It should be down to the clubs though. They should know their businesses better than anyone else and they should know their audiences better than anyone else.

This year, Salford have marketed themselves as something of a "disrupter" in the game (the "Devilution", "Welcome to Hell" etc). Koukash's persona suits this branding very well and whatever praise or criticism you want to throw at him and Salford, there is no denying that they have got people talking. However, if the RFL is running the show, I suspect much of the effectiveness of that would be diluted. Salford, like every other club, would have to toe the party line - and that can do more harm than good. Fourteen seperate brands, all saying the same things, all looking the same and all (in effect) selling the same is a bloody terrible marketing proposition.

The other issue I have is that it limits clubs in targeting their marketing at the audiences they want to attract. Let's assume that the RFL set out to attract a family audience, yet a club like Leeds or Wigan decides that they have a good proportion of families already attending and instead, would like to focus on attracting high-value corporate customers - would those clubs still have to pay into a pot to attract customers that they already have enough of?

Well I know a family of Bulls season ticketholders, who chose to go and watch the TDF on both Saturday and Sunday.

They could not believe that the Bulls match was not arranged for the Friday. With a good bit of marketing they should have been able to put at least another 4K on that pitiful attendance.

Quote: Lebron James "Wakefield at home against one of the premier teams can only muster less than 5k??? Comes to something when people would rather watch a load of men wearing hotpants cycle past them. "Cool!! I just saw someone riding a bike, im going to faint through excitement". Our sport is on its rear end Regards King James'" You do know Trinity's ground capacity has been reduced this year don't you? www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/s ... -1-6407110 Which kind of explains why the crowd dropped from over 10k last year to 5k this year.

Quote: Lebron James "Wakefield at home against one of the premier teams can only muster less than 5k??? Comes to something when people would rather watch a load of men wearing hotpants cycle past them. "Cool!! I just saw someone riding a bike, im going to faint through excitement". Our sport is on its rear end Regards King James'" You do know Trinity's ground capacity has been reduced this year don't you? www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/s ... -1-6407110 Which kind of explains why the crowd dropped from over 10k last year to 5k this year.

I couldn't agree with this more. But the RFL should be putting together a strategy for the league to increase attendances at all levels which would include focussing on the target markets you have mentioned.

Some clubs have very limited resources and the RFL could assist them with communications, marketing materials etc. along with a 'league wide' strategy like they have in the NRL.

The RFL can certainly help put things in place to increase memberships at all levels, it is working in the NRL and in other sports.

I thought Wigan were getting it about right around 2010-2012 but it's gone a bit awry of the last couple of seasons. We got up to about 11k ST holders and managed to settle on an average of about 16k. This was helped by initatives such as the Big One, Heritage Day and St George's Day (admittedly all of which involved free/discounted tickets), alongside our big draws such as Saints, Warrington and Leeds. Since then ST holder numbers have dropped, our average has dropped by about 1500-2000 and the marketing initiatives seem a little less prominent.

There is a growing apathy amongst fans to the current league system, and I think a lot more fans are picking and choosing games rather than getting a ST. Moving games to first Mondays and now Thursdays for Sky won't have helped (the most recent one Wigan have had announced is HKR away which will likely see less than half that would have travelled for Sunday afternoon).

I hope both the RFL and the clubs are just going through the motions this year ready for a big push when the new structure kicks in (not holding my breath). For starters I think the clubs need to offer STs that cover both before and after the split (think I've read somewhere that Leeds are doing this, hopefully the rest follow suit). Hopefully with more to play for, a greater emphasis on finishing higher up the table and more games between the better sides there will be a natural increase in attendances anyway.

The real pitiful attendance was your lots appauling showing at Wakefield.

The Bulls got a bigger attendance despite playing Catalans and as you say on one of the days le tour was going through.

it's not Leeds job to fill Wakefields ground. Especially when it is a pretty poor one with God awful facilities kept open with chewing gum and goodwill

Quote: Maccbull_BigBullyBooaza "The real pitiful attendance was your lots appauling showing at Wakefield. The Bulls got a bigger attendance despite playing Catalans and as you say on one of the days le tour was going through.'" You do know Trinity's ground capacity has been reduced this year don't you? www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/s ... -1-6407110 Which kind of explains why the crowd dropped from over 10k last year to 5k this year. etc.

Quote: Maccbull_BigBullyBooaza "The real pitiful attendance was your lots appauling showing at Wakefield. The Bulls got a bigger attendance despite playing Catalans and as you say on one of the days le tour was going through.'" You do know Trinity's ground capacity has been reduced this year don't you? www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/s ... -1-6407110 Which kind of explains why the crowd dropped from over 10k last year to 5k this year. etc.

The RFL / SLE does provide much of this already. We have the SL website, SLTV and social media all centrally run from Red Hall. I'm sure there are other elements, but those are three major communications channels right there.

I accept that clubs have finite resources but again, I imagine that if you withheld some to the additional central funding that we now have until a club can submit and carry out a robust marketing plan with clear ROI tactics, they'd soon get their s in gear.

Going back to the Brian carney comments. He is absolutely right the best way to promote our game is to have house full signs at the majority of grounds.

And is that Hudds crowd with most fans still getting in with £50 passes?! :-O

If the bulk of any club's costs is its playing budget at current salary cap levels then it is in some trouble.

Billy's on his summer holidays and I don't see the point in repeating what the more insecure among you refuse to accept.....but don't fret. Next year with London out of the maths, "average" attendances will be on the rise and Knock Down Nigel will hail the success of his brave new dawn!