Ah your right, we should just abandon the international game altogether, I'm sure the developing nations would appreciate not having to take part in such a fiasco.

I'm prepared to give it a chance, yes the track record isn't great so far but at the end of the day, we are gonna have the top players in the world playing against each other live - it always has a chance to be great.

Whilst I cant prove 'chicken licken flatcap P+R fanatic RFL criticising nonsense botherers' like you are arent right, i can take comfort in the fact your havent been so prevoiusly.

It is up to the fans to make the WC a success. However most will sit at home then complain about low attendances.

This is correct.

Did anyone care about Bryn Hargreaves last week? Why should we care now? He's not even going to ruddy union!!! If he was good enough, another club would sign him. He obviously thinks he's worth more than the market suggests. Tough.

Who cares about any Rl player except tomkins?

The challenge facing the WC is motivating people disillusioned with the game to support it, we do not have the 'we are in it together' spirit anymore as we had at the 1995 event.

You don’t.

Don’t presume you speak for a majority of the game

That's spot on. And it's worth noting that the RFL have managed to sell the TV rights in spite of the apathy of many of those who profess to care about the sport. Who is, and more pertinently who isn't, playing their part here?

Well said bryn Hargreaves. SL has been slowly falling apart. Superficial stats like record attendances cover up the fact that things are bad.

Any one who can't figure out why it's record crowds shouldn't be boasting how good the sports finance is. We have 14 clubs, which is more than we have had in super league before. And instead of having crusaders we have Widnes, a club that attract more fans week in week out. We also have a couple of new stadiums. Which means people will go to see them in the first year an might not go again (both home and away fans). This is superficial growth. In fact, I am surprised that people have actually fallen for this, it seems so obvious to anyone who thinks about it. I actually feel sorry for the rfl that they have to use this as a massive win for them.

As for the tv money, we get much higher viewing figures than the aviva prem, take a guess at who receives more money from tv?

People need to wake up and smell to poop the rfl are feeding you. They are a governing body who don't even know what kind of trouble they are facing. They are turning a blind eye to problems because they are to big to think about, and instead feed us some stupid stats.

How many clubs are either dependant on a sugar daddy, or in financial trouble. I can only think of 3 or 4 who I can say are being run with no problem.

The cap has been at the same level for god knows how many years. As a player you are becoming more and more poor each year as inflation rises, and there is no chance of earning more (if you take the players as a whole) as the cap prevents that. The fact the cap hasn't risen, and we still have so many clubs unable to reach it tells you this game is in massive trouble.

But don't worry, we have more people at the matches this year so everything is good.

The record attendance is an average figure which accounts for the increase in teams. We have more people, per match, as well as more people as a whole. This was the case prior to Widnes replacing Crusaders aswell.

Fans of RL must be the only set of fans in the entire world who will ignore a fact that shows the game in a positive light and make one up to show it in a negative light just so they have someone to criticise. Its like some people would rather the game suffer and they were proved right, than have the game grow because it means they were wrong, the RFL were right and they would have to praise them. These are apparently fully grown adults. Its embarrassing, If RU joined forces with Goebbels they couldnt hope to spread negativity and mistruths about the game as well as a certain section of the games supposed fanbase.

Never has the old adage been truer than in RL, With friends like these…………

Brilliant! I laughed out loud in the office when I read that line.

I wonder why we have more people per match? might have something to do with having a magic weekend in manchester (which i think is a positive, might as well have it where all the fans can get to) which help the figure out. 88,425 turned up for the 2 days, which was the 2nd highest ever attendance for a round of matches ever. Again, it helps having Widnes in the league as it brings a derby for Wire (more fans will turn up) as well as the general fact they will bring more to Manchester than crusader would bring to a Magic weekend.



I dont mean that to mean good attendance figures mean nothing. but these are clearly helped by a number of factors that are nothing to do with growth of the game. last season saints played away from home, this season they had a new stadium (away fans might go this season to see it and not go again, some home fans might turn up this season to take a look and not go again) same with Salford. Then we have widnes, a massive boost to the game compared to crusaders. then we have had fans turning up to bradford only because of the situation they have been in. these are one off factors that will not contribute to long term growth of our game.

i would be over the moon if these figures carried on next season, but i honestly cant see it. we have been fortunate to have a number of factors help out this season.

There would be a record average at the other games too. But it is clearly among the most idiotic things I have seen, that you are saying that record attendance figures aren’t records because we have gone out of our way to do things to increase attendance. I am absolutely astounded by the idiocy. So what if MM increases the average attendance, this is a good thing, this is why we do it you great big wazzock.

And again, you are, quite literally, arguing the game hasnt grown because attendances have grown due to 'other factors'. Do you seriously not realise what kind of grade A nonsense that is? Its a level of logic a three year old would laugh at.

People criticise the RFL for demanding better standards in stadia, clubs get those better standards in Stadia and experience an increase in attendance, people then criticise the RFL because attendence isnt increasing really, it is only increasing because clubs have improved their stadia, even though thats the whole reason the RFL demanded the improved their stadia, which they were criticised for doing in the first place. People criticise the RFL for the Magic Weekend, it results in the second highest attendance for a round of matches, people say that attendances arent increasing because of things like the Magic Weekend are inflating them, even though the reason we have a Magic Weekend is so people go watch it. It is astoundingly stupid logic, i honestly cant fathom how the people who rely on it have managed to get on a computer and understand what the keyboard they are typing on is for.

Yes new stadia increased the attendance, yes the Magic Weekend has increased attendances, they are the reasons we have improved Stadia and why we have a magic weekend, the fact a rise can be attributed to these things dont discount or mitigate the acheivement in increasing attendances. They show, quite clearly, a traceable and obviously successful effort to increase attendances and the success RFL initiatives are seeing.