Yet more to the argument as to why we are justified our SL franchise:

Hunslet v Salford att 649

Gateshead v Harelquins (admittedly on a Friday night) att 402

(sourced from BBC website).

Shocking display by Salford who only have about an hour to travel to Hunslet.

Little above to suggest that people want to watch these teams.

It is a grace

And that concerns us why exactly?

It's fuel to the fire that commercially we have a lot more financial interest to offer to other top flight teams. We bring more fans = more income for other teams. Further who wants to watch televised matches with less than 2k in the ground e.g. Quins v Salford recently.

Dont see it as fuel to fire. Salford are well on their way to a new ground and their average attendance is 5054 this season which is sure to increase when their ground is complete.
Crusaders and Quins are the teams really struggling for support.
Quins average is a pitiful 2599 (including large nos of free tickets) and Crusaders 3636.
Personally I dont think Quins is a viable set up, although the fans that they have are generally well informed and loyal.
Both of these clubs are already in SL standard grounds and therefore can not look forward to a boost in attendances.

Couldn't care less about how many people are at the ground. I watch the game, whether there is one or one hundred thousand in attendance. I do care how many home supporters Trinity get though the gate, but only because it gives the club a better chance of competing, not because of some pathtic dick measuring contest.

This whining some of our supporters have stooped to is doing us no favours. We all knew what needed to be done, it hasn't happened, therefore Trinity are the favourites for the drop. Channel your energy into helping the club rather than casting scorn on others. The Widnes thread on the VT is just embarrassing.

imagine a scenario whereby Wakefield FC were playing a premier league title decider. Not any old title decider but one which would make them the champion of champions overtaking the record of their bitterest rivals. I imagine than in such a scenario Trinity might not take too many to an away cup game in Hunslet!

Since when is it down to away fans to make a side viable?

Plenty of good things going on at our end lately, both on and off the field for us to be positive about.

Do we really need to keep banging on everytime somebody has a lower attendance than ours? It really is getting a bit boding lately.

On a side note, how many of our fans do you think would have made a 600 mile / 10 hour + round trip on a Friday night to watch a blow out in the early rounds of a the cup?

Give over, anyone who lives in Manchester and watches RL watches Wigan! Everyone knows that!
I'd estimate around 1000 travel from Manc to Wigan to watch home games, having worked in one of the biggest sports bars in Manchester throughout my student life I feel educated enough to make such an estimate.

As far as sport is concerned people in Manchester are drawn to success, hence why the attendances at Salford have traditionally been low. People were willing to travel a little for a better standard of RL as there was no team that truly carried their name.

But Salfords not in Manchester they're two separate cities or at least they are when it suits them.

Old traffords in salford clan

Prob means Greater Manchester

Whilst discussing franchises and adding fuel to the fire. one of my relatives works for crusaders and he has been told his job is secure for superleague next year!
If we could prove this is the case then surely we have grounds to sue the RFL for none impartiality.
Who knows?

Well as we took 3,000 to Donny I'll say we'd have taken at least 1,000...

Salford took 277 to Hunslet, not that it matters.

not sure what is going on at salford to be honest. i have heard it mentioned that they do not have enough income to operate the new stadium unless they can find some co-inhabitants.

also talk on their board about new owners?? very strange considering wilkinson has been salford for ever.

their crowds are poor though and will be a concern to them.

add to this the possibility of quins moving out of london and crusaders on the verge of financial meltdown again we may not be dead in the water just yet.

that was indeed the point I was making.

I can't abide the tendancy to put down other clubs that the franchising faux rivalry brings out in some fans. What we share in commonm is being fans and a common foe in the ludicrous expansionist rhetoric in the heads of the RL higherups. One day they will indeed realise that the king is not wearing any clothes.

Shudds crowd to Batley was appauling aswell. What shudds bring to us year after year is also appauling to say they just live down the road. We are a far greater club when we get this ground built !!!!

The majority of crowds were poor.

I was surprised by Fax v Bradford - not sure what the capacity is at the moment but with over 10,000 Bradford ST holders, I expected a sell-out.

The dilemma this week is do we go to Wales and help boost their crowds or do we stay away and laugh at yet another small attendance?

I know several fans who won't go for that reason and have stopped going away, its sad that the once proud game of RL's come to this.

I can't go without and that may make me a poor supporter

but i would if i could because i want to support OUR team.

The friday night makes it a no-go for me i'm afraid and will probably affect a good few more as well.

If we want RL to grow, we HAVE to have successful sides outside of the heartlands. Fact.

I think it would be petty if Wakefield fans choose to stay away, not just because they're not supporting their own team but also because (although the Wakefield game is unlikely to make a huge bit of difference in the grand scheme of things) we're all ambassadors for the great sport that is rugby league. That fact alone should drive us to want Crusaders, Quins, Catalans to become successful, get more people down there going and for that word to spread into other areas.

It is likely to indirectly affect Wakefield in the future, for example, successful expansion clubs = better leagues = more publicity = bigger sponsors = bigger profile = bigger TV rights money = more money into clubs = stronger clubs?

I knew I should have added a wink!

It wasn't in reply to your post - it was in reply to BIGAL's. I've also added to my post since you quoted it to explain why.

With my erratic working pattern I struggle to make Friday night matches in Leeds so Wrexham is a no-no.
As to attendances (or lack of them) it will make no difference to the RFL decision making process and their grand scheme for world domination. Unless something drastic happens at least one of us is for the chop and I think we are still leading that race.