You do understand what REGULAR SEASON means don't you?

Also note the discussion above about the difficulty on selling as many tickets on short notice....especially a club who had its fans saving for Wembley and who went down in larger numbers this year than the 2014 Cup Final.

I know you want to be negative but don't do it at the expense of forgetting all common sense.

It doesn't. It wasn't about that. You suggested people couldn't afford 2 weeks of paying out in a row. I replied by suggesting you can sell package deals to people.


Not really. Playoff games suffer because you only know who you're playing and where and when a week beforehand. But also because they're all pay games. The Super 8's aren't all pay, they're season ticket games.
If you can alleviate the issue of the short turn around, by making the turn around longer, you alleviate the reduction in crowds.


Why? Do regular season games suffer from poor attendances after a Magic Weekend, Cup Final or international? Generally not. It's the short turnaround that's the issue.

Despite being a working class game, I'd suggest most RL fans can actually afford tickets to non season ticket games like internationals. It's just we generally don't give them enough of an incentive or a push to do so and they, understandably, decide to spend their money somewhere else.
If we said watch England v France at Salford for say £15/20 and you get money off watching your own club at the Magic Weekend it's providing a little extra nudge to watch both. Plus it gives clubs an extra week to organise their first Super 8 or Qualifier game and crucially get those hospitality spaces filled.
If we went with a set system whereby 1st plays 3rd in Week 1 etc it'd give clubs nearly 3 weeks as a minimum to get things organised. As the fixtures would be known immediately after the final regular season game.

If they feel the structure needs tweaking a bit then go for it but for goodness sake dont change it for the sake of it.
This has been the most exciting season for most clubs for donkeys years,so many mixed emotions all over these forums and on twitter, instead of the normal 'god im bored,im not getting a ST next season cos theres nothing to play for guff that we endured under licencing.

I have no desire to be negative.....just accurate.

Blake Solly was interviewed on Radio 4 (yes....that's BBC radio 4) a few days back and he declared that he expected the regular season attendances to be static compared to 2014. How does this compare to his bravado at the start of the year:
“We have some bold targets: we want to sell out 10 Super League matches over 2015 and we want to see all our sponsors who are on board this year back again for 2016. We want to see bigger TV audiences on Sky and the BBC and we want to ensure our fans have the best season they’ve ever had.”
[urlhttp://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/01/super-league-revolutionary-look-blake-solly[/url

The two bits I've bolded are of interest, given TV figures for SKY are down on 2014 and we've had 1 full house that I can recall (Wigan on good Friday). The BBC semi-final figures were released as quickly as the actual CC Final ones weren't and retaining foxy bingo and big soup is hardly a 'target"

On the last bit, regarding fans having the best season ever......average attendances are down. Having more games to get more people through the gates isn't a master stroke, it's milking what you've got and fans will eventually pick and choose when and where they spend their money.

Isn't that the whole point of the Super 8's and every minute matters, because every single point you make earlier in the season affects your chances at the end. If you reset the points, very few of the minutes matter, and none matter at all once you're mathematically-certain of making the eight.

The play-offs might be a better way. At least it's competitive then.

Exactly, at the time no one would've blinked too much of an eye when Widnes winning by 2 points over Warrington concede a try with 30 secs left. But if they hadn't have done they wouldn't have found themselves in the Middle 8's.

Leeds vs Salford, people focus on how poor Salford were. That Leeds put on 70 on them instead of 30/40 could yet be the difference in terms of the LLS if it comes down to points difference.

7/12 of this weeks fixtures are dead rubbers. 3 of the "live games" are sorting out home advantage in the semi-finals whilst all the real excitement is in the middle 8's.......Blake Solly will crap his pants if Bradford go up, because it would decimate the 2016 Championship crowds



Wire v Catalans
Sheffield v HKR (if you think Sheffield stand a chance of going up you're nuts)
Haven v Doncaster
Widnes v Salford
Batley v Hunslet
Dewsbury v Workington
Fev v London
...all dead games.

If Leeds and Wigan win this week, then 6 from 8 will be dead rubbers. If Bradford beat leigh this weekend it'll be 8/8...If I am wrong and Leeds, Wigan and Bradford lose this week then it's 4/8 next week

That's 55%, 65%or possibly 75% of the fixtures in the next 2 weeks having no impact on the 3 comps.....every moment doesn't count...no matter what way it's spun!

No not every single minute will matter, but you bed wetters need to calm down about some 'tag line' they used that they came up because of people just like the ones complaining on here who said the old system meant that "games didn't matter".

I've seen Premiership titles in football be decided with 2\3 games to spare.....I've seen Aguero have to score a 92nd minute winner in the last game to clinch a title.

Some years you'll get close, some years you won't.

Saints won a GF thanks to a Sean Long DG, Leeds beat Saints by 33-6 in another GF. Sometimes you get close sometimes you don't. Only idiots would expect close every single year.

Yes they've called it "every minute matters".....some can be reasonable and realise it's just tag line. Others can screech about how Sheffield's last game of the season won't not mean anything and the 'tag line' is all a fraud.

.......what about the 10 sold out Super League games? Was that just a tag-line? Or the "increased" SKY viewing figures?
They expected fireworks and got a damp matchstick......the system is flawed in that Wakefield have been preparing for this and picking their games since Easter. The same team that got hammered at the weekend will now win 3 on the trot against lower ranked teams........Halifax, Sheffield and another championship side. They don't care about losing to HKR, Widnes and Salford.........the know exactly what they have to do! How is that system not flawed?

The top 3 of the bottom 8 were known before the last 7 games started......the home semi-finalists with 4 weeks to go....how is that not flawed?

If you're going by a team knowing it's fate well before the end then nearly every system is 'flawed' or you keep the Top 8 playoff system in which the very same posters complained rewards mediocre teams.

Which do you want?

Yes, the RFL will fire off sound bites about games selling out etc. that's marketing for you (thought you knew about that with selling hotdogs at NZ games?). What exactly do people want? For the RFL to downplay the new format and say we'll only see minimal difference the first year?.....Then you of all people would criticise them for downplaying and not marketing the sport properly.

If you were in charge would you go for the tag line "every minute MIGHT matter.....providing the teams placed 7th/8th do enough in the first 23 Rounds"......yeah very catchy and likely to pull punters in.....hell but at least you could say to yourself you were accurate in case Hull FC couldn't qualify for the Top 4 with 2 games remaining,

We had a top 8 playoff system that people complained was too generous.

We now have a Top 4 playoff system peopl complain is too harsh.

What we've truly learnt most from the various systems is that some RL fans are miserable 'insert swear word' who just love to complain about anything.

I'd never have retreated north to the heartlands and pulled up the drawbridge once we passed Coventry.

The only excitement in our domestic sport this year is who from Wigan or Saints will play Leeds at Old Trafford and if Leigh or Bradford might get the chance to replace Wakefield.........now, take a second here......go to google maps and draw a encompassing circle around those places on a map! Come sponsorship renewal time. I see brains faggots being a front runner.....



This system was designed to make it look like the RFL were forward thinking but I see nothing to change the dominance of the top 3 and I see nothing to get us away from a pay as you go sponsor!