Normally i wouldnt agree with dally over you but, have you ever considered that many of thos foolish people applying for credit they couldnt afford, could afford it before the economy went pear shaped and they found themselves unemployed or on reduced hours.

I wonder if anybody else's posts will get deleted?

Not trying to start anything here, but what would the average crowds be like if Quins and Salford were not in SL?

I like Salford, they are a team I would love to see grow into something much bigger and quins, well, they are in the league for obvious reasons.

Would the average go up much?

Both Salford and Quins average attendanced drag the overall average down, but the reason they are in SL is to try to grow the game and I get the impression that the RFL aren't as bothered about their gates as some fans are.
I have made it my lifes work (well, more of a hobby really ) disecting the attendances in London since 2000 and to be honest, I don't think there is a simple answer to our poor gates and why people don't come to games.

The real issue with small gates is revenue and apparently, Quins are covered for any losses they make by David Hughes. Not ideal, but he stated recently that Quins RL had no overdraft and didn't want one either. Not many clubs in professional sports can boast that I would think.

Having not lived in the Salford area I can't comment about the other distractions on offer, but I don't think a new ground is the answer......as in they won't add 5k to ther average overnight.

As the RFL are assisting Celtic and Catalans market themselves, maybe they should look to assist Salford and London as well.

St helens only has a 100k population, theyll need to draw from liverpool and surrounding areas if they have any chance of getting 15k, but if youve ever been to liverpool you would understand that is impossible, alot of them dont even know the shape of a Rugby ball and im being totally serious about that.

Widnes is just a small town, with lots of clubs around it no chance of growth beyond 8k imo.

No it isn't,the metropolitan borough of St.Helens is roughly 180,000,which includes Haydock, Newton,Rainford and so on.

Haydock - Split between Wigan and Saints
Billinge - Split between Wigan and Saints
Newton - Split between Wigan, Saints and Warrington
Rainford - Full of scousers, quite few saints fans, scattering of Wigan fans.

Although there is no reason that Saints shouldn't be getting as many fans as Wigan, both towns are almost exactly the same size with almost exactly the same demographic.

if man utd can get fans from london im sure st helens can get 1000 or 2000 fans who dont live in st helens

im sure there are people in liverpool who will go and watch saints in a new ground but not at knowsley rd

Has anyone worked out what our average attedance would be if quins and salford wern't in the SL?

I bet it would be pushing on 10k, maybe even slightly over.
However they're in SL, imagine what the average would be with just Wigan..playing themselves

How would the Wigan walk work in that respect?

it's catch 22. Want to make the league bigger and expand RL but then it means that the season will probaly be longer and thus the international game will suffer which needs drastically improving for us to be seen nationally like union, football even cricket!