Worth pointing out that Warrington's average attendance is lower than our's despite them having Wigan, Saints and Widnes closer to them than we are to Gilberdyke. Three Cup wins and a couple of Grand Final apperances haven't given them a significant boost in support. The population of the Warrington area isn't that much lower than Hull.

The only club regularly getting very good attendances is Leeds who play in a city with a population of 760,000. Clearly sustained success for them has helped keep the attendances high.

The problem clubs have, including Hull, is that once people get out of the habit of going to games it's very hard to get them back.

Once people stop going it's really difficult to get them back. They find other things to do and with most of your games being on TV the incentive to save £20+ outweighs going, especially as a family will have forked out around £500 to go to Wembley.

I would have thought pass sales will be better next year. RL has lost a lot of interest of late (that might be in my head cos we've been rubbish) but there seems a lot of apathy generally in the game.

Worrying times for the game in general.

Id like my work pattern changing bk so I can attend such a big game but I cant so that must make me a so calls supporter then.Id find out peoples reasons before coming on here.

I doubt Dave meant that for EVERY supporter who has stopped going. Obviously some cannot make it for genuine reasons but there will be many who can make it but choose not to.

Good post.

Excellent post Roofs and Barham Red just the point I was going to add about the Derby's, that pre season game is simply the 'give us yer money cup' while we along with Cas and Wakey are the only clubs to play Derby games now at the magic weekend, it's pure overkill and the magic of the old 2 a season derby's is gone now. I was also going to add that TV is killing crowds too and I simply don't think away supporters travel like they used to either and Thursday nights haven't helped that one. The game is developing into a for TV only attraction with gates everywhere dwindling badly.

Totally Wilf. Am I right in thinking Wigan brought just a hundred or two last night? If so that's awful on paper, looking at the table and their legendary status. However, with Sky these days offering world-class coverage (erm, in some ways?!!), the cost of live SL and Friday night travelling it isn't a surprise now unfortunately.
The vibe you get around the city is that most (perhaps 70%-80%) of RL fans prefer Sundays. Friday's in particular seem to cause so many headaches, but Hull and Rovers you would think know their businesses better than us on the 'outside' so it's a strange one.
If the clubs really do mean what they say though when it comes to the real Derby Day it's time to both pick different friendly opponents (all this b*****s about 'intensity' is daft; Hull v Leeds, Rovers v Cas, job done).
Stand up to the RL and say Magic needs to change, but again, maybe keep it all-Yorkshire ties if they really insist on maintaining the Magic concept?
The derby definitely needs actions like these to get back the feel of a 'can't miss' event that it used to be. Personally I knocked the friendly on the head maybe three years ago or so. Problem though is that a figure close to 10,000 and all the add-ons (food, drink etc) clearly still makes it financially worthwhile for them, which some would see as reason to keep it, but at the expense of the proper games we all love I say it's wrong to have this view.

I know,there would have been plenty at Wembley for just that game and none after.I also believe Thurs night matches are very harmful.I got my pass as usual this season and knew id miss a couple at home on a Thurs as I work and have set holidays so unable to book days off,as you know i had very severe personal problems that stopped me going but if that hadn't surfaced id have missed loads due to Thurs home games and then that makes a pass worthless tbh to shift workers.

I hope circumstances change and that you are able to get to more games in the future mate.