Exactly and if you're going to do it, then a season opener that's live on Sky is a perfect time to make the ground and occasion and club look bigger and better than had they only been 6,000 there.

The fact that there weren't 12,000 there means we probably do know,

12,008 at Saints tonight, up from 11,321 in the same fixture last year. All things considered a very positive start.

Many came to see Todd Carney, and were disappointed not to see him.

I wouldn't call 8 people "many". I'm pleased you did telephone the 8 to establish their disappointment this morning.

I don't get this stigma that comes with free tickets. Sure, a club can't survive if they're giving away all the tickets to the game, but if a club like Widnes is going to have empty seats, then why not look at giving away a few free tickets? Especially if you do something like giving free kids tickets out at schools. Even if they're in free, there's a chance to make some cash off them with food and drink sales. Plus, if you give them a show, who's to say they won't come back next week and pay to get in?

If you participated in the world record attempt in the daytime at the stadium you were entitled to a free ticket. I actually know a lot of people (tight gets

) who normally go the game anyway but for this day only got a freebie.

I think the attendance without the free tickets would have been around 6500-7000. I'm glad Widnes are trying to boost attendances and General consensus from the rugby league community on this is positive. Hopefully continue to do it throughout the year again and attract the future generation of Widnes Vikings fans.

What was the attendance at Saints last night ? Obviously minimal to 0 Catalans fans. Seemed to be pretty busy to me.

Free tickets should be aimed at the kids as they're your next generation of lifelong supporters. I got a free season ticket at Salford at the age of 11 as I went to the high school up the road. I didn't even know Salford had a rugby team (cue comments that we still don't!

) as I was a big Utd fan growing up! 5 years of freebies watching (what I didn't realise at the time!) a sh*t team has had me hooked for the last 25 years! Charge the parent/accompanying adult and let the kid in free.

12,008 at Saints, up from 11,321 last year. Another good increase but obviously Saints being champions and it being the first game is a factor. Though also Catalans are more of a draw than they were a few years back.

11,864 on at Warrington today.

Up 1700 on last seasons game.

Came to see Toddy Carney.




Pitty he is still suffering from detrusor instability.


Came to see Todd Carney




The phoney frenchman aside. Good to see another increase from Warrington today.

In the interests of fairness Saints also had a promo on: £10 Dad and lad tickets for the schools, which is why there were fans in the East Stand. We don't normally open the East Stand for the Dragons games. However on this occasion the club decided to but because there are no away fans they put on an offer instead. It looked quite busy in there so hopefully some of those people will come back again and pay full price next time.

Clever stuff from saints........hope they get some of these fans back

Something Malcolm Allison did very successfully at Manchester City.. The "Junior Blues" gave them good support through some dire years..

Castleford V Wakefield heading for the sold out category.

Wakefield have sold 1,500 tickets for the game with quite a few Trinity supporters now expressing their disappointment that they can't get a ticket for the game now!

That's ideal.
Surely they can pop down to Cas and get a ticket, or is it actually sold out now?

Brilliant start for crowds. Widnes not only got a record crowd & some new fans with their promo idea, but plenty if press coverage too.
Decent crowd at Saints, Wire good and loads of Salford fans there too.
Cas, HullKR sold out.
Leigh v Bradford sold 4-5k. Expecting 7k

Apparently they can but there's not that many so Cas are advising "come early, or risk being disappointed"

please stop this nonsense immediately.....its starting to sound positive on here.

Wait until they start praising match officials!!

That will really blow your mind.

11800 at Hull KR today

10,728 at Cas

Can't remember who it was, one of the usual suspects, that claimed attendances would be up this year BUT only because of London.

So after one round...

Hull KR v Leeds 11811 up from 11526 in 2014
Widnes v Wigan 9269 up from 6223
Saints v Cat 12008 up from 11321
Wire v Salford 11864 up from 10120
Hudds v Hull 7737 up from 6370
Cas v Wakey 10728 up from 9182

Great start to 2015, cheers to all those in London for the hard work.