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Le rugby bat des records de fréquentation dans les stades en France
Deux communiqués sont tombés à quelques heures d’intervalle ce mardi 23 avril. L’un émanant de la Fédération Française de Rugby qui annonçait que le Crunch qui apportera un point final au Tournoi des Six Nations 2024 va battre des records d’affluence au stade Chaban-Delmas de Bordeaux samedi 27 avril.
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« Le record d’affluence pour un match de rugby féminin en France sera battu avec déjà plus de 22 000 billets vendus », affirme la fédé, rappelant le précédent record qui avait été établi à Grenoble l’année précédente à l’occasion du match France-Pays de Galles du Tournoi des Six Nations 2023 avec 18 604 spectateurs.
Le Stade des Alpes de Grenoble avait initialement battu un premier record, mondial cette fois, pour un test féminin à l’époque : le 10 mars 2018, la France battait l’Angleterre devant une affluence record de 17 740 spectateurs.
C’est encore loin du record absolu enregistré l’année dernière pour le Crunch Angleterre-France à Twickenham : 58 498 personnes avaient assisté à la victoire des Red Roses 38-33. Loin aussi de la rencontre Angleterre – Irlande de la semaine passée avec 48 778 spectateurs au même endroit. Il y a encore de la marge avant que la France enregistre de telles affluences pour un test féminin.
Record absolu en Top 14
Quelques heures plus tard, la Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) publiait à son tour un autre communiqué, celui-ci relatif à la fréquentation en Top 14 et Pro D2 alors que respectivement 21 et 27 journées de championnat sont passées.
« Depuis le début de la saison 2023/2024, ce sont 2 204 597spectateurs qui se sont rendus dans les 14 stades de Top 14, en hausse de 3,5% par rapport à la saison passée, lors de laquelle le Top 14 avait établi son record historique. Jamais le Top 14 n’avait connu un tel succès depuis l’instauration du format actuel », est-il indiqué.
Le club qui attire le plus de supporters est l’Union Bordeaux-Bègles avec en moyenne plus de 27 000 spectateurs par match (27 656) suivie par le Stade Toulousain (19 823) et le RC Toulon (17 276).
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Par ailleurs, le Stade Rochelais affiche toujours un taux de remplissage de 100% (16 739 spectateurs).?
« Le Stade Français Paris (+16% à 13 006 spectateurs) et la Section Paloise (+12% à 12 605 spectateurs) affichent quant à eux des progressions d’affluences à deux chiffres cette saison », complète la LNR dans son analyse.
Même la Pro D2 cartonne
Même en Pro D2 l’affluence est énorme cette saison avec pour l’instant 1 148 156 spectateurs à six journées de la fin, soit une augmentation de 15% par rapport à la saison précédente.
Dans le détail, le RC Vannes est en tête des affluences avec plus de 10 000 spectateurs par rencontre (10 518) tandis que le CA Brive attire plus de 8 000 personnes (8 156) et le FC Grenoble Rugby et Provence Rugby plus de 7 000 (respectivement 7 194 et 7 091).
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« L’AS Béziers Hérault affiche quant à elle une progression de 29% par rapport à la saison dernière (5 827 spectateurs) », ajoute le communiqué.
Pour René Bouscatel, Président de la Ligue Nationale de Rugby, « cette ferveur dans les stades est le résultat du travail constant des clubs et de la LNR pour attirer toujours plus de monde au stade et leur faire profiter d’un spectacle unique. La fin de saison et les formats à suspense des championnats devraient consolider ces excellentes tendances. »
Par ricochet de France 2023
Le succès de la Coupe du Monde de Rugby 2023 en France n’est pas non plus étranger à ce succès par ricochet. Avec 2,4 millions de spectateurs (contre 1,7 million au Japon en 2019) – ainsi que 1,6 million de personnes dans les fan-zones (contre 1,1 million au Japon quatre ans plus tôt) – France 2023 a été le tournoi mondial le plus suivi de tous les temps.
A cela s’ajoute plus de 230 millions de téléspectateurs cumulés en France, avec un pic à 18,4 millions pour le quart de finale France – Afrique du Sud.
Dans le monde entier, la Coupe du Monde de Rugby 2023 a enregistré un record de 1,33 milliard d’heures de visionnage (« viewing hours ») à travers toutes les plateformes, établissant ainsi son statut de tournoi de rugby le plus regardé de tous les temps
France 2023 a attiré une audience de 30 % supérieure à l’édition de l’Angleterre en 2015 et de 19 % par rapport à celle du Japon en 2019, malgré la tendance mondiale de baisse des audiences télévisuelle sur la même période.
Comments on RugbyPass
Who got the benefits out of Schmidt, Lowe, Aki, and Gibson Park?
11 Go to commentsWhat’s new its a common occurrence, just the journos out there expecting a negative spin. The outcome will be beneficial to jordie and Leinster. The home grown lads hav got some experience to step up to and be more competitive, that or spend the 6 months keeping the bench warm.
11 Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
1 Go to commentsThose are pretty good draws for the two top Aussie teams. I certainly wouldn't want my Chiefs to have a quarter final in Brisbane. None of the top teams will want the Crusaders.
1 Go to commentsHonestly, I am a bit lost here …. Ireland - RSA was (at least in my opinion) perhaps (from a purely technical / rugby-skills-show point of view) the pinnacle of the RWC2023 - almost flawless playing (putting aside the kicking of RSA which was the difference between the two teams), rugby at it’s very best …. if I were a Bok and after the game some Irish lads came around saying “see you in 5 weeks same place”, I definitely wouldn’t have thought of it as being in any way “arrogant”, rather a sort of jolly “if we both continue to play like this, no one could stop us” - besides, few of us fans would have, at that time, been surprised to see the same teams playing on 23 september and 28 october 2023 ….. well, we all know Ireland chose to hit a slump to keep the QF curse alive …..
135 Go to commentsThere’s value gleaned from having an All Black star running and training with your team. How many games he starts (or even where he plays in the backline) will be decided on a week by week basis based on the needs for that week. But the overall learning and growth for all concerned, I’d think, is massively beneficial. Especially for Irish players.
11 Go to commentsSon, whith just " raw athlete “ , you are able to beat “ better rugby players “ by 74 points…. May be England should recruit in athletics….
1 Go to commentsPffft. It’s not a one-way street bud and Irish teams don’t seem to have had an issue taking kiwi players previously.
11 Go to commentsParticularly great to have captain Scott Barrett back after going off last week for the Crusaders. Codie Taylor a real leader and mighty Tamaiti Williams join Fletcher Newell in the front row. Those 2 will make a big difference. Great bench with the likes of Tom Christie, Jamie Hannah etc who are playing well. Should be a great derby.
1 Go to commentsDoes a blitz defence not have a weekness against a well-placed grubber kick, perhaps angled cleverly. All the defence is up and the full-back can only cover so much ground. Thoughts?
28 Go to commentsWhile Iose is destructive in the Canes set-up, he is not big for an international 8 and could struggle against the top teams. With his speed, he could be developed into a seven but, as Ben points out, he doesn’t show a scavenging game with the Canes or make dominating tackles. Sotutu has shown a step up this year and attitude plus motivation seems to be the big areas of growth. Deserves another AB shot imo.
3 Go to commentsNaholo is my only question mark for this side. He wasn’t the only one who had a forgettable game against the Brumbies but he was passive, defensively poor and generally lacked energy. Needs to get a whole lot busier for me. I would have liked to see Sullivan on that wing with Higgins on the bench (if staying with a 6-2 as BeegMike points out on here!)
3 Go to commentsWell, I am sure that Eben said exactly what he meant to say, exactly how he meant to say it. Does he strike you as a man that doesn't know arrogance when he sees it. He should know it because he has shaken the arrogance out of many foes before.
135 Go to commentsPls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
135 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
5 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
135 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
11 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
11 Go to comments