Isn't the whole point the game needs t attract and retain new supporters. Has research ever been conducted as to why it fails to do this? New people go to games but often don't return - why? Are they bored or is it for other reasons?

My football supporting friends have said one of the reasons is the sport messes around with the structure of the league on almost an annual basis. Top 5/Top 8 playoffs, now we have middle eights, million pound game. Too confusing and too much chopping and changing for those with a mild passing interest to even think about getting into it.

I have heard this many times but then I think back to when I first went to a game as a ten year old never having seen team sport played live or on TV (well over 50 years ago) I had no idea what a league was, the rules of the game or who Hull KR were? I am not even sure I knew it was rugby of any kind. What I do remember was the excitement when a break occurred a try was scored ar a big hit made, I was hooked for life. Maybe life was simpler then but I had no idea where my team was in the league if they were a good side or not just that from then on they were my team. What we should be doing is getting as many people through the gates as we can especially young kids to feel as I did back then. As a quick thought I remember three or four of the lads from school I went with & I don’t think many went again much so I would like to know what percentage of first timers are hooked & what kept them coming back that might help the game understand what it needs to do.

double

Oh Buddy......how long have you got?
It's only useless in your eyes because it paints them in a better light than League, but the reality is they have gone from an average of 5k in 1998, to an average close to 3 times that in 2 decades whilst in the same period we've gone from 7k to 8.5k...but yeah, it's a useless statistic
...here's another useless statistic.....Harlequins RU v Northampton Saints, December 30th 2017 attendance 77,825......that's more fans for a regular season fixture than attended 11 home games at either Salford, Leigh, Wakefield, Huddersfield or Widnes ALL SEASON in 2017.....useless stats eh....aren't they just terrible at underlining how poor we are at marketing ourselves....here, try this one for size....the first Heineken Cup final in Union saw 21,800 people watch a French and Welsh team play in wales...the 19th and last one saw a French and English side play in Cardiff with 67,500 watching.....bloody useless these stats.
Union may well be as sick a puppy as we are in terms of finance, but everywhere else they are at least relevant on the UK and European sporting stage...

Other reasons...regardless of the romantic ideal of some, RL fans are rough and gruff and working class folk.......not a bad thing essentially, but not aspirational middle class Britain that we all believe we've become. £90 a ticket to watch Chelsea screams "I am worth having".....£10 a ticket to the CC Final screams we are cheap and nasty.

Ageing fan base... I go the the HJ to watch Wire and there are loads of young people in attendance, LOADS! And we won’t be the only club where that’s the case.

Decrepit stadia... Headingly, KCom, Langtree, HJ, DW, John Smiths, AJ Bell, Gilbert Brutus are all fine stadiums and with a bit of work so would Craven Park be... Cas have an old stadium but it’s always full so it looks good anyway

Half empty stadia... this is where we fall down. But we look better than every NRL game in that giant 90000 stadium in Sydney with 12000 fans in there every week. But compared to RU we do look empty. (It would help at Warrington if the cameras looked AT the standing stand as that is always full)

Spot on........... What Carter doesn't like is the chance of finishing 9th but being relegated....... The way Wakefield celebrate 8th spot is an embarrassment to the sport..... Survival should not be seen as succrss

Tell that to every Premier League, Championship, Lg1, Lg2, ANY football competition in the world when a team secures safety from relegation...

We are not a wealthy sport. Giving 1.8 million to teams to survive is not a luxury we can afford...... And it's not just wakey..... Salford and Widnes are in there along with Huddersfield......

There are only so many places in a league system and somebody has to be in every place, and with the player pool we have it doesn’t matter which club that is because it’s the same players playing for whoever makes up the league.

London are doing OK in the 2nd tier and are developing talent..... Their kids have been really impressive over the last couple of years.... Fax have 2 sides...... Clubs can produce players if they aren't threatened with relegation...... But the likes of wakey will spend the 1.8 on survival...... Widnes look like they've thrown in the towel this year..... Watch them prosper in the 2nd tier and develop more local Players

Occasional cheap tickets are fine, but in isolation they are not the answer. Whether it’s Camel racing, tug of war or Britain’s got talent contestants, to attract people who do not normally go to rugby games to attend, it needs to be an event with additional entertainment and the event needs to be marketed to get the word out.

This is taken from an old news article. Yes camel racing is a bit daft, but it’s sure to be talked about and it made the newspaper sports headlines (free marketing)

Saracens' hopes of making Wembley stadium a "home away from home" this season have suffered an untimely blip after stadium authorities banned the club from staging a camel race as part of the entertainment at Saturday's Premiership Big Day Out against Northampton.
Saracens' eventual goal is to replicate the huge attendances Stade Français have attracted in Paris with similar reduced-price ventures. The majority of tickets for the game are on sale at £10 for adults and £5 for children and the club's long-time backer Nigel Wray predicts the club will attract a crowd in excess of 90,000 within three years. "Over 10 years our average crowds have generally flatlined at Watford at around 8,500-9,000," said Griffiths. "If we can bounce an extra 3,000-4,000 out of Wembley to our game against Gloucester on 27 September, we start to get some momentum. Viewed in isolation it could be a loss-making exercise but you can only assess crowds over a whole season." In the camels' absence, entertainment will include a performance by Diversity, the winners of Britain's Got Talent, and a tug of war competition.

Can you imagine football doing something as stupid as having a major event at a stadium that this incredibly difficult to get to and giving fans almost no time to organise their tickets and travel. They may as well have played the Champions league final in a war zone. Oh wait.