Another lost supporter.

Quote: Graham Richards "The crowd situation is a very real concern. Ok some will point to growing TV audience, but many more one sided games like we have seen two weeks running now with the Broncos and that will suffer. (I personally have not watched either game other than to see what the score was a times. Last night I watched Masterchef instead.)

You could though select many different sports and compare the crowds and we would look good. Look at County Cricket for instance. The crowds there are very poor. Do we compare to them? No we don't. I regularly attend games at Lords and believe me there is often barely a soul in the ground. What we don't have though is multi millionaire backers (sponsors and chairmen) supporting the game.

For that reason we have to look to strong chairmen and the RFL to bring in sponsors. Without them the game dies. It certainly won't be appealing if our only box office stars desert us for the NRL.
At the moment I see us split. We have the RFL and a group of chairmen on one hand who seem to think the status quo is working. On the other we have AP NH MK etc who see the game as being undersold and under valued and are battling against the old farts in Red Hall. While that battle progresses all that will happen is supporters will dessert the game.
As Wilf says once you are out of the habit of attending regularly its hard to return. Life moves on. My personal circumstances bare this out. HFC on Friday nights is completely out of the question for me. So much so I don't even consider it. Even Sky on Thursday is not a habit yet, though I am missing Saturday night rugby. I find myself drifting to other entertainment. Not because of any malice to the game but simply because it doesn't fit into my lifestyle anymore. Even last week when we had a Sunday game I had a prior long standing appointment which ruled out a trip to the KC (THANK GOODNESS). Priorities change and before you know it someone who attended 12- 20 games a season only attends 2 - 5. Christ I am even attending a Basketball match next week.

Its easy to simply question "the good Ol Faithful" and have some flippant remark questioning any loyalty people have, but people have other priorities in life and things like rugby can easily fall by the wayside for the slightest of reasons. And right at this moment in time the game is at a major crossroads which could result in many more "Voices of reason" being lost.

I fear it will only end up in disaster'"

Well said that man.

Agree with most of your post......Basket ball, really.

I would say that your part about "could result...." is more realistically "is actually". The amount of friends and family who are feeling the same way is quite considerable.

Even Wilf has had the thought albeit for a nano second.