Chief executive Nic Cartwright admits he was pleased that Edinburgh set a new record Magners League home crowd for the opening leg of the David Lloyd 1872 Cup against Glasgow on Boxing Day and revealed the club’s primary objective now is to ensure the attendances continue to grow.
Friday’s attendance of 12, 534 smashed the combined crowd total from last season’s two meetings between Edinburgh and Glasgow (10, 956) largely thanks to Scottish Rugby’s Autumn Test ticket redemption scheme. Edinburgh’s next home match will be against Ulster in the Magners League on Friday 9 January, kick off 7.45pm.
The scheme enabled Scotland supporters to claim a free ticket to the game if they had attended the Test matches against New Zealand, South Africa or Canada.
As a result, Cartwright says he was encouraged by the response and now plans to persuade the newcomers to become fully-fledged followers of professional rugby in Scotland.
Cartwright said: “In successive home matches, Edinburgh have set new attendance records in both the Heineken Cup (7, 711) and the Magners League which is really encouraging.
“Friday’s match proved to be an entertaining spectacle with four tries and a memorable atmosphere generated by both sets of supporters.
“Hopefully the neutrals who were potentially attending their first-ever Magners League match bought into what professional rugby is all about in this country.
“Now we will be engaging with them again even further to ensure they become regulars either at Edinburgh or Glasgow Warriors in the future.”
A large number of Edinburgh supporters are expected to travel over to Firhill Arena on Friday (2 January, kick off 3pm) to watch the team complete the task of defeating Glasgow to win the David Lloyd 1872 Cup.
As a result, the Warriors are targeting a new record home crowd; bigger than their current best-ever attendance of 5, 213.
After six homes matches during the 2008/2009 campaign, Edinburgh’s average home crowd is 6, 064; which is around 4,000 more than what it was at the same stage last season (2, 120).
Edinburgh’s next home match will be against Ulster in the Magners League on Friday 9 January, kick off 7.45pm.
