11k at Wigan I put down to it being a Thursday, but 13k at Leeds?

How come they're down? Can season tickets be used?

quite poor by Leeds' standards but can't have been more than 200 Warrington fans there

Season tickets are included for the Super 8 home games.
The reason crowds are down is quite simple really. Rugby League is a family sport and we are currently slap bang in the middle of kids school holidays, a time when a lot of parents have no choice but to take their kids away during these six weeks period.

I booked a week away in March knowing the regular season had finished and took a gamble on these Super 8 fixtures which were only released a fortnight ago. I lost the gamble, which meant four season ticket holders couldn't make the Hudds game on Thursday.

One way to resolve this some way would be to show Super 8 / Middle 8 fixtures as a home/away for each weekend at the beginning of the season without obviously disclosing the opposition until completion of the regular season. At least then a lot of people could plan holidays around all fixtures accordingly.

It's on TV

It certainly doesn't help not knowing the fixtures until very close to the games themselves.
I can only make 1 of Trinity's first 3 games due to work - and as it stands can make 2 of the last 3 - but as the Sky fixtures for the last 3 games haven't been announced this could yet change again.

It's pretty frustrating.

I couldn't attend because of work.... Hate Thursday night games....

Nowhere near 11,000 at Wigan !!
A Wigan fan suggested they'd counted all season tickets regardless of if they'd turned up or not !!

Irony alert...

At Leeds it was primarily the effect of the short notice of the game, with perhaps a slight side-effect of some casual fans paying out for Wembley tickets/travel in the past week giving this one a miss. Plus, ovbviously, there were 500-750 less Wire fans there than for the previous game which got 17,000+ (and I think that is pretty understandable really).

On the short notice, for most Friday games the corporate side at Leeds, up to 2,000 people, is sold out. Last night I'd say around half that were there - giving 8 days notice is difficult on that side, and there is a similar effect on regular fans who might otherwise plan to attend but can't.

So hopefully crowds should head back to their normal levels as everyone has more time in advance of the dates. I'm a big fan of the new system, but this is a weakness - one that everyone sort of knew about but perhaps didn't quite give that much thought to.

come on Daz, as a huddersfield fan surely you know by now your not allowed to comment on anything regarding crowds, winning trophies etc otherwise it's irony, yet Salford, Wakefield fans etc are fine to post.

just a quick one, for a supposed big club, Warrington's support last night was abysmal, certainly worse than our turnout at wigan, considering the home attendances etc, yet we get slaughtered and they don't?

Without being controversial the only way to grow crowds in my opinion is to focus on a new target audience.

I'm not saying family's can't go, we should still promote this. But all too often it's a case of oh well 4 tickets for the family plus drinks is £100 so we couldn't make it. This is absolutely fine by the way I'm not slagging anybody off. However if we focus solely on families we will always have crowd limitations.

We should start targeting people who only have to worry about buying their own ticket, you get a group of 4 mates it's still 4 tickets but a lot cheaper per party so crowds could increase that way I feel.

There's no reason why we can't attract two different audiences.

I was suprised with the Leeds crowd we can get that for friendly fixtures.

Although the missus and I didn't go as we just shelled out 220 quid for wembley

limitations for families?
like when the games are played meaning a big percentage of people with kids can't or won't to games?

we might as well just target the rowdy 18-30's like darts have, if we are to be a night time sport

And there you have it.

Wigan next week will be packed i'm sure.

They were not terrible crowds but not great either.

I was more surprised at the Cas crowd, with them still being within shouting distance for a top 4 spot, I'd have thought the interest in that game would have been higher.

Part of it maybe that the top 3 are pretty much safe already before a ball was kicked in the super 8's and only Cas will probably challenge for a spot in the top 4.

Others like Warrington have left it too late IMO to crack the top 4 with only 6 games left, they will need to win them all.

The Super 8s is replacing the tedious top 8 play off system that had pitiful crowds for the most part so 11k and 13k at Leeds and Wigan is a big improvement on that.Could be better? Yes of course and im sure there will be a few big crowds to come.when Wigan, Warrington, and Saints me they should all be healthy gates and likewise when Cas come to Headingley.

This format is far better than the old imo.

4,400 at Leigh. Quite low, but there is a few factors I think.

350 souls at Ex-super League club, London Broncos today.

It quotes 3500 on the SL website and apart from one of the stands behind the sticks, the place looked empty on TV.

Yesterday was the third of four straight games away from home for us. I'm going to be brassik come pay day and I haven't got any holidays to worry about funding.

Gloucestershire All Golds had a bigger crowd than London today.

Cas crowd was surprisingly low, was expecting at least 8k so to see it under 7 was disappointing.

Suppose you could put some of the low crowds this week down to things like folk being on holiday and such.

wasn't a dig at you personally or at Warrington's support but just pointing out that as usual, it's only low turnouts for the giants that get pulled up on.

Crowd was 4,454 - not great, but over 4,000 home fans for a TV game with 10 days notice on the first day of the football season in the midst of holiday season isn't bad going, especially as this was the one game that wasn't included in Leigh's season tickets.

Average Crowds 2015 for the top 16 clubs.

Leeds - 15921
Wigan - 13981
St Helens - 11818
Hull FC - 11343
Warrington - 9853
Catalan - 8925
Castleford - 7468
Huddersfield - 5873
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Hull KR - 8025
Widnes - 6234
Salford - 4167
Wakefield - 3989
Bradford - 5,222
Leigh - 3,787
Halifax - 1,973
Sheffield - 1,146

Good turn out at Leigh but the other games so far have delivered crowds below the averages for the season. Given that 'every second counts" will we see any crowds in excess of these averages, or will they get progressively worse as it becomes apparent that the top places have already been decided?

The London gate today is a direct result of the move to Ealing, where a number of long term fans have said they will not follow the club.....shambles of a club now.