Quinn urging fans to turn out in force

Bill Quinn: impassioned plea to fans

BILL Quinn has made an impassioned plea for the town’s rugby league supporters to get behind the Roughyeds.

The club chairman is famously handy with his fists inside the boxing ring and pulled no punches when it came to assessing the level of support for the side during his three-year tenure at the club.

This season, despite playing some very attractive and open rugby under new coach Tony Benson, support levels at Boundary Park have only sporadically drifted over and above the 1,000 mark and for the ambitious Quinn that simply isn’t good enough.

“From a supporters’ point of view the rugby we are playing is very exciting at the moment,” said the 43-year-old.

“But I am getting very disillusioned with the club in respect to the fans.

“This is my third season now, yet no matter what the club does we don’t seem to be able to increase the fan base.”

With only one game at Boundary Park remaining before the mid-season sprucing up of the playing surface, Quinn remains hopeful for for a bigger show of support against Hunslet on Sunday, May 17.

Realistically, he is aiming for home crowds up around the 1500 mark in Co-operative Championship One and is frustrated that this has yet to be achieved thus far.

The highest home crowd achieved in Quinn’s reign, other than for one of the two £1-entry games, was the 1,355 who came to watch Oldham take on Rochdale in the play-offs last year.

“From a chairman’s point of view, myself and (chief executive) Chris Hamilton and everyone else behind the scenes put so much into this club in terms of finance, effort, commitment and worry,” Quinn added.

“When we went across to Rochdale they had an attendance figure of 1,249 against us, yet when we had a big game at home against Dewsbury, who must have brought 300 fans across, our crowd was 1,147 which leaves us with just over 800 home fans.

“The last couple of seasons we have performed very well on and off the pitch considering where we had come from previously.

“However, the level of support still isn’t good enough and to be honest I don’t know what we need to do to bring back the fans.

“I am as committed as I have ever been, but can’t succeed without the help of the fans.

“I am quite happy if someone who believes they can do more than us and who wants an input in the club is prepared to put their money where their mouth is.

“The club belongs to the fans, not to a Bill Quinn, and I want nothing more than to make this club self-sufficient and to bring pride to the town.”


Bill’s beef — Oldham home crowds in 2009

Rochdale Hornets (Feb 18) 1,028

Sheffield Eagles (Feb 25) 1,173

Sharlston Rovers (March 8) 800

Blackpool Panthers (March 15) 880

Workington Town (March 29) 819

Lezignan (April 5) 863

Dewsbury Rams (April 19) 1,147

Swinton Lions (April 26) 1,010