Head in the sand.

This kicked him off on his rant.

Its almost impressive the ability these people have to find the negative, and ignore the positive in something they are supposed to love.

What has James Milner done? havent seen him on twitter or in the news.

[i"The 27 rounds of the 2012 Super League season, which concludes with a Grand Final at Old Trafford on Saturday, were watched by 1.88m people, a healthy 6.7 per cent increase on 2011."[/i

Does anyone know how much of this increase relates to:

a) St Helens moving their home games back from Widnes to Langtree Park

b) Widnes being in SL rather than Crusaders

c) The Magic weekend moving to Manchester?

It can all be attributed to the things we, as a sport, have done to increase attendances, such as the examples you have given.

possibly your best yet.

Oh come on now Crusaders were kicked out of super league to allow a club able to get bigger attendances to take their place. Saint Helens getting a new stadium near their old one was entirely the RFL's doing - part of their development plan to increase attendances. Also its handy that the side replacing crusaders are supported by a company able to grant us such a fantastic sponsorship deal.

Theres nothing to see here, move on

I know,

Putting in place a franchise system that promoted the best prepared rather than the winners of the GF meant we promoted Widnes rather than a club who was totally unprepared in Featherstone had nothing to do with increasing attendances. That they put so much emphasis on getting new stadiums was just to annoy Cas and Wakefield fans, they never actually expected anyone to get them, its just coincidence that both Salford and St Helens have got them and both saw a massive increase in attendance. And they moved the Magic Weekend to Manchester out of laziness really, not to get more people to go, so we cant include that.

If we remove the results of the things the game did to improve attendances, you will see attendances haven’t improved at all. Its all spin spin spin.

Why cant the RFL just give us the facts? Why cant they just tell us if more people are attending? If more are watching on TV? If the game is able to give more money to its member clubs? If outside bodies are recognising the good work the RFL are doing?

Why hasn't Lewis been replaced,yet ?
Why is a non-executive director making 2 statements which are released to the public ?
With a putatively family-friendly sport,which no longer approaches alcohol,nicotine or gambling related sponsors,
why does he name-drop soccer players who have made press reports for all the wrong reasons ?
What plans are there for the future when it seems supporters of the International game,Super League and Championship all have reasons to complain ?
Will p+r return for 2013 ? Will play-offs continue ? Has there been any interviews with people inside the sport to replace Lewis ? Is there a shortlist ?
Is there any significance in the timing of this statement ?
Was the decision to grant Bradford a one year probationary license approved by SLE ?

I am all for spin but don't expect everyone to be fooled, keep admiring those robes. FWIW if Fax replaced London then 2013 would go up as well, but neither that nor Widnes replacing Wales is good for our sport despite the crowd increases.

This is a RL website populated by RL fans, like any sports website we will be more critical due to knowledge. The piece probably did a great job enhancing the perception of a successful sport to the uneducated of Greater Manchester but it is a bit like having 10% inflation and 3% interest on your savings whilst singing the praises of how much more money you have in the bank.