I'd love to say it was a resounding success and the RFL are doing a fantastic job.



But a half empty stadium looks bad to a newcomer/neutral a bad advert for the game.



A new neutral venue is great but one with say a capacity of 35,000.



Ambition is all well and good but half full stadiums are embarrassing.





If that was Football (and the fans got on with each other) they would of filled the Nou camp 10 times over.



The RFL needs ambition and ambitious people but some realism wouldn't go a miss either

you thought that was empty wait until Wires play Catalans at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona. That holds 80,000

This is just a thought, but if the RFL want to do something truly radical, ambitious, and at the same time attempt to 'spread the word', then why not, next time the franchises come up, award one to a travelling 'nomad' club, a kind of RL version of the Barbarians??



They could use several different venues around the country, places where the visiting club's supporters could make a weekend of it, such as Bath, Newcastle, Edinburgh, even into Ireland.



Surely with the correct publicity teams in place for this 'club', decent crowds could be anticipated, and with it would bring to an end to the ridiculous '27th game' situation we currently have, where certain clubs (I'm thinking Huddersfield), have basically earned a 'bonus' 2 points by getting an extra game against the league's whipping boys?

Scrap it, use the extra weekend to play the games normally played on Easter Monday

I too think playing in half empty stadiums is a disgrace........



Huddersfield should go back to playing at Fartown, We should go Back to Wilderspool, Salford Cas and Wakefield Should Scrap Plans to build new stadiums...they're never going to fill em even if they get built.



in fact Rugby League should be scrapped we should just have one game a year the challenge cup final one regular team called Wigan and then invite teams to play them every year at Wembley.....

To my mind this is the only game that regularly sold out/wasn't played in a half empty stadium.....







there were almost 60,000 people watching the Magic games and GMR reported that 6,000 tickets were sold in Scotland alone.



the full round of matches the previous week all bang on our doorsteps in the fabulous M62 corridor drew a combined attendance of 56,000



your all James Graham And I claim my free ginger Wig

There's always the 52 - remember that.

so Mr biscuit with your sarcastic tone im sure you think that it's a resounding success and everything is great with the game?



Im no flatcapper play it in on the M62 kind of guy, all im saying is that we shouldn't run before we can walk. It looked ridiculous on TV the amount of empty seats. or did Rylands dress up as seats instead of Smurfs this time ?



A smaller stadium would have been a better idea is all im saying or do you have a better idea.

Wigan v saints gets pretty much 23,000 every time we play them at the JJB, been quite afew sell outs as well. It is always more than 18,000 though.

I dont have the answers..



in my opinion We've got to Get images (good professional images of Rugby League on terrestrial Television for me that's the be all and end all.



I see NRL on fox sports, channel 9 and skysports New zealand (i think) and its all so much better than SKY and BBC - mind you even a nerd with a camera phone and access to you tube could do better than the BBC.



we need for starters a program like Match of the day. Match of the day brings football to almost everyone....



something similar needs to be done for Rugby League....The Superleague show is $hit and should be broadcast with a flat cap and Whippet Warning....



I have no problem in stopping Magic weekends if need be and ploughing some money into a "modern Rugby League TV programme"



Why we have not Tried to copy the Footy Show I have no idea..... We pinch everything else from The NRL.....



but its got to be on National terrestrial TV. we are all digital in a year or two so ITV2 bbc3 they will all count.

stick it on at a reasonable time and not 4am and spread the word ........!!!



but at the end of the day James Graham is still a fat Ginger Scouse get who single handedly tried to undermine something good the RFL were Trying to do.



anyway I'm off to watch the Titans v South Sydney hope the stadium's full it will ruin my enjoyment if it's not....

Average Attendance 2008



Bradford 10,287

Castleford 7,501

Catalans 8,488

Celtic 1,929

Quins 3,773

Huddersfield 7,846

Hull FC 13,432

Hull KR 10,197

Leeds 16,756

Salford 3,768

Saints 10,740

Wakefield 7,000

Wire 9,496

Wigan 13,955



Total 125,168



Average 8940.58



Murrayfield 67,130



On average only 12% of fans travel to away games further than 40 miles



12% of 125,168

equals 10,430.68



plus 6000 'locals' =16,430.68

add the people that wouldn't mind a special day out and you triple that figure.



which would still leave you over 17,000 seats not sold



I would love us to fill out massive stadiums but the truth is we are not ready to yet.

or

we move certain fixtures to MM over Easter weekend



Pool A

1. Saints v Wigan

2. Wire v Salford

3. Catalans v Quinns



Pool B

4. Leeds v Bradford

5. Castleford v Wakefield

6. Hull FC v Hull KR

7. Giants v Celtic



You have 2 fixtures pool A play Friday and Sunday



Pool B play Saturday and Monday



so you have 4 days instead of 2 with guaranteed derby matches which is more attractive to fans and people have the time off.

Then you might have a full stadium

I think you understand the power of the Catalans pride young Clinic.

Thats totally stupid!