The weather will have a big draw on the attendances. People are not going to bring kids especially when the weather has been as cold and wet as it has been.

Add into the fact that we've had a Saturday Sky game (never a well attendend game), a game shifted left and right v's Saints due to City getting to Wembley and you've got 2 games there that would have drawn a greater attendance had they been 3pm Sunday afternoon.

The attendances from prior years will have been inflated by the cheap offer. I know of 2 people who bought cheap tickets and only ever came to the Leeds and Wigan home games. The club can by law announce those people as "in attendance" even though they never turned up.

Bradford is one city that is struggling more than most in this recession. I don't think that this fact should be ignored. It's not cheap for many families to purchase season tickets when they could be spending cash on other more important things like heating and fuel. The cost of attending a single game for a family of 4 isn't cheap either when you add in a few drinks, a programme and a bite to eat. It's not a surprise people are picking games.

The number of travelling supporters hasn't been great either. Again, the problems of fuel costs excacerbates the cost of a trip to a game. This has no doubt had an effect as has the ill feeling many other clubs fans possibly have towards us in the mess that occurred last year and a reluctance to see us given any more money from their pockets.....

I may be wrong as I've not had a proper look at comparison figures with last year, but the feeling from other peoples comments on social networking sites is that many SL teams are suffering from the same problems in the lack of numbers turning up to games.

Generally, from a personal point of view I would say that the product of SL is not that of prior years. For a start, we are not seeing the likes of a "Volcano", a Jamie Lyon, etc in the league that would draw fans into going to a live game.

Although we have new owners, there is stll a lot of ill feeling into the mess of last year. I know a few people who fell out of love with the game after the shenanighans we all went through. This will take time to heal.

Do they count all season ticket holders in the official attendance or just those that turn up?

I always thought they count them all, sure football do but could be mistaken.

Did anyone read the programme notes yesterday? Apparently we have far fewer home league games in July and August because of the Challenge Cup so it's a lottery as to whether we'll have much income from gates when we have the best chance of a good crowd.

Do we move the Challenge Cup back to it's original slot?

As for marketing I don't go into Bradford much at all either but I would say that there is a large proportion of fans that don't either. Many people live in the suburbs and work elsewhere nowadays. As a result the club has to be imaginative with its marketing. I must confess I rarely look at the club's website or twitter feed. I do look at the T&A online though that's it. The bottom line is that many people couldn't afford the big price hike for season tickets and so are picking their games.

There's little the club can do about the general economic situation. Just hope they have some luck in getting all the TV money for 2014.

One thing would seem certain though, if our Sky money is witheld once again next season and the crowds don't improve the club will have to budget accordingly. Unfortunately those cuts might well be to the 1st team squad.

Those who did not go missed a very entertaining game yesterday. Although obviously a lot of people will have been away on holiday of course.

What really struck me yesterday, though, was the relative dearth of young people at the game. Certainly in the so-called "Family Stand".

Maybe the club seemingly concentrating its marketing efforts through twitterings and facebook and other virtual media is an attempt to focus on the younger generation; maybe its a reflection of cost constraints or maybe for other reasons. But I can't help but observe that almost every youngster (and I include teenagers and into early twenties in that) I see seems to be forever glued to and staring at some mobile device, seemingly entranced and oblivious to almost everything else going on around them.

We never had all this virtual universe stuff back in the original Bullmania days. Back then, I suggest youngsters spent a lot more time interacting with the real world, and with real people - including watching the Bulls - than they seem to now. I very much suspect this step change in behaviour is a contributory factor to disappointing attendances, although maybe being a miserable grumpy old gìt means I just don't "get it"...

But disappointing crowds, at a time when you might expect them to improve, is nothing new. Remember Caisley's tirade against the people of Bradford in 2004, in his annual report? Albeit at crowds twice the size of now. I think it is also a reflection in part of the economy, after years of illusory boom built on debt that in any case largely bypassed the city. And of the wider malaise of the pall of apathy that anyway seems to bedevil this city nowdays.

The bloody freezing shìt-awful weather is hardly helping, though. I had God knows how many layers on yesterday, but was still frozen by the end.

Well I went with some family to the Leeds game on Thursday and the comment that stood out was how "it's so much better live than on TV". This season as a group we've gone from 5 season ticket holders to 1 (me). That's been down to a combination of expense and changing circumstances. 4 of us went yesterday but the contrast in the quality of the game and atmosphere was pretty stark compared with Thursday.

Once people get out of the habit of going it's harder to get them back, games the quality of the Leeds match help but games like yesterday less so.

I don't have any answers and aren't a marketing guru but it seems to me that you can't simply rely on the same people coming year in year out. There needs to be a big effort made to bring in new fans every year. The bring a friend for a fiver is a decent idea, nothing new, but ok. The problem was that I was unaware of the offer and I doubt I was alone in that. That can cause a decent idea to fall flat.

It seems to me that if the club wants to attract a younger audience they need to do it via schools, college, university and social media.

They're trying at the uni'. There's been a couple of half price with a NUS card deals this year, and they're advertising it through the Student's Union's Facebook which has a pretty wide reach across the student body.

Could they offer them a free traffic cone with every ticket or something?

I had a season ticket for the last two years because it was cheap and now I don't have one. I've only been to two games this year, I just don't enjoy going as much as I used to do and can find more cost effective ways to spend my leisure time.

My friends who would come to occasional games with me in their teenage years would never go to matches now because of the cost, and that for the same price they could sit in the pub all Sunday afternoon having a few pints and watching the football on the television... plus now more and more people around my age group are starting families, getting mortgages etc so time / money aren't as freely available... so there is a need to attract a new generation.

I think something like the membership scheme might help, well you pay an upfront membership fee and then get cheap admission to games / offers etc - it'd take away the financial commitment of buying a season ticket (don't Bradford City do something like this?). Another one might be where you pay quite a bit of money for a season ticket but then get money back for attending - I'm sure Walsall FC are doing this for junior tickets.

I've no idea where RL / the Bulls can position themselves nowadays. Attracting a younger generation of fans not only has to compete with other leisure interests but the fact that Bradford has one of the country's highest youth unemployment rates. Generally disposable income left for leisure activities is shrinking, so people would be more unlikely to pay £20 to watch a game of RL... and finally the general perception of RL needs to improve against other sports. Any marketing experts in the house?

Good point about the lack of disposable income for younger supporters. The club need to be imaginative here to bring in a new generation of fans. Time for Kate Hardcastle to show what all the publicity is about.

The half-price with a NUS card is a good start.

What about some tickets for small groups of games? They could be targetted at schoolkids with the caveat that they bring an adult. 1st game would be free. Then subsequent games the price goes up by £5 a game. We need to get people hooked but they need tempting through the gates. It's harder than ever to get the crowds in so it may mean a short term loss.