I think in general, it probably is.

The saints TV game figure was particularly impressive, no doubt swelled by the fact it was the official opening game of the new stadium (curious onlookers), coupled that it was the only game played on Friday. Still very good though.

If we look at the individual components of the game:

International

The 4 nations I think should be classed as a success. The crowds were pretty good, and there was decent terrestrial coverage on BBC, including a relatively successful return to Wembley. The exiles game could become an excellent additional fixture (or fixtures if expanded to a 2 or 3 game series) to the calendar. This year will be quiet of course, but with a World Cup looming, we have a massive opportunity to sell the International Game.

Super League

Attendances this year should be quite impressive. Saints should increase their average to around 13,000 hopefully, which is a 3000 jump from KR days, and almost double from last year at Widnes. Salford should be getting better crowds with their new stadium too. Wigan, Leeds and Wire should continue to get good crowds, whilst Hull and Bradford are still getting good crowds despite struggling on the pitch. Cas and Wakefields crowds last week were very promising too. Widnes should also get much better crowds than Crusaders did.

Competively speaking, there are 5 teams as I see that have a genuine chance of Silverware (Saints, Wire, Wigan, Leeds and Catalans), with a few others having an outside chance in the cup. This will hopefully fuel interest in the competition, and lead to more "big" games.

TV audience for Super league may be better too - the Monday night slot could get a larger audience than the Saturday slot, but it remains to be seen. Sky continue to give the game excellent coverage - 2 SL games a week, Origin and WCC, and 4 magazine shows (SL Fulltime, NRL Fulltime, SL Super Men, Boots'nAll). BBC's Super League show has had favourable comments regarding content, format and quality - it's just the broadcasting times that remains an issue, but nothing has really changed on that from previous years.

Challenge Cup

BBC's coverage of the cup reduces slightly, with only 1 game shown from the 4th and 5th rounds. The coverage on the BBC has certainly got better over recent years - Dave Woods is probably an improvement on Ray French, and the Red Button forum is pretty good. Claire Balding continues to impress with her enthusiasm and quality of her presentation (including some very good interviews with Richard Lewis). Not sure what the viewing figures were like last year. Attendance wise, the challenge cup seems to struggle still except for the final.

National Leagues / Northern Rail

This is probably the area of most concern. Whilst the competitions are pretty good in their own rights, not having automatic promotion certainly has had an impact. Numerous posters on here are known for their opinions on this, and I think it is a common one (may not be the majority opinion, but a significant number of fans feel dis-illusioned).

The TV coverage on Premier Sports will be interesting too - it's good that this level of the sport will have weekly TV coverage (plus the extensive NRL coverage on the same channel).

Amateur

This is a biggie - with the move to summer, there is a massive potential to attract more people to play the game. We also constantly hear good news about "expansion" areas, with new teams and competitions appearing.


So, overall, I would say the popularity is increasing. There are areas to work on, as always, but at the moment, rugby league is in a pretty good place. The amatuer move to summer, and world cup next year, are massive opportunities to attract a lot more people to the game.

So nothing it should have been, the ' exposure ' isn't worth the costs to the clubs

What costs?

Loss of revenue and general inconvienience of playing midweek, especially for Part Time players

If it's gaining in popularity how come we don't get crowds close to 102,569 anymore?

Midweek as well

, but not on SKY