i know we are only 1 week in but the figures look a bit disappointing to me. for those who haven't seen them they were
2147 at halifax for a yorkshire derby
8817 at rovers
668 at oldham
718 at hornets
603 at swinton
1623 see toulouse make their championship bow

i don't really see any clubs making much effort to increase their crowds year on year and seem content to plough on at or below break even levels. i know there are some on here who defend the sport to the hilt insisting nothing is wrong, but some of these figures are worrying. i accept that criticism can also be levelled at superleague clubs but they have bigger sponsorship deals, bigger shares of the sky money, more merch sales etc and some have other decent income streams. i would be happy to see a consistent increase in the crowds even a small one but at a lot of clubs it does not seem to be happening.

anyone get the feeling the rfl are going to use the good attendances hull kr will be getting (which will skew the figures) to say nothing is wrong in the championship?

Pretty good for Swindons 1 st game

yeah i would agree that swinton's is pretty good when you consider all the factors. i'm not having a go at any specific clubs just the overall impression that crowds could be better in the middle league. will be interesting after a few games to see how they are panning out. for example could another bad season for salford see floating fans get more behind swinton.

would have expected halifax crowds to have improved if the bulls had failed to start the season - despite each club having their hard core, there are still some floating fans out there

Fantastic crowd at Rovers.

I fail to see the disappointment. For me that's just about right.

the only disappointing for me is toulouse, but it is still union season so maybe they may see a rise when the season is over, plus they will get more away fans from the likes of rovers and bradford at a guess

Not much different to last year i don't think, apart from Bulls/Leigh the others didn't have huge attendances, depends how well KR travel if that will add numbers to their away games.

With a crowd like that Hull KR deserve to be back in Super League. Personally I want Toulouse to get promoted as well, so a 2 team promotion would be great for the game. I would predict that Widnes (who are missing their prime half for a couple of months)and perhaps Salford could be dropped from Super League at year's end to make way for those two clubs.

Really? You never said...

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.