I am not saying that there weren’t thousands of Gloucester fans there, but I have to say I didn’t see them. I saw one guy wearing a red and white rugby shirt which I assume is the Gloucester colours. Thousands of yellow and black wearing people. A lot more diverse crowd than you would see at the football, a lot more women and a lot more family groups.
I find it hard to believe that committed football fans would suddenly switch to another sport in large numbers. I like watching a few sports with rugby being one. I have watched Cov a handful of times over the past 50 years and been to one rugby international. Despite enjoying those occasions I could never imagine switching my allegiances from City to Cov and certainly not to a franchise team.The International was interesting as the crowd seemed to be there for an event (This was Wales v Ireland in Cardiff last year). Yes, people there wanted either the greens or the reds to win, but even though the contest on the pitch was fierce, the crowd lacked the edge you get at football. This results in very little crowd violence ( although there was some at the Wales match both in the stadium and outside) and therefore no need for segregation. Welsh and Irish sat together all over the stadium. Perhaps this is why the crowd turned up so early for the Wasps game; it is an event where the action or even the result is not the be all and end all of the day. That said if Wasps struggle I wonder how many of their “loyal support” will stay. As someone else said, I doubt they would get 7k in the 4th rugby tier.