Attendances in the Guinness Premiership will pass the one million mark this weekend in record time.
Despite a raft of postponements in round 13, the aggregate attendance figure in the season to date is 943,570. The total was buoyed by a record crowd of over 150,000 for the six matches in round 11, which was by some way the highest ever total for a round of Premiership matches.
This weekend Saracens will play Worcester Warriors at Wembley Stadium and will be watched by more people than will see Italy play England in the Stadio Flaminio this coming weekend. It is the second of their three Guinness Premiership matches at the iconic football venue this season and they expect well over 30,000 supporters who will enjoy the high calibre entertainment of rap artist Chipmunk and girl group The Saturdays both performing live sets.
Attendances at the same stage of the season ten years ago were 415,852 charting the growth of club rugby in the last decade, whilst the attendances at the same stage of last season were 896,271.
Premier Rugby Chief Executive Mark McCafferty said, “The clubs have worked very hard to come up with innovative pricing policies at their venues and at the big games to deal with the tough economic climate and that has enabled us to keep attendances healthy.
“Clubs like Saracens have offered supporters some great additional entertainment, by signing headline acts like Diversity, Chipmunk and The Saturdays to appear at their matches and that has in turn brought a new, younger crowd along. Figures for Harlequins Big Game 2 showed around a quarter of the crowd were children under the age of 16.
“All this hard work up and down the country has allowed us to reach this landmark in record time and that leaves the Guinness Premiership in a good position as we reach what has always been a pivotal point in the season.”
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