With Wigan, Saints, Leeds and Warrington all away, there was only one attendance that reached 5 figures:

Widnes v Cas - 4,562
Wakefield v Leeds - 4,364
Hull FC v Warrington - 12,328
London v Wigan - 2,013
Huddersfield v Salford - 5,681
Hull KR v St Helens - 7,611
Bradford v Catalans - 5,188

For an average of 5,963 - must be one of the lowest aggregate attendances for a SL weekly round for some time. Admittedly there are no stand out clashes, but that reads as a very poot set of figures.

Apparently it's the lowest since round 19 2006

But Jeopardy?

Whatever happened to Gutterfax and William Eve, were they banned?

Attendances have been falling since we wrapped relegation so, really jeopardy did work.

Relegation will sort out attendances for bottom teams in the long run as they will have something to play for. One of the worst things the RFL did was introduce a too 8 play-off system. IMHO this really has hurt the intensity if SL.

The attendances are alarming. But hey Nigel Woods "innovative" idea for next year will bring the crowds flocking back.

IMO all that will happen is we will get the same 8 in SL 1, the same 8 middle tier, then the championship clubs struggling to compete with SL because of the different in salary cap. Maybe a championship team may cause a shock in the "one off game" final between 4th and 5th.

But the above attendances are pitiful.

What do London and Bradford have to play for at this point?

Their fans ? Pride ?

I'd be interested to see if the attendances have actually fallen in the licensing era compared to P&R. The average has fallen but how much of that is due to adding 2 clubs to the league at the same time?

Personally I don't think the league system has much effect on SL attendances. I think the economy has had a big effect (I know I've attended fewer games, mostly away games, due to money being tight) and aside from that it's individual clubs doing well/poorly and individual clubs marketing.

Four Yorkshire games with le tour, plus the horrendous traffic and weather Friday will have put a fair few thousand off. Regardless though it's not good enough and instead of doing the easy thing and blaming the economy or Nigel Wood's waistline all clubs with probably the exception of Leeds need to have a serious look at their marketing department and get a grip of it.

As Brian Carney said in last months Total RL, how on earth can we preach about the 'greatest game' to other parts of the country when we can't get people through the turnstiles in our own back yard?

I've suggested before that clubs pool their resources and get someone like Hearn or even the chaps who marketed the RLWC on board. We need to go right back to the 1996 logic and make rugby league fashionable again.

Wonder how many Yarkshire RL fans attended the Tour de France over the weekend as opposed to watching their respective club sides ?

I did and I know quite a few more. All games should have been played Thursday and Monday and left Friday to Sunday free, this was always going to happen when the worlds biggest annual event came to town don't think even football could compete with the Tour de France in Yorkshire

On the plus side the HKR v hudds crowd the week before was the highest ever for this fixture.