Well done to all the SL clubs for breaking new records for crowds over the weekend , some pretty impressive attendances............

No spin from anyone yet. Think the torrential rain and gale force winds must have kept people away.

You make a valid point the high winds stopped myself from putting the washing out, no way would they dry....

talk about crowds at play offs,what about nrl games over fifty thousand at
broncos v st. george and expecting around eighty thousand at next game in play offs.thats because they arent trying to fast track foreign teams into nrl from outside the bread and butter teams that have been there for years.only four thousand n odd at wakey with the catalan fans arriving in the usual taxi.so rfl look after the teams that have made the great game in england what it is now ie wigan vsaints,leeds v bradford ect instead of the farce thats happening with celtic and others at the expense of the leighs widnes s.keep the heartland of rugby together and lets see fifteen to twenty thousand on a weekend with more of the old derby games i for one know what i would rather watch.

KL there's more than enough of us Leythers and am sure other fans that would agree whole heartedly with your post .

Only trouble is the RFL DON'T want to listen and are NOT listening .



Either that or they really are that blind

to the fact that travelling support from the likes of Catalans and Celtic is only damaging to their opponents as they bring very few fans to away games which = a loss on revenue , when they could be replaced with heartlands clubs who would take way more supporters.

Seems to me that lots of derbies would hide poor crowds. Surely Wakey etc should be trying to get their own supporters through the gate instead of depending on away support to make the figures look better.

I agree that the RFL have one finger in each ear singing lalala

but i think there is room for two clubs to join super league providing they meet criteria with finances and ground and also that attendances would increase

Super league is only a couple of years from melt down...what you saw last night was the people who were willing to pay cash to watch...super league as been producing false crowds with free tickets galore for kids and massive season ticket discounts

But you wouldn't include ourselves as one of those 2 clubs would you ? Hand on heart time - Do you think we have been a successful club outside SL since 2005 ? Lets get that sorted out first.
If there is room for 2 clubs next time it will probably be Widnes and Toulouse. Having watched us in Toulouse there is a lot we can learn from how they do things.

LL you really believe in the super league line don't you



RL now run a sport that is shrinking year on year with this lets expand nonsense

All the millions that have been pumped into the game over the last god knows how many years and what is there to show for it?

World champions? no

Tri nations champions? no

Ashes? no

own natonal stadium? no

Clubs in new stadia ? no

reduction in foreign players ?no


The money should have been used to stablised the heartland clubs and build them up first,but no we fund foreign players galore...pie in the sky dream clubs...whilst 100 year old clubs are dieing around them

As long as some old time aussie gets his money everything is great,a sport at international thats a joke and cannot fill a 25k stadium without ticket gimmicks....yep great this super league

The clubs can be blamed for this though. What have they done with the millions given to them by Sky? Piled it all into paying overrated foreigners. There's so much more they could have done with the money to make themselves more sustainable but they haven't. Now, they're so reliant that they'd probably die without the money. There's only really Leeds that have fully utilised the Sky money, and they could probably survive without it thanks to their turnover and their youth system. The rest have pished it up the wall.

Sorry jesus-is-coming (never thought I'd ever say that in a sentence

), but Rome wasn't built in a day. A expanded competition in the long term gives the game a lot more money. Similar to RU and football. Staying the same as previous 100 years (1895-1995) does not get us there. Simple mathematics tell you that having more people playing the game (ie outside the heartlands too) will help make us compete against Aussies. Common sense also says having more competitive nations around us will help our build ups to games against the Aussies - and also boosts the coffers.
But its hard work and takes a long time because we was so far behind to begin with. But the next generations outside the heartlands that are playing and watching the game will thank this generation for doing it.
We had something like 7000 on against Wire at home in SL - on paper it is a good crowd. But I would prefer 5-6000 on against Quins/Celtic etc because it means we had a healthy crowd and virtually 99% Leythers watching us instead of less than 50% like the Wire game.

LL, just for once, stop being a bloody apologist and repeat after me.

'The Super League play off crowds have been rubbish'.

AD - Where have I defended the crowds ??


The negativity is always one way. You tell me how Wakey having 4000 on against Catalan, is any better than Wakey having 4000 on and a couple of thousand down the road from another club ? Thats the point I am trying to make. If Wakey get 6000 with help of another club down the road it wouldn't have been ridiculed - its short sighted to think derbies solve the worlds problems.
Thats what is funny on this board if you go against the grain and offer debate its not countered with debate but oh you are defending RFL or SL again etc etc. I think I offer reasonable arguments against, as I have above.

Anyway today of all days I am too depressed to carry this on.

Becuase the thread's about SL play off crowds and you're in defending the RFL again. It's a fair assumption.

If they said they were going to make us play with basketballs you'd come up with a reason for defending it.

Whatever AD.
As you clearly only take note of my against the mb grain comments then thats up to you.
What you seem to say is you can't have debate unless its precisely what the original thread started from for goodness sake ?? Read further down from this and you will see what I was commenting on. Threads do go on to a wider topic you know or they would be very very boring.

The poor crowds over the weekend are due to the apathy of some fans and IMO not a lot to do with the RFL......I think the largest crowd will be at the Pie Dome tonight...6K at Knowsley Rd,4K at Wakey and 11K at the Whino`s are far from impressive crowds..SL is on the up so we are led to believe from the clowns from SKY.

Why are you too depressed , it was just a game like any other wasn't it ?

Or are you saying that just because it was a DERBY game it was more important than a game against say Portsmouth or Stoke , still only 3 points at stake ?

The reason that games against opposition who bring no disernable support are not as exciting is because they lack atmosphere , especially when stadia are not even half full let alone full as most Premier footy

Especially in our division with crowds sometimes as low as 10/20 % of capacity even a relatively small band of away fans helps massively in creating atmosphere

That is why we go to watch , we want to see the away fans giving their team support , it makes us support our team more

Yes there are many good reasons we need to expend the game , but there are just as many good reasons we need to get more help in the heartlands

Gaining one fan in Wales and losing 10 in the heartlands is not expansion of the game , it is a recipe for disaster

Except Aukland Warriors, natch.

Oh, and Canberra, Newcastle, Gold Coast and Brisbane are less than 25 years old. Gotta start somewhere.

I can't wait for all you expantionists to eat humble pie. When will it become clear that the way it is being done is wrong? When the whole of Proffesional RL is up sh3t creek and the only thing left is amature RL?

South of France has a RL pedigree and structure, South of Wales doesnt.

RL is the Soccer of Convictland, RL doesnt have the same exposure in Newcastle, Cardiff or Bridgend.

Build the foundations then success can happen, expand withoutb them and failure awaits, expand too soon at the expense of heartlands and RL fails.

Nothing to do with having to share the 'gate' with the away club?

Apparently not........All gate receipts go to the RFL who then give an equal share to all of the play-off sides.

Oh I know what you were talking about, but you always deviate away from any kind of fact that shows what the RFL is doing is suspect or misguided, and crack on that everything they do is so bloody wonderful.

8700 at JJB for a sudden death play off game.