If that's what you mean by ''family game'', then football is too. This isn't the 1980's.

But Football wasn't being discussed.

Agree wholeheartedly about the family thing, which is why I flagged it. And the kids are the future of our game. Now I recognise that my solution will never be implemented, but if it was it shouldn't be beyond the bounds to increase adult prices while dropping those for kids = no net increase to families.

No, but I don't think Adults going as a couple or single would also pay the increase you mentioned. It is too much for 80 minutes of rugby. Football was and is overpriced, although it has realised it's errors and across the board in a lot of cases have had to reduce prices to bring supporters back.

Having a point where it is cheaper to go watch a final of Rugby League than it is to watch an half @rs3d league game, would be a disaster in my opinion.

Why would kids look on the players in a different light just because of a loss to Bradford. As it happens, my 3 year old nephew was at the game and sat with us on Friday and he loved it other than the result. He wasn't worried about compeltion rates or attacking structures, what he saw was a close game that swung from looking like we were going to lose, then looked like we were going to sneak a win and then blew it. He got to see his favourite players, Zak Hardaker and Rob Burrow make a couple of nice runs that got him excited. There was a decent crowd and a decent atmosphere and he got to see Ronnie. I think you're over estimating the understanding that a kid has of what goes on at a game. I'd say after Friday (incomprehensible as it may be to us as adults) that he is more likely to want to attend games than less.

Fair enough and you're probably right about folk not paying it. Without the extra being spent on the team, why would they? Can't comment on football as my interest there is zero but if you look towards the top union sides - the ones where our poached players tend to end up - then their prices are a lot higher than ours. For a spectacle that is, in my view, inferior.

I can understand why clubs can't afford to run a reserve team. We currently have a squad of 25 plus any Acadmey players that make the step up. To have a reserve team you would realistically need an additional 10 players as a minimum, which would probably add in the region of £250k to the wage bill. It was OK in the past where the players were part time and therefore the running costs were much less but it just doesn't stack up financially now.

Also, I may be mistaken, but the NRL teams don't have a reserve teams as such do they? Don't any players not selected go to a form of feeder club in the NSW / Queensland comps? I'm sure that in the NRL games I've seen there have been comments about part timers being called up to first grade during a bad spell with injuries or losing a lot of players during the rep period. I don't see that beoing held up as an example of the NRL being in poor health.

I don't have any stats to back this up but I think you see proportionately far more women/kids/families at RL games than at football. I think it is generally seen as more "family friendly" than football.

I agree, I think links with the elite side are important for amateur clubs to increase/retain participation. As you say the kids look up to the top players and to have some link with them is what really gets the kids excited. Just playing a half time game at Headingley is a massive deal for a lot of kids! But I don't think the performances of the team has much effect on the kids because they don't understand it yet. I'd agree that the performances, especially at home, has an effect on the parents though.
Whilst on the links with amateur clubs, it frequently annoys me how little the pro & semi clubs do in that regard. Even clubs like Leeds, I think, could do an awful lot more. Some individual players do a lot but clubs as a whole I think are pretty poor in this respect. I think they vastly underestimate the effect of just a couple of players turning up and passing a ball around with kids for half an hour has on those kids.

Agree entirely with your first paragraph. It's something that both angers and confounds me at the same time. It turns so many kids and adults away from our sport.

Isn't the Holden cup competition in Australia for the under 23s from the NRL clubs?