...either that or some people are suffering under the worst recession for years and can't afford to go and would rather pay the mortgage/rent/put food on the table than attend the game.

Whatever the real reason is we can only speculate (Until someone actually goes out and asks those who have stopped attending.) As a Leeds fan from the 80's I have perhaps become so acclimatised to lousy results that I don't actually care about the league placing. The things I care about are the WCC, the League Leaders Shield, the Challenge Cup and the Super League Championship. In that asscending order.

27 games of irrelevance, why should anyone bother with the game at all? Just turn up for a few finals and the odd game at Easter. Seems at odds with spending a lot of time posting on here though.

Wigan, a recession-free zone!

Just two points. Firstly, if the 27 rounds were trully an irrelevance, then you would be able to win the Grand Final after losing all 27. If you can accept that this is not possible, then you are acknowledgeing that the rounds are actually relevant.

Secondly, as a long time Leeds fan, welcome to my world. I spent years supporting my time with no hope of coming top due to Wigan!

EDIT:
I've just re-read your post & I believe you may have misunderstood me. I am not saying the weekly rounds are irrelevant, I'm just saying that winning the silverware is MORE relevant. I'm also pointing out that I'm used to my team not finishing high in the league as I have been conditioned by the performance of Leeds in the 80's & 90's when we won sod-all! (For the past decade I keep expecting to wake up and discover that I actually dreamt Leeds winning all of these titles! )

The capacity at Headingley up until this season has been reduced during that time for safefty reasons.

How many sell outs did you have in that period?
If the answer is Zero then your point is irellevant

It's not irrelevant it's just another factor. The original point someone was making was that they believed the Leeds attendance had fallen because people thought the weekly matches weren't important. If this was the case, then we would see this throughout all of the clubs. Instead we find some have gone up and some have gone down. I fact, more people attended Super League last year than they did the year before.

The only way to know why those people have stopped attending the matches is to ask each one in turn.

Crusaders replaced by Widnes, and St Helens back at home would have boosted attendances. The end of this seasons figures should be interesting...

I couldn't agree more. My view is it's a combination of loads of reasons, the aforementioned two just being a couple of them.

However, when a fan of Leeds (the champions 6 times recently) for 30 years, says that "I have perhaps become so acclimatised to lousy results that I don't actually care about the league placing" it is clear to me that the competition structure is mainly at fault,

I'm sorry, but you are misunderstanding me. I became acclimatised to not finishing top by the Leeds teams of the 80's & 90's, the ones I grew up watching. NOT the current Leeds team!

This view of mine was formed by the old league structure, before Super League started. It's a result of constantly seeing Wigan win everything and knowing we had no chance!

...thats possibly why I like the top 8 play-offs. It gives more teams a chance af actually winning something!

Ha ha ha. I may live here, but I'm not from here. (...and yes, it is a dump!)

To put it simply, I watched my team go 25ish years with average results so I am used to the average results. It does not mean I enjoy my rugby less & it doesn't mean I don't watch my team every chance I get. It also doesn't mean that I don't want my team to win, I just don't think the world will end if we don't.

Basically, as an old time Leeds fan I'm not used to success and I view any we get as a bonus!