Sky Sports biggest viewing figures for a R.L. game was Saints v little old Salford smashed the previous record by thousands.

About time someone put this imbecile out of his misery.

Salford is also one of the few cities with a SL team. Something that someone forgot to mention further back in the thread...

salford 250k slightly ghtly less than Hull 260k (two pro Rl teams)
Warrington 200k. By my reckoning only Leeds, Hull, are bigger towns/cities in super league (excluding Toronto) and only Bradford, London outside of SL (excluding France)

City of Wakefield has 345,000, if you're counting the City of Salford being 250,000 - Both are the Metro areas.

.....what that's you say? Smoke and Mirrors you say? Nothing like that going on at the Wolfpack......move along, nothing to see here

They are only the "bigger teams" because they are successful and all 12 clubs can't be successful. We can call Salford out but they were getting crowds up to 10,000 when they were owned by Brian Snape and Watkins, Richards and Fielding were scoring 90 tries a season between them, and we can call Wakey out but watch "This sporting life" to see 28,000 people packed into Belle Vue at a time Wakey won the challenge cup three times in four years.

We suffer from a lack of rich owners, and a TV deal that doesn't fully cover the costs of being a professional game. What TWP bring to the game here is a mega rich owner. That's all.

Had Mr. Argyle been a massive Trinity fan I can tell you you would not be calling Wakey a small club. The two Brians talk rubbish because they are paid to do so, but the problem with us letting one rich owner buy in a World class X111 from around the globe all on half a ££Million a year is that it would kill the game here. That "kind of" dominance (albeit nowhere near what the Brains trust suggest) we saw in the 1990's from Wigan, was killing the game not making the sporting world sit up and take notice - Crowds dropped badly in those years..

So I don't buy your "bigger teams" argument with the utmost respect to you - many people see it your way - it's far far more subtle than that.

With all due respect to Wigan, and they are undeniably a huge RL club far bigger than my own, I'm not disputing that, I see the achievements of Leeds 2004 - 2017 as far greater sporting success than what Wigan did 25-30 years ago. Doing it in a salary cap era is a lot tougher than doing it when you have a budget that dwarfs everyone else's without exception. Look at the Premier League where mid sized clubs Chelsea and Man City suddenly came across winning lottery tickets and lo and behold won far more in a few years than they had in over a century previously. Their trophies are meaningless in the eyes of anyone out with their own fanbases. PSG have killed the French league after a similar takeover. Football can cope because of it's huge global popularity, but if Toronto were allowed to do a Man City then Super League would be dead in five years as everyone here just thinks, "forget it".

Very well put, sir.
Many, many clubs have been Champions at some point in time but, too many people would cast them aside and dismiss all of the games history.
some of the once great clubs have fallen by the wayside and some will never rise again.
Those in charge, of the game and of individual clubs are only custodians for a relatively short time and all of these people should be trying to leave their clubs and the sport in better condition than where it was when they became involved.

We should be trying to enrich the game and spread the gospel to others but, alas, it's all down to who has the deepest pockets and sod the rest.