Report: URC finalists Leinster and Bulls suffer from fan fatigue

An extensive report by The Rugby Paper on the regular-season attendances in Europe’s three main leagues shows Bordeaux-Begles way out in front as the best-supported team.

The back-to-back Investec Champions Cup winners may have fallen short of the Top 14 play-offs this year, but their average attendance is now touching 35,000 (34, 578), which represents a five per cent increase on the year before.

Bordeaux were one of six clubs out of the 40 that make up the Top 14, United Rugby Championship and the Gallagher PREM to achieve a 20,000+ average crowd.

Next-best were The Stormers (26,153), followed by Toulouse (21,836), Bristol (21,347), Leinster (20,789) and, helped by their Big Game outing at The Allianz Stadium, Harlequins (20, 423).

While Leinster are still one of the best-supported clubs around, their numbers are dwindling. Leinster suffered the bigggest loss in terms of people through the gate, with 5,737 going missing per match.

Harlequins’ poor season resulted in a 3,378 drop-off, ranking them an unwanted second in that respect, while the Sharks (2,050) and the Bulls (2,004) also had noticeably worse gates 12 months on, according to the weekly newspaper.

With the RDS out of bounds, the Aviva Stadium has felt more cavernous than ever, particularly in the knockout stages of the Champions when Leinster are afforded ‘home advantage’ in everything but name.

Their Round of 16 tie against Edinburgh drew in 21,491 punters, even fewer turned up for the Bristol quarter-final (18,839) and semi-final against Toulon attracted a 38,555 gate.

The accumulative attendance adds up to 78,955 – more than 40,000 fewer than the year before, which prompted Peter Jackson, who penned the report, to beg the question, ‘Have Leinster fans lost interest?”

While the URC finalists contemplate how they can revive their fortunes on the fan front, they could do worse than look to The Stormers, who reported the biggest season-on-season increase (3,269).

Montpellier were second (3,002), while Newcastle’s takeover by Red Bull has resulted in an almost instant uplift, with the most northerly PREM club improving their average match attendance in the league by 2,424 fans, even though they’ve lost far more matches than they’ve won.