Over 146,000 fans have helped the BKT United Rugby Championship to break it’s all-time single round attendance record for the second time in three weeks.
Saturday’s crowd of 26,632 at Loftus Versfeld in South Africa helped push the total attendance for Round 9 to 146,046 setting a new record for a single round attendance in the league.
Earlier this month a figure of 135,747 was reached for the Round 8 fixtures in the BKT URC which saw bumper crowds and sold-out venues across Christmas and early New Year. Now, just a number of weeks later the final game of R9 between the Vodacom Bulls and the Emirates Lions has helped to shatter the previous record by at least 10,000.
This comes off the back of a record 1.6million total attendance for the 2022/23 BKT URC season which also saw the highest-ever crowd for the league’s Grand Final (56,334) while an all-time high of 37.4million watched across the campaign.
Seven of the R9 games took place across the New Year period with Edinburgh breaking a record of their own as a total of 37,904 while the DHL Stormers continued their trend of attracting big numbers for their home derbies as 37,246 packed into their Cape Town home to see them take on the Hollywoodbets Sharks.
Elsewhere in R9, Connacht, Ospreys and Benetton all put up the sold-out signs while Dragons had a season-high crowd against Scarlets in what ultimately proved to be the highest attended single round in the league’s history.
“To be acknowledging another attendance record so soon after setting the previous achievement is hard to believe,” said URC CEO Martin Anayi.
“Once again, we take our hats off to our clubs who are really taking great strides in their approach to promoting their games and providing fans with match-day experiences that keeps drawing them back.”
“Alongside the strong attendances, we know the broadcast audiences were also in high numbers and it’s clear that the BKT URC is going from strength to strength thanks to the support of everyone involved and the ever-increasing competitive nature of the league.”
The next three rounds of competition take place across the 16th to 18th of February, the 1st to 3rd of March and the 22nd to 24th March.
This year’s Grand Final will be played on Saturday, June 22nd at the home of the highest qualifying team to emerge from the regular season and the knockout stages.
Leinster are currently on top of the table with Ulster in 5th. Connacht in 9th and reigning champions Munster two places below them are currently one point out of the qualification places at the half way point of the regular season.
Get the full benefit of a Sport for Business membership by joining us at one of our upcoming events where sporting and business leadership comes together.
Be part of the biggest community of sporting and business organisations in Ireland by becoming a member of Sport for Business and enjoying a host of benefits.
Enjoy more of what we have to offer with events. podcasts and a twice-daily news bulletin. Simply click on the images below to sign up for the free bulletin or find out more…
