This weekend will have seen 350,000 or so attend 10 Barclays premier league matches at about 50 quid a pop.....if you're a fan, you find a way of paying to get to games.
...if the recession is to blame for the drop in attendances then the clubs/RFL need to cut their cloth accordingly.

Its a factor for sure, but I feel the main problem is that one way or another we've taken a lot of tension out of at least the regular season. I'm not one of those that's up in arms saying its ALL due to it being an 8 team playoff, or due to the lack of relegation, but as I say, for me, there's not enough tension. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and its not, to me at least, totally obvious that the 8 team format would backfire, but I think its clear that it has and needs changing pronto. Not easy. At all. The problem is that we have two interacting issues: no relegation and a "rump" of poor clubs. Either on their own isn't so bad ( for tension I mean, forgetting other issues for now) - with good clubs throughout you can live without relegation, and with poor clubs and relegation, at least there's tension around the relegation battle. We've got the worst of both worlds. And "lowering the cap" is effectively suicide for the sport.

Best I can come up with (not that it's great) is SL1 and SL2 with P&R, but maybe only 7 or 8 teams in each and a commitment by all clubs to spread the Sky money equally between 1 and 2. Maybe also 1 up, 1 down from SL2 to championship, with a parachute payment to relegated sides.

cheers, that's quite emphatic!

Well... one can never be quite so sure that officially announced or reported SL attendances are always correct, and it's not unknown for different sources to quote different attendance figures in SL.

There was a clear-cut case of that happening today. I was listening on the radio to the Cas V London game and I heard quite clearly an announcement on the PA system there that the official attendance was 4,521 and that figure was then repeated by the BBC Radio Leeds commentators. Half an hour later, the official attendance at the game was quoted as 4,751 by several internet-based sources... which one is correct? Was the original attendance amended and then rounded up to count all season ticket holders at Cas who hadn't actually turned up today?

PS: What was your source for your 12K+ attendance figure at the Wigan/Leeds semi final last year?

league express and the gillette yearbook. i'll chase it up because i've just researched all the play-off crowds since 1998 for something I'm writing and want to get it right. since 2008 they've been awful.

Indeed, the attendances for the SL play-offs since 2008 have been embarrassingly low. Funnily enough, ever since the switch to a Top 8 play-off system which rewards mediocrity.

Coincidence?

I'd be very interested in the findings and observations of your finished written article when you've completed it. Please let me know when you've done so.

Gimme a shout by PM if you've got any further queries.

PS: [url=http://www.superleague.co.uk/match_report/8700Official Super League website also records the Wigan/Leeds attendance as 8,235[/url.

I'm pretty certain that the Wigan - Leeds crowd was 12,000+ - just look at the highlights of the game. No way is it only 8000

This season's crowds are alarming. Sub 5k at cas and sub 8k at bradford. Not sure why Mr. Eve has received such a negative response

Sub 5k for Cas' lowest drawing fixture isn't that alarming. Not like it hasn't happened before. Bradford suffering the after effects of under pricing their season tickets the last few years.

The 12k+ figure is correct, as reported on the official Wigan site. I'd remember if it had been as low as 8k.

I thought I heard them announce 12k+ at the game too...I could be wrong, but like you id have been shocked if it had been 8k, and it would have stuck in my head.

Correct, it has happened before. Today was only the 2nd lowest Cas home SL attendance in the last decade. The lowest was the 4,209 who turned up for the Catalan home game in 2010.

No need for any alarm then, eh?

Phew!

You do not know that for certain. 12K may well be correct, but 8k may also be correct... who knows? Bilko claims 8k on his website, so does the official superleague website and practically every other source for that matter.

Whichever is the correct attendance, it doesn't alter the fact that attendances at SL play-off games have been terrible since 2008 which just happens to coincide with the introduction of the Top 8 play-off system.

Can you see the common denominator with those 2 fixtures?

And what did the fixture in 2010 show about attendances for that year? Were we panicking then too?

I prefer to compare the attendances between the same fixtures involving the same teams rather than between different fixtures and different teams.

Cas V London in 2013 = 4,751 (though the stadium announcer said it was 4,521)
Cas V London in 2012 = 5,149
Cas V London in 2011 = 7,072
Cas V London in 2010 = 5,862
Cas V London in 2009 = 7,049
Cas V London in 2008 = 6,268

The dip from 2011 to 2012 is more alarming. You have to wonder what caused that near 2k drop. What was the difference in 2011 and 2009 to the other years? The 398 difference from this year to last isn't alarming in the slightest.

Watch the game (it's on YouTube) and tell me that's only 8k.

129,544 was the Capacity available at the weekends 7 games....56% of the seats remained empty


129,442 was the Capacity available the wekend before.........57% of the seats remained empty


103,265 was the Capacity available the weekend before....54% of the seats remained empty



If SL, the clubs and the RFL aren't concerned about this, then they bloody well should be.

London, Widnes, Wakefield, Bradford, Castleford, Huddersfield, Salford , HKA and Catalans crowds at the weekend were shocking.......Leeds and Saints at least two thirds filled their stadiums, Wire 87% full and Hull and Wigan at least got into 5 figures, but the others really need to turn on the charm and get fans back through the gates.

The RFL/Superleague really need to up their game in the marketing department. Fans are drifting away, and stadiums half empty (or worse) are hardly going to entice punters back.


And, no, the Irony of a Broncos fan debating other clubs attendances is not lost on me

Its the sub 5k that's the problem, not the drop since last year. It was alarming last year, and remains alarming this year. As attendances drop, there may well be a point at which the RATE of drop tails off, once you're down to the hardcore. Reaching such a point isn't something to celebrate.

So that makes it ok then? Saying that makes it even more alarming, why a traditional rugby league town can not manage to draw 5,000 on a sunday afternoon.

The drop in attendances is very concerning given that we expect challenge cup attendances to be even lower still.

Freezing, ridiculously expensive, it was London, Millward.

Now a days I'm finding it much easier to not bother with Rugby and do something else instead, get more enjoyment from not bothering with it too. The RFL have done a fantastic job of making me not care about the game at all.

Don't you mean Saints crowd was awful not Wakefield's as we played Saints at Saints - are you a mentalist or am I missing something?

I'm interested as to why it is the RFL's fault. Two of the reasons that you gave are Castleford's fault (pricing and the coach), the weather isn't exactly within the RFL's control and the other is your own personal view.

Surely, based on the above, Castleford Tigers are much more to blame than the RFL?

The figure quoted at the stadium was 11,200, which is lower than the one quoted in this thread and lower than the gate for the same fixture last season. But Saints have dropped around 3,000 on last season for each of their home games so far, which I suppose indicates just how many people gave the new stadium all of one season's chance to impress!

Wow a bit of honesty.

I await a leeds fan to come along and tell you your out of order