Whither Rugby? 05/06 - Tigers Caged
By BrianC
July 13 2006
When last year I set about predicting the gates for the 05/06 season Leicester struck me as being the easiest to guess. So, I thought, it was to be. Eleven home games, eleven capacity crowds, average gate 16815.
Tigers Caged
| Season | Average Att. | Position (Out of) |
Final ZP Position | Percentage Growth |
| 97-98 | 12859 | 1st(11) | 4th(12) | |
| 98-99 | 12170 | 1st(10) | 1st(14) | -5.4% |
| 99-00 | 12691 | 1st(11) | 1st(12) | 4.3% |
| 00-01 | 12090 | 1st(12) | 1st(12) | -4.7% |
| 01-02 | 14500 | 1st(12) | 1st(12) | 19.9% |
| 02-03 | 15676 | 1st(12) | 6th(12) | 8.1% |
| 03-04 | 16120 | 1st(12) | 5th(12) | 2.8% |
| 04-05 | 16789 | 1st(12) | 1st(12) | 4.2% |
| 05-06 | 16586 | 1st(12) | 2nd(12) | -1.2% |
What I didn't anticipate was their home Guinness Championship game. This attracted a crowd of 'only' 14,069 and for the first time in five years Leicester's gates recording a slight drop. It must be said straight away that this 'drop' in the headline figure is no more than a statistical anomaly. The trend in Leicester's gates is inexorably up, if only they had the room to show it.
By their own very high standards this has been a mediocre season on field for the Tigers. Second in the league and runners up in the championship might please many other clubs supporters but not those in the East Midlands. They also failed to shine in either Europe or the Powergen Cup. It terms of crowds however this did not matter one iota.
In 2004 Leicester announced that they were in discussions with their local FC to ground share the 34k capacity Walkers Stadium. Given their potential and the difficulties around redeveloping their existing ground this would have made perfect commercial sense. The talks floundered, we are told that primacy of tenure was the stumbling block. So it was back to the drawing board for the Tigers.
| Variation '97-'06 | 129% | 11th(13) |
| Crowd Growth Absolute | 3727 | 6th(13) |
| Average Growth | 3.5% |
Last season they announced plans to bring Welford road up to 24k capacity 'within a decade'. The first phase of this should see capacity increase to just under 20k. Land adjacent to the ground has been purchased and planning permission is being sought. Work is only expected to commence at the end of the 06/07 season so there will be no prizes for guessing the average gate next year.
Has the idea of the move to the Walkers Stadium died a death? It does look to be the case but some Leicester supporters remain suspicious. To quote one, "I'll only believe we're staying at Welford Road when I see the new stand actually going up".
Wherever they are, Leicester look set to dominate club rugby in England for quite some time to come, off field at least.