By BrianC
March 9 2005

Saint Patrick's day is actually the 17th March. As we were unable to secure a home fixture one weekend either side of this Saturday the 26th March, against Gloucester has this season been designated our Saint Patrick's game.

As with previous seasons the speculation is mounting over just how big a crowd we well see at The Madejski on that day. As with previous seasons The Craic is running a free competition where we invite you to guess the size of the crowd on the day. This competition is open to supporters of any club, the only condition being that you are there on the day to collect your prize.

So what do we know about the crowd? We do know it will be a big one. At the time of writing this article we have reports that the East Stand has sold out, that the West almost has and that tickets for the South are now being sold. Both the East and West stands have a seating capacity of 7.5k, although as the East having unreserved seating for safety reasons this is reduced by 10%. We can therefore assume that something close to 14,000 tickets have already been sold. I will add one proviso to this. Last season we were advised some time before the match that the East Stand had sold out only to find a day or so before the game that a couple of blocks were still available.

Are previous crowd sizes any indication of what will happen this year? The best answer one can give is ...perhaps. Last season against Bath we had a crowd of 20840. The previous one, against Quins, saw a total crowd of 18585. Whilst both those teams bring a reasonable number of traveling support it is arguable that this years opponents are the most numerous travelers in the Zurich Premiership.

Yet again the club are laying on a feast of entertainment for this special day in our calendar. Last season's event had somewhat of a dampener put on the entertainment by the a storm which damaged the outdoor stage whilst the match was on. This caused the post match entertainment to be cancelled. Let us all home the weather is a tad kinder this time around.

Your guesses of what the crowd will be on this thread.

2004 Craic Report

2003 Craic Report