By Matt Hardy
Every English rugby club who qualified again for this season’s Investec Champions Cup have seen their pool stage attendances rise year-on-year, research carried out by City A.M. shows.
Exeter Chiefs, Harlequins, Leicester Tigers, Northampton Saints, Sale Sharks and Saracens welcomed more people through the turnstiles in their two home games this season than they did in 2022-23.
It comes as the average attendance for a pool game across the Investec Champions Cup has shot up from 13,200 last season to 14,565 this year – an increase of 1,500 per match.
The trend is statistical music to the ears of European rugby chiefs, with a new-look pool phase resulting in 23 of the 24 clubs going into last weekend’s final round with a chance of qualifying for the knockout stage.
Ups and downs
Of the 16 clubs who were part of both this and last year’s Champions Cup, 13 have seen attendance rises – albeit Ulster had one game without fans last year due to a frozen pitch.
Bordeaux Begles, whose Stade Chaban-Delmas holds 34,694, saw over 14,000 more fans through the turnstiles this year than last year, with both the South African Stormers and Bulls topping or nearing 10,000 extra punters.
The increases are more modest for the rest, with Leicester Tigers up by over 4,000, Harlequins by nearly 3,000, Exeter up by 2,500 and Northampton, Sale and Saracens by around 1,000. Only Munster (651), Lyon (1,186) and Racing 92 (3,462) saw drop-offs.
It reinforces the status of the Investec Champions Cup as among the most attractive competitions in the rugby calendar and demonstrates the numbers the sport could regularly achieve given the interest in the range of opponents.
“We have observed a compelling trend in the midst of the ‘funflation’ wave,” Robbin Sherry, CEO and co-founder of premium ticket marketplace Seat Unique, told City A.M.
“Fans are increasingly opting for premium events over material possessions, which is redefining the game-day experience – seeing fan demands for top seats, player access, and enhanced amenities – it’s no longer just about sitting in a plastic seat with a beer.
“Notably, Champions Cup rugby teams have embraced this trend, with attendance records soaring, illustrating how innovation in the fan experience is not only a response to current demands but an opportunity for clubs to attract and retain new fans.”
Champions Cup boost
It is worth noting that Georgian club Black Lion, the new team added to the second tier Challenge Cup, netted an impressive 17,500 fans for their defeat to Clermont in Tbilisi.
But some don’t see attendances as realistic and representative figures given one team might sell 5,000 tickets in a 5,000 capacity stadium while another may shift the same number of seats in an arena 10 times the size.
French giants La Rochelle and Toulouse operated at over 99 per cent capacity (99.9 and 99.5 respectively) while Bath came in at 96.9 per cent and Bayonne 96.8.
Saints achieved an 87 per cent capacity, Exeter Chiefs and Leicester Tigers were full to the effect of 86 per cent, Harlequins sat at 85 per cent, Sale hit 69 per cent and Bristol saw 58 per cent of their 27,000 seater occupied.
Despite the Bulls jumping up by 10,000 fans, they only filled a quarter of their 50,000 Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria.
The Stormers, similarity, saw 32 per cent of total seats available occupied for their two home matches against La Rochelle and Sale Sharks.
Champions Cup positivity
The positive data for European rugby chiefs is in contrast to the English game, with City A.M. revealing last year the opening block of eight Premiership matches saw an average decrease of 1,000 per match.
The 1,500 boost in the Champions Cup bodes well for the Round of 16, which will take place on the opening weekend of April and see huge clashes between the likes of Toulouse and Racing 92, Exeter and Bath, and Bordeaux and Saracens.
Six of the 16 teams in the Round of 16 are English, including five of the six sides who saw their pool stage attendances increase on last year’s figures. Five of the remaining 10 sides are French and the other five belong to the United Rugby Championship.
