: Mon May 04, 2009 9:59 am  

Big Ask wrote:

The ground looked empty on the telly. From a neutrals perspective not a good advert at all. I flicked the telly over and some Onion match at Twickers looked nearly full.

wasnt that Cardiff?

: Mon May 04, 2009 10:04 am  

Regardless of whether it has spread rugby league, it is still a great weekend for the fans, it is good for all the fans to mix and there was a great atmosphere within the different sections. For example, the banter between wire fans and hull kr fans was great, and it was a much better atmosphere than any other wire hull kr match i have been too.

: Mon May 04, 2009 10:37 am  

Fearnhead Cross wrote: Said on the SL website that the crowd was nearly 4,000 down on last years figure, but bizarely they claim the crowd had grown? http://www.superleague.co.uk/article.php?id=13928 Compared to first year in a new stadium yes. And more locals went too.

Fearnhead Cross wrote: Said on the SL website that the crowd was nearly 4,000 down on last years figure, but bizarely they claim the crowd had grown? http://www.superleague.co.uk/article.php?id=13928 Compared to first year in a new stadium yes. And more locals went too.

: Mon May 04, 2009 10:52 am  

Wire On The Telly wrote:

Compared to first year in a new stadium yes. And more locals went too.

But not compared with last year!

: Mon May 04, 2009 10:57 am  

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

: Mon May 04, 2009 11:35 am  

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

: Mon May 04, 2009 12:04 pm  

Wire_Yed_79 wrote:

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

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?

: Mon May 04, 2009 1:26 pm  

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

: Mon May 04, 2009 2:09 pm  

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

: Mon May 04, 2009 2:15 pm  

Betty Ford Clinic wrote:

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

There's always the 52 - remember that.