Its sad a ffuuckv that people like you continue to live the SL lie

Catalans have seen their last two attendances top 9,500 so they are one club that are actually improving their attendances as the season goes on - after a very poor start.

For RL clubs, volatility in crowds has often been a reflection of form. Sadly, fans desert losing teams - this is why the manufactured 2015 model will have no impact on crowds at the lower end. By the time the split happens many fans of the bottom 4 SL clubs will have stopped attending.

I actually support a Championship club so I don't really get your point. The model should be 12 clubs with one up one down. Then the successful promoted Championship club would get the full SL experience and not a few games against clubs who have been getting spanked in SL for 23 rounds.

I'd like to see the new format succeed because I've had a gutful of the failed franchising model of 14 teams, top 8 play-off system, licensed mediocrity, the rendering of the regular season as totally meaningless. This season it's effectively an 11 team comp (due to the financial trials and tribulations of 3 current basket-case franchises) with a top 8 play-off system rendering the regular season even more meaningless!



I would have preferred a 10 team top division (I don't want to call it Super League because it's such a childish moniker) with a return of the top 5 play-off system and two up, two down P&R bare minimum. Credibility, meaning and importance must be returned to the regular season.

Well it's not the healthiest set of numbers I've ever seen, but there are some interesting figures.

I thought we (Saints) would be up given the yo-yo of moving to a new stadia.

Hull KR is interesting. Up without much change in terms of league placing.

Last years league leaders down??? Go figure winning all those games did not pull in the punters?

The percentage drop off from Catalan is also a little surprising, given it's of the same magnitude as Bradfords.

Leeds to Wigan is where most gains in the season will probably be likely. IF they happen. Especially given Wigan and Leeds recent success towards the end of the year.

Well done Super League. With what's going on at Bradford & London to be only 1.31% down on last year is a a superb effort.

Especially when you consider that both Football & RU are down by over 5%

If Wigan/Saints was at Wigan this weekend, Leeds/Bradford had been at Headingley and Hull/Rovers had been at the KC like they all were last Easter then those figures would have been showing a positive.

Great start to the season.

The attendance this weekend at the DW Stadium would have had to be well in excess of last season's Wigan V Saints attendance of 23,861 at the DW Stadium to have had any positive effect on the overall percentage figures.


The attendance this weekend at Headingley would have had to be well in excess of last season's Leeds V Bradford attendance of 16,604 at Headingley to have had any positive effect on the overall percentage figures.


The attendance this weekend at the KC Stadium would have had to be well in excess of last season's Hull FC V Hull KR attendance of 19,064 at the KC Stadium to have had any positive effect on the overall percentage figures.


You don't appear to understand the logic behind like-for-like attendance comparisons do you?


I shudder to contemplate what attendances would be regarded as a poor start to the season in "loiner81world".

No it wouldn't



No it wouldn't



Hey guess what, no it wouldn't.



Well one of us doesn't..



Certainly not a 1% drop when 2 clubs have completely fallen apart and other sports are showing 5% drops







But then i'm not out to spread faux doom and gloom across the internet, pretending to be the voice of reason.

What happened to not comparing league to union?

I didn't, i compared League to the 2 other weekly round sports that are closest to ours to show that weekly round sport attendance in general is down.

And out of the 3, RL is showing the lowest % drop which is great news and should be applauded.

Yes it would because had the Wigan/Saints game been played at the DW Stadium this weekend, I'd have compared it's attendance to the 23,861 who turned up last year for the same fixture at the same venue instead. However, given that the attendance figures are based upon comparing the same fixtures to last season, the Saints/Wigan game this weekend at Langtree Park (attendance 17,980) was compared to the attendance of 14,204 for the same fixture at the same venue last season. That's how like-for-like comparisons work.


Yes it would because had the Leeds/Bradford game been played at Headingley this weekend, I'd have compared it's attendance to the 16,604 who turned up last year for the same fixture at the same venue instead. However, given that the attendance figures are based upon comparing the same fixtures to last season, the Bradford/Leeds game this weekend at Odsal (attendance 10,106) was compared to the attendance of 12,016 for the same fixture at the same venue last season. That's how like-for-like comparisons work.


Hey, guess what? Yes it would because had the Hull/Hull KR game been played at the KC this weekend, I'd have compared it's attendance to the 19,064 who turned up last year for the same fixture at the same venue instead. However, given that the attendance figures are based upon comparing the same fixtures to last season, the Hull KR/Hull game this weekend at the KC Lightstream Stadium (attendance 10,197) was compared to the attendance of 8,874 for the same fixture at the same venue last season. That's how like-for-like comparisons work.


Quite. Did I suggest earlier that you don't appear to understand the logic behind like-for-like attendance comparisons? Please allow me to amend that earlier statement.

[i"You definitely do not understand the logic behind like-for-like attendance comparisons"[/i.

Well... With you harping on about a 1% drop overall on last year I just skimmed over your essays and assumed you were just comparing round for round.



Which still doesn't alter the fact that even with these supposedly shocking figures we're still only showing a 1% drop overall and massively out performing football and RU. Even with London and Bradford falling apart.

Well done Sooper Dooper League

I respectfully request you stop comparing stuff to union because if you don't, next year could get pretty messy......their RWC rolls into town and it will be close to 50% up on the last one and 500% bigger than its RLWC counterpart!

Since you like to deal in facts, and are not in the business of spreading faux doom, you might want to explain why you overlooked the fact that Premier league attendances are up this season, and not 5% down as you seem to be suggesting?

2013: 35,921
2014: 36,490

That's a 1.5% increase, not a 5% decrease. Not to mention "massively outperforming other sports" is a bit rich when you consider the Premier league's lowest drawing club still outdraws the highest attended SL club.

So, the return of P+R is not attracting the fans we were promised it would then. ‘Every game meaning something’ is not making sure clubs don’t give up and try in every game either it seems.

you mean like Leighs that dropped by a half after relegation from SL?

If Leigh's fall in fans post relegation is replicated then, Dewburys attendance would need rise about 400% to cover the fall at les catalans, Doncasters would need to rise about 300 % to cover Salfords loss, and Leigh's would need to more than double to cover the drop at HKR.

So no, things dont balance out. We just have fewer fans paying to watch games when we have P+R

I thought we'd tried this not long ago and it was deemed a failure?

I was. P+R is a disaster for a game that has at most 16 competitive sides (and that's pushing it).

You don't make some of the sides outside SL that could be competitive better by giving them one season against teams that will be better funded, better supported, and have first bite at the cherry on newly available players. That's a route to teams getting hammered and going straight back down. It happened at Leigh, and it would have happened at Catalans and Widnes were it not for liscencing. Fast forward, Les Dragons & Widnes haqve produced a cohort of young local players, performing well in the league and growing their crowds.

Liscencing works, and 12s & 8s is a terrible bodge job of a halfway house, which will be dropped within 3 years at most, as it was in the Scottish Football League.

It's really very simple:

-Liscencing
-Fixed criteria for promotion
-Any team that meets the criteria is permitted in
-no competing for liscences, if there are 15 clubs that meet criteria there'll be 15 rounds.
-SC increase & star player rule.

And again, I wasn't singling out any other sports.

Your continued obsession with bringing RU into every thread is getting pretty embarrassing though, especially when I was talking about weekly round sports and even made a point of saying "weekly round" twice in the same sentence...

Indeed, and so you should be embarrassed. I expect higher standards from those utilising [i'loiner[/i' as part of their username. There's no hope for anyone attached to the cretinous [i'rhinos'[/i moniker.

It was 2am, I'd been subjected to 2 hours of incessant drumming and trumpeting at Headingley, was tired and had a brainfart. No other excuses

Cheers for the stats William

.

Glad to see the league table back, good to see Salford’s meteoritic rise to the top of the table they were always going to be up there, but they are a fickle bunch

.

HKR going well too, is the new stand the key, with more opposing fans showing up, or has the home crowd increased – not sure, but great effort.

Many of the others are relative to their starts to the season, which is to be expected.

The strange one for me is Wigan, C.C & G.F winners yet an attendance decline, have they reached their peak? If so, very worrying for the game as a whole if this is as good as it gets.

I think the Wigan one is a bit unusual, but they are within a reasonable gap to cover their early losses.

Also as these are like for like comparisions and not round for round, could it be that Wiganers tend to up their attendance come the end of the year.

I think they have also introduced a new membership scheme for a one off fee you get discounts. Some may have bought into this rather than the season ticket.

To be honest the ups and downs when taken collectively look very marginal at the moment. Hardly a ringing endorsement for anyone trying to push any agenda.

Just seems to fit with annual variations that would occur anyway.

Sam Tomkins leaving?