Quote: UllFC "It is true that the new stadiums at Hull, Wigan and Warrington provided a boost in the early 00s, but its important to note that in the late 00s they decided to play 4 Derby games a season and that gave a short term boost to crowds...............
In my view the constant format changes have pushed away casual fans.............People who were only half interested in the first place get switched off.'"
I'm sure you are right and this is another factor in terms of crowds. We can't however rely on crowds at stadiums to support the professional game.
I think we all know if Superleague didn't have a TV deal there would be no Superleague and the game's profile would shrink badly as would crowds who would not want part time RL shorn of the big players. I remember the superleague season when Leeds played Bradford...
67,000 in the cup final
19,000 in the Headingley derby
21,000 in the Odsal derby
19,000 at odsal in the third league game
15,000 in the play off game at odsal
In a way I didn't like this in principle, but in practice these were great games, they drew big audiences to the games, and no doubt someone wanting to watch so RL on SKY would probably have welcomed Leeds and Bradford for the fifth time rather than Huddersfield-Sheffield against Wakefield for the first time that season.....
We are what we are thanks to TV, and the BBC must have been delighted at the Bradford.v.Leeds game in the cup recently.