Yep the 70's were indeed grim.

But if you weren't around then, he has a point ?

In this case, yes.

We might have lower attendances than this time last year, for one reason or another....but looking at the numbers so far, I just don't buy this "what the heck is going on" mentality. The fact that the attendances are not (in my opinion) drastically different from the last few years leads me to think that there are currently far bigger problems in the sport that need addressing. I just don't buy into these attendance panic stations that so many on here seem to do. Sorry.

The league is made up of clubs, so a club specific issue is an issue for all of us ( even if diluted by 14 to 1). Besides, there is never a single issue when it comes to attendances. There's are reasons people don't watch Huddersfield, just like there are reasons people don't watch London and Salford. They are complex and multi-faceted, but no way are they only due to specifc issues at those clubs.

Fair enough, but if its a drop of 10% or more ( maybe it won't be, but my money's on something slightly more than 10) that's a pretty serious drop in one season. If you were running a business and couldn't see an obvious explanation ( ice cream van in a wet summer, say) then I reckon you'd be pretty keen to find out what was going on. I think you DO need to react quickly ( call it panic if you like ) because crowds are a lot easier to lose than to win back. Much rather we over react than under react.

I'm only young but I wouldn't say the game now is in a worse state than it was in the late 90's. We have 14 full-time professional clubs operating with full staff and squads of 25 in front of an average crowd of around 10,000. We certainly aren't worse off than 48k at the '98 GF and a disastrous 2000 WC.

In house, we aren't doing a bad job. I do feel, however, that the games profile outside it's fan base is probably as low as ever. I live with 6 Uni students all from different corners of England and the names they know are Sean Long and Keith Senior. Their prime was 8 years ago.

I feel a lot hinges on the World Cup this year. We'll get some sort of spotlight for the first time in a long time and there needs to be some sort of strategy in keeping the interest alive and keeping those fans who get a bit interested, involved. Big challenge.

Let's see if we have a 10% drop over the WHOLE season before we drop the flags to half mast shall we?

And anyway, do you know that the clubs and the RFL aren't working in the background to try and improve crowds or find out why they are down so far? Just because they don't come out with announcements pandering to the doom mongers doesn't mean they aren't working across the board to improve things.

edit

The Mid- late 80's in that ramshackled palace called Fartown was very dark !!! sometimes i'd love to just stand on that terrace again !!

Ah yes!! Please can I go back to the Boulevard.

1) No, let's not wait hey, when the blatantly obvious is staring us in the face.

2) No, I don't know what the RFL are doing, but on past evidence I'll make the reasonable assumption that its currently a toss-up between "sod-all" accompanied by a press release highlighting how they're up for some Mickey Mouse award, or "random direction-less 'marketing' initiative", also accompanied by a press release highlighting how they're up for some Mickey Mouse award.

I've been watching rugby league & leeds since i was about 9 about 1995ish and I really think this is a fantastic era

it depends on how you depend an era!?

Just looking 10 or so years back, we had a super league full of imports with only two teams that ran away with everything (Saints & Bulls) and less people attending games

now we have probably 6 teams that are competitive at the top all with new or up to standard stadia all pulling over 10k crowds.

with more young british talent coming trough than I can remember in my short time watching this game

we have a healthy GF & CC getting 150k spectators and millions in tv audience...plus a pretty healthy WCC that seems to be going from strength to strength

Good grief. Who is this heretic, coming onto our doom laden forum with tales of optimism and well being. Be off with you!!

All the more reason to act quickly when it looks like we're heading backwards.

Tell me what to do, and I'll do it.