I would guess that whoever wins the game on Saturday will spend the end of next season in the bottom 4 of SL, and then find themselves fighting it out in the qualifiers to avoid playing in the same fixture

All of those things are irrelevant to the point I am making. I'm glad Marc green is reconnecting with the fans whatever that means. I'm glad he is trying to run the club in a sensible way.

But you can't argue that Bradford are on a long road to getting back crowds of ten years ago when they are falling away from crowds of 1 year ago.

The facts are that bradfords crowds have been in free fall facts or a couple of years INCLUDING this one. 5k is a poor crowd for Bradford and let's hope it always stays a poor crowd for Bradford because it will be a terrible day for them when 5k is a good crowd.

The million pound game being played by a couple of villages in Yorkshire in a ground that's only selling point is the blow up entry wildcat the players run through when entering the field.

What a mess the game is in. Has Big Nige got a Wiggo esq Olympic chair positioned in the temporary offices(corporate boxes!) sited at one end of the ground so he can lord it up over the baying minions?

You don't want yo yo clubs ????

What we have now will condemn 3 or maybe 4 clubs (from a top flight of 12) to playing in a relegation league, season after season, unless they happen to get lucky.

Although Sky will be happy with the excitement of a last day all or nothing game, having been through this experience previously (against Castleford), there is little pleasure in everything hanging on 80 minutes of RL, where 1 mistake by a player or official can so dramatically affect the fortunes of a RL club.

Under a sensible league system, where a clubs destiny is decided on their performance over the whole season, if you finish bottom (or, in a relegation spot), it isn't by accident and whilst the situation did arise in the Wakefield / Castleford game, that was a "one off".

The RFL and SKY have contrived a format that ensures that we will have this situation every season, quite ridiculous when peoples livelihood's are at stake.

He wasn't arguing that. He's saying it will take a long time to rebuild to those levels, without ever saying it's guaranteed.

You're seeking to turn that into a Bradford in freefall compared to last year argument, and it's nonsense.

There were two 8k+ crowds at the beginning of last year. They were before the second administration happened. After that crowds were pretty consistently about 6k. The first administration was bad, but I have never known people be as deflated as they were at that point. I suspect this is what is meant by Green reconnecting with the fans, although it has yet to get to the point where for instance my Dad is prepared to reinvest emotionally with the club.

When Catalans visited, a team with marginal travelling support, the crowd was near identical to what they have been all of this year. I would argue the home support has been pretty consistent compared to last year, and that this year the away support has been close to non existent in all but a few instances.

When a meaningful game came along the crowd was 9k+. When meaningless games against poorly supported teams were played on rainy days there were sub 5k crowds.

What this also means is people are picking and choosing their games at the moment, and the longer we are in the championship the longer that road back is going to be.

5k is bad for Bradford. So is trying to get promotion into SL. I wonder perchance if there's a connection.

edit: words

We got relegated. That's always going to take a bite out of the average. We don't have teams like Leeds or Wigan to play every week. But even so, we've only dropped about 1500 off the gate.

You say you've got a point to make, but I fail to see what it is. Everyone knows Bradford's crowds are not what they once were, but Bradford isn't the club it once was either so it's fairly easy to see the connection between failing standards on the pitch and falling crowds off it. The hardcore of Bradford support is around 5k, but that's a foundation point. There are SL clubs who struggle to get much beyond that on their best days. So yes, for what Bradford was, the crowds are poor. For a club that went broke twice and got relegated, 5k is still a strong foundation to build the club back up on and get those fans to come back

I am looking forward to this more than the semi finals, I'm so glad we are not in it. I don't think I would like to be a Wakey or Bradford fan watching it, too much at stake to enjoy for them I think. I am not bothered who wins it, but think Wakey will be too strong for the Bulls. I am glad I can just watch it with a beer and enjoy the game. Good luck to both teams.

Under the new format, these always next year

Seriously though, we have a league of 12 clubs who play each other twice (plus the Magic game), we then have another league (the qualifiers) who all play each other once, why the hell do we need another game when everything is on the line.
If we cant decide who should be promoted or relegated over 30 games and have to have a final spilling of blood, it's a bloody poor show.

You seem desperate to have an argument because you see a criticism of Bradford where one doesnt really exist. Bradford's attendances are poor. They are poor for Bradford, that may be because they were relegated. Id readily agree that relegation destroys crowds.

And yes, Bradford compared to other clubs have huge potential to get back to where they were. Lets hope they do.

The wider point is that there is clearly a connection and it is dumb to be celebrating 1 8k crowd when we have lost 1500 for 30 weeks beforehand.

Nobody is celebrating it, it was mentioned because it has relevance to negating the narrative you're trying to impose. It was roughly 9,100 btw, not 8k. I'm starting to see where you're going wrong.

You're the one pushing for the argument. You keep saying Bradford's attendances are poor, but I say that for where they are currently and for what's happened in their recent past, they're not.

I can’t believe you’re continuing a discussion with Smokey, remember he’s a Leeds fan.

He doesn’t support a club who have had no success for a number of years.

Let’s be honest, if Leeds were to have a similar slump & found themselves in the Championship their crowds would still top ten thousand .

Well actually, if their real love ever manages to get back into the Premier League & win stuff, the South Stand would become a much quieter place.