You expect heartland fans to watch non SL , so why not expansion area fans ?

Crusaders should have worked although Moss and co put pay to that. After a good season last year they then shift games to Friday which equals a drop in gates. The mess moss and co got Wrexham fc in has led to those potenial fans boycotting Cru games.

And we all know the reason behind yesterday decision. They want to sell the ground to build flats on. They are messing around with Wrexham supporters trust leading to which that Wrexham & Crusaders will be wound up in the next few weeks.

I'd suggest theres more to it than that

The record attendance was for a friday game and the third best attendance in 2010 was for a friday night game against Catalans, the corresponding fixture for Catalans this season was about 40% down. Wakefield last season was on a friday yet got a higher attendance than this season. As the 2010 season progressed the average attendence was falling anyway so the current season is a continuation of that and the novelty effect of SL rugby in Wrexham wearing off.

That catagorically does not exist

, we have been told time and time again on these boards

Good post. Whether fans like it or not Harlequins are vital it making sure we go forward as a sport. Yes they get poor attendances and struggle financially against the other teams. But Salford only get around a 1000 more fans, and thier a heartland club. So all fans slating Quins attendances need to look at the heartlands attendances because they not THAT much better.

The main reasons we have Quins is mainly because of the TV contract. SKY won't pay £90million for a TV cntract where itonly audience will be on the M62 corridor. even though 90% of the audience will be on the M62 corridor, it doesn't look good for the RFL when trying to get a new contract, that all the teams are in one area.

Another slight point is that amount of kids playing the game. Take Quins away again, and all these schools stop playing RL. This will impact massively on the funding the RFL get. Without this funding the heartland clubs will struggle financially.

But if so many kids are playing RL in London now, why aren't the crowds reflecting this?

The same reason why thousands of kids up and down the country play Union, League, football and cricket but dont go to games.

The local non league footie team has god knows how many junior and women teams do any of these kids go. I dont know the reason but it happens across the board and not just London RL.

Why would kids playing the game have any bearing on the number of fans watching Harlequins RL?

how many people playing the game has nothing to do with people going to watch games, i played the game for years in different teams, and at my calculation only 5 or 6 out at least 120 i played with watch pro RL. a few more i know go to big matches but not regular games.

Because usually if you start playing a sport at a young age it's because you are interested in it. Therefore if you become interested you usually want to go and support a local team. Therefore, with Fulcrubronquins being the only SL experiment in London you would expect any kid playing who wants to watch a live game to go watch FCBQ. So, if thousands of kids in the capital are playing RL (as we are told), wouldn't FCBQ's crowds have gone up even just a bit in recent years rather than down?

remember parents have to take the kids!