On the whole, no.

I don't think the credit crunch is entirely to blame.

The lack or P&R means that teams like ourselves and Wakie who have generally fought it out to avoid the drop have nothing to fight for. We won't be winning any GFs anytime soon and as such a good basement 4 pointer was the highlight of our seasons. Apathy has set in quickly amongst the supporters who 'won't miss anything' as all the tries are on Sky and the majority of results don't have any meaning.

Without our season ticket offer I am sure we would have seen a decrease in attendances too - but we'll see two seasons worth next year.

Average attendance throughout SL compared to last season is down 3%

I reckon that's probably a pertinent point.
Another interesting comparison would be the crowd figures at Wakey this season with the season they made the play-offs.



Not so sure about that one. Consider the increase in our away following this season. Surely, since there is no reduction in the gate price away from home, form must have some bearing on that increase. That said, home form has not been as impressive as away this season.



It will be interesting to see if Ken continues the offer for another season.

Possibly



I really dissagree with that sentiment.

Those "highlights" are ones I could certainly do without, the game on Sunday was a big game, a win pushed us into 3rd in the league fer crying out loud, we might not be winning the Grand Final any time soon, but we are knocking on the door at the head of the "best of the rest" cue.

There is still only a comparitivly small number of fans who have sky and watch "all the tries" and so their only option is to go live or to hope The Superleague Show has more than 30s of their game on.

As for the majority of results have no meaning? How do you figure that on out? And how, really, is that actually different from last season?

The middle of the league is seperated by a handfull of points, we ourselves know a bad couple of weeks can see a team sink down, and a good week can see one rocket back again.

We have to keep knocking off our results each week to stay in our present position, so certainly all our games matter (well they do to me)



Perhaps, but is that because, as I suspect, fewer away fans are coming - due to the credit crunch. We upped our home numbers thanks to the offer, but lost out on visiting fans due to the financial situation which is a very real effect across all sides of industry and entertainment.

Maybe the credit crunch isnt to blame, but its 95% responsible.

We are top of the league on away games only. 16 points away from home (inc Murrayfield)

Responsible for what though? A 3% drop in attendances across Super League as a whole or a 20% drop at Wakefield?

On attendances to the round and also like for like fixtures the drop is actually 11%. Celtic and Salford coming in clouds it a little. As the season goes on the general trend is for all clubs gates to tail off slightly so expect the percentage to increase slightly as the season progresses.

3% drop across SL can be blamed on two things I think.

1. The credit crunch, to say it hasnt impacted RL is just a ridiculous statement, its affected every single facet of life in this country.

2. I wonder what effect the demise of the Bulls is having on the gates. No more huge Odlsum derbies agaisnt Leeds, no more big crowds for their games at Hudds, Wakey & Cas etc. Less number for the games at Saints and Wigan too. All in all it adds up.

not to mention that 20% drop at wakey will help drag the whole ammount down. (1.5% of the drop across all clubs can be levelled at the 20% wakey drop - implying in real terms that the numbers across the board are only down 1.5%, nothing really in the scheme of things)

As for Wakey, thats a puzzler, maybe its a combination of too many seasons scraping by, on/off promises of a new ground, no real progression on or off the pitch all just makes people not bothered any more?

Touching on our season ticket offer, I think in the present climate the club might be courting financal suicide to NOT offer the same deal again this end of season, and I wonder if other clubs wont follow suit.

20% is approx 1500 so that is approx 100 spectators per club which is not a 1.5% decrease in Leeds, Wigan, Catalan etc.

Bradford's average to date this season: 10,268.

Bradford's 2008 average: 10,287.

Looking through we have:

Saints up 10% (11,664 v 10,642)
Leeds down 10% (15,935 v 17,824)
Us up 4% (8,100 v 7,820)
Rovers down 2% (8,405 v 8,554)
Quins down 14% (3,369 v 4,37icon_cool.gif
Wakey down 21% (5,496 v 6,57icon_cool.gif
Wire down 7% (8,869 v 10,71icon_cool.gif
Wigan down 4% (13,929 v 14,505)
Cas level (7,470 v 7,501)
Hull up 1% (13,509 v 13,432)
Bradford level (10,268 v 10,287)
Salford 4,134
Celtic 3,778

Depends how the stats are compiled of course

Catalans 9478 Up 13.1%
At Stade Gilbert Brutus only the average is 8,394 (total

Interesting.

Wonder why Leeds is down so much?

Don't know how I missed them out! Possibly confused myself as Cas are immediately above them in the league at the moment.