Whilst it might seem a meaningless game on the Super League ladder, Castleford Tigers’ home clash with Warrington Wolves tonight could be massive in deciding the club’s Super League status for 2025.
With a loss to Huddersfield Giants at Magic Weekend, the Tigers missed out on a chance to leapfrog into ninth with Craig Lingard having described ‘finishing top of the bottom four’ as one of the goals for Castleford this season.
Considering that the Giants and Tigers play once again in Round 27, they could yet make up the three-point gap and complete that goal but ultimately, the bigger goal is to stay in Super League and that is why tonight’s game against Warrington is so important.
The make-up of Super League will be determined by IMG gradings for the 2025 season and when the preliminary grades were revealed last year, Castleford ranked 13th meaning they would just miss out on Super League.
Even before the official grades were announced, Castleford had released a statement explaining that their grade was lower than it should be due to a miscalculation, however, it was never rectified and in the year since then all the teams in and around them having made advancements on their scoring, the Tigers included.
So why is tonight so important?
How Castleford Tigers’ fans could save their Super League status#
Credit: Imago Images
The reason why the game tonight against Warrington Wolves is so important comes down to the attendance metric within the IMG scoring system. Within the ‘Fandom’ pillar, the first of the five pillars, a team’s attendance makes up 2.5 of the 5 points.
A score of 2.5 points will be awarded for attendance for any clubs that average over 7,500 across the last three seasons. As it stands, Castleford Tigers are currently averaging below that at 7,347 across the three seasons.
As such, they’ll need to increase their attendance in their remaining two home matches to try and reach that 7,500 average, as their current 2024 average attendance of 7,5761 means they’re only averaging 7,418 across the three seasons.
Whilst they’re heavy favourites to lose against Warrington Wolves tonight, fans turning up could be what saves them from relegation potentially making tonight and their final home game against Leigh Leaoprds in a fortnight, absolutely huge.
Castleford Tigers attendance data
2022 Average – 7,508
2023 Average – 7,186
2024 Target to ensure 7,500 Average- 7,806
2024 Average Attendance – 7,561
2022-2024 Average Attendance – 7,418
Attendance data sourced from Rugby League Project
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