Its sport, winners and losers in equal numbers

We could rightly expect a lower aggregate since we played fewer games due to fewer clubs and fewer playoff games.

But the system shows how little it takes for people to decide to do something other than watch RL.
The uncertainty over the new system, over whether 8's games were included on season tickets and when, where and who against those games would be, most certainly led to the decreases we saw in some cases.
I think Cas are a bit of red herring in terms of trying to draw a picture of the whole just from them. 1/3rd of their S8 games on a Thursday and a worse season compared to 2014 will no doubt have had an effect.
But those other issues I mentioned will have impacted clubs. I know Leeds were struggling with the short turnaround to sell hospitality for instance and I know the ticket office were inundated with requests for info re the S8's all the way up until they started.

So it shows how clubs shouldn't take their support for granted as a decent proportion appear quite transitory.

I'd previously thought moving the Magic Weekend to the first week of the 8's would solve some problems, but Printer rightly points out issues with that. What might help is something like saying all the top 4 are at home in week 1 of the 8's. That might at least provide some certainty for some clubs who would be safe in the top or bottom 4.

Other than that I think we've just got to stick with it and ensure fans know the system. Hopefully another year in fans will be more informed.

but those clubs played more games. Discounting magic/play offs its 180-182, and lets not forget that the play-offs were cash games and not season ticket games, and 13 of the games we have were London home games which were getting about 30k total.

Though we should ask, what is the point of cutting the number of games, if there isnt a congruent rise in averages? Shouldnt the expectation be that we have fewer but better attended games, otherwise what is the benefit?

In the licensing period of 2009-2014 SL clubs played 189 games per season not including playoffs.
In 2015 it was 180 not including playoffs. You've replaced some of London's poorly attended games but you've also had to replace Bradford's better attended games.

With 9 fewer season ticket games (13 fewer games total if you include playoffs) it's reasonable to expect a lower aggregate total.

Don't worry, it's not just this one. Seek help.

yeah the difference is magic,

there are 13 games fewer all in, Which is London's season. It might explain a slightly lower aggregate but nowhere near what we are actually seeing.