THE MUNSTER SUPPORTERS that won deserved praise for making their voices heard against Harlequins, and presence felt, are staying away from Thomond and Musgrave Park this season.
While three of the Irish provinces experienced jumps in attendance figures for RaboDirect Pro12 matches, Munster have seen a decline of more that 750 supporters for home games this season.
With just one round of fixtures remaining, the league released average attendance figures for the season. The reading is good, in general, for the Irish sides.
Leinster, boosted by the sell-out against Munster at the Aviva Stadium last October, Leinster have the highest average [19,791] in the league, up 768 on last season.
Munster [14,137] are down 761 and Connacht [5,154] are up 501 but the biggest number shunt this season has come from the current league leaders, Ulster [10,307]. That number is up a whopping 2,011 on 2011/12 and should grow again next season as Ravenhill is being expanded. Here are all the figures:
Leinster 19,791 (19,023 + 768), Munster 14,137 (14,798 – 761), Ulster 10,307 (8,296 + 2,011), Ospreys 9,291 (7,686 + 1,605), Blues 8,933 (7,275 + 1,658), Scarlets 7,803 (9,006 – 1,203), Dragons 6,518 (6,098 + 420), Connacht 5,154 (4,653 + 501), Edinburgh 4,600 (4,252 + 348), Glasgow 4,541 (4,018 + 523), Treviso 3,510 (3,900 – 390), Zebre 1,977 (first season).
Despite the failing gate receipts, Munster have taken part in three of the Pro12′s five most attended matches.
The top attendance this season was 46,280 for Leinster v Munster at the revamped Lansdowne Road. The ‘Judgement Day’ double-header between the four Welsh regions, at the Millennium Stadium on 30 March, attracted a crowd of 36,174.
Top Pro12 attendance figures: 46,280 Leinster v Munster (Aviva Stadium); 36,174 Blues v Ospreys/Dragons v Scarlets (Millennium Stadium); 23,587 Munster v Ulster (Thomond Park); 23,037 Munster v Leinster, Thomond Park); 19,443 Ospreys v Scarlets (Liberty Stadium).
Quelle surprise munster fans jumping off the bandwagon.
Take the aviva game out of it and they’re still the best supported team. That and they play quite a few games in Musgrave Park. How have your first 5 years following rugby been?
They play at musgrave because they can’t always fill thomond.whatever way you look at it they are losing fans
Another brain fart from Sheahan!
And another nibble from the rat
Losing fans? I am 100% sure you are incorrect in that. Forced emigration and financial restraints on people mean they can’t afford to go every week. As for Musgrave, I think you’ll find that is to accommodate the vast number of Munster fans in Cork. Also given the population of Dublin is over 1million people, Cork and Limerick combined dont come to half that, the fact that this is the first time Leinster has topped the charts is pretty poor.
Jog on!
Lets face it. Vast majority of them were jumping on the bandwagon. Im not supporting an Irish team but I have been in Thomond few times… atmosphere was shit and vast majority were there for the craic, the booze and knew nothing about basic rugby rules (heard some funny comment from so call rugby connaisseurs)
Fair weather
Fair weather ? Thomond park costs – E40,E30 for stand. When leinster came to town they jacked up prices by a tenner and a fiver in terraces. Wouldnt be so bad if they dropped prices for lesser teams (i.e. italians) but no it doesnt happen. Munster need to look at leinsters marketing
Down 760?? Lol, anybody see the weather each and every time we played in muzzer??? I nearly got hypothermia the last day. If we were down 7600 I’d be worried…
In fairness, lots of Munster’s support base lives in Dublin these days. Even look through the AIL team sheets and they’re filled with players who were with Cork and Limerick clubs but are now working in Dublin.
An average of over 14,000 is nothing to be sneezed at these days. For all Leinster’s 12 county team shtick and 1m+ in the greater Dublin area alone, a 20k average (incl the Aviva Munster match) is hardly indicative of widespread support.
Its indicative of the fact that Leinster play in a smaller ground…
In other news, sports team on bad run gets declining stadium gate receipts. Shock horror!
Great hashtag for the article :-/ clearly core support for Munster has dissipated… Thank god so many other teams banded together to hijack the stoop tickets and showed up in Lansdowne rd. for the biggest game of the season… Using hard figures skews the result, Connacht and Cardiff should be at the top of the list really… Another gem from thescore.ie :)
Heineken Cup Semi Final is a bad run apparently
Patrick McCarry putting a negative spin on Munster? Well I never……