A couple of my work colleagues regularly go to RU internationals and big club games.....they have never paid for a ticket yet.

Possibly but only because BT Sport were showing it free to view.

There were lots of tickets on discount at websites like Groupon and Wowcher (£13 adult, £5 child), and I'm sure they had plenty of prize competitions and freebies to clubs.

Couple of genuine points. The first I knew of this game was when I saw someone in attendance post a picture on twitter, other than that I have seen or read nothing to make me know about this game. Whilst the Rugby Union are undoubtedly good at marketing big events I think it is fair to say that the average person will know more about Super League than they do the Aviva Premiership, even if that knowledge is limited.

Secondly, I would love to know out of that 80,000 how many have been to a game prior to it this year and how many will go again in 2014 to a domestic game. I'd wager not many as a %.

Same on every thread. I know the point of forums is to get traffic and these wits are good in the short term but they won't be good for the long term when the normal posters leave.

I'm at my last wits with the VT. I came on during my lunch hour the other day and clicked on four different threads, all four had been hijacked by the same two people (no prizes for guessing who). What started as provoking debate has just become dull and repetitive.

There were nowhere near 80,000 there, the commentators were joking about it themselves, more like 50,000 , which is still a considerable amount, and shows how good the RU are at marketing these events

The relevance to RL stops there

sadly this is just not true. I was at Wembley yesterday and whilst it took a while to build, 5mins after kick off I estimated about 85000....official att was given as slightly less but looked about right.

As I said, the commentators were joking about it , it was around 60% full, there were nothing like 80,000

It was just convenient that they announced a new World Record, slightly higher than previous

My friend is a Saracens fan and whilst this isn't the first time they've attracted a huge crowd to a Wembley staged game she says it has little impact in increasing their regular attendances.

That said, I couldnt imagine a regular SL tie between say, Wigan & Saints, even half filling Old Trafford , regardless of lots of cheap/discounted tickets.

and As I said.... I was there....idiot

and counted each person individually to prove the point

Whether there were 8 or 80000 there makes no difference if the product is not that good , but hey, people like McDonalds, Lager and Coronation Street so........

Saracens can obviously afford to rent wembley for the day and make a loss so fair play to them but its embarrassing to then turn round and claim a world record when clearly there was never 83,000 attendance.

And?

Saw it on telly and did not switch over just after kick-off, Wembley holds 90,000, there were a lot of people who obviously never left the hospitality bars if there was over 80,000 there.

However, why does it matter?

It doesnt, as I posted earlier it just shows that the RFU are quite good at marketing, and that there are enough idiots out there to be marketed to, obviously those who attended

There are no RL clubs that are breaking any pots with regards crowds, so no comparisons are actually relevant