And all them sports have a bigger younger demographic going to live events. I am not saying that's the sole reason for poor live gates in Super League but it cannot be ignored. The sport desperately needs to attract younger fans.

Covid hesitancy is an issue, and not just for Rugby League. Plenty of the events that are selling out have an audience that is far bigger than their stadium capacities. They are selling out, but they are doing so slower than normal. I've been to every Premier League game at Anfield this season, and they've obviously all been sold out, but tickets have been far easier to come by than they usually are. There was a handful still available for Man City at home - the biggest fixture of recent seasons - on the club website on the morning of the game last Sunday. In normal circumstances that is unheard of. I follow the PDC on Twitter and they were promoting "tickets for tonight still available" throughout the World Grand Prix over the last week. They would normally be sold weeks ago. I've been told by a union fan that the RFU have put tickets for England V Australia and South Africa on general sale, when they could normally fill Twickenham twice over for those games selling to members only. I'm sure the NFL in London will be sold out today, but again, those games always sell out and it may well have been easier than normal to get tickets. I realise the NFL signed a deal with Spurs long before Covid, but it is still worth pointing out that the capacity is over 20,000 less than Wembley where the games have always been before.

Those things all still sell out eventually because for every regular atendee who chooses not to, there's someone else waiting in the wings to pick up the remaining tickets. Rugby League obviously doesn't have that so the attendances drop. Given the situation and the teams playing - one who would obviously bring few fans, and another whose fans have seen it won plenty of times before - I actually thought 45,000 was decent. I expected less than 40,000. If it had been Wires V Hull for example, with decent sized fan bases who have yet to see a Grand Final win, you could add 20,000 to that as an absolute minimum and there's nothing to worry about.