No it isn't,the metropolitan borough of St.Helens is roughly 180,000,which includes Haydock, Newton,Rainford and so on.

Haydock - Split between Wigan and Saints
Billinge - Split between Wigan and Saints
Newton - Split between Wigan, Saints and Warrington
Rainford - Full of scousers, quite few saints fans, scattering of Wigan fans.

Although there is no reason that Saints shouldn't be getting as many fans as Wigan, both towns are almost exactly the same size with almost exactly the same demographic.

Couple of points re this post.
Salfords new ground may not provide all the right answers but Salfords current ground IS causing a lot of problems. I could solve the Salford problems in about half an hours board meeting with a stadium built but they won't listen to reason.
The London club needs to move out of the M25, simple really. Im not one for bashing the current product though, as far as development goes, they're doing an absolutely tremendous job, definately worth 3 more years.

if man utd can get fans from london im sure st helens can get 1000 or 2000 fans who dont live in st helens

im sure there are people in liverpool who will go and watch saints in a new ground but not at knowsley rd

Has anyone worked out what our average attedance would be if quins and salford wern't in the SL?

I bet it would be pushing on 10k, maybe even slightly over.
However they're in SL, imagine what the average would be with just Wigan..playing themselves

How would the Wigan walk work in that respect?

Warrington and Hull both added 40%+ to their averages simply by moving ground. I see no reason why Saints and Salford can't do the same.

at Hull we've attracted many more females and family's to games, as the facilities are far better. Although you could argue that ourselves and Warrington had a large amount of 'dormant' fans who hadn't been to a game in years also.

I think Saints in particular would attract a bigger crowd in a new ground, as they'd draw in support from a wider area.

it's catch 22. Want to make the league bigger and expand RL but then it means that the season will probaly be longer and thus the international game will suffer which needs drastically improving for us to be seen nationally like union, football even cricket!

Meh, isn't everyone sick of being obsessed about attendances??
Same with the Magic weekend, who cares? people enjoyed themselves, I got to watch all 7 games and anyone who's THAT bothered about the exact attendance of every club oughta get a hobby.
Yes, attendance is important and it would be great to have 5k stuck on the gate but at the end of the day, there's a product on show kids, I think sometimes people forget that.

Because the future of Rugby League in this country depends on how many fans show up at games, and to a lesser extent how we expand the game to make it more national

Fans turning up to games is important
Expansion is important
Development of young talent is important
Cap to level the plating field is important
Less overseas players and more UK talent is important

Depending who you speak to, any of the above are the most important thing in the game. IMO, untill ALL of the above are in place, then people like David Hughes are important to the game as they are prepared to bankroll a club until either the club turns the corner or he runs out of money.

quins heading for a low one tonight against crusaders - thought it was a decent crowd at first till i realised there is only 1 stand open

Looks to be less than 1000 there today

So you think that too many people owning sky tv or mobile phones caused the credit crunch? So now with the recession hitting hard are BT being worked off there feet installing new phone boxes as people ditch their global recession causing mobile phones? No because that has absolutly nothing to do with it. Thats simply advances in technology grandad not people being financially over streched.

People being sold homes on mortgages they couldnt afford with the concept it would be ok because prices would rise forever is what caused it.

Is the bubble straining to burst at Catalan? Like for like attendances (2010/09) to date show a drop in attendances of just under 17%. Quins attendances are also down around 8% on last season.

However to take the RFL line, you gloss over those and report that like for like attendances are just under 3% up on last year, made up mainly of a 21% rise at Wire and 59% at Crusaders

catalans form has been poor though so bound to affect the attendance, and i thought they had a reduced capacity for some games this season due to work taking place on the ground

Don't know about that, unfortunately things like that are ignored by the RL hating press. Crowds are up, but as I said that is helped mainly by Crusaders move resulting in vastly different attendances and Wires impressive rise. Hull and Wigans crowds are also up around 10% to date......bradfords crowds....down around 12%

'RL hating press'? Which publications have criticised Catalans attendances this year? As mentioned, they are developing their stadium which has led to reduced capacity and some games being moved. Also, the team under Walters is absolutely pathetic, only real die-hards will be going at the moment and even then they will be having second thoughts. As a sport we are so paranoid.

if your gonna throw figures around at least use accurate ones!

bradfords average last year was 9677, average so far this year is 9133 a drop of about 5.5%- not great (but understandable given our erratic home form), but hardly 12% either.

....I don't know. Most of my London friends who bought holiday cottages in Wales could easily afford them

Wigan's average for last season - 14,085
Average so far this season - 14,788 with Saints & Wire (Full houses expected) at home to come - should achieve 16K+ with ease.

Figures taken from superleague website. Average is the average after home games to date and compared like for like. I have not used the final season figure just the average to date. When get hold of my works laptop tomorrow I will pm you the figures I have obtained Mat. I am posting accurate like for like figures.

Also nowhere did i say the press were bagging anyones figures, i was saying people only see figures. You SL lot are very touchy aren't you. I will summarise the findings to date - 6 clubs show an increase, 8 clubs are showing a decrease to date. Overall to date the increase is 2.87%. If any one wants a copy of my spreadsheet pm me your email I will gladly let you have a copy and you can see for yourselves as the season wears on.

Average used in my calcs is average after the same games. NOT the final season average