By Will Warner
January 7 2004

I’m going to start this article with a question, what makes a good away experience? There are many factors. Some are beyond the control of either side, so I won’t consider the weather, the ref or other external factors. The result also appears to be in the lap of the Gods sometimes as well! That still leaves masses to ponder over: the location, the timing of the fixture, your seat, the view, the company, the facilities, parking, bar service, food and a whole lot else. Then there are a whole lot of issues to consider if you have children with you. Wheelchair access is going to be important for a significant minority. Then there are the vegetarians and vegans. The list is endless!

The point is, what makes a great away match experience for one supporter will be a nightmare for another. Clubs need to market themselves to cater for a wide range of demographic groups. Some shout louder than others and some, in an imperfect world, consider themselves more important than others. Everything from the quick to leave to the “I’ll go when you’re locking the doors!”. Or from a group of trendyish twenty somethings to the parents with two under sixes who have an hour’s drive to get home. Thus any club’s marketing strategy takes on almost as much importance as the on field goings on.

The persevering away supporter often has to put up with very unfriendly and anti-social fixture scheduling. The only two clubs who probably have the least to complain about are Saints and Tigers. Centrally located and with good access to motorways, apart from each other they have few trips that are that close. However, few are that far, so it’s probably easier for coach organization and even for Friday night games.

That means for the other ten clubs they have one heck of a trip to get to some fixtures. It’s not just Friday nights it’s Sunday afternoons as well. Many supporters don’t mind getting back really late on a Saturday night but they won’t be able to manage that on a regular basis on a Sunday. Public transport is hardly brilliant at the best of times, on a Sunday, well, praying is often useful!

So when should games be played? At the moment under ZP rules, the home club can determine the ko time and they have the wide choice between Friday night and Sunday afternoon. The number of clubs who routinely play on a Saturday appear to be dwindling. There’s just Saints, Glaws, Tigers, Bath, Rotherham and Quins. Six, that’s all. Two choose to play on Friday nights, Sale and Leeds, with the remaining four now opting for Sundays for various reasons. Although, have you noticed how many of the Sunday sides are prepared to play on Saturdays for the convenience of the TV cameras? Behind all this are the grounds. Those that have moved to a Sunday have largely out grown their grounds and have gone in with sharing arrangements with football clubs. Thus they have to move days as the grounds are normally in use on the Saturday. So if we look at the six Saturday sides, five play at the grounds that they have always played at in modern times. Saints have extensively developed to turn Franklin’s Gardens into the bench mark quality ground in British rugby. Glaws and Quins have extensive plans in the offing and Tigers aren’t far behind. Bath have different problems, they don’t own their ground and have to make a difficult decision about whether to stay, and they can fill it week in week out, or move to a new location on the fringes. Rotherham would love to stay at Clifton Lane, but we all know that it’s not up to muster.

The Sunday sides have other problems. Football grounds, particularly the modern ones, are designed to get fans in and out very quickly. Drinking and drinking in a convivial setting is an anathema to football, but it’s the very essence of rugby. So with it comes barriers, extensive fencing, limited access and often heavy handed stewarding. Wasps have landed on their feet at the Causeway, large bars and friendly stewarding have turned it into a friendly place to go. But Reading and Leeds are still bedeviled by an element of awkwardness from stewards. Rotherham have gone to an older stadium, with quaint pillars strategically placed and a glaring lack of bars and food outlets.

Things won’t change for the good until the powers that be appreciate that the fans need to be catered for just as much as the sponsors and television is. Whilst the latter bring in the big money it’s the fans that are the lifeblood. You need them to fill your ground week in week out. Even if every third fan stays and spends some money, it might not bring in that much compared to a ten year deal with a Dutch meat packing firm. The shirts will never be adorned with “Bob and his son Gary from Maple Terrace” but they are the lifeblood, without them nothing else has relative value for rugby. It’s not that I’m being ungrateful, NEC have been magnificent at Quins, staying in the grim times (and there’s been plenty of them!), so have CSF and many others. But it’s just that the collective voice and value of the fans, most long suffering (as there can only be one winner), needs to be put into a proper context. Winning the world cup has probably changed that context, certainly in the short term. But this is a sport that is only eight years old in professional terms and still has a lot to learn. There will still be more casualties and a bit more blood letting along the way!