribution of games. Catalans, understandably, don't host any Thursday night games - if fans find it hard to travel the 123 miles from Hull KR to St Helens (the longest road trip Super League will see in 2020), then getting on a flight makes it even harder. Plus, their home broadcast deal is, and should be, different. If Toronto come up, same applies there. But the rest need to be handed out more evenly. For example, no side needs to play more than three home games or more than three away games on Thursdays - and we make the overseas sides play at least three away to help shape that balance. 

The average UK travel distance in 2020 using the reasonable proxy of ground-to-ground travel will be about 56 miles, or 70 minutes in good conditions. Now, we know that 5:30pm to 7:30pm isn't always good conditions to travel across the north. 

So, as well as a more even spread of games for each side, no side's supporters should be expected to negotiate the travel conditions of both Manchester and Leeds areas on the same trip. That, for me, means no-one east of Leeds or west of Salford travel past Huddersfield on a Thursday night. I'd maybe let Leeds play Salford, as that trip is under 50 miles, so even with traffic at both ends it's not unreasonable to get between the two after work for a 7:45pm kick-off.

We know from the Super League leadership that Thursday night games are here to stay at least for the medium term. Sky Sports, our broadcast partner and main source of finance, like the slot. I've always said us fans should make the most of that TV exposure. Hopefully with these two tweaks we'll see a way to make more people like Thursday night games as much as I do!

Thanks as always for reading. Please share and comment with your own, constructive, thoughts. 

Mark

SLP

Thinking about the TV Deal - by Mark

Most serious Rugby League fans in the UK know that the Super League TV deal is up at the end of the 2021 season.

Whilst the last deal with Sky, negotiated by The RFL, has certainly brought in large sums of money for the Super League clubs, the finer details weren't really all in the best interests of the clubs, the game and the fans. The ability to change a fixture at less than a weeks notice is probably the stand out in that regard.

One of the main determining factors in Super League splitting from The RFL at the end of 2017 was self-determination over the next TV deal - the major source of income for most clubs. So, they have to get it right!

My understanding is the Super League board are looking to appoint an external party to help them weight up all the options and permutations. I think that nothing is off the table - from how many games are televised, to who televises them and beyond.

I don't know how strong the Super League's hand is going to be in these negotiations, but there are a few things I think they should be looking for:

• A minimum of two weeks notice for any game moved for TV coverage - this is a no brainer, we have to try and get a bit more notice for fans to plan arrangements and for clubs to maximise on things like hospitality sales and any special offers or occasions.
• All week(school)night TV games fixed before the season kicks off - and I don't say all Thursday night games, because the broadcaster may want to try Monday's again. But getting the scheduling that is most moaned about sorted early doors just makes things easier all round.
• More televised games - ok, this is obvious too, but worth trying for. Ideally, we'd get all games televised like in the NRL - one Thursday, one Friday, two Saturday, two Sunday (but then I know people will moan about not having a regular home game day...you can't win in Rugby League eh!?)
• Sunday tea-time games throughout February - little bit less obvious, but the sport I think translates best to ours might be American Football. If we're still with Sky, their Sunday evening NFL audience needs tapping into as the NFL season ends and the Super League season starts. Filling the same TV scheduling slot is a perfect way to work on that audience. Super League should be asking Sky for this as part of any new deal. Hopefully, they would be an additional TV game each instead of just one of the normal two.
• More Saturday tea-time games in May and June - on a similar line to the above suggestion, this is where we can pick up the usual Saturday early-evening football slot to try and tap into the audience used to watching team sports at that particular time slot. Obviously, if that was to stay a Catalans slot and we still get those games in the UK (or maybe even Catalans & Toulouse) then this slot will be naturally filled, so it's about picking up the slot in open weeks. Again, Super League should be putting this to Sky. Surely it's a potential win for both parties too. Obviously, if the new deal was with another provider then we look at their existing slots and find ones we can best fill when other sports are in off-season.
• Guarantees of a more even split in coverage - this only really applies if we stick with the 2.5 TV games a week schedule - but how can it be right that one team is on TV 6 times (Salford) in the regular season and another 18 times (Castleford)? Is this even what we really want as armchair viewers? When you recognise that one of those games was at Magic Weekend and one was Catalans away, it made 5th place Castleford (in this particular season) the Sky pick four times more often than 3rd place Salford. TV audiences have been deprived of this great Salford side when such uneven coverage can happen.
• No Thursday games in the first week of the playoffs - maybe no Thursday playoffs at all, but that might be pushing it, and you have to make some concessions in negotiations - it's no good for Sky or Super League for a side to get half their average crowd for a playoff game, which happened to Warrington this year. Whatever the reasons, some action needs to be seen to be taken to address this. (more on Thursday Night games coming soon, keep your eye on the blog!)
• Some free-to-air games - a tough one for sure - we need to get more games in front of more eyes, and we need to get the support of the broadcaster in doing this. BT have done it with Rugby Union. Sky did it with the Cricket World Cup Final. A few games a year need to be shared with free-to-air TV. Whether it's the headline game a Magic Weekend, or an opening weekend fixture, a playoff semi-final or whatever, we need to get agreement to put some stuff out there free-to-air to spread the fan base and generate more interest.

Thanks for reading and please comment with your thoughts on what Super League need to go to the negotiating table looking for from the new deal.

Mark
SLP

Super League Thursdays

I've wanted to write something about Thursday TV games for a while, but not known what to say. Or, more precisely, how to say what I want to say.

Thursday TV games are great. I love them. If my team are playing it means I get to go see them and then have the full weekend to spend with the wife, keeping her happy. It gives me some quality sport entertainment to watch during the week too - I'm not one for darts and I find it harder and harder to enjoy a football match, so having mid-week Rugby League for me is brilliant. It's something to look forward to watching.

That's the easy bit to say.

The harder bit to say is all you out there that don't like them, that moan about them, just like to use the Thursday thing as an excuse to stay at home and watch the game on the TV and not be there to support your team. There I said it. It feels good to get that off my chest.

I'm not saying there aren't genuine reasons for some people not going to games on Thursdays, just as people have genuine reasons that they can't attend games on any day of the week. Awkward work shifts, trouble getting babysitters, need to attend other functions and events, going on holidays, sickness, affordability. There are loads of acceptable reasons.

Apparently though, only Thursdays are bad. Ruining the game, No good for supporters. No good for families. I can't agree, and I don't really believe most of you lot out there really think that way too.

Fridays tend to have more 'headline' fixtures in the TV spot, but the available Thursday TV viewing figures from 2015 stack up pretty well against them. An overall average of a touch over 110,000 for the regular season Thursday fixtures and a best of 156,000 according to Rugby League on TV data. That best figure being the 5th best overall regular season viewing number. We also know from our experience that plenty of you guys tune in to the Thursday games, based on the massive amount of your reviews we get on these each week.

It also can't be financial, because ticket prices are no higher for Thursday games. We now have free away travel for all season ticket holders too, although that is a fairly new initiative. Basically, there's no reason a Thursday game is less affordable than a Friday, Saturday or Sunday game.

So, it must be getting to the games that's the problem. Well, all the Thursday TV games are scheduled for the whole regular season from the off, so that gives plenty of time to plan for them. They kick off at the same time as Friday games, so in theory people have the same amount of time to finish work and get to games - most people that work a Monday-Friday 9-5 work week will have the same working hours on a Friday as a Thursday I assure you. I can't imagine traffic is much easier on a Thursday than a Friday either - although I have no empirical support for that statement.

I know one thing for sure, it's not because of the travel distance. Using an unwieldy but not entirely unreasonable assumption (that all fans travel from the home stadium to the away one!), the average away travel distance for UK fans in Super League is 55.8 miles, with an average journey time of 68 minutes - or about half an SLP episode! The average away travel distances on Thursday games since they became a firm feature for 2014 is 42.3 miles and less than an hour travel time - it falls to 36.7 miles if you take out the two 2014 fixtures that included London Broncos. I also looked at the correlation between travel distance and change in crowd size from the same fixture the previous year - there is none. Well, there's a weak negative relationship between the two with an indication that the two variables - distance between teams and change in crowd - have almost no link or causality (a correlation coefficient of -0.110 and an r-squared value of 1% if you're interested).

I think the travel distances and times also shut down some of the criticism that it's no good for fans who work during the week. Yeah, it's no good for people who work Thursday nights! But there will be shift workers who'll miss games whenever they are scheduled for - that's the nature of shift work, and not all Rugby League fans can get to all games if they work shifts. Simple. (although I've already pointed out the whole Thursday schedule is laid out before the season, but I digress.) Many fans that stay in and watch the games on TV will enjoy the coverage until it's 10:30 end to catch Jon Wells at the touch screen with one of the stars on show. The game ends at say 9:50. Give it 10 minutes to get to the car and get going. Then your average 50 minute travel time for an away fan. Most fans will still be home by 11:00 - and with a big majority of any crowd being home fans, you'd argue they're mostly back much earlier than that, probably the same time the TV viewers are heading off to bed.

Yes, there are some people who legitimately travel long distances to see their team play, making a weekday game very difficult for them to travel to and from on a regular basis. They are the minority though. Probably not even 1%.

I think that really just leaves the 'it's no good for families' argument then. Ok. Soon I'll give you some numbers and graphs - although as always with statistics, they can be used to support different arguments and picked apart as widely as you want to. Before that though, what do we mean by families? I'd wager we mean parents with children aged between 5 and 12. Younger than that and you probably won't take them to loads of games anyway, and if even if you did, there's probably not much to stop them sleeping through the following day. Older than that and the odd later week night isn't going to do them any harm, they're probably up in their bedrooms snap chatting until late in any case.

Thursdays get the second best average crowds of any day in the history of Super League, dating back to 1996. Only Fridays have a better average all-time crowd number.

These figures are open to percentage skew because of the relative small number of Thursday games until 2013, before which they tended to just be big Easter derbies. (Also, I'm aware Fridays tend to be the normal home game of the best attended sides - Leeds, Wigan, Hull FC, St Helens - and Sundays are the traditional home day of lesser attended sides.)

You'll see from the changes through time that as Thursday games became more commonplace, their absolute and relative position in the averages has fallen. Despite overall average crowds trending upwards and being in a healthy relative position up to Round 11 2016, Thursday crowds are not doing the same. Mondays enjoy a relative bump though thanks to Thursdays no longer being an Easter preserve.

Still, they're commonly better attended than other days. You know, those days when you can get 'families' to and from the game between bedtimes, with no worry of school the next day - those days we call Saturdays. And, for that matter, in many cases Sundays too, where there may still be tomorrow's school to worry about, but not bedtimes.

Obviously, the 'family' factor is one that deserves more investigation - numbers of young fans that each club has for example - but I'm just not seeing it as the problem that it gets referred to as. The same goes for Thursdays as a whole. Like I said, I think people like the excuse - and to have something to moan about. We need to get used to it though - Thursdays aren't going away. We need to realise that the money is in the TV audience rather than on the terraces, even though we'd love them both to be bigger.

I've found that, on average, a Thursday fixture attracts a crowd 888 people less than that same fixture the year before - although these are imperfect comparisons as weather, significance of the match and also some of them being on Thursdays the year before aren't factors accounted for. 15 games saw an increase and 42 had a drop in crowds since the start of the 2014 season compared to the same fixture in the previous regular season.

We can play some very simplistic and crude number games from this. Lets assume a per ticket price of £20, which is generous given lots of children will get in free and many other attendees would be concessions of some sort. I'm also not considering if an extra 800+ on a crowd means more costs to the home side. You get an average loss on ticketing of £17,760. Based on what Leigh owner Derek Beaumont said during the 2015 Super 8s, Super League clubs can get £20,000 per TV game they host. That's outside of the per-team yearly riches that are handed out from the long-term TV deal the league is locked in to.

However you dress it up, Sky like Thursdays and the club owners and money men must like them too. Lots of fans aren't put off by them - far more than are, they're just less vocal about it. We have to get used to them. We should embrace them, they aren't going away any time soon. I say lets make Thursday nights great for the game. Plan ahead, make as many games as you can and watch all the rest. Treat the couple of home games you might get as a bonus, freeing up the rest of your weekend. Do the maths on the away games to figure out if you can make them, when you do you'll probably realise they aren't the inconvenience you've decided they are. If I can do it as a Wigan fan, who already lives almost the average Thursday travel distance from our home ground, then I'm sure most of you can too. (note: Wigan have had more Thursday games than any other side in the whole Super League era and the recent Thursday TV era.)
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Before I leave this, a couple more points on the crowd by day numbers. Why aren't Castleford, Huddersfield, Hull KR, Salford, Wakefield, Warrington and Widnes trying more Friday night games? Why aren't Saints trying a few more Sunday games? And why oh why is anyone other than Catalan playing on a Saturday? I write this on the same weekend Salford set a new low figure for 2016 on Saturday 30 April of 3,048.

Anyway, rant over. I feel cleansed. Hopefully getting this off my chest will improve my focus on my Dream Team and SuperBru performance.

Mark
SLP