One of the biggest weekends in the game's calendar and what?

59,462 on Friday......55,664 on Monday.....only 5 of 12 games broke 5 figures and as per usual, the top 5 clubs are the drawcards.

Salford with 2,338.........that is shocking.

Huddersfield, Wakefield and Salford attracted fewer fans than St Helens did on Friday......all the home clubs on Friday exceeded their average, al the clubs on Monday got less.......

I know the game is played on the pitch and not the terraces, but something needs to happen.......Bath host Leicester this coming weekend at Twickenham and there's a fair chance that one game of rah will eclipse either of our Easter weekends totals.......and if we want more TV money then we need to sort out our attendances.

Did you see the weather on Easter Monday? It was crap.

Ditto Thursday for the Cas v Wakey game. He weather is playing havoc - a lot of fans would rather stay at home and watch the games on the TV. If we want more TV money then we have to make the game as attractive as possible on TV for more viewers. Nothing to do with crowds at the game. Sky couldn’t care less if it gets 1 or 10001.

As the dude above me has mentioned, the weather will play a part. Also, Easter games are hit and miss as people tend to go away for Easter. I think Salford are on borrowed time though.

Regards

King James

Absolutely Salford are on borrowed time, without Marwan’s cash propping them up, I’d be pleasantly suprised if Salford weren’t in administration by the end of the year.

What happens to a club if they go into administration before or during the middle 8’s?

One thing that Rugby Union has worked out is that its important to focus less on the quantity of games and more on the quality of the events.

One of the reasons why we still have these convoluted league structures is because we have clubs insisting that they need to flog out talent as much as possible and have a minimum number of games to survive. The notion that they should do more with less - in other words, generate more revenue from fewer games by selling more tickets, commercial packages, sponsorships, merchandise, digital, reaching new audiences, making the game more attractive to media partners, etc - is alien to them.

The game at Elland Road the other week was an example of what we need to be looking at more of. It was a game played by two good teams, in front of a big crowd, and had a sense of occasion. There was nothing more than 2 points at stake - no trophies to be won or the "jepoardy" that so many people on here argue is 'essential' to bring in the crowds, and yet it felt like a big event - a final or semi final, and it looked fantastic for the neutral.

Leeds didn't do anything particularly innovative, spectacular or indeed expensive for that game. They simply put on an event and they (and to their credit, Castleford) hyped it up and told people about it. Something that every marketing manager at every club should be able to do. It doesn't need an Eddie Hearn or a Peter Deakin - it just needs the marketing people who are on the pay-rolls of each and every club to do their jobs.

Rugby Union gets this. Leicester and Bath can take a game to Twickenham knowing full well that their fans won't start kicking off with the usual moans like "what about season tickets?" and "will there be free travel?" that littered the Wigan board when it was announced they were going to Millwall. Saracens can take games to Wembley or Olympic Park knowing that if they set their sales and marketing team a target, they'll hit it - rather than moaning about away fans or the weather. And London Irish can take a game to New York because they see that the potential of a new audience outweights the cost of the flight, whilst our fans moan about Magic Weekend because they don't want to pay for the train ticket.

Rugby Union clubs in this country still play a lot of games, but they focus their energy on hyping up the ones that really matter. The domestic cup competition is pretty much now just a reserve-grade competition, they release their players for internationals before hyping up the European games the following week. They prioritise their key products.

As a sport, we need fewer games and more hype. We need to find more ways to get our current audiences excited, and to find new audiences to excite. We need some creative thinking, some investment in effective marketing, and clubs to see success as more than simply keeping the administrators at bay for another year.

But we as a sport won't do that, because it sounds too much like hard work and it's just much easier to say "we can't afford it", blame the RL and wait for a boxing promoter to save us from ourselves.

Just a small shout-out to the 4,000+ who turned out in the delicious Odsal drizzle on Friday Night for Bradford v Oldham.

When a 3rd tier fixture is getting a higher gate than two super league ones, then asking a question or two is legitimate I'd have thought.

crap weather in hull easter monday but still managed to pull in 11/500+

and a decent turnout form wakefield fans too

I know that it's nothing to do with Hull FC and more to do with the stadium management company but, sticking the away fans in a corner, rather than behind the sticks, will do nothing to encourage greater numbers of away fans.
It's really not a good place to watch the game and it's a poor way to treat visiting fans.

Why do people always find an excuse?

The fact of the matter is crowds are too low whatever the weather!

The weather? Really?
£24 was the starting price for an adult ticket to the the "Big Game" at Twickenham on December 30th last year. The temperature was 1 degree Celsius at KO time and it was absolutely tipping it down, but SEVENTY SEVEN THOUSAND rolled in anyway.
.....we need to stop making excuses for the poor attendances we get. The weather is up there with the dog ate my homework.......

Wakefield fan criticising the view to watch the game as an away fan! How ironic!!

Particularly when last year first game, the weather was horrible and the away fans weren't allowed to go to go in the covered stand, we had to stand out in the rain for 2 hours.

I see his point and it would be better to open the Noryh sand, but apart from Rovers and possible Leeds/Cas no one brings enough to justify opening the North stand. But the view and facilities are still very good and better than a majority of grounds, plus you can choose to buy tickets in any of the other areas.

as a wakefield fan, i wouldnt complain tbh, considering the difficulty in viewing the game at belle view when standing!

as for kc views, hardly a bad view is it and i dont get how its poor, you were undercover!

Bradford Bulls are a MASSIVE club, and hopefully will be back in Super League soon. They are are even bigger than Toronto/Manchester Wolfpack, and that take's some doing !

Leeds' figures tbf are going to be hit this year due to the building work and limited capacity at Headingley we have this year. Given we are usually the top avg. attendance in the league they will be an impact on the overall average/total in SL this year that people should (but probably won't) take into consideration when the inevitable attendance figure threads pop up.