How many sell outs did you have in that period?
If the answer is Zero then your point is irellevant

It's not irrelevant it's just another factor. The original point someone was making was that they believed the Leeds attendance had fallen because people thought the weekly matches weren't important. If this was the case, then we would see this throughout all of the clubs. Instead we find some have gone up and some have gone down. I fact, more people attended Super League last year than they did the year before.

The only way to know why those people have stopped attending the matches is to ask each one in turn.

Crusaders replaced by Widnes, and St Helens back at home would have boosted attendances. The end of this seasons figures should be interesting...

Certainly will. Again though, unless you question each person who doesn't turn up, the reason they stopped attending is as likely to be down to the recession as it is any perceived "irrellevance" of the weekly rounds.

As you said, without asking every person you will never know but that means your assertion is just as invalid. both are opinions, and all are entitled to them. My view its a combination of the two, and i don't think the current format helps. If the playoffs were the doggies doodahs that the powers that be would have us believe, they would be packed to the gills. Whats irrefutable, is that they are very poorly attended.

I couldn't agree more. My view is it's a combination of loads of reasons, the aforementioned two just being a couple of them.

However, when a fan of Leeds (the champions 6 times recently) for 30 years, says that "I have perhaps become so acclimatised to lousy results that I don't actually care about the league placing" it is clear to me that the competition structure is mainly at fault,

I'm sorry, but you are misunderstanding me. I became acclimatised to not finishing top by the Leeds teams of the 80's & 90's, the ones I grew up watching. NOT the current Leeds team!

This view of mine was formed by the old league structure, before Super League started. It's a result of constantly seeing Wigan win everything and knowing we had no chance!



...thats possibly why I like the top 8 play-offs. It gives more teams a chance af actually winning something!

Now I'm puzzled. Maybe your being a Leeds fan from the (not so) fair city of Preston is the cause of this confusing logic.

Ha ha ha. I may live here, but I'm not from here. (...and yes, it is a dump!)

To put it simply, I watched my team go 25ish years with average results so I am used to the average results. It does not mean I enjoy my rugby less & it doesn't mean I don't watch my team every chance I get. It also doesn't mean that I don't want my team to win, I just don't think the world will end if we don't.

Basically, as an old time Leeds fan I'm not used to success and I view any we get as a bonus!