Wigan v Huddersfield attendance down 1000 on corresponding game earlier in the season

Leeds v Wire attendance down 4000 on corresponding game earlier in the season

Cas v Hull attendance down 2000 on corresponding game earlier in the season

I don't think this is what the RFL envisaged.

Attendances are a difficult subject for me. I want to link falling attendance with the relative failings of the game in my eyes but I think that attendances from what I would call a better era (80s onwards) were poorer. Shows how much I know...
We've got to give the format a chance but I suppose the fact that the top 3 are already set has a dampening effect before you factor in holidays and Thursday nights. My big hope is tha Leigh can set the cat amongst the pigeons today and ignite that middle 8.

THURSDAY GAMES!!!!!!! S$ITE

It wasn't Thursday last night and the attendances were down much more than ours.

Oh i know, and you make a good point, just venting my spleen at our game..

I was surprised to see how few wire fans made the trip over leeds last night! Could the extra cost of the challenge cup the week before have anything to do with it? Who knows.

I think that the fact that schools are out and therefore families are off on their Holidays will also be having an impact.

I wasn't surprised. This was the second thrip to Headingley in a week plus they knew they were likely to get a pasting.

Wait until next friday when we are at leeds,man utd are live on sky at aston villa at the same time who the hell does the schedules at sky

When we first made the shift to summer, there were certain views aired in the RL press that we'd been blinkered fools not to do this 100 years earlier and that summer would be the happiest hunting ground ever because of the new supporters the more pleasant experience of spectating in sunshine would draw in. Moreover, this view was aired so passionately by some that I almost bought it.

I'm not advocating we go back to winter. That wouldn't work for so many reasons, not least because so many SL clubs now share their stadia. But the idea that summer was a long period of nothingness which we could totally inhabit and make our own was complete fanciful nonsense. There are lots of sporting events in summer that are marketed far more aggressively than RL is. The football off-season is barely worthy of that name, it is so short. And then we have August - the dead zone, the silly season - when even traffic levels are noticeably down because so many people are away on holiday.

I'm sure there've been periods during the summer era when we've pulled in great crowds, but it always seems to me that each year our 'business end' of the season coincides with the time when more people are away from home than any other. Out of all my personal friends, I'd say that about half are away on holiday at this moment. We can moan all we want, but there's nothing we can do about that.

Who gives a f**k about scum utd rugby league anytime.

Rugby League is a winter sport, simple as, the sooner we go back the better it will be

Erm plenty of people which is why it'll get 100x more viewers than our game will.

I don't think it's just that Cruncher.. When i was a nipper, if you wanted to watch sport, you had to go to watch it.. Now people have spent a lifetime as armchair fans. It's easy to be a "fan/Supporter" now and contribute to your chosen clubs finances, you just subscribe to Sky Sports.

Its because of people like you with your attitude that super league will go no further,its not that its man utd its the fact that its premier league football on at the same time as super league

I know, that too. Had a conversation with a bloke from Wakefield about a year ago. We met on holiday, and as soon as he learned that I was from Wigan, he stared ribbing me about the RL, having a pop at pie-eaters, etc. It was all good-natured enough and I didn't take offence, but then it came out in the conversation that he hadn't been to watch Trinity in years and years, only seeing them now and then on the telly. Not much use to them, that bloke.

People are paying more to go and watch live games than they did 10 years ago yet the on field product is dramatically inferior.

Where is the value for money? Wigan vs Saints 10/15 years ago meant Long vs Lam, Faz vs Scully, Newton vs KFC now it's just a bunch of kids vs poor Aussie imports.

If I wanted to freeze my balls off watching blokes slog it out in a mud bath I'd watch Union.

The change to the summer to fit Sky schedules was the best thing that could have happened to the sport. That we've not kicked on from their is our own fault as a sport.

So you've just proved yourself wrong within a few sentences, the game has steadily gone down hill since SL was created

How would playing games in Jan make any positive difference compared to playing them August? Would 3/4k of fans suddenly want to go to a game because it's winter?

I'd love to know how playing in winter would solve all our problems? Increased competition from football & RU, seriously poor weather & we'd still more than likely have the Thursday games.

The game has a multitude of issues but being a summer sport isn't one of them.

Because nostalgia.

You're right with all of your points though of course.

Funny how it worked for such a long time prior to Super Duper Mediocre League, but don't let that get in the way of your propoganda

So in other words you don't have a clue.

I personally think it's because we don't play in cotton jerseys anymore. If we went back to those then we'd easily have 25k on for every game.

Been downhill since we stopped playing Entry Of The Gladiators....

Can't see us taking much more than 1000 to Leeds on Friday to be fair.