It must be pretty obvious to most that the Championship is made up of clubs with few fans whose purpose is simply to survive.
The sooner we revert to two full time divisions which incorporates the likes of Toronto Toulouse Avignon Bradford HKR London plus hopefully two more, we can protect the fan base we have instead of confining them to purgatory

A very unlikely scenario.
KR should finish top and have the best shot at the MPG.
I just cant see two SL clubs "allowing" two Championship clubs to prevail.
Of course, Leigh have shown how it can be done and I guess that if both of those clubs (KR & Toulouse) throw plenty of cash at their squads when it comes to the business end of the season, you never know but, I suggest that you "invest" your life savings at Ladrokes if you really think its going to happen.
You should get a decent return !

I think you may find it a different prospect for Toulouse this year.

Myself I think they may make top 4, but struggle in the middle 8's

Dont forget they needed 2 bites of the cherry to get promoted last year

On the subject of crowds (you did mention it)
Hull KR - 8,142 Ave.
Widnes - 6,100 Ave
Salford - 4,451 Ave
Toulouse - 2,500 Ave

What would they bring that would be so brilliant??

NO.You have to earn it JEAN.

got the gist of your comment (eventually). what makes it worse is that one of my best buds is a huge Swinton fan. i'm gonna get pelters for that error


back on topic and i think teams should be aiming to pull in solid 4 figure crowds at this level minimum

Some selected first matches of the season attendances from the 1982/83 2nd division

Blackpool v York 770
Cardiff v Batley 1024
Carlisle v Wigan 3331
Dewsbury v Wakefield 2300
Fulham v Doncaster 2715
Huddersfield v Rochdale H 1038
Hunslet v Salford 2000
Huyton v York 160! (some teams didn't play til the following week)
Swinton v Bramley 751
Whitehaven v Keighley 1760

Barrow being in the 1st Div had an average attendance incl Australia and 4 home cup games (when we used to have 3 trophies plus premiership on offer) of 4,279 (agg 85,583) and 4174 (agg 79,301, without the tour game.

True enough. Here's hoping.

Widnes, Salford and Huddersfield may also have to prove it at the end of the year.

nd some people think we should abandon expansion, and RFl are a joke for not pumping money into these teams when the get in to financial difficulty. clearly no appetite for pro Rl in some of these so called heartland traditional teams.

I think that a big part of the problem with the Championship is that many people seem to feel the only 'point' of the competition is to try and get out of it and into SL.

For those clubs who have little real chance of going up it is hard to bring in fans in big numbers when the competition isn't seen as valuable in its own right unless you are at the top banging on the door to SL.

More needs to be done to reinvigorate the lower divisions. The new model is FAR better than franchising which was killing the game outside SL but I still feel the Championship is under valued by the RFL and many RL fans.

As a Leigh fan I am ecstatic to have been promoted to SL as that is obviously the goal for all ambitious clubs, but I can't help but feel the Championship could be so much more than it is. There is some terrific RL played in the lower tiers and not enough is done to showcase it or celebrate it.

Getting the Championship televised again once a week would be a big step forward IMO.

Absolutely spot on.

Totally enjoyed our time in the Championship and the away fans were brilliant too.

In terms of attendance I think the top 3 will be Hull KR, then a toss up between Bradford and Toulouse.

The Championship itself is a great league. I love it. And I am enjoying it becoming more competitive year on year.

I think attendances are relative to the teams. Bradford will always get a few thousand no matter what. Hull KR will get brilliant attendances this year too. Toulouse will be the big one I hope they can get at least 3,000-4,000 per game. When Toronto come up hopefully they will sell out Lamport Stadium (8,000-9,000). Teams like Whitehaven and Workington just don't get the crowds. Even if they were in SL I don't think they would. Same with Swinton, Oldham etc.

Given a bit of success I think maybe Keighley could gather a decent crowd. But as with any sports team, when there is no success crowds go. Football is a good example, Bradford City's crowds were low. As were Leeds and Huddersfield. Bit of success and good football for these teams and crowds increase.

Give it a few weeks and you'll realise what a farce Super league is with some of the stuff that goes on.

Interesting to see some of the attendances from several years back.
Could the decline be that fans of those clubs that have little hope under the current RFL/Super League set up show the biggest fall.

While your point still stands, Carlisle were also in the First Division in 1982/83 when that attendance was achieved. And yes Huyton's first home game was the following week (29/08/82) but even more bizarre they started their season mid week (4 days earlier) away at Batley.

I wasn't making any point, I was just throwing in some historical reference as a point of interest and nothing more. However you're correct, I did err in putting Carlisle as a 2ndDiv outfit, they did go down with only 2 wins and a lowest attendance of 846 against Warrington, their highest of the season was against Whitehaven in the 1st round of the LAncashire cup at circa 3600.
Interestingly their highest attendance had been the season before whilst in the 2nd div at 5900 against Workington.