One of the problems, I think, is that we are still haunted by what was basically a halcyon age.
The Gang of Four gambled on bringing the crowds back to Wigan by bringing in a galaxy of stars. The timing couldn't have been better because the huge crowds that had watched Boston, Ashton etc were still around, albeit still raw from the dog days of the 1970s when we put out poor teams and won very little. But they flocked back when the likes of Hanley and Edwards were wearing Cherry and White. Suddenly, Wigan was the centre of the RL universe again. We even beat the Aussies champions on their own pad. For a short time, the best players on Earth were coming to the UK. Not just to Wigan. The likes of Davies, Offiah etc going to our rivals, that overrated but very expensive Kiwi fullback to Leeds, etc. After years in the international doldrums, we were almost on a par with the Aussies again.
Ultimately, though, we paid the price. There were lots of reasons why we lost Central Park and fell into Whelan's grasp, but one of them was our overspending in previous seasons. Another price we had to pay was that it set a bar that was almost artificially high. Those fans who were there still remember that era and have had to judge everything that's come afterwards and found it wanting. I know a whole bunch of guys who used to stand with me at Central Park, who will not go any more because they consider that we offer substandard entertainment by comparison. IL is a very sensible administrator who cuts his cloth accordingly, keeps us afloat in dark times and continues to deliver silverware. He's the best chairman we've had during my lifetime. But for all these reasons, it's a safe bet that he will never go on the kind of mega spending splurges that Mo did ... and that will be enough to keep some people away. They're impressed by stars not value for money.
The end of Wigan's dominance also coincided with the arrival of lots of other attractions ... multiple entertainment platforms, DVDs, the internet etc. It's surely no surprise that other upsurges of enthusiasm, the likes of Bullmania at Bradford, turned out to be brief. I'm sure a lot of this lies at the root of British RL's many problems. There are just too many other things to distract the fans. To counter that you need a competition like the NRL, packed with big names and high-octane action. In that regard, the RFL's imposition of a strict salary cap could not have come at a worse time, but in an age when half the so-called elite-status clubs still can't even pay that much, what realistic alternative is there? I think now more than ever before, it is dawning on people just how skint British RL really is.
But all this is history now. When Covid is finally over, I fear we're going to have far more complex problems than trying to work out why people don't turn up for Cup semis anymore.
