I agree William.And have stated on many threads what i think of the current 8 team format, and really hope we go back to top 5.

It has to be said though that these attendance figures could be skewed by the fact that less well supported clubs have feature in the 8 team format.Cats don't have an away following.Bradford had a big following when they featured regular in the 5/6 team format.And it was always pretty much the bigger clubs that met in the early days who have a decent following i.e Bradford,Saints,Leeds,Wigan,Warrington and Hull.So them teams playing each other is bound to lift the average.

Personally i think the interest in the games leading up to the final has always been pretty much the same whatever the system, a groundbreaking solution needs to be found.I dont have it i am afraid.

Ah nice one! Thank you.

Kinda depressing stats william lad.

Why do you think the playoffs are attended so poorly in comparison to regular season? You've done numerous other comparisons elsewhere and playoff attendances come up short. I've read your musings on how super league has spawned a generation of fans only interested in season tickets and less so in paying extra for an individual game (unless of course it's a final).

I'm sure theres other factors at play though.

I agree with the gist of what you're saying above, ReLeeds V Wigan
2010
2008Wigan V Leeds
2012
2002Leeds V Hull
2012
2002Wigan V Castleford
2009
1999Wigan V St Helens
2011
2004St Helens V Wigan
2011
2002Warrington V Hull
2012
2005Hull V Huddersfield
2012
2007: 12,140 (Top 6 format)

What do we make of these comparative play-off attendances played under different formats?

Solution as follows:

- Add the maximum number of playoff games to the season ticket price. Say for example 3 x £20.

- Club ends up with one home playoff game that season.

- Discount next years season ticket purchase by £40.

Fan isn't short changed and is more likely to buy next years season ticket.

Looking forward to the game tonight, nothing like sudden death rugby, hopefully we play similar to two weeks ago and give Saints a hiding

I think all it goes to show is how pish poor the standard of rugby is now compared to how it was several years ago.
That added to the apathy of many supporters how the game is been run and we no longer get to see marquee players from Australia and NZ has clearly had a down turn on attendances.

Sadly, i have to agree.

How much of this is down to the franchise points format, in which regular season attendance counts as a big tick, leading to discounted season-tickets to bump up the numbers but a devaluation of the "value point" of a game as spectators become accustomed to paying less.

£10-£20 should be a bargain for even a mid-sized sporting event even in a recession (though it would still obviously exclude some spectators), but if your ST is £100 it doesn't seem that way.

Couldn't agree more. Sport sells itself a lot easier and creates a lot more interest and excitement when it's has easily identifiable star players to market. Super League doesn't have any... well, it has one... Sam Tomkins... and he'll be gone soon anyway.

What about reigning golden boot winner kevin sinfield? Or worlds best winger ryan hall?

Not sure what to make of it, and I'm uncertain as to what the solutions are.

Leeds require an attendance tonight in excess of 13,233 (that was the attendance between Leeds & St Helens in the 1998 play-offs) in order to buck the trend of comparative poor play-off attendances under the Top 8 format.

Everything works in cycles. It's hardwired into the universe, and rugby league attendences are not immune.

I think we need to look back at our game and realise that there have been fundamental changes at regular intervals - summer rugby was the last nearly 20 years ago now. Before that we had the simultaneous re-imagining of the scrum rules and lifting of the international ban in 83/84 which radically changed the way the game was played (you could also argue that the professionalising of the game in the 90's was just as important). Before that it was the introduction of the limited tackle rule and then the changes up to 6 tackles coincided with the introduction of 2 divisions.
All these changes were done for reasons not disimilar to the ones we are considering now. I believe the product needs refreshing every so often to counter the growth of apathy towards sport and the natural cycles. It may be that the product now needs refreshing again.

All I know is that hammering the perceived quality of the game is purely subjective and ignores the obvious that people get bored with things if they stay the same. We've had this issue in our game since I can remember - and generally the powers that be do something about it.

The game is not "broken" because Hull got hammered by Huddersfield, just like it wasn't broken any of the other times a team got slaughtered.