On the other hand, last year we faced the reigning champions, this year we faced a struggling mid-table side who battled relegation.

On the other hand, this year we faced the reigning champions, last year we faced a team who had broken the salary cap for over half the previous season to avoid the Middle 8’s and their own relegation battle

An "average" attendance figure is not normally collated until the sides have played at least 2 home games.....the claim the current attendances as averages is just daft, regardless of if you're in support or not of the crowds we get. Thus my mirth!

Typically, the first home game of the season and Derbies are the best attended games, so in reality I wouldn't count "average" gates 'til we're half way through the season.

Warrington's gates were 1,800 and 1,200 up on last years respectively......that is a positive.....and I hope it continues as a trend, because Widnes being replaced by London is going to hit a few sides from the part of the country.

On the topic of "the number of London fans", I believe there were more than a hundred at the AJB on Sunday....many of whom won't have got home to close to Midnight....excellent effort and one that they are expected to do every fortnight and not just once a year.

Midnight CJM? The game finished before 5pm so they should have all been home by 10.

If the game finished at 5 they would probably just be getting out of the car park by 8

Nice try but since the link road was put in getting to/away from the ground is a hell of a lot easier. It's no longer a valid excuse for home/away fans to avoid the AJ Bell.

The Broncos Supporters group (both of them) arranged a coach to Salford, leaving Trailfinders at 8.30am.......once the occupants were safely returned to Ealing at about 10pm, there would then be a fair amount of "onward" travel, as I doubt many hail from Ealing......so midnight would be a fair assessment.
I arranged trips to wakey and wales back in the quins days.....getting back to the stoop at 9 was still 3 hours away from home for a great many fans.....and remember, London's core faithful do this every second week......

Didn't help that much at the Wigan preseason game, I was the only one trying to head that way, but because there isn't a filter lane for it, I was stuck in the queue of everyone heading to the other junction for about 30 mins.

Been to AJ Bell severel times, apart from the first time when the stadium first opened i gave not found it that difficult ir too ling to get out of the official car park. Its not any worse than the KC main car park or Wigan. Last year was out and away in Motorway about an hour after final whistle. hull kr parked about a mile away probably took 30 minutes to get out if stadium and walk through crowds to car, then about 10-15 in traffic to get clear, it probably seems worse and longer er at Salford as you are often just sat not moving for about half hour.
Its just become one of those great myths/lies and an easy excuse to not go. Same with local fans fans complaining they ground is too far away just because its not at the end of their street anymore.

To follow London home and away is a fair effort and becomes akin to the most dedicated soccer fans, who make a day of it, whether the game is at the weekend or midweek evening kick off.
It's a world away from the "traditional" RL fan who can (or at least could) get to home and away games, within a couple of hours in each direction and usually be back in their local for last orders and this is a tricky part of spreading the game.
Fans that are used to travelling home and away can no longer easily do this and to any fans of the overseas expansion clubs, it's never going to be a realistic option.
We've all read your signature and whilst clubs shouldn't rely on away fans to boost their gates, the type of fans that are now "wanted" by the sport are no longer the week in week out dyed in the wool fans, who follow their side everywhere. "We" would now prefer the type of fans that cherry pick their games but have loadsamoney and would rather take on full hospitality etc, etc. Unfortunately, there just aren't the numbers of fans that can/want to do this and all the time, the "traditional" fans are being sidelined.

To be fair to London, if they're averaging say 1000 home fans per match then taking 10% of their fans to Salford last week was a pretty decent effort. I'm a season ticket holder at Salford City FC (yes, the plastic club before anyone points it out...

) and for long distance trips (London & further south) we've been averaging around 100-150 and that's based on an average of around 2500 home fans. For "derbies" like Fylde, Halifax & Wrexham we took around 400-450. Those coaches are heavily subsidised by the club though and even for the longest trips we only have to fork out £15 (Dover is near on 600 mile round trip).

For Salford Rugby, we took in the region of 1500 to Huddersfield for the first game on a Friday night. Bearing in mind we have a core support of maybe 3000 that either means we have a lot of hard-core fans or we have a lot of people that will turn up for a few beers and a trip out 4 or 5 times a season when it's a local derby! I'd imagine for Wigan and Wire away we'll take 1000 or so which based on % of fans that's pretty decent effort. Will Wigan and Leeds be bringing a third of their average home gate (4k or so) to the AJ Bell?

Bingo! competing against ourselves.