A lot of inflated attendances that year as certain clubs had to impress

At celtic when we visted they had 2 coach loads of german tourists in there on a freebie , not to mention an awful lot of service personnel , and a whole load of people who had been to watch the 2 previous matches , then left half way through our game

As for salford they had the 6,500 attendance against Swinton , an attendance they have not been able to match in SL since

Toulouse was supposed to make the Championship ' sexy ' , but that hasn't happened either

Leigh were supposed to get more fans because we have a shiny new stadium , that hasn't happened either

Shame really , the actual competition is very tight , but not enough seem to be too bothered

Not forgetting the current economic climate- thats another reason to spread the game out of the North, no one has any money

Have a look at Skolars crowds they are sexy

I'll reply with this post from waterfields finest on the Leigh board discussing the same subject at the moment



I'd like to see the results of a survey on the actuall ages of the fan bases outside SL ?

I remember when Huddersfield came down in 2001 , we played them at the McAlpine [ as was ] I remarked at the time that there were very few children in the home crowd , and that we quite possibly outnumbered them

This is one of the reasons I dont want leigh to get a franchise , a potential 3 year holiday at the bottom of SL would kill a whole generation of support , were as 1 year in normal P and R would not

but hey ho , we have what we have , and what will be will be

The people of Leigh (not singling them out) don't seem interested in the spectacle of the sport now, would they really be any more interested just because the opposing teams changed?

Probably not

Especially if they are Hunslet , York or Blackpool

Saints , Wigan and Wire might get them going a bit more

Another one from the Leigh board , this time from ' Leyth '




I attended NL 1 GF,s as a neutral when promotion was at stake , I saw fans crying both in joy and dissapointement , I witnessed none of that last year , and doubt I will this year

Why? Would they really be more entertained watching their team getting spanked by Bradford than seeing a tight contest with Sheffield?

Probably not , but those wins against London and Wakey , and Ganson robbing us of a point against Hull could possibly make up for it

I still don't get it Starbug. From the sounds of things, everything that has been done to open up the game and make it a more appealing spectacle is irrelevant, and all fans are bothered about is who the opposition are?

You dont get it do you , it is sport , emotion , tribal controlled violence

Why do we like,love,need sport ?

Basically to stop us killing each other

An appealling spectacle

You are right , you really dont get ' it '

I brought this point up on ages on your board in pre season when I was having my 'Leigh board' holiday and was laughed out of the place.
Dont start pretending its a fair comment now.

Will putting in Keighley Cougars solve this problem?

Plenty do prefer football, they might not necessarily watch Leigh Genesis but the pubs are packed for football games on the box, and there are thousands in Leigh who have season tickets at Bolton, Wigan, Man Utd & Man City. I don't think there would be too many Bolton or Latics fans had franchising been brought in to football and left them consigned to the lower leagues for all eternity in the way that RL clubs are perceived to be.

Well we know football fans don't go to watch the spectacle of the game itself, because it's always poor. Never has anything been as incorrectly named as "The Beautiful Game"

Why is it franchising is always seen as "consigning to the lower leagues for all eternity" which it never has been.
It's simply a way of requiring more than a single set of results from a single team to decide the league a club play in.