When we talk about the 'same' game last season, you've got to take into account that this is 2nd game in, and includes first home games for clubs, so mostly, you'd expect attendances to be up slightly vs same opponents. Too early to say anything accurate, but superfically, it feels like we're a bit down so far. I predict roughly 10% down over the full season.

Except some games in the first 2 rounds have been played in poor weather but the corresponding fixture from last year was played in good weather in the summer. So you'd expect those attendances to be down a little.
Plus didn't Huddersfield and Bradford have cheap season ticket deals that they don't have this season?

Exactly this. Unless the matches were played at the same time as last season, then any comparison is worthless. But I suppose it keeps anoraks like William occupied.

Very easy, it was a very stupid post

He posed it because he's a troll of who likes to pretend he's making a genuine point.

There, question answered.

It's no more or less stupid than the RFL making bold claims after one round last year. It's more forgiveable mind you, because it's just a person putting a bit of text on a discussion board, as opposed to a statement made by a sporting governing body run by people on six-figure salaries.

Poppycock.

So let me get this straight, you think the sports governing body putting out positive spin is a stupid thing for the sport?. RL fans are a right set of miserable barstewards sometimes.

Exactly. It is the sports job to promote itself the best it can, to get good news stories out there.

Somehow, for reasons likely only known to them, some supposed fans of RL have decided that it is their job is to do the opposite. I am completely at a loss as to why they would want to spend their time, unpaid, doing so.

Grounds that are largely full, whether the year-on-year attendance for any given fixture is slightly up or slightly down, are suggestive of a sport in fairly robust health. There are simply too many gaps in the stands to suggest that this is the case although there are, of course, exceptions.

There's a difference between good news and transparent spin. If we ( the critics you dislike so much) thought the RFL were doing a good job) we might feel differently, but it frustrates when we see the RFL telling us what a good job its doing when we believe the opposite.

You may, and probably do, disagree. But it really is ridiculous to suggest that being a critic or a cheerleader of the sport's governance has anything to do with your loyalty as a fan of the sport. You can love the sport and hate (or love for that matter) the way its run. No contradiction. If you don't like the way its run, and seek to explain yourself, then you're naturally going to point out actions or outcomes that support your assertion that things aren't right.

As to 'why' - who knows? why does anyone bother to share any opinion? A lot of people do, though, and we'd be in a bad way if only positive comments were allowed. You've also got to remember that any board like this is going to have a 'negative' bias, for the obvious reason that people don't usually bother to post "I just wanted to say, I think everything is great".

I actually said "it's no more or less stupid" - would you like to explain specifically why the poster is [imore[/i or [iless[/i stupid than the RFL? Notemore [/ior [iless[/i. The actual level of stupidity could range from "not at all" to "Louise Mensch", but that's not the point - my answer was a response to people calling the posting of these figures, on here, "stupid".

The poster is easily more stupid.

It's the RFL's actual job to promote the sport, so highlighting things like higher attendances is not stupid at all, the poster is more stupid as he is just posting negative statistic to get a rise out of people, he really doesn't have any serious point to make.

Fair enough, we as fans can have a look at average attendances (if thats what floats your boat) but do it in a rational way showing both positives and negatives. I'm sure the RFL do look at negative percentages of attendances but common sense would say that when there are positives, you use them to your advantage.

You're mixing up two points here. No one is saying negative comments shouldn't be aired, the difference is, some people think that the RFL are wrong for using positives to promote the game.

Whats written on here means diddly squat in the real world, on the other hand what information the RFL release has an impact.