the introduction of two "smaller" clubs is more than likely responsible + bradford imploding! round by round totals are up i think.

Simple. We've added two clubs that average around 4000 each.

Without them the average is around 9800.

RU is more popular than RL and has been for some time. Even when we've averaged higher they've sold out their stadia whereas we haven't.

Doesn't make it a better game, just a fact of life. It was only a matter of time. They fill Twickers easily for nothing games, it was just a case of getting some of those fans to go to club games.

Surely there must be an opportunity to get a fair percentage of RU watchers , and even football watchers , who are missing their live sporting "football based code" fix , to attend SL during the summer .

People who watch the "London" based RU clubs , could be attracted to Harlequins RL . Lancashire has 8 Premiership football clubs , plus many lower and non league , can't more of those fans be persuaded to attend Salford , Saints and Wigan games .

I watch football and occasionally RU during the winter , RL and cricket during the summer . I can't be the only person who enjoys live sport and is prepared to follow more than 1 game .

My local non league football club allows my child in free , thus hopefully snaring the next generation of fan , and ensuring that I pay my £11 to take him. What are SL clubs doing to get fans through the gate ?

Why? on an automatic assumption that because the ball is egg shaped some people will like both codes? and add to that mix, Wasps, Saracens, London Irish supporters etc etc may well have a total dislike of their London rivals Harlequins RU and so would be unlikely to then come to the Stoop to watch Harlequins RL.

Some will no doubt, some already have, but like the "untapped" antipodean market and "untapped" football supporters market, nothing will encourage people to come the Quins until a community is built through stability of tenure encouraging a love of the sport, which is still to all intents and purposes, alien in the South.

yep bringing in another two teams with little fanbase and a drop by bratford primarily are the rerasons. Take out our 3 teams with no fans and we wouldn't be far of RU crowds. If Ru had a team in Hull, St Helens and Bradford in their top league their crowd average would suffer.

HKR's crowd is as big as it will get until the ground improvements happen. Hull's crowd still has capacity to grow by a couple of thousand if they get a consistently winning team, St's should increase by a couple of thousand if and when they get a new ground. We know Bradford has the capacity to increase. so with some ground improvements, team improvements and the slack 3 pulling their socks up or being booted out I see no reason why wouldn't overtake RU in years to come.

My hatred of Wigan RL and Wigan FC didn't stop me supporting Orrell RUFC , even when Whelan and Lindsay owned the lot . Why should hatred of Quims RUFC prevent support of the only RL in town ?

Not all RU fans will automatcically love RL , but my own personal experience of my own family and friends proves that many people like both .

Certainly those RU fans who enjoy back play , can find plenty to enjoy in RL . Admittedly those RU fans who go for the scrums/lineout/rucks/mauls/contest for possesion won't .

Manipulated stats.....OK.....I can do them
Wakey.
2008 season, 90,493 fans/13 = 6,961 average
2009 season, 64,262 fans/11 = 5,842
Adjusted 2009 season figures less Salford (6,57icon_cool.gif
57,684 fans/10 = 5,768....a full 20% down.

Look, this isn't a witch hunt, I was just pointing out that Wakey have lost 20% of their gate revenue this season......I didn't expect the spanish inquisition

I believe that overalll attendane at sl games this seaon is 2% down pro-rata

thats not good with two extra teams in

Nope, it is with the same amount of games so it is probably up overall.

No more silly double/trebble headers....27 games per team with 1 odd game for MM. 13 home games to get your average against 13 different teams.), so the same figure to comapare against last year.
2% is actually a good result, given that for example Wigan had Wakey (avg 12,626)and Leeds (avg 14,850) twice last year only to have 1 game replaced by salford (11,550) and Celtic (12,371) this.
All in all, League in general has weathered this seasons recession quite well in both the Sooperdooperleague and the chumpionship...unless we are talking about wakefield that is
In fact....without celtic, we would be on 3,653..........up 4%....Kick the welsh out...what do they bring to the game.........

I make the average attendance for SL fixtures this year where there was a corresponding fixture last year (basically excluding fixtures involving Salford and Celtic) is 9,850. The average attendance for SL fixtures last year where the corresponding fixture has been played this year is 9,816. So pretty much no change in comparable fixtures.

Total AVERAGE (less Celts and Salford) attendance this year to date is 116156 as against 118,282 in 2008........so as near as damn it, -2%.
Still got a few games to play but all in all, the fans are still coming through the gates..