It is about creating an EVENT......whilst purist fans of any game will moan about dumbing down, I suspect the total attendance for the opener and semis will be 130,000 and you can't tell me that the 4 games stand alone would have drawn that many.......Italy Wales 10k.....2nd semi with Aussies flogging someone 15 at a stretch and a couple of 30k's for the games featuring england

I think the last deal on the 4 nations the BBC made a decent offer and the RFL wanted to take it. But I think SKY tied their hands by significantly dropping the value they would offer on SL if they did not get the Internationals.

That was my understanding of it.

Risky game to play when you mess with sky.......don't lose sight of the fact of who props the game up in the uk before you start planning for anything. Even the NRL have to give concessions

What the bbc paid for 6nations makes little commercial sense when you consider they could smash the 6 nations 30mill total viewing figure by buying the rights to SL for a fair bit less, show a fri night game on bbc2, live Saturday game, live Sunday game on BBC and easily get more than 30mill viewing audience as well as a hell of a lot more programming. Given bbc don't get a return on sports programming through advertising or subscriptions the amount they pay for 6nations is ridiculous.

14137 at saints tonight, another very good crowd in appalling conditions

england v ireland listed as 24375, a stadium record for sport

I actually asked the BBC to justify their massive handout in terms of value for money at the last contract renewal..Didn't even get a coherrent reply. It's got feck all to do with how good the event is or even what is might actually bring to the nation as part of free to air TV, it's about the people involved & money exchanging hands in one form or another, no more no less.
It's almost as bad the old F1 deal, not that that is much better now (sharing with sky) and F1 has been nearly as boring as RU for years..

Game 1 & 2 Eng v Aus / Wales v Italy : 45052 (74500)
Game 3 PNG v France : 7500 (10150)
Game 4 NZ v Samoa : 14965 (15200)
Game 5 Fiji v Ireland : 8872 (10,249)
Game 6 Scotland v Tonga : 7,630 (10000)
Game 7 USA v Cook Islands :7,247 (12,100)
Game 8 NZ v France : 17,518 (17,51icon_cool.gif
Game 9 England v Ireland: 24,375 (24,500)
Game 10 Aus v Fiji : 14,137 (18,000)

Total so far : 147,296 (192,217)
Percentage of seats taken up : 76.63%
Average per game : 16366*

*Double headers counted as one

Tonga v Cook Islands at the Leigh Sports Village is about 500-800 tickets from being a sell out also.

Absolutely gutted I won't be there.

That's a great effort. I think the icing on the cake has been the crowds at Workington, Rochdale and Bristol.

Got to say that up to now the strategy of the RFL on stadiums and pricing has been spot on, well done the RFL, yes it actually hurts to say it, but yes

WELL DONE THE RFL, I hope it continues through to the final hopefully with England in it

Tickets where sold but never redeemed.

I can't think of a poor turn out to be honest. I'm looking forwards to the WC in the future as well as the games between the less favoured nations hopefully have set a standard to go forwards with.

Looks decent crowd at Wrexham

I must say I have been very and pleasantly surprised by the turn outs for all of the games, lets hope it keeps up.
well done to everyone concerned..