The amount of Sky games really could make things difficult for Leeds.



I could totally understand anyone, particularly a family who have Sky deciding not to bother. When you look at the costs to go to the game, someone could stay at home, have a takeaway and a few drinks/snacks etc for half the price and still see the game.



Obviously it's not as good as the live event, and you have to put up with Eddie, Stevo and Clarkey, but when times are tough, it would almost seem like the sensible thing to do.

The fixtures have been announced 4/5 weeks earlier than usual. The reason(s) why are anyone's guess.



Perhaps it's an extended time slot to re-educate the terminally gormless SL demographic and put an end to their trauma of uncertainty by explaining and marketing the new 'every minute counts' format to them in the hope of flogging more season tickets.

I was wondering if it is to 'catch them while RL is still in their mind' following the GF. I guess because the sport isn't turning people away on matchdays due to being full, they are maybe hoping that seeing the fixtures now keeps next season 'current' in people's minds and thus renewing their tickets now, rather than it slipping off the radar until early next year.



As pointed out though, announcing all the games through the season that will be on Sky is counterproductive. In the football at least they only announce their schedules up until Oct / Nov before the season starts. I suspect in part to stop fans seeing that actually they can watch maybe half of all their games on TV.



At the moment I think (for all my grumbling on here for having to pay full price next year) I will end up getting a ticket. Though similarly, for half the games I could merely walk 100 metres down the road, to my local and have a couple of ales and save myself about £15 on what I will have paid to watch it live - and not had to cycle 3.5 miles through town and up the hill going and then weaving through cars and then drunk morons in the town centre going home!



Hmm.



Do they do the '5 game pack' still that they offered this year? Can't find it anywhere on the website. Might be the cheapest / best solution because currently only 6 home games aren't on Sky so you could be crafty and use that option to then go to 5 of the 6 games and then either not go to the sixth or pay the one-off advance price of £20 for the SS - assuming you are a SS'er like me.



I know when I had my football season ticket, there was less of a choice I had to make about whether to renew - you were given a deadline by which to do so and if you didn't, because the stadium was sold out every week and there were people wanting season tickets - you knew you would either be out completely or have to move somewhere else if you left it too late.



RL's problem is that that isn't the case for its season ticket holders - you know you can procrastinate, pick and choose or abstain and still get in no worries. So in a sense if the 'product' (ie. the team) offers you no incentive, other than another year of the majority of its starters being a bit worse than the year before, due to their age - there is little reason to blindly pay up without any questions.

Pitch management, I would guess. Keep it down to one game a week until Carnegie's season is finished.



IIRC Wigan do something very similar with a block of games away from home to allow the pitch to recover after the football season.

Here is a break down of how many tv games and who is on. Looks like all you complainers should go watch Wakefield or Salford.



Sky 47

Lee 12

Wig 11

Cas 9

Cat 12

Hud 6

Hfc 6

Hkr 5

Sal 3

Sth 13

Wak 4

War 8

Wid 5



Please don't buy a season ticket. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Regards, the fans.

Interesting way to run a business - "go away and don't bother coming back".



Still, it'll create a bit more room in the South Stand for the band that it desperately needs to create an atmosphere these days.

I'm not running the business. Unless you think I'm GH.

I looked at that but it wasn't that great a deal - it was very badly marketed.



It was sold as a 'flexi-ticket', aimed at those who missed too many games to make a season ticket worthwhile. I looked at it, as I'm in that category myself.



The problem was that you had to pick your six games before the season started, which isn't very "flexible" by anyone's definition other than those in the Headingley marketing office. One of the reasons I miss games is because I can get a phone call / email asking me to be somewhere with just hours notice, so picking my games in advance isn't going to work.



The other problem was that you could only have two of your six games against "category A" opposition (Wigan, St Helens, Warrington, etc). The other four had to be against Super League Whipping Boy Rabble. I understand why they did that - allowing you to pick the six biggest teams would cannibalise the core season ticket market, but it just didn't make the package appealing at all.

Did they do a flexi ticket to watch the cloud formations sat on the other side of the North stand?

Ah, ok. So if they did it this year, you could use it to go to the 6 non-televised games against the rabble and then see all the home games! I think it is (realistically) more marketed at the 'casual, yet obsessively organised' Rhinos fan. Clearly it died a death as such a thing does not exist.



I remember I looked at getting one to entice friends along - ie. different people joining me at different games, but again although they were certainly 'casual' fans who would maybe go if I twisted their arm, it would be the sort of thing done last-minute rather than planned weeks in advance.



Unless people start splitting a season ticket between them - going to 7 games each and paying half..?

Yes, but it only includes one Category A+ ticket for when lenticular formations make a rare appearance.

An excellent summary.